Nue's Exorcist (Nue no Onmyouji) is a shonen series written and illustrated by Kouta Kawae and began serialization in Shonen Jump in May 2023.
Gakuro Yajima is a high schooler who has the special ability to see ghosts. One day, he walks around in school and finds a special door that no one else can see. When he opens it, he meets Nue, a spirit who was sealed in that room long ago. From there on out, Gakuro finds himself involved in more and more incidents as spirits interfere with his school life.
Nue's Exorcist contains examples of:
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: One of the main requirements to become the captain of an Elimination Squad is to be strong enough to reach the "Special Rank", to put in perspective Shiroha is a first rank exorcist and she would need ten times her strength to advance to the highest rank.
- Beach Episode: Chapters 10 and 11 have Gakuro spend time in the beach with Kazusa and Shiroha as part of his training.
- Child Soldier: The exorcists have no issue recruiting children recently traumatized by their families' deaths as seen by Gakuro's flashback.
- Evolutionary Levels: Spirits have five known levels of evolution, though the last two seem to be very rare occurrences:
- Level 1 spirits are the weakest, normally a level 1 can't evolve unless it's a mutant variant and you still need sixteen of those to merge into a level 2.
- Level 2 are stronger and can be seen by normal people, even then there are mutant level 2s which are invisible to normal humans and weaker exorcists, those don't attack humans and instead eat other level 2s until a certain point, then they start attacking humans until they evolve.
- Level 3 are have a more human-like face and are much stronger and more intelligent, to the point you need either a squad of at least seven specially trained Rank 1 exorcists or a Special Rank exorcist.
- Level 4's requirements are unknown but the ones seen display a completely human appearance and intellect.
- Level 5, also called the Hyo, are legendary spirits with frightening power and basically gods, despite being sealed their existence corrupts the sealing location to the point a level 3 can be born daily if left unchecked.
- Evolving Weapon: Hollow Weapons are this, they grow stronger as the wielder defeats spirit but to really change the user needs to feel a particularly strong emotion to which their weapon will react and evolve. Gakuro first displayed this upon wishing to save Shiroha.
- Another requirement is learning the weapon's true name that it's born with, exorcists need to hone their skills until they discover it if they want to grow stronger.
- Extreme Doormat: Gakuro's introduction makes it clear that he's kind and meek to a fault when he offers to get a school bully his lunch instead of Zenno.
- Facial Markings: It seems to be a common thing among people involved with spirits like Gakuro or exorcists like captains Sumeragi and Igari.
- Four Is Death: The fourth branch of the Elimination Squad used to have the biggest mortality rate of all the branches, this changed when Takuro Yajima became the captain and created cooperative relationships with other squads which allowed the management of their territory without sacrifices.
- Gamer Chick: Despite being trapped in a room for decades, Nue still has access to modern pop culture and video games and proves herself to be a lover of such. It's implied that she has access to those things thanks to Kathy, her spirit friend.
- Genre Throwback: The series is very similar to the light novels of the early 2000s and 2010s. More than a few authors of popular light novel series have become fans because of that.
- Hammerspace: In Chapter 30, Kathy lends Gakuro's squad a dimensional cord, which can be used to store its luggage.
- Hunter of His Own Kind: As Nue and Kyokotsu show there are spirits that have no issue allying with exorcists to deal with other spirits.
- I Know Your True Name: To convince the captains to work with her, Nue tells them her true name since it can be used to keep a leash on her. It's not shown to the reader what it is, and this is accompanied by a shot of Nue's true form.
- Instant Costume Change: Activating the Soul Gear inmediatly changes the exorcists' outfit into a different one, except for Gakuro who due his lack of training the gear only partially covers his normal clothes until he finally reaches the first stage.
- Not Blood Related: Shitotsu and Gakuro are not blood-related. Averted as there's no sign of romantic attraction, but Kazusa still internally panics upon learning about this.
- Nue also introduces herself to other students as Gakuro's non-blood older sister as a cover.
- Not What It Looks Like: Gakuro once tried to save a girl who he thought was drowning, so he grabbed her on the chest, only for her to tell him that she was only practicing. Nevertheless, that got another swimmer to call Gakuro a "dirty boy", which traumatizes him to this day.
- Only Sane Man: In many of the comedic chapters, Gakuro frequently finds himself the victim of Nue's antics, and the other characters such as his classmates are caught up in it.
- Panty Shot: In Chapter 3, a gust of wind blows Kazusa's skirt upwards, which lets Gakuro unwittingly see her panties. Kazusa responds by sheepishly "hitting" him with the "Forgetting Beam", which causes a beam to shoot through him (but not really).
- Running Gag: Every time a girl transfers to Gakuro's class there's a panel where all the male students mentally comment the same thing about the girl.After Shiroha introduces herself: She has such a sad look in her eyes. But I understand her, even if no else does.After Shitotsu's introduction: Other guys might not be into her, but she's totally my type...
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The five Hyo are this, ancient level 5 spirits who in the past caused the destruction of 2/3 of Japan and that in the present they are close to being released, the exorcists are prepared to reseal them at the cost of a lot of lives.
- Sealed Good in a Can: Nue. It's unknown why she's sealed in her room in the first place, but she's kind-hearted and protects the school from spirits.
- Shipper on Deck: After Shiroha kisses Gakuro on the cheek in a cafe, a waitress turns to the manager for a response, and he approvingly says "marvelous".
- Shout-Out: In Chapter 8, Nue destroys Shiroha's crows by summoning Hollow Weapon No. 3: Zenoblade.
- Super-Empowering: Spirits like Nue can grant certain people powers by forming a contract with them.
- Youkai: Besides Nue, a few other spirits based on youkai appear such as Kyokotsu and Karasu Tengu.
