Nabari no Ou - Episode 22

After complaining all series long about Nabari no Ou's constant slipping from more eventful episodes into a far more sedate pace, I honestly thought that episode twenty-two was going to suffer a similar fate judging by the early part of this instalment - Even though virtually all of the main characters are now in open revolt of some kind against Kairoushuu, there just didn't seem to be much going on beyond yet more building of the relationship between Yoite and Miharu, which to be honest has already been built as far as it can really go.

Thankfully, things do start to progress more as we move through the episode - We finally get to catch up with what Thobari has been up to, Raikou turns his moment of madness into a full-on decision to rebel against Kairoushuu after meeting Oda, and Yukimi finally takes things into his own hands by deciding to recapture Yoite and Miharu, an action that you could argue puts us back where we were a couple of episodes ago, although of course the alliegiances on the battlefield have changed rather a lot since then.


As I'm sure I've already mentioned, one thing that has impressed me about this series is the fluidity of its characters and their beliefs - We aren't just faced with the same old good versus evil battle, we're instead left with two very different interpretations and visions of a better future, coupled with players in this conflict that have no difficulty in realigning their alliegance as the situation around them changes. In short, it's all really a rather human way to react to things, and it makes things feel that bit more realistic than the series might otherwise be.

While this episode gave us some action and those aforementioned shifts in allegiance, it still doesn't feel like a massive amount has gone on somehow, and certainly not as much as you might expect for a whole episode of an issue of this type, which once again reinforces my feelings that thirteen episodes would have been enough for this series. Still, I do at least remain keen to see things through to the end to find out how it all transpires, so while I can't say that Nabari no Ou has me hooked as it did in some of those early episodes, it is still fighting (and just about winning by the skin of its teeth) to keep my interest.