A really charming episode. At this point, Rikuo’s classmates have really completely stopped being annoying, and they’re as interesting to watch as the rest oft he cast right now. Natsumi getting attacked was a very neat way to show her own experiences to kami and youkai. The drama around her could have been cheesy if she was the same nondescript character of the first few episodes, but here, it really worked.
On top of that, this episode also made use of the “forgotten gods”, like series as Natsume Yuujinchou did as well. It’s a great little theme, that works especially well in this context, because it’s a lot of those nearly forgotten gods, that maybe have one or two people praying to them, who lend the Nura-clan their power.
I wonder why that Sodemogi (on a side-note: I hate having to rely on MyAnimeList to check on the names of these characters: they’re riddled with spoilers. The page of this guy for example just tells how he dies without any sort of marking, making me glad that I didn’t see it last week…) went without an escort this time, though. Would that make him harder to spot or something?
Rating: ** (Excellent)
I think Tamazuki just thought that enough shrines were destroyed and didn’t want to lose more Phantoms Travelers to guard Sodemogi. Since he wouldn’t mind more shrines to be destroyed and Sodemogi is too weak for actual combat he let him do what he wants.
Well, thats my take on situation at least.
This series is becoming solid enough that I finally look forward to the next episode
I decided to pick this up after this episode, the anime original material has turned to be way better than what I though at the beginning. Well, too bad they cut the part about Kurotabou knowing Natsumi from another situation… I’ll only say that it would have developed his character a bit more.