Short Synopsis: Natsume meets a strange boy locked inside a trunk inside a strange house.
Episode Rating: 7,5/10 (Good)
I really have no idea what the creators are thinking, trying to stuff the contents of two chapters into one single episode. In fact, if the final episode of the first season would have simply been a story that we saw in the second season, then we wouldn’t have had this problem in the first place, since then the creators would have had enough time for that final arc of this series.
But yeah, I still liked this episode. It especially showed the subtle character-development. For the first time, Natsume is embarrassed in front of his friends by a stupid joke, and for the first time he gets ticked off when they’re laughing. Especially Kaname’s role in this series is quite unique and in a way pretty realistic: the two of them are good friends, but because they’re both loners and prefer being alone, you only see them together every once in a while. That doesn’t mean, however, that I’d really like to see an episode focused on getting to know his character a bit more. ^^;
In any case, about the episode, that kid intrigues me: here we have a youkai, who was sealed inside a wooden trunk for who knows how long, and yet people can see him, he doesn’t seem to notice that he’s a youkai himself, and he even seems to have friends at school who never suspected anything. The key seems to be in a promise he made with a weird axe-wielding youkai, that that kid failed to keep. My guess would be that he wanted to get a human body, but at the cost of a very high price. But then again, I doubt that such a relatively weak-looking youkai would be able to do such a thing.
i really like your blog. i visit it every day and i think you like all the anime lol
I had my Taki X Natsume fill, I really do love that pairing I don’t know why they have to try and insist on Sasada when Taki seems like a much better fit to Natsume.
I’m glad they didn’t cut the first chapter of the 3 part arc, mainly due to the humor which I would’ve missed. Poor Nyanko why is he called the ugliest cat only Taki can recognize his value.
As I’ve mentioned in your shoutbox I do wonder what they plan to do with the finale since that will be two episodes worth into one, and from re-reading the 2 chapters I’ll have to wonder what they intend to cut down on (especially since from the preview I saw more of chapter 2 than chapter 3 of the arc). In any case I do look forward to seeing what they plan to do. On a side note at least the series does manage to show that it can try to create a story arc so I will look forward to the proceeding volumes, and if there is a season 3 to animate them. Seeing as they can pull it off from veering away from the episodic structure, but they do still have kinks to work out but I think its still pretty satisfying.
I just do hope for one thing to happen soon. That Natsume will actually summon Misuzu, Hinoe, or some other youkai from the book of friends. Seriously he hasn’t summoned them even once, which I think he seems to miss the point that some of the youkai actually want to be summoned and miss Reiko’s friendship.
This was a nice episode, though it was sort of obvious from the start that the kid is not human. Also, it was weird how they brought in Tanuma only to throw him out without having him do anything. I wish they’d finally do something with him…
Ah well. I wonder if we’ll have a third season.
Well the original content of the chapter is just Taki and Natori appearing as the recurring cast. So its not odd that they had nothing but throwaway lines and scenes to give Tanuma, same with the two “best friends” and Sasada all of which were just little extra material. But I do think the upcoming volume intends to actually give Tanuma a role, well I see Taki in the preview as well so my guess is volume 8 will be Taki and Tanuma getting the spotlight~. Tanuma really hasn’t well done much… He’s like the guardians of Natsume, I guess those who don’t get involved in youkai deeply generally get relegated to that role.
I haven’t read the manga, so I have no idea what the first paragraph mean :'(
pgal: ah, sorry. I was responding to a comment that Machimade on the shoutbox, about how the creators are currently trying to stuff a three-chapter story into just two episodes.
@pgal: It just means that the final episode will be either a) a complete cut down of the two remaining chapters of the arc or b) by some miracle they decide to have 14 episodes instead so they can have the entire three chapter arc 😀 Or now that I think about it chances are it may be c) they’ll just put their own original take to it so that they won’t have to worry about stuffing two chapters together (though from the preview it does seem like they animated the 2nd chapter). Well we’ll see soon enough then I guess 😮 (wow another anime off my viewing list)
Thanks psgels and Machi for the explanation =)