Natsume Yuujin-Chou – 09



Short Synopsis: Natsume meets a famous TV-star, who grew up in the same town as he did.
Highlights: Natsume learns that not everyone deals with the problem of seeing spirits in the same way.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
A quiet little episode, which mostly focuses at Natsume as he finally meets someone who can see spirits as well. The TV-star (Natori) turns out that forgetting about youkai when you grow up isn’t the only option. He’s become a lot more confident when compared to Natsume, and I guess that Natsume wasn’t the first person he met who could also see youkai.

If I understood correctly, he came back to finish a job to get rid of a youkai he met twelve years ago. There’s an interesting bond between the two. At first sight, it seems that he’s forgotten that meeting, but it turns out that he does remember her, but his attempts to get rid of her rather failed, and he was forced to forcefully exorcise her. He did care about youkai somewhat, he just didn’t show it at first. And as a result, when the youkai is freed, she keeps following Natori.

I’ve been noticing about this series: a lot of the youkai and ayakashi that appear in it and look like humans have masks. Episodes often end with this mask partially or fully shattered. In this episode too: we don’t even get to see the youkai’s face in this episode. An interesting use of symbolism, if you ask me.

3 thoughts on “Natsume Yuujin-Chou – 09

  1. The episode itself was very good, but I think it was back to back with another episode where “Spirit falls for human” (the firefly ayakashi one). Individually they are great, but it just left a rather uneasy feeling seeing them right after the other.

    I love your new post format for your reviews, by the way. ^_^

  2. He’s not coming back to finish an old job. It’s just a job that happens to be about a youkai he met when he was young, the family that owns that house contracted him.

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