This episode started a little clumsily (Natsume escapes, gets pulled down a hole in a well hidden place, is about to be attacked, and WHAM! Nyanko-sensei appears from out of nowhere. Didn’t expect Deus ex Machina from this series), but as it went on it once again was an excellent episode. This arc was very different from the other episodes, but the pay-off was just wonderful.
Also, with this episode I also realized something else: anime tends to abuse fast healing. I was really surprised when the wounds that were inflicted on Natsume and Nyanko-sensei… actually hurt. Especially the way Nyanko-Sensei got animated along the way was wonderfully done: it wasn’t life-threatening, but he really felt weak after having an arrow lodged inside of him. Overall I can understand why anime makes their characters very fast healers and all, but it’s much more satisfying to watch someone get hurt… and actually get hurt.
The big strength of this episode, and this series overall by the way, is that it has really good endings that throw a subtle twist and give an extra dimension to the characters involved. Here too, where that Matoba guy threw that anti-climax and it all turned out that he came for nothing. The storytelling also really came together at the end.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
This episode makes me wish Natsume Yuujinchou would follow at least a slightly stronger narrative. This one set up some intriguing threads. Sure this arc had some flaws but because the series has so thoroughly developed its characters and our attachment to them, it made the action that much more compelling.
With Natori we saw how Natsume’s an amateur but also a wild card. With the Matoba family out in full force it really got across something new. That is while Natsume’s interaction with yokai’s far more developed his understanding of humans like him is so limited.
It felt like Natsume skirted Ao No Exorcist or Ga Rei territory and it did so with an engaging spin that only this series can pull off.
Was it really a deus ex machina psgels?
Nyanko and natori saw the witch lady running off. Naturally they followed her. So them showing up didnt come out of nowhere if you think about it.
But surely this show gives some very subtle hints about what is coming in the future: The Matoba clan also knew Reiko (ah, he is her grandson), but yet we haven’t seen anything about Reiko that happened when she was older and out of the school uniform; and the ‘evil eyes’ the injured youkai spoke of, was it really the youkai sealed in the cave?