Nabari Rant #1 : Why Anime Canon for Yoite SUCKS (as well as several other problems with the anime)
Alright. Let me start by pointing out the few things I actually DO like about Anime Yoite.
- Mitsuki Saiga, my favorite voice actress, does Yoite's voice wonderfully. Breathy yet deep from the throat he actually sounds like a boy who is dying.
- I for some reason just love that long hair Yoite gets in the end. (no real significance on the story or character development here though)
....and thats pretty much it.
Now for why I think Anime canon screws Yoite royally.
Let me start with the biggest mistake the anime made, a common one in the industry. The anime itself consists of 23 episodes and has come to its end whilst the manga is still going and is currently at chapter 69 or 70. The anime was created thus around the time that the chapters were only in the thirties that would have gotten them to the end of the Kouga sequence, but not much after that. Yoite hadn't even died yet as he doesn't die until chapter 50, a chapter so-titled "Yoite." Also this means that the anime was both created and finished prior to when the manga even started delving into Yoite's past (around chapter 43 and on), thus the anime had to scramble both for a background to Yoite's character as well as a death scene. Whilst it takes the manga several chapters to look at Yoite's childhood and what we are given still leaves the majority of Yoite's life a mystery, the anime crams what they call Yoite's past into one episode and removes the majority of the mystery from it. They make him a generic character screwed by a corrupt leader bent on world domination.
So what this leaves us with is an extremely watered down version of Yoite who lacks the depth that he gets in the manga. The death scene at the end of the anime is sweet but cheesy and would be rather OC for the Yoite of the manga considering in the manga Yoite's death is not something he just sits around and waits for. Yoite is fighting death for the majority of the manga and dies fighting for Miharu. And it is not that manga Yoite ACCEPTS death, but simply realizes when he only has less than a day left that he could either use the last of his strength to save Miharu from Hattori or he could be useless and try to still believe that his wish will come true. And the only reason he is okay in his dying moments is because Miharu is with him and is safe from the Kairoshu at least for that moment. The death scene in the anime is completely different from the death in the manga in everyone way yet the way it happens in the manga is so much deeper, moving, and realistic. Its bearing on Yoite's character and character development is so significant that it almost defines it in a single scene. His beliefs, his values, his innocence... all of it comes out right then. And Yoite's death is not necessarily redemptive. Whilst in the anime they attempt to sugar-coat the death and make it 'okay' that Yoite died because 'now he is at peace' in the manga it is NOT okay that Yoite died. He never got any redemption, it is revealed later that there is knowledge of how to live with the kira and Yoite could have lived if Hattori's ally had ever shared said information, and thus whilst Yoite died protecting Miharu he died for nothing because there was a way that Yoite could have lived AND protected Miharu.
Furthermore, in the anime Yoite is always a teenager, a jaded, wounded, scarred, kira-using teenager. But a teenager in heart and mind none the less, whilst in the manga Yoite has an undeniable innocence to him that makes his mentality more that of a frightened child than that of a killer or a teenager. True the anime and the manga introduce Yoite to the series in the same way, Yoite slaughtering the Fuma-nin and being the "angel of death" kira-user. However, because the anime was created before Yoite got the majority of his character development in the manga, he remains a nearly one dimensional character and far more generic. In the manga, its really only after Kouga we start to get insight into the way Yoite thinks and why. Prior to that Yoite is pretty much a complete mystery and at times seems to lack much depth and this is what the anime leaves us with, expecting us to try and fully understand the character of Yoite with what little information we are given by the time they complete the kouga mission. In the manga, after the kouga mission is completed we get Yukimi delving into Yoite's past where we were shown how Yoite, called Sora at the time, was imprisoned by his parents in the basement because they believed him to be a monster, and then when he was 14 they attempted to kill him. Thus when he is "saved" by Hattori Yoite's body might be 14, but his mind has never been able to really mature or learn and thus has almost been preserved as the mind of a child. Thus, when you get to that point in the manga and you look back at everything Yoite has done you suddenly see it in a new light. You see the traces of innocence in everything he's done. When initially in the story Yoite's wishing to be erased seemed like the last act of a killer with too much blood on his hands, it is now revealed to be Yoite's desperate attempt to make happiness. The wish is so utterly childish and innocent, the way one might believe in wishing for world peace, and the way Yoite so desperately believes in it and believes that something so simple as erasing himself would make everyone he cares for so much happier is so purely child-like that it pulls way too hard at your heartstrings. Even as he dies he tells Miharu to erase him because he believes that that way Miharu might smile again one day. So strong is this innocence that by the time Yoite dies in the manga, no one cares how many people he has killed because he killed in innocence. Having been tricked by Hattori and used as a tool Yoite has killed many but he doesn't really comprehend what it means to kill. What it is to take a life. He just does as he's told because he believes that once he gets erased any crime he has committed will be undone and so everything in a way is in pursuit of doing what a child would think is the right thing to do. Whilst on the other hand you get a character like Raikou who outwardly seems so lighthearted and carefree but internally has been stained and torn much more than Yoite has. Yoite's battle scars are on his skin and the blood is on his gloves, but its never seeped down into his mind like it has for Raikou or even Yukimi who kill with full knowledge of what it is to take that life from another. Thus Yoite's image of himself as a monster is simply from everyone around him pounding into his head how horrible and dirty and wrong he is and thus like a child he believes them and clings to what image others put on him because he doesn't know better. He doesn't know to question these things. None of these nuances in Yoite's character are explored in any depth in the anime. In the manga Yoite's character doesn't necessarily grow or even change. I mean, sure he allows others to get close to him, but his values and beliefs pretty much stay steady. So Yoite is less CHANGED than he is REVEALED throughout the course of the story.
Even AFTER Yoite dies and no one remembers him, we are still given little gems of how innocent he really was. So much of what is still being reveal adds so much depth to the character who is already dead but somehow still developing which I find quite brilliant. One of the examples of this is what happens with the new plot twist of there being a new kira-user (other than Kotarou). In comparison to Yoite, this character is much more cold-hearted, blood-thirsty, and merciless than Yoite and kills for trivial whims, Whilst Yoite DID leave a lot of bodies in his wake, he never laughed or danced whilst doing so and never did he point his kira-finger at Yukimi, Raikou (in the manga he didn't), or Miharu after they became close whilst the new Kira-user kills off both enemies and allies almost indiscriminately. This brings to light that Yoite never really wanted to kill, never enjoyed doing it, and was never at any point a cold hearted "angel of death." And the new kira-user constantly screams about how much it hurts when he uses the kira, but Yoite in his never ending need to protect everyone from his own pain stayed as silent as he could about how much he was suffering, even towards the very end. As our wonderful Anami put it "Yoite may have been dying of kira but he never bitched about it." In fact, Yoite innocently viewed what he went through as punishment for a crime he let others convince him that he committed, when Yoite's "crime" in the end was simply being born.
But Yoite isn't the only character that gets shafted by the anime. I mean really, what is all that bullshit they pull with Yukimi's character? Yukimi and Yoite never had any stupid fight that is worth nothing on top of Miharu's school and Thobari was never even hiding in the school and once Thobari disappears in the manga he doesn't even come back until AFTER Yoite is dead and forgotten (because of the shinrabansho). And only THEN does engetsurin come in to play. The fact that the anime even involved it whilst Yoite was alive, added a previously non-existant conflict with Yukimi, and then REINTRODUCE Oda Yae and her village to the plot simply so Ichiki's tattegami could kill them off iis ridiculous. Whilst I love the cuddlyness between Yoite and Miharu and the way that Miharu threatens to kill himself if they kill Yoite in episode 20 its not worth all the crap the anime creators pulled with the story. Yoite and Miharu getting kidnapped and tied up by Hattori, Yoite pointing his finger to his head, and Yoite trying to go off and die alone is all DUMB. It is paced poorly, barreled through, and leaves Yoite's character with the short and shit-covered end of the stick along with Miharu, Yukimi, and even Aizawa, Raimei, and Thobari. I mean, as much as I dislike Thobari in the manga for being an ass and basically telling Miharu that he doesn't need to ever regain the memories of the person he erased (Yoite) because they aren't important, the fact that he IS an ass is depth to his character that they don't even give him in the anime. In the anime Thobari is bland and just annoying. Its not even worth it to dislike him. And back to the idea of Yukimi, as Yukimi's real time to shine in the manga comes when he starts taking initiative and investigating Yoite's past and being the first (after Yoite and Miharu) to rebel against the Kairoshu, this means that he gets NOTHING in the anime as these events never took place in the anime. In the manga Yukimi nearly dies when Yoite does but he just barely makes it and is left with one arm. In the anime... Yukimi is one thing : LAME..
I'd go so far as to say that the anime even destroyed Hattori's character. Now, I hate Hattori. HATE HATE HATE him. He is a bastard who has taken advantage of lost souls like Yoite, Raikou, Yukimi, and Gau and has dragged them through hell. He TRICKS a child into becoming a kira-user by promising to make him disappear though as he reveals to Miharu he has no intention of letting that happen as "Yoite was meant to die" and therefore his wish isn't important. And he intends to use Yoite up until every last drop of blood in his veins is dry and he turns into dust. Whenever Yoite coughs up blood Hattori's first question is not "is he alright" but "how much can we use him?" EVIL. In the manga Hattori is such a bastard it is impressive and he and Ichiki seem like such an unstoppable force that when Hattori gets taken down it is a SHOCK. And the way the manga handles his death is ARTFUL. In the anime, Hattori is knocked down to the level of a second rate bad guy who just wants to control the world like every other bad guy and has a death scene like any other bad guy. It makes the plot a whole lot more shallow and makes me dislike the anime all the more.
Now you might have noticed that I have specifically left out the characters of Raikou and Gau because it is... open to some debate if the anime really damaged their characters. Now for Gau I think i would say the biggest crime against him is his English dub voice because it is AWFUL. I mean nails on a chalk board, screeching cats, and cackling witches AWFUL. And the worst part about that is it only reinforces this image of him as an annoying sidekick. Whilst that IS how Gau is introduced to the story, i mean with that EXTREMELY naive rant about justice, he is intended to develop into something more and I would argue that if one paid attention, even to the anime, he does. In the anime and the manga he is the ONLY person who EVER points his own finger at the kira-user (watch this scene in the anime and even Raikou looks freaked) and in the anime I like how it is Gau who, after that bullshit conflict with Yukimi, takes Yoite's hand and fearlessly drags him inside. So the manga and anime both give him scenes in which to show that he is not just a normal sidekick, culminating in that scene where he points his kunai at his own throat and swears his life on the truth of his story which is most likely Gau's best scene and it is present in BOTH canons. However, recent developments in the manga have given us more of an opportunity to look into Gau's character and hell, I gotta love him. With all the crap Raikou puts him through (tea cups to the face, tricking him into eating copious amounts of wasabi, making him do all the paperwork, smacking him in the face, throwing books at his face, making him chase wild birds, live in the woods in a tent because Raikou spent all their money on a pot,and it keeps going...) Gau prevails and stands beside Raikou and is possibly one of the characters that grows up the most. And I also have to point out whilst (in the manga) after everyone forgets Yoite, Gau is one of the few with the strongest grasp on the fact that he's forgotten something important. Yes Miharu has the feeling that he is eternally attached to someone he can no longer reach, yet Gau's memory is almost more concrete because he remembers that he was saved and thus the person who saved him is the one he forgot. Raikou and the others look at it in a more analytical way, or as Raikou explains it "I know i slashed Gau and he was in a coma, but here he is so there must be something I've forgotten." It feels like Miharu, Gau, and possibly Yukimi are the ones closest to the memory of Yoite. ( and for me that is a big + ) So whilst we don't get these later scenes with Gau that we do in the manga, the fact that the anime chose Yoite's death as an ending means that even if they had kept the manga version of yoite's death as the ending we still wouldn't get these scenes because they take place afterwords so it can't really be said that the anime does horrible damage to Gau's character. I feel that prior to Yoite's death in BOTH canons Gau doesn't get enough credit. Hell, I didn't him enough credit and thought of him as a sidekick until i went back and reread and rewatched Nabari no Ou.
And then we come to Raikou. And this is complicated. It almost feels like the difference between anime Raikou and manga Raikou is the difference between the result and the process. In the anime Raikou is many things : a warrior, an odd-ball, a good person, a brother with a dark past, and a damn hot man with a sexy voice both in Japanese AND in English. (Don't Deny. He's the only anime male I've seen who can make pink hair looks irresistibly sexy). It is even true that Raikou gets some more important scenes in the anime. I mean, he even dies. So not only is he given more face time and more moments to look kick ass, he gets a memorable send off over which many fans of the anime wept bitterly and it REALLY made everyone hate Hattori. However, we don't really get to see too much into WHY Raikou does the things he does or is the way he is. I mean, yeah we get that he killed his family and has that horrible memory on his shoulders, but why the sadism? Why the weird outfits? Why the pink hair??? (I must disappoint you and say that this last question is sadly never answered in either the anime or the manga). So what we see of Raikou in the anime is the actions resulting from a thought process we are never really privy to. Inversely in the manga, possibly because they allow far more time for character development, we get fewer kick ass scenes and Raikou hasn't died (yet) but we DO get more scenes where we can see some of the ways in which Raikou thinks. The way he analyzes and attempts to justify why he is in the kairoshu and after that why he wants to recreate the Shimizu clan. So there is less flash for him (except in the most recent chapters) but more content. So you really have to decide what aspect you'd rather see more of. I'd say in Raikou's case BOTH are entertaining and awesome. (Note: this paragraph is shorter because Raikou is still a character that has so many dimensions that he confuses the hell out of me which I like a lot, but it also means I am still not able to write coherently about all the nuances of his character.)
SO. For now that is my rant about the Nabari no Ou anime vs. the manga. I may add to this later, but for right now, these are my biggest points of conflict/interest.
Thank you for reading.
(Also, a follow up essay focusing on what happens to MIHARU in the anime WILL be coming soon)
- Mitsuki Saiga, my favorite voice actress, does Yoite's voice wonderfully. Breathy yet deep from the throat he actually sounds like a boy who is dying.
- I for some reason just love that long hair Yoite gets in the end. (no real significance on the story or character development here though)
....and thats pretty much it.
Now for why I think Anime canon screws Yoite royally.
Let me start with the biggest mistake the anime made, a common one in the industry. The anime itself consists of 23 episodes and has come to its end whilst the manga is still going and is currently at chapter 69 or 70. The anime was created thus around the time that the chapters were only in the thirties that would have gotten them to the end of the Kouga sequence, but not much after that. Yoite hadn't even died yet as he doesn't die until chapter 50, a chapter so-titled "Yoite." Also this means that the anime was both created and finished prior to when the manga even started delving into Yoite's past (around chapter 43 and on), thus the anime had to scramble both for a background to Yoite's character as well as a death scene. Whilst it takes the manga several chapters to look at Yoite's childhood and what we are given still leaves the majority of Yoite's life a mystery, the anime crams what they call Yoite's past into one episode and removes the majority of the mystery from it. They make him a generic character screwed by a corrupt leader bent on world domination.
So what this leaves us with is an extremely watered down version of Yoite who lacks the depth that he gets in the manga. The death scene at the end of the anime is sweet but cheesy and would be rather OC for the Yoite of the manga considering in the manga Yoite's death is not something he just sits around and waits for. Yoite is fighting death for the majority of the manga and dies fighting for Miharu. And it is not that manga Yoite ACCEPTS death, but simply realizes when he only has less than a day left that he could either use the last of his strength to save Miharu from Hattori or he could be useless and try to still believe that his wish will come true. And the only reason he is okay in his dying moments is because Miharu is with him and is safe from the Kairoshu at least for that moment. The death scene in the anime is completely different from the death in the manga in everyone way yet the way it happens in the manga is so much deeper, moving, and realistic. Its bearing on Yoite's character and character development is so significant that it almost defines it in a single scene. His beliefs, his values, his innocence... all of it comes out right then. And Yoite's death is not necessarily redemptive. Whilst in the anime they attempt to sugar-coat the death and make it 'okay' that Yoite died because 'now he is at peace' in the manga it is NOT okay that Yoite died. He never got any redemption, it is revealed later that there is knowledge of how to live with the kira and Yoite could have lived if Hattori's ally had ever shared said information, and thus whilst Yoite died protecting Miharu he died for nothing because there was a way that Yoite could have lived AND protected Miharu.
Furthermore, in the anime Yoite is always a teenager, a jaded, wounded, scarred, kira-using teenager. But a teenager in heart and mind none the less, whilst in the manga Yoite has an undeniable innocence to him that makes his mentality more that of a frightened child than that of a killer or a teenager. True the anime and the manga introduce Yoite to the series in the same way, Yoite slaughtering the Fuma-nin and being the "angel of death" kira-user. However, because the anime was created before Yoite got the majority of his character development in the manga, he remains a nearly one dimensional character and far more generic. In the manga, its really only after Kouga we start to get insight into the way Yoite thinks and why. Prior to that Yoite is pretty much a complete mystery and at times seems to lack much depth and this is what the anime leaves us with, expecting us to try and fully understand the character of Yoite with what little information we are given by the time they complete the kouga mission. In the manga, after the kouga mission is completed we get Yukimi delving into Yoite's past where we were shown how Yoite, called Sora at the time, was imprisoned by his parents in the basement because they believed him to be a monster, and then when he was 14 they attempted to kill him. Thus when he is "saved" by Hattori Yoite's body might be 14, but his mind has never been able to really mature or learn and thus has almost been preserved as the mind of a child. Thus, when you get to that point in the manga and you look back at everything Yoite has done you suddenly see it in a new light. You see the traces of innocence in everything he's done. When initially in the story Yoite's wishing to be erased seemed like the last act of a killer with too much blood on his hands, it is now revealed to be Yoite's desperate attempt to make happiness. The wish is so utterly childish and innocent, the way one might believe in wishing for world peace, and the way Yoite so desperately believes in it and believes that something so simple as erasing himself would make everyone he cares for so much happier is so purely child-like that it pulls way too hard at your heartstrings. Even as he dies he tells Miharu to erase him because he believes that that way Miharu might smile again one day. So strong is this innocence that by the time Yoite dies in the manga, no one cares how many people he has killed because he killed in innocence. Having been tricked by Hattori and used as a tool Yoite has killed many but he doesn't really comprehend what it means to kill. What it is to take a life. He just does as he's told because he believes that once he gets erased any crime he has committed will be undone and so everything in a way is in pursuit of doing what a child would think is the right thing to do. Whilst on the other hand you get a character like Raikou who outwardly seems so lighthearted and carefree but internally has been stained and torn much more than Yoite has. Yoite's battle scars are on his skin and the blood is on his gloves, but its never seeped down into his mind like it has for Raikou or even Yukimi who kill with full knowledge of what it is to take that life from another. Thus Yoite's image of himself as a monster is simply from everyone around him pounding into his head how horrible and dirty and wrong he is and thus like a child he believes them and clings to what image others put on him because he doesn't know better. He doesn't know to question these things. None of these nuances in Yoite's character are explored in any depth in the anime. In the manga Yoite's character doesn't necessarily grow or even change. I mean, sure he allows others to get close to him, but his values and beliefs pretty much stay steady. So Yoite is less CHANGED than he is REVEALED throughout the course of the story.
Even AFTER Yoite dies and no one remembers him, we are still given little gems of how innocent he really was. So much of what is still being reveal adds so much depth to the character who is already dead but somehow still developing which I find quite brilliant. One of the examples of this is what happens with the new plot twist of there being a new kira-user (other than Kotarou). In comparison to Yoite, this character is much more cold-hearted, blood-thirsty, and merciless than Yoite and kills for trivial whims, Whilst Yoite DID leave a lot of bodies in his wake, he never laughed or danced whilst doing so and never did he point his kira-finger at Yukimi, Raikou (in the manga he didn't), or Miharu after they became close whilst the new Kira-user kills off both enemies and allies almost indiscriminately. This brings to light that Yoite never really wanted to kill, never enjoyed doing it, and was never at any point a cold hearted "angel of death." And the new kira-user constantly screams about how much it hurts when he uses the kira, but Yoite in his never ending need to protect everyone from his own pain stayed as silent as he could about how much he was suffering, even towards the very end. As our wonderful Anami put it "Yoite may have been dying of kira but he never bitched about it." In fact, Yoite innocently viewed what he went through as punishment for a crime he let others convince him that he committed, when Yoite's "crime" in the end was simply being born.
But Yoite isn't the only character that gets shafted by the anime. I mean really, what is all that bullshit they pull with Yukimi's character? Yukimi and Yoite never had any stupid fight that is worth nothing on top of Miharu's school and Thobari was never even hiding in the school and once Thobari disappears in the manga he doesn't even come back until AFTER Yoite is dead and forgotten (because of the shinrabansho). And only THEN does engetsurin come in to play. The fact that the anime even involved it whilst Yoite was alive, added a previously non-existant conflict with Yukimi, and then REINTRODUCE Oda Yae and her village to the plot simply so Ichiki's tattegami could kill them off iis ridiculous. Whilst I love the cuddlyness between Yoite and Miharu and the way that Miharu threatens to kill himself if they kill Yoite in episode 20 its not worth all the crap the anime creators pulled with the story. Yoite and Miharu getting kidnapped and tied up by Hattori, Yoite pointing his finger to his head, and Yoite trying to go off and die alone is all DUMB. It is paced poorly, barreled through, and leaves Yoite's character with the short and shit-covered end of the stick along with Miharu, Yukimi, and even Aizawa, Raimei, and Thobari. I mean, as much as I dislike Thobari in the manga for being an ass and basically telling Miharu that he doesn't need to ever regain the memories of the person he erased (Yoite) because they aren't important, the fact that he IS an ass is depth to his character that they don't even give him in the anime. In the anime Thobari is bland and just annoying. Its not even worth it to dislike him. And back to the idea of Yukimi, as Yukimi's real time to shine in the manga comes when he starts taking initiative and investigating Yoite's past and being the first (after Yoite and Miharu) to rebel against the Kairoshu, this means that he gets NOTHING in the anime as these events never took place in the anime. In the manga Yukimi nearly dies when Yoite does but he just barely makes it and is left with one arm. In the anime... Yukimi is one thing : LAME..
I'd go so far as to say that the anime even destroyed Hattori's character. Now, I hate Hattori. HATE HATE HATE him. He is a bastard who has taken advantage of lost souls like Yoite, Raikou, Yukimi, and Gau and has dragged them through hell. He TRICKS a child into becoming a kira-user by promising to make him disappear though as he reveals to Miharu he has no intention of letting that happen as "Yoite was meant to die" and therefore his wish isn't important. And he intends to use Yoite up until every last drop of blood in his veins is dry and he turns into dust. Whenever Yoite coughs up blood Hattori's first question is not "is he alright" but "how much can we use him?" EVIL. In the manga Hattori is such a bastard it is impressive and he and Ichiki seem like such an unstoppable force that when Hattori gets taken down it is a SHOCK. And the way the manga handles his death is ARTFUL. In the anime, Hattori is knocked down to the level of a second rate bad guy who just wants to control the world like every other bad guy and has a death scene like any other bad guy. It makes the plot a whole lot more shallow and makes me dislike the anime all the more.
Now you might have noticed that I have specifically left out the characters of Raikou and Gau because it is... open to some debate if the anime really damaged their characters. Now for Gau I think i would say the biggest crime against him is his English dub voice because it is AWFUL. I mean nails on a chalk board, screeching cats, and cackling witches AWFUL. And the worst part about that is it only reinforces this image of him as an annoying sidekick. Whilst that IS how Gau is introduced to the story, i mean with that EXTREMELY naive rant about justice, he is intended to develop into something more and I would argue that if one paid attention, even to the anime, he does. In the anime and the manga he is the ONLY person who EVER points his own finger at the kira-user (watch this scene in the anime and even Raikou looks freaked) and in the anime I like how it is Gau who, after that bullshit conflict with Yukimi, takes Yoite's hand and fearlessly drags him inside. So the manga and anime both give him scenes in which to show that he is not just a normal sidekick, culminating in that scene where he points his kunai at his own throat and swears his life on the truth of his story which is most likely Gau's best scene and it is present in BOTH canons. However, recent developments in the manga have given us more of an opportunity to look into Gau's character and hell, I gotta love him. With all the crap Raikou puts him through (tea cups to the face, tricking him into eating copious amounts of wasabi, making him do all the paperwork, smacking him in the face, throwing books at his face, making him chase wild birds, live in the woods in a tent because Raikou spent all their money on a pot,and it keeps going...) Gau prevails and stands beside Raikou and is possibly one of the characters that grows up the most. And I also have to point out whilst (in the manga) after everyone forgets Yoite, Gau is one of the few with the strongest grasp on the fact that he's forgotten something important. Yes Miharu has the feeling that he is eternally attached to someone he can no longer reach, yet Gau's memory is almost more concrete because he remembers that he was saved and thus the person who saved him is the one he forgot. Raikou and the others look at it in a more analytical way, or as Raikou explains it "I know i slashed Gau and he was in a coma, but here he is so there must be something I've forgotten." It feels like Miharu, Gau, and possibly Yukimi are the ones closest to the memory of Yoite. ( and for me that is a big + ) So whilst we don't get these later scenes with Gau that we do in the manga, the fact that the anime chose Yoite's death as an ending means that even if they had kept the manga version of yoite's death as the ending we still wouldn't get these scenes because they take place afterwords so it can't really be said that the anime does horrible damage to Gau's character. I feel that prior to Yoite's death in BOTH canons Gau doesn't get enough credit. Hell, I didn't him enough credit and thought of him as a sidekick until i went back and reread and rewatched Nabari no Ou.
And then we come to Raikou. And this is complicated. It almost feels like the difference between anime Raikou and manga Raikou is the difference between the result and the process. In the anime Raikou is many things : a warrior, an odd-ball, a good person, a brother with a dark past, and a damn hot man with a sexy voice both in Japanese AND in English. (Don't Deny. He's the only anime male I've seen who can make pink hair looks irresistibly sexy). It is even true that Raikou gets some more important scenes in the anime. I mean, he even dies. So not only is he given more face time and more moments to look kick ass, he gets a memorable send off over which many fans of the anime wept bitterly and it REALLY made everyone hate Hattori. However, we don't really get to see too much into WHY Raikou does the things he does or is the way he is. I mean, yeah we get that he killed his family and has that horrible memory on his shoulders, but why the sadism? Why the weird outfits? Why the pink hair??? (I must disappoint you and say that this last question is sadly never answered in either the anime or the manga). So what we see of Raikou in the anime is the actions resulting from a thought process we are never really privy to. Inversely in the manga, possibly because they allow far more time for character development, we get fewer kick ass scenes and Raikou hasn't died (yet) but we DO get more scenes where we can see some of the ways in which Raikou thinks. The way he analyzes and attempts to justify why he is in the kairoshu and after that why he wants to recreate the Shimizu clan. So there is less flash for him (except in the most recent chapters) but more content. So you really have to decide what aspect you'd rather see more of. I'd say in Raikou's case BOTH are entertaining and awesome. (Note: this paragraph is shorter because Raikou is still a character that has so many dimensions that he confuses the hell out of me which I like a lot, but it also means I am still not able to write coherently about all the nuances of his character.)
SO. For now that is my rant about the Nabari no Ou anime vs. the manga. I may add to this later, but for right now, these are my biggest points of conflict/interest.
Thank you for reading.
(Also, a follow up essay focusing on what happens to MIHARU in the anime WILL be coming soon)