Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan



Nurarihyon no Mago, meaning Grandson of Nurarihyon, is a manga series, now an anime, about a boy named Rikuo who is one quarter Youkai. Rikuo is constantly pressured into taking over the Nura youkai clan by his grandfather, the Nurarihyon, but he strongly disapproves of what the clan does, so he refuses. At night, Rikuo has to ability to transform into a full youkai, and a very powerful one at that, though he does not retain any memories of when he transforms.

At first the series is an Monster of the Week series dealing with the boy trying to live a normal life, and keeping the truth about himself and his family from getting out to his normal school friends. His friends include Kana, his Love Interest who is afraid of youkai, and Kiyotsugu, the class president who is a wannabe demonologist and major fanboy of Rikuo's youkai side. He often has to handle threats to his friends and school, and deal with occasional assassination attempts by yokai who want to take over his clan. The cast is rounded out by the yokai retainers who live in his family's mansion and his own personal bodyguards.

Shortly, however, the series undergoes a significant change, as.

The 24-episode first season of the anime has completed its run in Japan and available to watch on Hulu under the title Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan.

A second season aired during the summer of 2011.


 * Absurdly Youthful Mother: Rikuo's mother is said in the debut one shot of the series to be 30, which can be assumed to be true in the main series, since nothing has contradicted it, yet she doesn't look like it.
 * Hagoromo Gitsune is absurdly youthful even approximately 400 years ago due to her constant switching of hosts.
 * Accidental Pervert: Kurotabou accidentally gropes one Rikuo's schoolmates on a train and nearly gets arrested for it, thankfully she believes him.
 * An Ice Person: Every Yuki Onna
 * All Your Powers Combined:
 * Aloof Big Brother: Ryuji, Yura's older brother, who has slightly more affection for her than Neji did towards Hinata.
 * Art Shift: The art changes into Sumi-e style whenever a yokai reveals a power.
 * Asskicking Equals Authority: This applies to anyone who is the Master of All Spirits.
 * Back From the Dead:
 * Back-to-Back Badasses: Kejouro and Kubinashi in chapter 102
 * Badass: Name any Keikain. Name any youkai.
 * Badass Army: The Nura Clan.
 * Badass Grandpa: Nurarihyon, period.
 * Bash Brothers: Nura Clan's two Strike Team officers, Aotabou and Kurotabou. The bashing even carries over into their late-night bar hops.
 * Battle Couple: Kubinashi and Kejouro and they were like that even before they joined Nura Clan.
 * Berserk Button: If you harm one of Rikuo's attendants you're done for. Even if he is in his peace-loving day form he'll go medieval on you.
 * Big Bad: Formerly Harogomo Gitsune, and now her child, the Nue
 * Big Damn Heroes: Kurotabou is, quite literally, made for this trope, having saved not a few human, onmyouji, and youkai asses just when they needed help most.
 * Although his desperation saves, arguably, aren't as dramatic as Kurotabou's, Kubinashi has some fine moments as well.
 * Bishonen: Night Rikuo, Young Nurarihyon, Rihan, Kubinashi, Kurotabou, Kuromaru, Tosakamaru, Keikain Mamiru, Shoukera, Yanagida and revived Seimei.
 * Boisterous Bruiser: Aotabou
 * Body Horror: Anything to do with Sanmoto Gorōzaemon
 * Minagoroshi Jizou, can possess and control others by going into them and taking the shape of a small eyeball in the back of the body. When
 * Blood Brothers: Rikuo and Zen.
 * Blood Knight: Tsuchigumo.
 * Bullying a Dragon: In the latest chapters, the people are really pushing  despite knowing the fact that
 * Calling Your Attacks: Used straight by just about everyone who does any fighting, but actually subverted by
 * The Cavalry: The arrival of Nura Clan to Kyoto. Before, the Onmyouji of the Keikain Clan was on the verge of collapse.
 * Cheated Angle: In at least the anime, Night Rikuo's hair is visible in full from any angle.
 * Cherry Blossoms: The mansion's cherry blossom tree is Night Rikuo's favorite haunt.
 * Cool Airship:.
 * Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: has an awful,  case of this, discarding allies and subordinates without a second thought once he feels he has no more use for them.
 * Clingy Jealous Girl: Both Nura clan Yuki-Onna are a mild example of this. The one in the past with Rikuo's Badass Grandpa, Setsura, wasn't exactly thrilled when Nurarihyon decided to marry Rikuo's grandmother, and the one in the present, Tsurara, sees Rikuo's childhood friend Kana as some sort of rival, contemplating freezing her occasionally.
 * Creepy Child:.
 * Curb Stomp Battle:
 * Tsuchi-Gumo. Just... Tsuchi-Gumo.
 * Dancing Theme
 * Dangerous Forbidden Technique: The Yaso branch Demonic Possession Technique that Akifusa Keikain uses against Hagoromo Gitsune.
 * Dangerously Genre Savvy: To make up for lacking the talent with shikigami his sister has, Ryuji has developed a rare power. He lies, constantly, while fighting. He lies about where his attacks are coming from, what the limits on his powers are, and even the name of one of his shikigami.
 * And now we have the
 * Dangerous Thirteenth Birthday: It's not only the age of adulthood in the youkai world, but Kana was cursed by the Purple Mirror to die at that age.
 * Defeat Means Friendship:.
 * Kurotabou..
 * Delinquents: Aotabou falls ass backwards into becoming the leader of a Japanese delinquent biker gang.
 * Ditch the Bodyguards: Rihan apparently does this a lot. Enough that it drives Kubinashi to swear.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything??:
 * Delinquents: Aotabou falls ass backwards into becoming the leader of a Japanese delinquent biker gang.
 * Ditch the Bodyguards: Rihan apparently does this a lot. Enough that it drives Kubinashi to swear.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything??:

"Rihan: Kuro:"
 * In chapter 158, Rihan explains how the Matoi works and makes an...interesting observation on Kurotabou. May overlap with Foe Yay


 * Dragon with an Agenda: to Hagoromo Kitsune and the Kyoto youkai, assisting their efforts to successfully reincarnate the Nue/ in order to give him Maou's Hammer in accordance with, for the purpose of furthering the plans of the.
 * Driven to Suicide: Implied with
 * Dungeon Bypass: Chapter 170
 * Early-Bird Cameo: The anime seems to be putting great effort into having Gyuuki appear every other minute.
 * Estrogen Brigade Bait: Nurarihyon, Rihan, Night Rikuo and Zen. Oh boy... All four are good looking and have been shown shirtless at one point
 * Evil Weapon: Maou's Hammer. It absorbs the spirits of those it kills and transforms them into power for its wielder. The more it kills, the more it looks like a living thing.
 * Filler: The anime is extending the Shikoku arc using more encounters with the enemy.
 * Fetus Terrible:  seems to be one of these, he makes his mother, the Big Bad of the arc, seem harmless.
 * Fighting Game: An adaptation is in the works by Arc System Works.
 * Five-Man Band
 * The Hero: Nura Rikuo
 * The Lancer: Kurotabou, and not just because he can release hundreds of weapons in one go (in recent arcs he has taken over the role of Nura Clan's primary strategist from Karasu Tengu).
 * The Big Guy: Aotabou, who else?
 * The Smart Guy: Kubinashi, although a somewhat hot-headed version of the trope. Zen can also be considered as The Medic alternate (when healthy anyway).
 * The Chick: Tsurara
 * Tagalong Kid: Kappa
 * Foe Yay: Just look at the color spread of chapter 115.
 * Foil: Arguably, Kubinashi and Itaku, especially with regards to how they look at and treat Rikuo. Kubinashi also appears gentle but he has a dangerously murderous side, while Itaku is brusque and rough, and the gentleness is buried very deep.
 * Friendly Enemy: The Nurarihyon and Hidemoto of the Onmyouji.
 * Friend to All Children: Aotabou and Kurotabou.
 * Fusion Dance: Matoi, Rihan's ability as a half-youkai.
 * Gender Bender: Awashima is a woman at night and a man by day. Sees him-/herself mainly as man.
 * Generation Xerox: Happens a lot. The Kyoto arc itself is a plot Xerox.
 * It's even happened with the Kiyo Cross Squad!
 * Godiva Hair:
 * Goggles Do Nothing: Rikuo has excellent eyesight and wears his glasses to better establish his diligent human persona, not because he needs them.
 * Gotta Catch Em All / Dismantled MacGuffin: Maybe:
 * Half-Human Hybrid: Rihan (half-youkai, half-human) and Rikuo (1/4th youkai).
 * Hammerspace: A dramatic variant, where does Rikuo keep that sake bowl?
 * And where the hell does Kurotabou store all that weapons?
 * Happily Married: Nurarihyon and Youhime, especially evident in omake chapters and novels.
 * Heel Face Turn:.
 * Heterosexual Life Partner: Gozumaru and Mezumaru, who is always seen together
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: If you got the Drama CD, you will find that Rikuo become a sudden Large Ham whenever he's in his night mode, while Kana seems to be perky enough to form another afterschool club
 * How could Lelouch Rikuo run his organization without highly intelligent and freethinking servant Diethard Gyuuki?
 * And Suzaku Kubinashi is joining him.
 * Same cast is applied to the anime. You can see where this is going for Rikuo. Those group of demons and invisibility skill got to be put into good use.
 * Gaara Tamazuki is the leader of the Seven Phantom Travelers of the Shikoku Youkai and is also a Tanuki.
 * Simon also a part of his class.
 * Gintoki is Zen.
 * Relationship Voice Actor: Yui Horie and Hiroki Yasumoto get to voice together again (as Rikuo's loyal bodyguards) in years since School Rumble, where Horie was Tsundere Ojou Eri Sawachika and Yasumoto was Hot-Blooded Large Ham Masakazu Tougou.
 * Hot Dad: Nurarihyon and his son Rihan were both this. It runs in the family I must say.
 * Hot Mom: Rikuo's mom is pretty hot. Also, Hagoromo-Gitsune.
 * Youhime was renowned as the most beautiful woman in all of Kyoto.
 * Tsurara's mother, Setsura.
 * Hot Teacher: During the Hundred Tales arc, Yamabuki-Otome could arguably qualify as this.

""Wait. This time...they are guests.""
 * Human Mom, Nonhuman Dad: Both Rihan and Rikuo's parents.
 * Identical Grandson: Demon Rikuo looks almost exactly like his grandfather the Nurarihyon did when he was young. Likewise, Tsurara is the splitting image of her ancestor, Setsura.
 * Idiot Hero: Averted, Rikuo is something of a proto Magnificent Bastard. He uses his cunning as his main weapon while in human form. The conference to.
 * I Was Quite a Looker: The last 400 years weren't very kind on Nurarihyon
 * The Jimmy Hart Version: Portions of the background music seem directly ripped from the Harry Potter theme...
 * Knight Templar : Some of the Onmyouji.
 * Let's Get Dangerous: Yura, chapter 118.
 * Lineage Comes From the Father: Nurarihyon's line.
 * Little Miss Badass: The was one. See Creepy Child entry above.
 * Loads and Loads of Characters: Rikuo, his family, the youkai of his family, his classmates, the villainous clans, the Onmyouji, the Toono youkai...
 * Mad Artist / Art Imitates Life: Speciality of a member of the rival Hundred Tales Clan.
 * Marshmallow Hell: Encountered by Shima-kun while searching in the dark for a youkai.
 * And while peeking at Tsurara sleeping. Though he seems much more interested in Tsurara than the boobs he is squished against at that moment.
 * Mayfly-December Romance: Nurarihyon who is a youkai married Youhime, a human (albeit one who possessed healing powers). 400 years later Nurarihyon is still alive while Youhime have died, although it isn't revealed yet how.
 * Multicolored Hair: All over the place.
 * Nakama: The Kiyo Cross Squad and Rikuo's bodyguards make up Rikuo's..
 * Nigh Invulnerability:.
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed: Rikuo is attacked by a Kamen Rider, an Army of Two, and a Bullet Witch.
 * No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: is implied to deliver one during chapter 96. In a later chapter, he is likened to earthquakes, typhoons and plagues, saying that "you have no choice but to wait until he passes by".
 * Official Couple: Nurarihyon and Youhime
 * Older Than They Look: Youkai generally don't look their age, since their lifespan is much longer than a human's, anyway, so they age differently from humans. In the case of Rikuo's grandfather, it's more like there is no way to show that he way over 400 years old (and if we assume he was a fully grown-up youkai by the time he met Rikuo's grandmother, this trope applies to him back then already). Rikuo's father didn't look like a four hundred years old half-youkai, either. Rikuo's mother is a human example, looking younger than her 30 years.
 * Ordinary High School Student: Kana and all of the members of the school occult society save for Yura.
 * Out of Focus: Advice to new readers: don't get attached to Kiyo Cross Squad. After the series Grows The Beard they quickly start to lose importance until in the last two arcs they show up three panels once in 40 chapters at best and even then don't do or say anything important.
 * Peek-a-Bangs: Kejouro
 * Also the Gyuuki clan: Gyuuki, Gozumaru, and Mezumaru.
 * Playing Drunk: Rihan, once, during the Hundred Tales arc.
 * Playing with Fire: One of Rikuo's techniques is to ignite a bowl of sacred sake, and breathe lightly into it, causing fire to go everywhere. As long there are ripples in the bowl the fire will keep burning.
 * Posthumous Character: Rihan. He is dead by the time the series start, yet he is an important point in the plot.
 * Pregnant Badass: Hagoromo-Gitsune, arguably.
 * Prehensile Hair:This seems to be Kejouro's main power.
 * Kagibari-Onna too.
 * Relationship Voice Actor: Lelouch, Suzaku, and Diethard are all on the same side this time around.
 * Charle is not longer a cat but a Yuki-Onna, who is ng with Lucy's rival and has captured Natsu's heart. With Elfman as Charle's fellow bodyguard.
 * Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Hagoromo Gitsune and most Youkai who isn't Rikuo.
 * Reincarnation:
 * Rule 34: Hits Tsurara pretty hard. If there are smutty fanarts all over Pixiv about her, it's out of question there is NO porn somewhere.
 * Sacred Hospitality: The capacity in which sworn enemies visit your home is important to the Yakuza-esque yokai clans.
 * Sacred Hospitality: The capacity in which sworn enemies visit your home is important to the Yakuza-esque yokai clans.

"I will fill this world with something pure. Pure black, like these black eyes, this black hair, and black clothes..."
 * School Uniforms Are the New Black: Hagoromo Gitsune takes it literally and beyond:


 * Sealed Evil in a Can: When Hagoromo Gitsune the seals in Kyoto, she manages to uncover many yokai that were imprisoned by them, who then join her army. She's a can herself, considering she contains a nue. Also somewhat inverted with Karasu-tengu in Chapter 154.
 * Ship Tease: Rikuo and Tsurara has a few of them, but chapter 136 in particular is really strong,
 * Shirtless Scene: Young Nurarihyon is naked from the torso up while fighting against Hagoromo Gitsune. Rikuo also does this in his fight against Tsuchigumo
 * Stalker with a Crush: Sort of.  And theoretically Tsurara, but she follows him because she is Rikuo's bodyguard, so it's more a case of Subordinate Excuse.
 * Snakes Are Sexy: Averted with Hebidayu's human-like form.
 * Storming the Castle: Rikuo and the Nura clan marches on Nijou Castle in chapter 117.
 * Subordinate Excuse / Bodyguard Crush: Tsurara suffers a bad case of this.
 * Super-Powered Evil Side: Subverted. Demon Rikuo is simply a bit more Hot-Blooded and more mature than Human Rikuo.
 * Take Me Instead!:
 * Talking to Himself: With Rikuo's human form and youkai form at the beginning of episode Two of the anime
 * Tall, Dark and Bishoujo:
 * Tall, Dark and Handsome: Nura Rihan and Kurotabou.
 * Too Dumb to Live: Humans. Even when heads start flying, they still have no sense of self preservation. The ones in chapter 162 also have no qualms about video taping and mocking what they think (and are correct in thinking) is a youkai, but that's more What an Idiot!. Not to mention the Kikyo Cross Squad. After seeing all the death and destruction youkai can cause and nearly dying more than once, they're still chasing after youkai.
 * In the case of the Kikyo Paranormal Patrol, it seems to be mostly the club president that suffers from this with the others more or less following for either for the fun stuff that goes on when they're just humoring him, or when they're trying to keep him from getting killed.
 * Theme Naming: Rihan and Rikuo are half and one quarter youkai respectively.
 * There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Kurotabou unleashes the full 200 weapons of Anki Kuroenbu on tiny Sodemogi-sama during his rescue of Kokehime to the point you can hardly find him in the mass of spears, swords, chains, and other projectiles.
 * Transhuman Treachery:.
 * Trickster Archetype: Rikuo, his grandpa and many youkai fit this. Naturally.
 * Undying Loyalty: A common trait of several characters, both heroes and villains. Just take a look at the character page.
 * Ungrateful Bastard:
 * The humans that Rikuo saves in chapter 162.
 * Urban Legend: The Hundred Tales Clan, who increases their number by reviving or creating urban legends with the help of a guy who can make living paintings.
 * Voluntary Shapeshifting: Rikuo is the obvious example, shifting back and forth between his human and demon forms (though he can only maintain his demon from for one quarter of the day and only outside of sunlight). But the other demons are able to assume human form to go out in society. We mainly see Rikuo's bodyguards, with Yuki Onna being a girl in his class, Aotabou being a local delinquent, Kurotabou being a business man and Kappa being another student.
 * Weirdness Censor: The Nurarihyon's main power. He has this as a constant power around himself, allowing him to walk around in his demonic form and have everyone simply assume he's a normal old man. Even exorcists. He and Demon Rikuo can ramp it up to create functional invisibility, for use in combat, stealing, and dine and dashes.
 * What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Nurarihyon is described as "A yokai that sits in someones house and drinks their tea," which sounds pretty lame when you first think about it. Essentially this is the ability to enter and leave without being noticed. But since it ends up being a kind of invisibility, it turns out that Heart Is an Awesome Power.
 * Also lampshaded in the manga, where everyone pretty much reacts by going "Wut?"
 * White-Haired Pretty Boy: Night Rikuo, Young Nurarihyon and revived Seimei.
 * Also Akifusa Keikain and Shoukera
 * White Sheep: Nura Rikuo
 * Who You Gonna Call?: The Onmyouji, exorcists who protect Japan from youkai.
 * Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?:
 * You Can't Thwart Stage One:.
 * You Killed My Father: Hagoromo Gitsune killed Rikuo's father. Now Rikuo is in town. This isn't going to end well for her.
 * But then in the latest chapter, she seemed kinda surprised when Rikuo confronts her about killing his father. And then this page shows up.
 * And now there's this...
 * Subverted in an earlier arc involving a minor character.
 * Yakuza: Most of the youkai clans are basically yakuza, complete with symbols.
 * The Nura clan tends to lean more heavily toward a samurai clan at times, but that's probably because they're the heroes.
 * Rikuo's Mother even lampshades this  she says she pulled it out of her bosom because shes' a Yakuza wife and shes' always wanted to do that.
 * Youkai: Quite a number of the cast are youkai of all kinds; the series is about them and generally a universe where youkai are more or less well hidden from the humans.
 * The Nura clan tends to lean more heavily toward a samurai clan at times, but that's probably because they're the heroes.
 * Rikuo's Mother even lampshades this  she says she pulled it out of her bosom because shes' a Yakuza wife and shes' always wanted to do that.
 * Youkai: Quite a number of the cast are youkai of all kinds; the series is about them and generally a universe where youkai are more or less well hidden from the humans.