Meisuke Nueno (known as "Nube" by everyone who knows him) was always able to see spirits as a child, thanks to his Psychic Powers; this made him a constant target for all kinds of nasty creatures. Not to mention, his mentor and mother figure Minako-sensei perished because of this...Fortunately, Nube is able to deal with these spirits by way of his magical left hand; unfortunately, this results in him attracting even more supernatural events to center on him... and to his workplace, which happens to be an elementary school. Luckily for him, his students are often more than happy to give him a hand when resolving his cases.This series provides examples of:
An Aesop - The vast majority of events involving Nube's kids results in them learning a valuable moral.
An Ice Person - Yukime, naturally (as well as her "sister.") But not only can she create ice, hail, and snow in any amount she needs, she's actually made of it, and warm climates can make her drip or melt... starting with her face and chest. She just surrounds herself with a snowman until she has cooled down again.
Artificial Human - Twice, by the protagonists. Three times if you count the Visible Human anatomy doll that came to life.
Art Shift - Contrast the clean and cute character designs with the nightmarish, gruesome monsters or the fountains of gore and guts caused by (or trailing from) the latter. Expect more than one evisceration.
Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever - The Orochi, for starters. Also, Miki somehow got in the good graces of a very literal Gentle Giant who could rearrange the entire geography of Doumori by pushing buildings and mountains to her liking.
Big Brother Instinct - Katsuya is very protective of his little sister Manami. And Bakki would rather fight alongside Nube rather than hurting his sister Minki.
Big Ol' Eyebrows - Nube. Lampshaded in the first OP where he gets a close up to his face and is shown wriggling them.
Butt Monkey - Male Meganekko Akira Yamaguchi starts as one, never able to get what he wants. Actually, it's because of a youkai haunting him ever since he narrowly avoided being drowned in the sea. Nube has to fight the youkai to free Akira from the curse
(Ending spoilers)Bittersweet Ending - Minako-sensei's soul is finally released and Nube sends her to Heaven; Nube and Yukime finally get married after several hardships, but then they leave Doumori to live in another city despite pleas from his students.
Catch Phrase - Nube's "LEAVE [NAME] ALONE!" that cues the unleashing of his Oni hand and a can of serious whoopass.
Censor Box - During Minki's intro story, in which she shows up lacking panties, the Shonen Jump Pirate logo is used to cover up her crotch (to its great embarrassment.) Worse, the poor Pirate was also made to cover up Baki's Gag Penis when the oni took on human form (and forgot to materialize some pants.)
Chivalrous Pervert - Nube is head-over-heels in love with Ritsuko, but his rejection of Yukime comes on the grounds of him thinking she's too young for him (She's 16, he's 25).
Completely Missing the Point: In one episode, Tamamo wishes to become as powerful as Nube. Nube explains that he's so strong because he's protecting his students. When a malicious spirit targets one of the students, Tamamo goes Well-Intentioned Extremist and throws the poor kid to the demon because it would mean the other students' safety, thus qualifying as protecting the kids. Needless to say, Nube is pissed!
Continuity Nod - Minor obake, especially those that are only sealed away, tend to make reappearances complete with flashbacks to their original appearances. At one point, a Knight Templar exorcist bent on exterminating every supernatural critter (good or bad) causes a large number of them to rush to Doumori Elementary as a safe haven, with cameos galore.
Cool Car - Just where did Tamamo get his? Also, Nube once bought one as an incredible deal, unaware that it was cursed by the couple who killed themselves driving it.
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass - In his regular life, Nube is silly, bumbling, and a pervert. He usually introduces himself to his new class by performing some ridiculous stunt (such as playing Tarzan) that backfires and humiliates him. But he will drop this attitude in an instant and turn deadly-serious when the situation calls for it. Even when drunk.
Dark Is Not Evil - Goes together with Light is Not Good in that plenty of Obake are actually friendly and helpful, whereas several gods are spiteful, mean, and would destroy humans trespassing their domain if given half a chance.
Dead Little Sister - Nube's mother, whose death made his father abandon him. Also, Yan Kairen, the wandering Chinese exorcist, whose sister's death inspired him to declare war on every supernatural apparition.
Ritsuko-sensei, who would always keep Nube at arms' length due to his connection to the supernatural, eventually does come around and accept him for what he is. Unfortunately he's so used to being spurned, he thinks she's under Demonic Possession and slaps the tar out of her with his exorcism sutra.
Demoted to Extra - It looked like Akira would be one of the main charas from Nuube's class, but never got lots of development. Subverted a bit later in the manga, when he shows off his scientific skills.
Determinator - Nube, by dint of being a Shounen hero. But then, he takes it a notch above reasonable levels; even if all he has left is a broken toe and the rest of him is a bloody paste, he'll stand on that broken toe and protect the innocent (even former foes.)
Disability Superpower - Ayumi Kinoshita, a perpetually bedridden Ill Girl who was taught by Nube to project her astral body to attend school like any other kid.
Distressed Dude - Hiroshi gets kidnapped by Tamamo in episode 7 and spends a good portion of episode 8 with his hands chained together.
Everyone Calls Him Barkeep - Only Minako-sensei and his dad refer to Nube by his given name, Meisuke. Everyone else calls him either "Nube" (the kids from 5-A class) or "Nueno-sensei" (Yukime, Tamamo, the teachers)
Feuding Families - The Mountain God will stop at nothing to prevent his daughter Yukime loving Nube, sending out enforcers to kill the latter when attempts to persuade the former fail. Also, Nube's father abhors Obake and nearly kills Yukime on sight.
Fighting From The Inside - Subverted: Minako-sensei had potential to do so, but prefers to not do it so she can keep Bakki at bay in Nube's hand until they can find a way to keep him definitely sealed.
First Name Basis - It's a BIG deal for Katsuya Kimura when people start referring to him by his first name and not his surname.
Furo Scene - Actually, a whole Furo Episode when they attended a bathhouse, due to the bathrooms all over town being haunted. The bathhouse was haunted too.
Gender Bender - The offspring of a loving succubus/normal man couple results in a genderless child, whom Hiroshi and Kyoko take turns convincing to settle for a gender... switching back and forth between a rough-and-tumble Bishōnen and a Yamato Nadeshiko woman.
Good Thing You Can Heal - Hayame the mermaid can regenerate from virtually anything, including being reduced to a dessicated corpse for hundreds of years or slicing out her own liver. A Buddhist nun who once ate her flesh is subject to some of the most gruesome punishment in the series (but so over-the-top it loops back to hilarious) merely because she can heal just about anything.
Gossipy Hens - Only one: Miki. Slightly subverted because she actually shows genuine distress at the possibility of being seen as a harmful one, and later a Monster of the Week uses this against her.
Hard Work Hardly Works - Subverted. Nube went through long years of arduous training to get to his level of skill. Whenever Izuna tries to find the easy way, she tends to get into trouble and Nube scolds her for it.
Haunted Technology - And if it isn't, Nube can stick his hand in it and use it in ways it wasn't meant for.
Hot for Student - Played with, since despite Kyouko's open interest in Hiroshi, her first crush was actually Nube. And in their past lives, they were lovers (as a princess and her retainer who held a Bodyguard Crush on her).
Additionally, when Tamamo joined the school as the nurse, all the girls gained crushes on him. He didn't do a lot to encourage them (aside of some random flirting to piss Nube off), since he had quite a goal in mind...
Ho Yay - Nube and Tamamo, though mostly on Tamamo's side.
Huge Schoolgirl: Subverted with Miki, who loves her large chest and also adores to tease the flat-chested Kyouko about that. Noriko plays it more straight since she's very modest and shy about hers, until she's possessed by a mischievous spirit...
An Ice Person - Yukime (and the entire race of snow maidens).
Idiot Hero - Hiroshi, Hiroshi, Hiroshi. Nube isn't much smarter outside his field of expertise, either.
Innocent Fanservice Girl - Hayame the mermaid, whose Godiva Hair usually takes care of things while in her natural form. Her method of turning into a human (transforming her tail into legs that she spreads wide open, in public) can cause heart-attacks, though.
Lethal Chef - Yukime (she's an Ice Maiden so, even when she *does* try, it takes her a LOT to not get it frozen), Kyouko (just a fifth grader, so she still has time to improve) and Minki (whose food isn't bad... per demon's standards)
Living Statue - The Sontoku Ninomiya statue on Doumori Elementary's front yard. Mistaken for evil at first, when it was really trying to protect Makoto from real demons.
Love Redeems - Yukime starts as a Fille Fatale, but when she sees Nube's love for his students she decides to gain his appreciation through more honest means.
Love Triangle - Later on, with Ritsuko and Yukime vying for Nube's affections, making it a Type 3.
Sometimes Miki would reveal some very minor crush on Hiroshi, which would make her the A in a Type 4 with him and Kyoko as B and C respectively. Whether she means it or not is never really explored, but she does look disappointed at the end of those stories.
Mama Bear - Ritsuko's Crowning Moment of Awesome was trying to protect a child from an evil ghost despite knowing she had virtually no chance to win, eventually buying Nube enough time for a Big Damn Heroes..
Marshmallow Hell Ai, on Makoto. After she's liberated from the Eye demon. And she was naked. Also, Miki got a little too enthusiastic trying to help Makoto get over his nightmare issue by giving him what she thought would be a pleasant dream...
Meganekko - Ai Shinozaki and the Grim Reaper. Akira is a male version.
Mental Time Travel - Allowing Nube and Kyoko to revisit their own past lives.
The Messiah - Nube does his best to help and save youkai, gods and humans.
Missing Mom - Hiroshi's mother died when he was a toddler. The episode when he finds out she's been reincarnated as a kindergarten girl is one of the biggest Tear Jerkers of the series, if not THE one.
Mon - Affectionate parody with some minor obake sealed in capsules.
Nakama - Class 5-3 become this eventually, to the point of the entire class getting themselves attached to a parasitic tree spirit to rescue the one student trapped inside its trunk.
Obake and Youkai - Japanese spirits form the core of Nube's opponents, though every once in a while he also deals with foreign creatures.
Obvious Pregnancy: in chapter #220 of the manga, "Izuna becomes a Mother!?", whoever gets possessed by the Boze (the unborn spirit of a human child) immediately looks heavily pregnant. Possibly justified by the fact the mother was due to deliver any day now, and in fact goes into labor by the story's end, before Izuna carelessly expelled the spirit from her womb.
Older than They Look: Makoto looks almost like a third-grader, despite being a fifth-year student.
And Cute Witch Mami-sensei is actually 22, when Nube thought she was six.
Onmyodo - Mixed liberally with Shinto and Buddhist rites. Yang Kairen uses Ofuda as his main exorcism tool, and one of Nube's most versatile artifacts is the Sutra of the White Goddess, which unfolds (accordion-like) to bind apparitions.
Papa Wolf - You do NOT mess with Class 5-3 or whomever else Nube happens to be protecting.
Paper Master - Yang Kairen uses ofuda for a variety of effects, from summoning fire, heat beams or even meteors, to merely slapping a paper ward on a foe and then ripping the paper in half (causing the same effect on said foe.) Nube's Sutra can unfold into a whip-like shape that can ward off spiritual attacks.
Parental Abandonment - Nube's father, again. Hiroshi's father, who works as a trucker, is on the road so often he might as well count, but father and son still love each other very much.
Perpetual Poverty - Nube, to the point of the actual God of Poverty haunting him for a few weeks. It is shown explicitly that he could make a fortune by abusing his clairvoyance and other psychic powers (much like Izuna and his father), but chooses not to out of dignity, outside of cheating at the nearby Pachinko machines. And what kind of an example would he set for his students if he didn't earn his living honestly, anyway?
Pet the Dog - Shuuichi Shirato is a male Rich Bitch, but he genuinely loves animals and specially dogs. To the extreme of being willing to give up on his own life to calm down a dog spirit which rage he incurred upon, so it wouldn't kill his friends.)
Pilot - The first episode of the anime series was adapted from the manga pilot, which was called "Hell Teacher Nubo" and had a drastically different character design for the titular character.
Power Limiter - Nube covers the Oni hand with his black glove.
The Power of Rock - Hayame's singing compels anyone who hears it to respond to the emotion in her words, such as becoming aggressive with hot-blooded lyrics or lovey-dovey with romantic ballads. Then she makes it big as an Idol Singer...
Redemption Equals Death - A good number of hauntings, of course. More explicitly, Jikuu makes peace with his estranged son before tossing himself at the Mountain God, sealing it forever at the cost of his own life.
Red Eyes, Take Warning - Nube has red irises. They're a sign of his spiritual power than any evil intent, though (but dotakewarning).
Rescue Romance - Kyouko's former crush on Nube started when he saved her from a demon. Yukime also falls for him this way, when Nube saves her from being shot to death as a little girl.
Also Kyoko and Hiroshi; more poignant because, whenever he saves her life, she remembers, even several volumes later (although the reverse isn't necessarily true.)
Rich Bitch - Shuuichi Shirato is a male example, to a degree.
Scare Dare: School after dark, haunted house, derelict playground, ancient graveyard, you name it. The scary urban "legend"always turns out to be true, if not worse than the legend. Dammit, Miki!
Schmuck Bait - A good deal of Nube's time is spent saving his students from horrors they brought upon themselves by playing with urban legends, toying with Artifacts of Doom, irritating a local Obake, or just fooling around with powers they don't fully understand.
Sealed Evil in a Can - The Oni sealed into Nube's left hand that he gradually gains more control over as the series progresses. A whole episode deals with this since Tamamo, Kyouko and Hiroshi have to Time Travel to save Nube's life when the Oni almost takes over him.
Sealed Good in a Can - Minako-sensei, after a fashion —if circumstances allow her to manifest, she proves herself an overwhelmingly powerful spiritualist. Izuna and Nube's Tube Foxes, which willingly live inside tiny cylinders (such as pens) also count.
Shout Out - To many other Shonen Jump titles, including Dragon Ball. Nube and Tamamo mimic the Fusion Dance in order to split themselves into tiny doppelgangers; what makes this homage even more hilarious is the heartfelt apology to Akira Toriyama in the footnotes every time that's necessary.
Split Personality Takeover - Happens to Ritsuko when the spirit of Minako-sensei accidentally ends up in her body, fusing both personalities into "MissRinako."
Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl - Nearly all female ghosts, but especially the Wet Woman, which is practically an Expy of Sadako but with a black kimono.
Stripperiffic - Minki redefines the trope. Her first appearance in the manga was missing her thong panties, meaning she was missing about 70% of her total wardrobe. Nube gives her actual clothing later on.
Tsundere - Kyoko, a Type B (sweet and caring default with a hair-trigger temper). Ritsuko also is one, showing more or less a pleasant disposition until Nube brings up ghosts to the conversation.
Yukime is also just as likely to kiss and hug Nube as she is to encase him in ice and toss him out a third-story window when he pushes her buttons.
Two-Teacher School - Averted, since Nube and Ritsuko (and Minako-sensei, when alive) are NOT the only teachers we see. The Director is more or less often around (and in fact he hired Nuubee fully knowing about his powers), the PE teacher has helped the cast once or twice, and Tamamo often poses as the school nurse. Ootsuki-sensei also fancies himself a ''scientific'' exorcist, out to prove paranormal events as some manifestation of "plasma." And then there's Mami-sensei, the ten year-old looking teacher/part-time witch out to win the heart (or at least some other part) of Nube.
Urban Legends - ...and abuse thereof are part and parcel of Miki's life.
Who You Gonna Call? - Although his primary responsibility is to his school, Nube also works as the local exorcist and people often drop by to request his services. "Itako-girl" Izuna is a much more mercenary version, but she still lacks the skills and often gets in over her head. Nube's father is an extraordinarily powerful exorcist with worldwide following.
Yamato Nadeshiko -Kyouko temporarily turns into one when Nube swaps her guardian spirit, but this doesn't stick as said guardian spirit also turns her into a Distressed Damsel.
Yes Virginia - If your airplane pilot says he sees Santa, pray (for Santa's sake) he doesn't crash into the jolly old fellow.
Younger than They Look: Ai Shinozaki is 12 years old and already has Gag Boobs. Ditto Miki, though at least her height's normal. Even Katsuya, who is supposed to be a delinquent and likely has repeated more than one grade, looks like he's in his late teens.
Meisuke Nueno (known as "Nube" by everyone who knows him) was always able to see spirits as a child, thanks to his Psychic Powers; this made him a constant target for all kinds of nasty creatures. Not to mention, his mentor and mother figure Minako-sensei perished because of this...Fortunately, Nube is able to deal with these spirits by way of his magical left hand; unfortunately, this results in him attracting even more supernatural events to center on him... and to his workplace, which happens to be an elementary school. Luckily for him, his students are often more than happy to give him a hand when resolving his cases.
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