Nabari no Ou - Episode 11

After Raimei's hunt for her errant brother Raikou reached a bloody climax in episode ten, you could be forgiven for thinking that would be the end of the matter, for a little while at least. However, you'd be wrong, as the eleventh instalment of Nabari no Ou focus solely on that duo, and quite deservedly so if you ask me as their relationship got pretty short shrift time-wise in the last episode.

Despite being defeated and injured last time around, Raimei predictably isn't going to sit around sulking or waiting for her wounds to heal - Instead, she wants to pick up where she left off and find her brother straight away. Fortunately for her, she's found by his companion Gau first, who then proceeds to unravel the whole story abour Raikou and the sluaghter of the Shimizu clan, which turns out to be very different from the version of events Raimei knew and her brother had done nothing to correct.

In essence, the Shimizu clan's downfall was not far short of a civil war regarding whether those from the world of Nabari should use their powers in the real world - A recurring theme of this anime it has to be said, but one that has proved to be suitably intriguing so far.


I must confess, I'm not 100% convinced by Raikou's reasoning for not telling her sister the truth behind her family's slaughtr, it just seems like the kind of thing no sibling would do no matter the circumstances. Regardless, it made for a reasonably powerful episode emotionally, which did plenty to highlight Raikou's emotional instability throughout, something that it seems that even reconciliation with his sister might not change.

That aside, this episode was also notable for suffering from the 'horrible late edit to remove violence' disease that seems to be becoming more prevalent in anime these days. I would wager the recent tradgedy in Akihibara has something to do with it, but the edits here were as ugly as they were odd - Why cut some scenes of profuse bloodshed but not others? It makes no sense, but then again censorship rarely does.

Anyway, despite not really focusing on what you could call the main story too much, this was a solid episode of Nabari no Ou, which rectified my feelings last time around that Raimei's story had been glossed over - Now I see why, and everything has fallen into place. I can't really pile on any superlatives for the episode, as it was good without being anything close to spectacular, but if nothing else this series continues to be eminently watchable even it isn't quite at its best.