Well, there you have it. The third episode, and yet again this show delivers. Heck, I did not expect this, but out of the four Natsume seasons, the fourth actually had the most consistently excellent opening three episodes. I really hope that that’s a sign for the rest of this season, because this show already is better than anything else that airs right now that I’m watching.
This episode really toyed with the heartwarming type of stories of Natsume Yuujinchou. Natsume has taken care of cute things before, but this one had a bit of a twist here: it was poisonous and easily startled. It’s much more like a wild animal than the others that Natsume took in, and for a long while it didn’t reveal how sentient it was exactly, especially with it disappearing around the halfway mark of the episode. Because of that, it was really heart-warming to see how it felt sorry for hurting Natsume. This episode was completely adorable, though in a different way from the other cute episodes so far.
My one criticism of this episode is that it had some obvious continuity errors. One scene Natsume’s room is full of holes and blood, the next it’s finished. Also, it’s implied that Natsume went to sleep right on top of dirty berries. Of course this is nothing minor. It’s easy to assume that he cleaned all of that up out of camera, but here I believe that it would have made this episode even easier to relate to if there was just one small scene spent on Natsume actually doing this.
Also, this episode showed sometihng very interesting about Nyanko-sensei: he got sealed off in this episode and walked around through most of the episode with this strange eye-patch. It’s implied that he can’t get it of on its own, and yet he easily dispatches of it near the end of the episode. He could have chosen to do it immediately to just get rid of an unthankful youkai, but instead he agreed with Natsume to first try to solve things in a peaceful way by allowing Natsume to reason with it.
I mean, at this point it must also be obvious to him that that book of friends will be mostly empty when he can finally get his hands on it. I sense the same loyalty here to Natsume as the other youkai that Natsume befriended. He keeps teasing Natsume to hide it, but I doubt that the book of friends is his biggest reason to stick with Natsume at the moment. Heck, even Natsume teases him with that in this episode.
Rating: *** (Awesome)
Yup, this show is just completely amazing at what it does. This episode was a really good blend of comedy, drama and heartwarming. I think Brains Base deserves the Nobel Peace Prize: last season it was this and Penguindrum, then Kamisama Dolls was pretty good and Baccano is literally god-tier amazing.
I also think the ED theme worked really well here, as usually the ED theme plays during the last scene of an episode which i’ve grown to really love.
Well, to be honest, I don’t think Nyanko-sensei has such a big interest in the Book of Friends in the first place. I mean, he is already pretty powerful, so what would he need that book for anyway? Most of the youkai in it are weaker than him, so he wouldn’t need the book to subdue/control them. And he doesn’t have a “ruler” personality either, so he’d probably simply use it to make them bring him more sake/food and not much more.
So in the end it’s probably more of a “make sure no one else gets the book” thing on his side. Especially compared to the fact that he’s getting quite a nice distraction of his usually rather “boring” yokai life in exchange for living with Natsume.
Not to mention the fact that he just really likes Natsume by now and values him higher than some book that he doesn’t really need.
Yea, none of the *really* powerful yokai seem to be all that interested in the book of friends. If anything it seems the more powerful ones are more sapient and ones like Misuzu who want to earn their names back seem to be pretty common.
The mid-class to low-class ones are another story however.
A very nice episode. In addition to being heartwarming, it had that magical quality that I think was more prevalent in the first season and the manga.
This was so adorable. I loved this arc in the manga and I think this episode did the arc justice.
@rufe and @cakeyyy What you guys say sounds correct for the most part, but there was the youkai that showed up in Episode 11 of the first season. It was the monkey-turtle youkai (I believe it’s name was either Enkou or Endou…I don’t remember) that challenged Madara for the Book of Friends. He was strong enough to injure Madara (like, beat him up) though Madara ultimately pwned him lol.
I’m gonna miss this show when it’s finally over. They have a gift for making sappy sentimentalism just work. This season’s been what I missed from seasons one and two.. I’m not sure what it was about three that was a bit off to me, and it wasn’t really that much worse, but they’re right back in their A game all of a sudden.
Madara seems to stick around Natsume just because he really likes the kid, or feels indebted to him or Reiko somehow. He seems more like the book’s guardian than a truly nefarious creature. The longer the show goes on the more I worry that any ultimate revelation we might get about Nyanko-sensei will be an anticlimax.
agree with everyone that nyanko sensei isn’t that interested in getting the book of friends, he’s just tsun tsun and uses it as his excuse for staying around Natsume.
Cute episode!
Natsume continues to warm my winters up very nicely
I believe this season will make into my very favorite, especially if this is the last one. It’s just too heartwarming, I kept smiling watching this!
oh next one : romance youkai&human? :O
After (finally) reading the manga, the top plots that I want to see solved from this series are:
– Natsume’s parents
– I wanna see what happens when Matoba does find out about the Book of Friends and what Natsume’s gonna do about it.
– the mystery behind Reiko’s death
I don’t think these are even solved in the manga yet though D:
Did you read ch. 44/45? It sort of solved the issue around Natsume’s parents 🙂
I sure hope they will anime that arc. I think it could make for a really nice ending to this series!
By chapter 45 he was about to… That’s why I got curious. I want this part animated aaaaa
Speaking of details, I think one of the details I liked the most was in the 3rd season where Natsume & Tanuma helped out at Taki’s house, and you could see the difference between Natsume & Tanuma’s physical strength. (like natsume was struggling to carry the boxes)
I don’t know, that one stuck into my mind XD
In an eyecatch in the manga we see Tanuma practicing karate. I suppose he’s supposed to be athletic…and delicate at the same time.
There’s a great Tanuma arc that I hope they animate. It was easily one of my favorite arcs, but later on so I doubt it will be…
“Also, this episode showed sometihng very interesting about Nyanko-sensei: he got sealed off in this episode and walked around through most of the episode with this strange eye-patch. It’s implied that he can’t get it of on its own, and yet he easily dispatches of it near the end of the episode. He could have chosen to do it immediately to just get rid of an unthankful youkai, but instead he agreed with Natsume to first try to solve things in a peaceful way by allowing Natsume to reason with it.”
Um.. did you miss the part that the seal will be undone when the ring of the youkai is returned? I did watch the subbed version but I doubt that the sub group added that line.
As for Madora sticking with Natsume I believe he’s not just being honest. He keeps saying he’s after the book of friends, which is just a facade. He really likes Natsume and has grown fond of him. He’s doesn’t say this to Natsume directly because I think Madora believes this as a sign of weakness. Of course this is my interpretation please feel free to comment on it.