SoTa PoP Amateur review - Nura: Rise of the Yokai, S1

*Intro* Da-Da-Da!!! Welcome to a SoTa PoP Review! It’s late October right now, and Halloween’s around the corner. A time where dreams meet reality, and our scariest stories are given life once again; reminding us of all the spooks that once went bump in the night. But what if they never left, only organized and blended in?

Meet Nura: Rise of the Yokai. A coming of age story about Rikuo Nura, a 1/4 yokai and third heir to the powerful Nura Clan, that controls 72 clans of over 10,000 demons. He’s a normal boy with normal dreams, living in a giant mansion with his fellow demons and family. He wants to keep his identity as part Yokai hidden, but his grandfather, Supreme Commander of the Yokai, wants him to succeed him soon. He’s getting old, and with retirement around the corner, it’s time Rikuo came to terms with his yokai blood, and help the clan move forward.

But what is forward to a clan of Yokai in the modern era?

That’s the question our protagonist faces as he discovers what it means to be a Yokai coexisting with humans.

Driven by a desire to protect his friends, and the Yokai, Rikuo Nura faces challenge both from within, and without, as he tries to balance his life, and his duties as a Yokai Heir, while trying to keep his Yokai blood a secret from his friends.

The show’s pacing in this regard is smooth as silk, as the human cast get pushed into going on Yokai adventures over and over again, in search of evidence of Yokai's existence; instigating events that tie our cast together, keeping the pacing all in one place, much to our MC’s dismay.

This is often lead by the president of the Paranormal Patrol, Kiyotsugu, classmate and friend to our MC. He isn’t directly fleshed out, but you make assumptions. He’s a rich kid with too much free time. It’s a running gag in the show that he’s the only human to never directly encounter the Yokai, even though he’s the only one who truly wants to meet them.

The rest of the human cast, Maki Saori, Shima Jirou, Natsumi Torli, and Kana Ienaga, follow him in pretty much all of his antics, unwillingly most of the time. Besides Kana, the love interest to our MC, their only real purpose in this show is to be taken hostage or waste air time with pointless scenes of tension building, more to set the mood of ‘danger is everywhere!’ rather then there being any real danger. Luckily, there’s still one more human cast who joins them on their adventures, Yura Keikain, an onmoyji from a noted family with considerable skill in casting Shikigami, who gives some meaning to the human’s air time by including her involvement through them. She assists Kiyotsugu in his expeditions, using his information network to aid her in finding and eliminating local Yokai. She’s an intricate part of the story. When compared to our MC whose in the middle of Yokai and Human worlds, she’s very much similar, but where the MC is closer on the Yokai side of things, she’s closer to the humans.

The Yokai who follow our MC often find themselves in tricky positions thanks to them also having to hide who they are, while simultaneously protecting their Master and his friends. It leads to some pretty funny moments, and great for creating comedic relief after long moments of tension. But you can tell the Yokai themselves don’t find it all that funny, and that just adds to the hilarity.

The two Yokai assigned as body guards to our MC, Tsurara Oikawa, and Aotabou, are the closest among the Yokai to Rikuo, their bond akin to something like childhood friends. They support him fully in everything, giving everything up to the day he proves himself worthy as the Third Heir. There are numerous others, but they’re given very little attention in season 1, and it’s a crying shame. Used as convenient back-up whenever the MC needs it, they only ever offer expositions or push action scenes to their conclusions.

The heart of this show isn’t the human vs yokai, or the casts growth, as it is with most anime. We enjoy watching our characters grow on screen, and it’s definitely here in this show as well, our MC will go from basically a troubled 13 year old kid, to a confident 13 year old kid, but it’s the political intrigue of the Yokai that really turns the lightbulb known as Nura into a fluorescent beauty, much like feudal Japan, they’re separated by borders and blood from each other, united only by oaths of fealty. Most of which were pledges taken hundreds of years ago to an aging old man.

It’s this aspect of the show that really brings you into the Yokai world, almost as if they had a world on top of our own. Which may as well be the case, they have their own businesses, corporations, and interests, and the connection you can make to the similarities between the Yokai and Humans really hits home how the Yokai have adapted to fit in.

But where it stumbles is the Shojo aspect of itself, though it does a great job developing the characters whose life will be in jeopardy when the time comes, it doesn’t have much choreography to back it. Creating very short and lackluster battle scenes. This is uncharacteristic of Shojo shows, and will lead to many people with preconceived notions to drop the show.

The Yokai are beautiful. Their designs range from flowery, to adorable, to creepy, and the dynamic personalities of the Yokai go to further embellish there looks, creating a unique atmosphere the show thrives on; they’re all incredibly well detailed, especially considering how flat the human designs are, with small eyes and unattractive features, making there one-dimensional personalities more apparent.

The exception is the romantic interest, Kana. Unlike the rest of the human cast, her design obviously had more thought put into it, probably to contrast her from the other humans and lift her value in the show. As the show progresses, they’ll single her out, being interested in our MC in his yokai form, without knowing who he really is, and slowly integrate her into the Yokai side, building upon her relationship with the MC.

If you enjoyed Inuyasha, you’re going to love this show. They have a lot in common, both shows have a half demon as MC whose son of a great ruling Yokai, they both prefer to deal with dramatics rather then action, building a plot and characters rather then sprinkling your screen with sparkles and lights.

And they both have an amazing soundtrack. Nura’s soundtrack does it’s job well in setting the mood, often playing deep orchestra pieces fitting for the Yokai and darker moments. Then lifting the mood back up again with quirky up beat pieces. The OP’s are great, especially the second one, sporting a catchy j-pop/rap

And though the music may not be Air Gears, it is good in it’s own right, deserving of attention.

Considering that this is a 2010 show that was most likely dubbed a year or two later the dub voice acting is spectacular. Especially, Tsurara Oikawa, voiced by Cassandra Lee Morris. The only obnoxious voice belongs to Kiyotsugu, but he’s an obnoxious character to begin with, so it may of been intentional.

Between a setting that keeps on giving, a large cast of fun, interesting characters, and a great sound track, why aren’t you checking this out for yourself? It’s worth the golden 3 episode rule, but if you can make it to 5, you’ll really get to see what the show will offer later on.

Story: 8.5
Characters: 8
Voice Acting: 8
Music: 8
Enjoyment: 9
Over-all: a flat 8


The show is better than average, only suffering because it’s genre tag puts more expectation on action, rather then drama. If you haven’t checked this show out, It comes with a SoTa PoP seal of approval.

 

Hey everyone, this is actually a script turned review, as it'll be turned into a video later on, with images and scenes from the show to help flesh out details, but that doesn't excuse poor writing. Any and all criticism is appreciated, from grammar to how to string words more effectively together, I'm looking to grow as a reviewer and writer. Thanks for dropping by! o/

 

So my main issues with this review are mostly just clarity issues and your use of the passive voice. There were some issues of inappropriately placed commas, but those are really due to the use of passive voice, but I fixed those as that's sort of my job around here.

A+ intro. Sets the tone just right by stating the general reason that this review is timely: Halloween!

Here is the first place where I made a change to make the voice more active. I changed "He's getting old, with retirement around the corner...." to "He's getting old and with retirement around the corner...." because otherwise the sentence doesn't gel well with it's attached clauses, if you get my meaning. I made the clauses more connected because otherwise the clauses sort of string together (and at least reading it) makes it "sound" boring. This is because a series of clauses with little connection makes it sound like you're drifting and not actively moving through your sentence. That's passive voice and it can get you in trouble if you delve too deep into it. I probably could've left it with this one, but I came back after seeing your later sentences.

I'm not sure these need to be separated sentences, but if this is intended to be spoken, I could see these sentences as separate to denote the added emphasis that you'd place on what is roughly the series thesis. Otherwise I'd lump the last three together and keep the first one separate. However, there is an issue that I'll get to in the next section....

Which is quite simply, I can't tell what the hell is going on. Keeping the pacing all in one place. Naturally flow from Yokai to Human, allowing the plot to settle in-between the two. What do these clauses mean?!
Pacing doesn't need a place, it needs a speed. So is it paced uniformly because it always goes "Yokai has problem, Human has solution, Yokai institutes solution in applicable, though still Yokai, way"? Whatever the solution, I assume you mean to tell me that the pacing is consistent and effectively builds the bonds between the characters. It'd probably help if you summarize an episode in loose terms if you do make a video out of this.
Now what does the next sentence mean. A show flows from Yokai to Human.... Do you mean that it starts out with Yokai who are radically different and gradually through the show, they are increasingly made human through traits they adapt from humans?
We then have the clause after that "allowing the plot to settle in-between the two". Plot is the wrong word. I assume you mean a word like solution or answer. The sentence as worded makes me think there is some type of plan between the two of them that they just finished arguing like how they're going to rob a bank together. Plot as it pertains to stories (structures and story directions and such) needs to use more figurative language because if you use literal language it makes it sound like a plot (plan of action or agreement) within the story.
Fluent story telling is a bit wonky, but acceptable.

Things need to be rearranged. This feels like a sudden diversion to talk about character designs, then bam, solid plot details. It feels like I went from an art history lesson about a painting of the battle of waterloo, and then you immediately started talking about formations and important figures that have nothing to do with the painting.

There were some passive voice things here, but I fixed them. I can't really remember them because I got sort of focused on the unclear sections in this reply. Most of this last part are clear....
I should've made notes, but I don't normally respond like this in the thread itself you see.

 

incredible, as if I hired an editor I obviously need. I'll be getting to work fixing this up, making some points clearer, fleshing out more of what I mean, and you're right, I made some weird transitions between topics, and I didn't put enough reason or examples to give meaning to my points.

and by the human and yokai comment, I meant to say the show subtly shifts back and forth between scenes of two, who have very different feels. Human side of the story is almost nonchalant, there's no real drama, just simple injections of slice of life, comedy, and a bit of kindling romance through blushes and glances. Every so often they'll have something deeper to contribute, or will get directly attacked to build suspense, but it's usually unnecessary story to just add reason for the humans existence. *Episode with the god saving the MC's friend from a curse* *Episode where girls get attacked pointlessly in there bath* *It's worth noting that near the end the distress the humans find themselves is anything but un-necessary, but the build up to it by this point is hindered because we've already experienced them getting into trouble, and it's obvious how it's going to be resolved, so there's no real danger or threat.*

And you were spot on about the mis-use of the word plot. I just couldn't think of a better word, I suppose, but, it's more like conflict. The issues the Yokai face inevitably bring trouble to the humans, due to how closely linked the show makes them. The MC could be at Hawaii, partying with Fluffy, and the human cast would still be involved in trouble due to his existence and there relationship. And we'd likely get an episode with the MC chilling as his Yokai friends struggle to keep the humans from harm. I'm surprised the Yokai doesn't target his school in general and just kill random class-mates. It should have the same effect as killing his friends, but since the show wants to teeter on the reluctant hero concept with our MC, it obviously chose to target them to build his motivation clearly, which constantly forces the human cast to be near the Yokai, even though they can't know of Nura Clans existence, or at least that they're yokai. *another point I failed to flesh out*

Not sure if that explains things.

it settles the plots conflicts right in the middle, but it's not just the conflicts, evertything kinda just finds itself right in-between the Human and Yokai, almost as if the show is desperate to make the Humans relevant.

and the passive talking comes from the script, which I'm glad you eliminated, as eventually it won't be 'me' hosting reviews, but a characters I plan to design an animate for the reviews, While the clips play, a host walks around the screen and explains and points things out, and other characters with other 'needs, wants, or desires', come and interject there thoughts, possibly representing different cultural mediums, both inside and outside of anime. So I'll eventually be mixing popular references with the reviews in an attempt to help the show reach a wider audience.

But this is now week 2 of my review 'career', and video making, and I greatly appreciate the time you took to edit and help.

I'll probably add you into the credits in the video for the help \o/

 

Active voice is used for most non-scientific writing. Using active voice for the majority of your sentences makes your meaning clear for readers, and keeps the sentences from becoming too complicated or wordy. Even in scientific writing, too much use of passive voice can cloud the meaning of your sentences.

I must admit, I have forgotten much of my english lessons over the years. Thanks for reminding me of this importance.

 

Yeah, I got a lot of bad grades in English until I finally "got" the difference. I wanted to show more examples of where you used passive voice, but I got so wrapped up in the elaboration questions that I lost where the sentences were.
Your writing is better, if a little bit more spacey, than most reviews in this section. You focus on interesting ideas that go beyond the simple "good-watch, bad-don't watch duality". Now if you can get a bit better at expressing it and elaborating sufficiently, you'll be sterling.

 

That's quite the compliment, thank you. I was actually going through 30+ of the reviews around here, there's been a lot of talent coming and going. Even some rather impressive video reviews who should of received a lot more attention, they should of marketed themselves.

I tried to keep to a more active voice this time around, but I seem to naturally go into passive writing. Often times i don't even spot it happening, it just seems natural to me to write things this way. So this has helped identify some key area's I need to improve upon to better reach the audience.

Next, I need to start adding flare, comedy, and general entertainment to keep the viewer/reader interested in continuing on. But that comes with time and effort and finding what works. Which means practice, practice, practice!
EDIT: And on that note, the second edit has been posted, and already I've made 3 changes since, lol.

 

Gah, I made a mistake, the revision you added in to help with the passive voice problems - I copied and pasted it over, but it had a background to it, so I typed it out - Then accidently used the old copy by mistake! Dope! >,< Back to the edit board!

 

A final draft has been posted, thanks for the help, and hope you guys enjoy.

I went and instead copying your re-write, took your advice with another friends help, and got rid of a lot of the extra wording that was creating the passive voice.

Thanks to you and him, I now have a clearer understanding of how to create more critical reviews.

Expect to see a lot more of me in the future.

 

I wanna see more from you when are you gonna post more reviews

 

It seems he hasn't been on since November of 2015, so your guess is as good as mine