Comics / Manga

Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan Volume 22

By Leroy Douresseaux
September 20, 2014 - 15:00

Nura Rise of the Yokai Clan Volume 22 cover image is courtesy of barnesandnoble.com.

Follow me on Twitter.

Rated “T” for “Teen”

The day belongs to humans, but the night belongs to yokai, the supernatural creatures of Japanese folklore.  Middle school student Rikuo Nura is three-fourths human and one-quarter yokai.  Rikuo’s grandfather is Nurarihyon, the Overlord and Supreme Commander of the Tokyo-based, yokai consortium, the Nura Clan.  He wants Rikuo to become the next leader of the Nura Clan – the Lord of a Hundred Demons.  When Rikuo’s yokai blood awakens, he becomes the clan’s future leader (“the Third”) and current “Underboss.”

As Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, Vol. 22 (entitled Purification – Chapters 185 to 193) opens, Rikuo, Yuki-onna, Ryuji, and Itaku (with Yukari) travel to Mt. Osore to find the sword-smith, Akifusa.  He is supposed to be in the process of reforging the legendary sword, Nenekirimaru, the renowned yokai-killing blade, for Nura.  He will need it to fight the destructive Nue.  First stop is the village of Tono.

Shortly after leaving Tono, however, Nura and his friends encounter legions of the dead, and Nura is forced to battle Taisei Gokadoin.  The Gokadoin clan is planning to help revive Nue, and it begins with an act of purification.  Plus, Nura invites his human school friends to his home, the headquarters of the Nura Clan.

THE LOWDOWN:  Like Naruto, the Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan manga always has a new conspiracy of evil brewing while the boy-hero and his allies are battling the current evil conspiracy.  This is one of my favorite manga because creator Hiroshi Shiibashi always seems to have some new strange things with which to dazzle me.  He epitomizes the imagination and weirdness that is inherent in comics.

Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan Volume 22 teases the arrival of the next world-destroying villain, Nue, and it is filled with some epic battles.  With such imaginative art and graphics as the storytelling, it makes for an invigorating read.  In fact, Nura is as imaginative as any other shonen manga or comic book, for that matter.  That is why I come back to Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Readers looking for imaginative and scary shonen will want the Shonen Jump title, Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan.

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12