Okay, that's not fair of me. The artwork is a lot more crisp than it was in Ghost stories. But aside from that, the only major difference between the two shows is the fact that Nura doesn't have an entertaining joke dub.

To be more specific about my thoughts on this show, let's take a look at Yugioh. Like Nura, it's a show about a young, short-for-his-age hero who was born into a position of great destiny. Like Rikuo, that boy has access, in desperate times, to an older, more mature version of himself who's a lot more capable and reliable. Unlike Rikuo, Yugi is a strong enough character to stand on his own and be the heart of the story without having to transform.

Five episodes in, I haven't felt the least bit of emotional investment in Rikuo as a main character. And yet, right from episode 1, they've been throwing new characters around like feces in a monkey's cage, and while none of them are particularly strong, about half of them would be good main character replacements. We could have a serious supernatural drama starring Yura, or a heartfelt slapstick comedy starring Tsurara, but no, we're stuck in a generic, tedious shonen story with the poor man's Negi Springfield.

The worst offense of this series is the fact that even with all these inventive and well-designed monsters running around, it's somehow boring. I don't care about what happens to any of these characters. If Kana were to have her head bitten off in episode six, the only real difference it would make is that her face and voice would finally stop reminding me of Vampire Knight.

And the writing... As I mentioned in the main topic, I highly doubt the scripts for these episodes were edited at all past the second draft. They never give any reason why Nura can't refuse to let his friends visit, they never explain why Tweedle-blonde and Tweedle-brunette hang around with spazz and his lackey on their ghost hunts, and dear god, before Yura even had a single line of dialogue, the narrator started treating her introduction like a major cliff hanger.

"Who is this mysterious transfer student?"

"I don't know... Maybe you could start by telling me why I'm supposed to find her mysterious in the first place?"

All in all, unless somebody can assure me that the tone and dynamic shift dramatically in the coming episodes, I'm seeing little to no reason to continue with this month's show.