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.
