Hell Teacher Nūbē
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| Jigoku Sensei Nube | |
|---|---|
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| 地獄先生ぬ～べ～ (Hell Teacher Nube) |
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| Genre | Horror, Comedy, School Life |
| Manga | |
| Authored by | Makura Shō, Takeshi Okano |
| Publisher | Shueisha |
| Serialized in | Weekly Shonen Jump |
| Original run | September, 1993 – May, 1999 |
| No. of volumes | 31 |
| TV anime | |
| Directed by | Yukio Kaizawa |
| Studio | Toei Animation |
| Network |  Animax, TV Asahi Etc...TV GMA Network |
| Original run | 13 April 1996 – 28 August 1997 |
| No. of episodes | 48 |
Hell Teacher Nūbē (地獄先生ぬ～べ～ Jigoku Sensei Nūbē?) is a horror-comedy manga created by the collaborative efforts of writer Shō Makura (真倉翔?) and artist Takeshi Okano in Shueisha's manga anthology book Weekly Shonen Jump. The series ran from Issue 38, 1993 through Issue 24, 1999.
The series follows Meisuke Nueno, better known as Nūbē, an exorcist who also happens to be the teacher for a 5th grade class at Dōmori Elementary. While he uses many various exorcism techniques, his main weapon is the Demon Hand (鬼の手 Oni no Te?), which is the power of a chaotic oni sealed right where his left hand should be. The series follows Nūbē and Dōmori class 5-3 though the many weird, chaotic, and downright silly and insane encounters they face with the many forms and elements of the supernatural. The manga ran for 276 chapters (not including the two pilot chapters where Nūbē was known as Nubo (ぬ～ぼ～ Nūbō) in Shonen Jump, as well as a 48-episode anime series created by Toei Animation in 1996-1997, which aired across Japan on Animax and TV Asahi. The anime resulted in three movies and three OAV episodes.
Contents |
[edit] Story Summary
[edit] The beginning
The series begins simply with the arrival of new student Hiroshi Tateno (立野 広 Tateno Hiroshi?), an enthusiastic but slightly stupid young boy, to his first day at Dōmori Elementary (童守小学校 Dōmori Shōgakkō?). As instructed, the principal of the elementary school takes Hiroshi to meet his new 5th grade class, but his class currently wasn't doing some ordinary lesson. All of them were watching and cheering on their teacher as he is performing an exorcism. Things do not go as planned; he burns a picture of Beethoven with a crystal ball. With that situation brought to an abrupt end, the class returns inside and their teacher introduces Hiroshi to his new home of Class 5-3. He then introduces himself as Meisuke Nueno (鵺野鳴介 Nueno Meisuke?) or just Nūbē (ぬ～べ～?) for short! (Nūbē is also the brand name of a candy in Japan...that's how he got his nickname). When the new student asks what the teacher was doing earlier, an enthusiastic redhead named Kyoko Inaba (稲葉郷子 Inaba Kyōko?) answers that their teacher is an exorcist from a famed spiritualist family, sent to protect children from the evil spirits and monsters that exist that could harm them. Hiroshi can't believe a word that Kyoko is saying, and so she adds one more thing: hidden within the black glove on Nube's left hand is an oni he sealed away, transforming it into a powerful "Oni no Te". This makes Hiroshi believe her even less and even Nūbē starts saying that he doesn't really care if anyone in his class believes that nonsense or not. No one outside Kyoko even believes that he has this.
Hoping to draw attention away from himself, Nūbē decides to let Hiroshi show off what he's good at...and in his case, it is soccer. Everyone is impressed by how Hiroshi can play and wish to see him join the school team as soon as possible. But something inside of him doesn't want him to join..so much so that it makes him nearly snap and smash open a nearby locker! Everyone, including Hiroshi, is shocked by this...but the recess bell prevents them from thinking about it too long. Everyone goes out to play, but trouble ends up finding them in the form of 6th Graders, all of whom tried to boss the younger 5th graders around. When they start messing with Kyoko, Hiroshi snaps, violently beating the bullies up mercilessly until Nūbē comes along to hold him down and force him to calm! All of the upperclassmen are forced into hospitalization, while Hiroshi tries to come to grips with the horrible thing he had just done to them. While at the hospital, Nūbē ends up treating a small baby having a violent crying fit by releasing a small yōkai in the shape of a small, wriggling thing similar to a worm. Nūbē identifies it as the "The 99-Legged Bug" (九十九の足の蟲 Tsukumo no Ashi no Mushi?), a yōkai that causes violent behavior in whomever it possesses. The rest of the class obsesses in trying to look at it themselves, while Hiroshi continues to worry, believing that if he joins the school soccer club, this will happen again. But Nūbē warns him that if Hiroshi runs away from his problems, nothing will be solved. He should at least try to join the soccer club and see how it goes. The boy takes it with him as he goes to bed...but then he has a strange dream that a huge, demonic youkai similar to the one emerging from the baby is completely taking him over! But was it a dream?
The next day, Nūbē coaxes the coaches of the soccer team to at least let Hiroshi try out for the soccer team in hopes nothing would happen again. They accept and the teacher and his class cheer him on from the sidelines. (while Kyoko shows off her new bracelet, which is the remains of the yōkai Nūbē pulled the previous day) Everything seems to go well at first: Hiroshi shows off his soccer abilities and the promise that he holds. But several of his teammates start pushing him too far again...making him completely go off the edge and beat up the entire team in rage! He runs off as he slowly realizes what he's done and continues acting violently towards school property...until Nūbē and Kyoko come in to stop him. Nūbē believes the "Tsukumo no Ashi no Mushi" is possessing Hiroshi as well ... but he doesn't believe anything Nūbē is saying about these spiritual phenomena. But then, with one quick release of his black glove, Nūbē slightly makes a believer out of Hiroshi...he doesn't know if his teacher really is telling the truth or not, but he's finally willing to go along with an exorcism.
That evening on school grounds, the teacher, the soccer-playing transfer student and the pigtailed redhead begin the ritual on school grounds, as Nūbē begins speaking a sutra to have the spirit possessing Hiroshi released. Suddenly, as if spontaneously, an immense worm-like being emerges from Hiroshi's hand..the largest "Tsukumo no Ashi no Mushi" he had ever seen! Nūbē tries to reason with the yōkai, but the creature doesn't believe, smashing into the teacher and showing off his power by destroying the building they were in! Neither Hiroshi or Kyoko had any idea what to do..but Nūbē knew it was finally time. With Hiroshi, Kyoko and even the spirit watching, Nūbē unleashed his "Oni no Te", revealing a powerful demon's claw just as Kyoko told everyone earlier! The yōkai mocked the teacher and his "weapon", but with relative ease the teacher smashed right through the creature, annihilating it! As he is doing so, Kyoko comments that Nūbē usually uses 30% of his power in a typical exorcism, but it increases to 120% whenever he is protecting children!
Victorious against the "Tsukumo no Ashi no Mushi", Nūbē decides to assist Hiroshi once again in getting on the soccer team, apologizing for the yōkai possessing him! Hiroshi is successful but has to put up with the latent anger of everyone he beat up when he was possessed.
[edit] General information
Just like the first chapter, many of the chapters of Nūbē follows in a similar pattern in regards to formula. The chapters start with what seems like a normal day at Doumori Elementary, but with some weird phenomenon that is happening somewhere. Usually it occurs towards one of the members of Nūbē's own class of 5-3, which means the teacher gets involved from the start. (even if it doesn't happen to one of his students, he usually gets involved one way or another) The situation builds up slowly until it becomes so chaotic that Nūbē usually ends up going into action. Usually he has to use the Demon Hand in order to assist in solving the problem, but there are many times where the solution is either through another spiritual weapon or something playing out how it's supposed to. By the end, things always seem to get back to normal, with Nūbē and his students having learned something.
While some would believe that this would lead to a formulaic series, there's more to this manga than meets the eye. For starters, this series is filled with all sorts of unique and interesting characters, each one with their own quirks and beliefs about the yōkai that inhabit this town. It is through the interactions both with the yōkai and between each other that much of the drama occurs in the series. Secondly, the series in itself is a guidebook to many of the weird and interesting spirits and phenomena both within Japanese culture and even some from around the world. Each of the yōkai Nūbē and his students and allies encounters brings a completely different set of circumstances and situations which our characters must find their way through while learning more about them. Several of these yōkai even become important allies with Nūbē, including a bishonen yōko who desires to take the teacher down while learning more about humanity, and a cute yukionna teen who is madly in love with him! And third, even though the characters go from situation to situation with the many one-shot stories that are told (though the final quarter does have longer story arcs against more powerful, demanding threats than your typical spirit encounter), they still grow and change personally and emotionally and physically through the course of the series. The students of 5-3, the yōkai and humans they encounter ... and even Nūbē himself ... may have some quirks that are the same from start to finish, but all of them are affected by the consistent learning experiences they have throughout the series.
[edit] Characters
The characters in Hell Teacher Nūbē can be divided into several distinct groups, each one separate from the others, yet consistently interacting with the others.
- The first group is the staff of Dōmori Elementary, made up of the teachers and other adults (mostly) who assist in the education and welfare of the students. These include Nūbē, his "perverted obsession" Ritsuko Takahashi, and other teachers of the school, as well as the principal.
- The second is the student body of Dōmori Elementary, each of whom brings a different personality and set of experiences brought both to their education and experiences with the supernatural. Most of these characters are the students of Nūbē's class 5-3, but also includes other students in other classes, both in the fifth and other grades. (such as Hiroshi's soccer teammates and Makoto's "girlfriend", Ai Shinozaki)
- The third are the various yōkai Nūbē and the citizens of Dōmori encounter. Many of these spirits appear once and never appear again after their chapter of focus. Others show up at least that one time, and then cameo here and there during certain chapters where various spirits reappear for the better or worse of Nūbē and the others. And still others, such as the yōko Tamamo and the yuki-onna Yukime, end up becoming intertwined in the events of Doumori, either assisting or tormenting Nūbē as they feel at that moment!
- The last group of characters are humans who don't quite fit in any of the other categories, yet consistently are connected to the affairs of Nūbē or his students. These include other exorcists like "itako-girl" Izuna Hazuki and crooked Buddhist priest Oshō, normal recurring characters and even the parents of the 5-3 students!
[edit] Influences and Homages
Although Shou and Okano created their universe of Nūbē as its own separate world, they were highly influenced by the works of several other authors, anime and mangaka in one way or another. For starters, Nūbē himself is a combination in design of Chirico Cuvie, main character of the anime Armored Trooper Votoms and Black Jack, from the classic medical manga by Osamu Tezuka. Similarly, several of the students gain their influence from series that have influenced the diversity of series nature: the school-comedy connection coming from the 1970s Jump series Dokonjyou Gaeru, the horror side from Go Nagai's classic Devilman. Ritsuko-sensei's design is similar to many of the heroines of classic 1970s giant robot anime. Finally, the yōkai themselves are derived in design from the works of painter Sekien Toriyama, known for his art of the supernatural.
Although there is many connections to the past in Nūbē, the series does acknowledge that it is one of many manga that exist within the Weekly Shonen Jump anthology. Since the series exists in then-modern 1990s Japan, it is merely one part of the world in which they live in. There are consistently jokes breaking the fourth wall regarding Jump, whether it is Nūbē or one of his students reading the book or commenting about how the staff of the book may act regarding certain plot points. Similarly, several other Jump series occasionally receive mention either in tribute or for laughs. One of the consistent mentions regards Osamu Akimoto's long running police-comedy manga Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Kōen-mae Hashutsujo: both series have a similar story style where most stories are just one chapter episodes, yet the characters still grow and change through their run like the serial manga. (though some of the comments were in regards to Kochi Kame's extremely long run) Another consistent Jump target regarded Akira Toriyama's action classic Dragon Ball. In this case, the tributes are varied, between the "artistic" appearance of characters like Son Goku or parodies of various attacks such as Nūbē going Super Saiyan or performing the fusion dance. Many other Jump manga from this era have also appeared in cameo within Nūbē as varied as Midori no Makibaou, Sexy Commando Gaiden: Sugoiyo! Masaru-san, Yu-Gi-Oh and Rurouni Kenshin!
Since the manga was a period of its time in the mid/late 1990s, the series did touch and joke about many of the things within Japanese culture during this period of time. The series made passing references to politicians (such as prime minister Morihito Hosokawa) and sports players, as well as having visual cameos of celebrities such as Takuya Kimura of SMAP and actress Ryoko Hirosue. However, amidst the spiritual encounters, the manga also touched on various crazes and factors within the society of the era. One chapter involved a pagers as part of a climax, while another involved the consequences of Hiroshi receiving his first personal computer in a period where computers and the internet were becoming more prominent. Other chapters acknowledged video games such as Pokemon and the "fighting monster" craze (followed up by a literal Pokemon parody in a volume page), the Tamagotchi games, and the GAINAX series of Princess Maker games. (although a more well known GAINAX creation, Neon Genesis Evangelion, got in a tiny reference in one of the other manga volumes, as does Cowboy Bebop)
[edit] Episodes
[edit] Manga
[edit] Theme songs
- Opening
- Baribari Saikyou No. 1 (The No. 1 Greatest Hard-Worker) by Feel So Bad (TV Series)
- News na Gakkou (School News) by Sigetaka Takayama & Himawari Kids (OAVs)
- Endings
- Mienai Chikara ~Invisible One~ (Unseen Power ~Invisible One~) by B'z (TV Series - 1st Half)
- Spirit by PAMELAH (TV Series - 2nd Half)
- Hurt by CASH (OAVs)
