Category: Natsume Yuujin-Chou

Short Synopsis: Natsume teams up with a bunny-youkai in order to get rid of an evil spirit.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10 (Good)
It’s really good to see this series back again, and I’m interested whether the second season will be able to top the first season. Unlike shows as Shikabane Hime and Birdy the Mighty, there’s no real clear distinction between the first and second season of this series, but this really is the point where the show is going to have to evolve.

I think that the episodic storylines have already hit their height with the Hotaru-episode, but there’s still plenty of potential left for when a big storyline appears, so I’m keeping my eye out for Natori. Until that happens, I’m going to enjoy the stories as they flesh out Natsume and Nyanko-sensei, along with the setting. And laugh at Nyanko-sensei’s antics, of course.

This episode definitely showed a side of the world that we haven’t seen yet: where do evil spirits come from? This episode shows that most spirits start out without any malicious intentions, but some sort of grudge can turn them into evil one. Just as how one act of kindness can have a huge impact on them, they’ll never forget an act of malice and these acts influence them very strongly. I’m not exactly sure about the difference between regular Youkai and things like Nyanko-sensei, who behave very un-youkai-like, though I think that that’s because he’d had a lot more to experience, whereas most Youkai simply stay at one spot.

This episode may have been a bit too cheesy at the end and one-sided on the environmentalism messages, but nevertheless Gen was an adorable character, especially since he spent most of the episode in the form of a snow bunny. ^^; I liked the comment that Nyanko made at the end of the episode: youkai aren’t as fragile as you’d think.

I’m not sure whether I’m going to continue with HorribleSubs’s releases for this series. Sure, it’s nice to watch this show with subtitles for once, but I miss Natsume Yuujinchou in HD. ^^;

Short Synopsis: It’s time for the local shrine festival and Ponta gets kidnapped by a manipulative woman.
Highlights: Someone hired different animators?
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
What an awesome way to conclude the first season of Natsume Yuujin-chou. The different stories weren’t that connected to each other, but this episode instead of introducing new characters, brings back some of the older ones, and develops all of them a bit. It’s an excellent way to close off the past season, and at the same time introduce the second season, because this means that now, the characters are going to be a tad different from what we’ve seen up till now.

The biggest development is of course that Kaname finally knows that Natsume can see spirits, due to some slip-ups from Nyanko’s side, which made the two of them finally get a bit closer to each other, rather than being two people that happen to know each other and occasionally bump into each other. The rest of the cameos this episode was also very appreciated: the adorable fox returns, and Natori also makes his appearance, to do something that will probably be explained three months from now, with the start of the second season. Hinoe also made a short but nice appearance.

But really, this probably was the strangest time possible to suddenly switch animation styles. The background art was much more colourful, and the character-art was much messier than usual, especially in the first half of the episode. It looked pretty interesting, but… why now?

Short Synopsis: Natsume gets a very nasty curse put on his arm.
Highlights: ZOMG Second Season!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
Ah, thank goodness this series is getting its second season. The show is nice and all, but there’s so much potential left that still needs to be touched. This concept is just way too short for a mere 13 episodes, so it’s awesome to see that this series is getting 13 more to work with. The next winter-season is going to be a pretty interesting one, with both Birdy the Mighty and Natsume Yuujin-chou getting their continuations. Now all that’s left is that second season-announcement for Amatsuki, the series that needs a continuation even more badly than this one.

Just scrap my comments from the previous episode. When talking about 26 episode, that was indeed the perfect tme to introduce a lighter episode to flesh out one of the characters. This episode too eliminated any chance that this series would only last for one season as it introduces what seems to be two recurring characters. It’s the woman and big goat ayakashi from the OP, and they’ve got a lot of potential to shine in that second season.

Wat was especially funny about this episode was that the curse that struck Natsume also had a very interesting effect on Nyanko-sensei: he kept switching between an incredibly tiny and incredibly big version of himself, both with hilarious results.

I’m also glad to see that the book of friends played another role in this episode. My only problem with this series is how it has been ignored so much, even though it’s the central item in this series. This episode showed that you can do more with it than just collect a bunch of names, and Natsume uses it in this episode to summon the goat ayakashi.

Short Synopsis: Nyanko and Natsume get into a fight.
Highlights: The lightest episode so far, but unfortunately also the most disappointing one.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10
Ah, I don’t know. This episode was supposed to be hilarious, but it just felt off somehow. Basically, there is no case, here, and most of the episode just follows Nyanko as he sulks after having left Natsume, and I laughed at quite a few times, but it’s the whole timing of this episode that bugs me. There are only two episodes left, and then the creators suddenly come with an episode that’s solely meant to flesh out the characters. Why couldn’t they just have done this earlier, or chosen a different story from the manga, considering the very limited amount of time this series has to work with.

There was one little girl that Nyanko met, who ran away from home, but she merely served for him to come back to Natsume. She was cute a bit, but she really needed more airtime than what she got. I’m reminded of the finale of Kekkaishi: there’s supposed to be a huge climax coming, and suddenly the creators start to introduce all sorts of background for the bad guys. I mean, it’s needed, but it shouldn’t appear this late at the series. Such a light episode, I really think that it would have been more appropriate for episode five or six. Not eleven.

Ah well, at least I got some good laughs out of this episode, but this isn’t something I expect from my favourite series this summer-season. Those final two episodes had better be really good to make up for it.

Short Synopsis: Natsume gets visited (read: possessed) by a youkai who used to play a traditional Japanese instrument called the “koto”.
Highlights: Yet another great character-study, and the gender-bending was hilarious too.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
Like I mentioned before: the past summer-season has been different from nearly all other seasons so far, in the way that I was able to blog a relatively huge amount of series, in comparison to the amount of series that came out. This allowed me to experiment with a number of series that I normally wouldn’t have the time to blog about. In some cases, I was pleasantly surprised, like with Ultraviolet and Birdy the Mighty’s cases, and other series became rather pointless blogging-exercises, like Mission-E, and strangely enough also this series. Which is really ironic, since it’s one of my favourites of the past season.

The strange thing is that even though this series has great characters, I hardly have any inspiration when I try to write an entry. Right now it’s the same, which is why I’m rambling a bit right now about something totally unrelated to this excellent episode. This is much more a series that you want to enjoy in a relaxed way, not try to over-analyze things. I also now know that it was a good decision not to blog Mokke, but instead casually enjoy its greatness. Some shows are meant to be thought about, others aren’t. Natsume and Mokke are typical shows that you just enjoy, nothing more.

Ah well, with three episodes left, I might as well continue to blog this series for such a short time. If there is a second season coming, I might give things some serious thoughts whether I want to blog the same thing again. If there isn’t going to be a second season (which unfortunately is likely, since Brains Base has never produced a series of more than 16 episodes), then I really wonder how the creators are planning to end things. There probably is going to be one episode dedicated to Nyanko-sensei, explaining what he’s been doing at his few nightly trips, and I’d also like to see one more episode that focuses at Reiko, which tries to explain why she compiled the Yuujin-chou in her youth, and what became of her. I’ve got tons of unanswered questions about her, and I’d love to see at least some of them answered.

There’s also one point of criticism I have for this series: this series is supposed to be “Natsume’s Book of Friends”, and yet it’s been ages since Natsume used the damned thing. It needs to come into the foreground some more.

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.

Short Synopsis: Natsume meets a person who used to be able to see Youkai.
Highlights: That feeling of separation.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 9/10
Oh my god… just when I thought that this series couldn’t get much better than it already was, it surpasses itself. This episode was downright heart-wrenchingly awesome. I remember how, when this series first started, the biggest criticism against it was that its format or returning names could get old very easily. Well, let me tell you that this series has PLENTY of inspiration for its stories. Heck, this episode wasn’t about returning names at all.

Nearly everything about this episode was perfect. For starters, it makes Natsume think about something he never could have imagined: that his ability to see youkai would disappear as he’d become an adult. After all, when we see Reiko in a flashback, she always appears as a child of the same age, hinting that she compiled the yuujin-chou when she was a high-school girl. There’s a very good possibility that she didn’t lose interest afterwards, but just became unable to see youkai. Otherwise, you’d think that she’d leave Natsume with more than just a yuujin-chou.

But the real star of this episode was the ayakashi that Natsume meets. It once was a firefly, and she made friends with that person when he still could see Youkai. His ability suddenly disappeared in one night, even though their bond couldn’t have been closer. Like all other Ayakashi in this series, the firefly just patiently kept waiting beside him, even though he couldn’t see her anymore. They always used to meet at one particular lake, and even though they can’t see each other, they still kept returning to this lake. At the time of this episode, this is about to change, though, when the guy is about to get married, and plans to not return to the lake.

The firefly isn’t able to do anything about it, and would rather return to a firefly, just so he could see her one more time (which she does at the end of this episode). It was really sad to see the two of them apart like that, with no chance to get back. The climax, where the sky was filled with fireflies, was a beautiful conclusion.

Oh and on a side-note: I loved Nyako’s suggestion to name her after a bunch of noodles. ^^;

Short Synopsis: Natsume meets a young fox-spirit.
Highlights: That fox-spirit was SO adorable.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
Seriously, this series just keeps getting better and better. I couldn’t call Kurenai among the best that Brains Base has produced, but Natsume Yuujin-chou is definitely among their best work, along with Baccano. Incidentally, they were both directed by the same guy, the one who also directed Jigoku Shoujo. The result is an excellent characterization that really makes this series come alive.

The little fox-spirit was so incredibly adorable in this episode. It yet again enforced how one meeting for a youkai means much more than what it does for a human, and the fox-spirit, even though she’s so young, is brave enough to come and look for Natsume (who lives in a different town) to make sure that he isn’t lonely. That’s so sweet.

It’s a huge shame that there only seem to be 12 or 13 episodes, considering that this series is occupying Vampire Knight’s timeslot (which will be taking over the timeslot again when October starts). It’s too damn short for such an awesome series. It’s a shame that Brains Base series are only one season long, because this series has enough material for 13 more episodes.