Short Synopsis: This episode shows how Ayakashi also can friendly ask their names back from Natsume’s Book of Friends.
Highlights: Storytelling at its finest.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
As for the shows I’m not going to blog:
– Hidamari Sketch is nice, but I’m getting a bit bored of Shinbou’s style ever since Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei.
– Strike Witches has an interesting view at modern Japanese folklore with its kemonomimi-ish mecha musume, but I wonder whether it can live up to its sister-series, Sky Girls.
– Ryouko’s case files has “I have no life so I’ll just tell my evil plans to any random Joe who happens to be passing by”-villains. It lacks subtlety, that snake came from nowhere, and it’s the big disappointment this season for me.
Natsume Yuujin-chou, however, is well on its way to becoming one of my favourite series this season, along with Blade of the Immortal. I really liked this episode. Like expected, the creators have a great way of characterization, and the entire episode is a bit unconventional, but it works perfectly. This episode’s message was also a pretty interesting one.
This series follows in the same veins as Mokke, where Youkai and gods have entire personalities, and only a select amount of people can see it. It’s a bit more mature, but that’s to be expected with the lack of ten-year old children. This episode sees how a small local god wants to get its name back, though when Reiko collected his name, she stuck it along with the name of another Ayakashi, who needs to be found first if he wants to get his name back.
Along with that, this episode addresses how people nowadays visit their local gods less and less. Our god in this episode only has one person who regularly visits him, and this is an old woman. At the end of the episode, she ends up at a hospital, making her unable to visit the shrine of said god anymore. Because of that, this god disappears in the end, despite having finally gotten his name back.
It’s interesting how important names are for these Youkai, and this isn’t the first series to address this fact. Tenpou Ibun Ayakashi Ayashi and Mononoke also played around with words like this, though Natsume Yuujin-chou is the most personal of the bunch.
Hmm, perhaps I should give Strike “Pantsu” a chance then. I stopped watching when I saw the first panty shot in Episode 1. I have been wrong about these things before, Simoun is the most notable example when I initially dropped it due to the kissing stuff in the first episode.
It looks that they toned down the drama of this story, because in the manga the dissapearance of the god was due to the death of Hana, the only person who believed in him.
I can hardly wait to see this episode, because I remember deciding to follow the anime after reading this story. Thank you for the summary and the impression:).
“This series follows in the same veins as Mokke, where Youkai and gods have entire personalities, and only a select amount of people can see it.” Urgh… to much cliche!!!
Timi: you may have been right about that one. My japanese is far from perfect, so I assumed that the old woman just got sick, but her death also seems entirely plausible.
Helen: really? I don’t really find it that clichéd, and it provides a solid setting for this series to work with.
No, they didn’t tone down the drama, Tsuyukami disappeared because Hana-san died, and this way he felt he can be together with her. Natsume even offered to come and pray in place of her when he can, but Tsuyukami said no because Natsume is his friend. I thought it was very touching.
I hope the show will focus more on his granny instead of showing everyone on this planet is loney.
Gah, totally reminded me of the Sandman and American Gods. *sniffles* Just like timi, I decided to watch the anime after this chapter too and I’m glad to know that you’ll be blogging it. (as a side question because I’m waiting for subs, did the episode have the flashbacks of when the old lady was younger and she saw him out of the corners of her eyes when she was praying?)
The flashback was there, but she didn’t see him in the corner of her eyes, but rather a faint silhouette.
I loved the first episode, so this summary is really making me look forward to the subs 🙂
I should probably watch Mokke as well… I downloaded some 4 episodes but never got around to watch them so I just ended up deleting them. Probably a big waste.