Short Synopsis: Ayakashi can be… quite obnoxious at times.
Highlights: The extra depth given to Natsume’s desire to find someone like him.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
Okay, so for those who were wondering: there’s no Blade of the Immortal this week. The second episode of it airs next week, after which it’ll go into yet another hiatus. Ah well, I’m glad that these hiatuses are around the beginning of the series, and not the end.
In any case, without Blade of the Immortal, there’s no doubt that Natsume Yuujin-chou is my favourite series this season. It knows how to tell an excellent story and the cast of characters is also absolutely lovable. From the outside, it just looks like “Ayakashi of the week” (not that there’s anything wrong with that, but such a formula can get stale very easily), but every episode so far has added so much more than that. Since giving the name back to an Ayakashi is nothing special and just takes a few minutes, the creators can really start to colour outside of the lines.
This episode added quite some funny comedy to the mix. A couple of gods come and bug Natsume in order to get rid of some nasty Ayakashi that were bugging their shrine, and even though he refuses, they keep harassing and annoying him. What caught my attention the most, though, was the focus of Natsume, trying to find someone like him. And this is where this series sets itself apart from Mokke and xxxHolic: Watanuki had Yuuko, and Shizuru had her grandfather, but Natsume is all alone in his ability to see and sense spirits. At one time, he thought he had found a woman who could also see them, but she too turned out to be an Ayakashi. The only support he’s had so far is from other Ayakashi.
This episode changes this, by introducing two characters who finally understand him a bit. One monk who is looking for his daughter if I understood correctly, and one high-school student who can also see spirits, just like him.
Ah, the monk is the father of Tanuma, the other boy who can (sort of) see the ayakashi. It’s him that the ayakashi wanted Natsume to deal with because he kept trying to exorcise them.
I liked this episode a lot… I’m starting to feel sorry that this anime is going to be so short.
wow, this really does look like it could stay an interesting series. I look forward to the next episode.
One of the best series of Summer, that’s for sure. Blade hasn’t really been as captivating, though.
I think it should be fine to wait for the subs in order to really understand the episode; they’re coming out pretty fast for this series, as I’ve just made a post on this episode myself. But if your just trying to better your understanding of Japanese, it’s fine.
This series can be a bit hard to understand at times, but its so much better when we can understand the whole thing properly. I guess it’s just one of the setbacks of not being able to fully understand japanese. =(
When I first saw the Promo for this, I was waiting “patttttiiiiennnntly” for it to come out. I am enjoying this series! It has a freshness to it that I like and ep. 3 was downright hilarious! I also like how the next character is being introduced. Great anime!