One of the things that I’ve come to really enjoy about watching anime is that I have the chance to see types of shows that I would never see on American television. Natsume Yuujinchou falls into one such type – the supernatural slice-of-life show. As I’m typing this, I’m trying to think of an example of a similar show over here and can’t. This show also takes a different view of spirits then one I’m used to seeing; in that instead of being characterized as evil or good they are, by-n-large, lonely creatures.

Final Series Score: 12/12 Perfect
Rewatchablity: high
Pros: the animators create the perfect atmosphere for the show through their use of the OP/ED and animation style/quality and pacing, the characters Natusme and Nyanko-sensei make a good team as do their seiyuus, we meet a wide range of different characters through the course of the series and their stories never are boring
Cons: Natsume’s motivation in episode 1 didn’t make too much sense to me (manga does a better job of spelling it out), it’s only 13 episodes long

Awards given to this show by this blog

• Best Male Character for Summer 2008
• #1 Top Anime of Summer 2008

Story

Natsume was born with his ability to see spirits. As a child he didn’t realize that other people didn’t see the same things as he, which caused a lot of trouble for him especially after his parents died and he went to live with his relatives. These relatives found him creepy and he gets passed around until finally landing in the household of a distantly-related older childless couple. Natsume, not wanting to be a bother to them, covers-up his ability as best he can.

His life isn’t made any easier when the spirits of the area realize he is Reiko’s grandson. Reiko had the same ability and many of the same problems as Natsume. However, instead of trying to pretend the spirits weren’t there, she fought them and when she won, she would have them place their names in her book and she gained the ability to control them. This book is called the “Book of Friends” and when Natsume is made aware of it’s existence, he finds it in the stuff that he got when his grandma died.

The “Book of Friends”, as you’d imagine, is a very powerful item since Reiko defeated so many spirits in her time. As a consequence, many spirits would love to get their hands on it and many other spirits would simply like their names back. To help protect himself Natsume extracts a promise from Nyanko-sensei to be his bodyguard. So over the course of the series we get to meet spirits that want the book or want their names back or just Natsume’s help.

Thoughts and impressions

If you remember back in July when I did my initial impression post for this show, I talked about having a problem with Natsume’s motivation in returning the names to the spirits. I still feel the same way, in the anime Natsume mentions that he wants to finish his grandma’s work by returning the names to the spirits. From what the show says she was the one that went around collecting names, not giving them back so why was her work not finished? This issue was much better handled in the original manga by Natsume saying that he didn’t want trouble so if a spirit showed up wanting it’s name back – he’d give it back. That makes a lot more sense and I wonder why Brains Base didn’t go with that.

By the halfway point of the series, I’d completely forgiven the show for Natsume’s motivation in the first episode because we were being treated to episode after episode of slice-of-life perfection and this perfection continued on throughout the rest of the series. It was like a symphony where every part to the show played it’s part perfectly and together it was so harmonious.

One of the things that I particularly liked about this show was the slow evolution of Natsume’s character throughout the series. He starts off unhappy that he has this ability and you could tell that he didn’t much like the spirits either. This slowly changes as we progress through the series and by the end, it appears that he’s might actually be happy that he has his ability and that he enjoys the company of the spirits. This slow evolution reminds me of another show, Sketchbook, because we watch as Sora slowly becomes less shy over the course of the series and it’s not really apparent unless you watch the first episode again how much they have changed.

I’m almost positive that this show will end up in my top 10 shows for 2008 and with the second season starting in January, maybe it’ll be in my top 10 for 2009 as well. So, if you haven’t had the chance to catch this great show, I’d strongly recommend that you do.

Essential Information

• 13 episodes
• genre: Supernatural, Slice-of-Life
• animation studio: Brains Base
• director: Takahiro Omori
• OP: “Issei no Sei” by Shūhei Kita
• ED:“Natsu Yūzora” by Kousuke Atari
• Seiyuus of note: Hiroshi Kamiya, Yuki Eiri

View Poll

Busy week of anime – between the couple summer shows finishing up and the many new shows to catch, there was hardly time for much else. I’m pretty happy with the autumn season so far; many of the shows are starting off very well and there’s been a few that have even been able to surprise me.

The scores:

Soul Eater, episode 26 – 12+/12

Natsume Yuujinchou, episode 13 – 12+++/12 (end)

Ryoko’s Case Files, episode 13 – 12++/12 (end)

Toradora!, episode 2 – 12+/12

Hyakko, episode 2 – 8/12 B+

(previously reviewed)

Kannagi, episode 1 – 7/12 B

To Aru Majutsu no Index, episode 1 – 12+/12

Shikabane Hime: Aka, episode 1 – 12/12

Tales of the Abyss, episode 1 – 04/12 C

Yozakura Quartet, episode 1 – 8/12 B+

Kemeko DX, episode 1 – 10/12 A

Ga-Rei Zero, episode 1 – 9/12 A-

Chaos;Head, episode 1 – 11/12 A+

Thoughts and Highlights

Would you do it for a scooby snack?

Let’s start with the only holdover from the summer season that I watched this week – Soul Eater. I was impressed by this episode a lot. I think the set episode count of this series is causing Bones to eschew the typical structure of a shounen show. After letting the Demon God go, I would have expected this anime to show the main characters training to power themselves up (like after the end of the Soul Society arc on Bleach). Instead this episode shows that some of our characters getting dispatched to the next trouble spot. The other reason that I liked this episode was that we got a lot of Crona, who is fast becoming one of my favorite characters. I feel odd saying that but then again, Sylar on Heroes is becoming one of my favorite characters especially lately with the writers making Hiro act stupid beyond belief.

One more of the fox spirit, I hope he's back in the second season

I thought it was funny how everyone had a different name for him

Slice-of-life shows don’t, by definition, have a convenient plot structure that allow them to have an “ending” but it’s nice when some sense of closure can be given the viewer. I was really curious how Natsume would end, especially with the second season starting in the winter – would they try to give the show an ending or just act like the show was going on hiatus for a season? I wouldn’t have minded if this season didn’t have an ending but was happy that one was given. Having the chance to meet many of the ghosts and people one last time from the show was the perfect way to end one of the year’s best shows.

She's standing on a tank, in case your wondering

Ryoko’s Case Files’ last episode was likewise the perfect way to end the show. I hope this gets a second season, it really deserves it. If any of the fansubbers of [AonE-AnY] read this, thank you so much for providing a high quality fansub with a super-small file size.

Toradora

Finally, onto the fall shows that had their second episodes this week – Hyakko and Toradora. The first, Hyakko, didn’t really impress me again. I want to like this show but I can’t quite figure out what it’s doing wrong or what’s wrong with me. I’m not even holding the drop in animation quality of episode 2 against it. On the other hand, the second – Toradora – was very awesome. This is definitely shaping up to be a more original show then I imagined and they haven’t even introduced the fifth main character that shows up in both the opening and ending. Also, Toradora is reminding me of another of J.C.Staff’s wonderful shows – Honey & Clover; I don’t know if this is intentional or just something I’m reading into the show that’s not there.

Note the heights of the two girls on the right ...

... and compare that to this screen shot

Now that I have your attention, I shall ramble.

*BY THE WAY, this was supposed to be posted on 15 August but I think I wanted to get nice pictures but uh I can’t be bothered now, so here you go. Really late, yeah, but it’s quite a rubbishy ramble-post. My practical’s over, too.

I have the vague idea that I will fail my Chemistry practical (more of the theory part of it). My Social Studies essay is pretty doomed as well since multiculturalism is really quite vague imo, and my writing has never been good, or rather, only for all the subjects which require you to elaborate and/or inference a lot (along with the fact that uh, the answers are probably not found directly in the textbook and notes.

Oh well.

Either way, I’ve been catching up with Soul Eater, which I still kind of dislike despite the very slick and very cool animation by BONES since the characters, though unique and memorable, do not happen to appeal directly to me. I am of the opinion that the voices don’t exactly match all the characters fully…(was that Chopper’s voicer I heard along the way, btw?!) And the character traits get irritating quite quickly, unfortunately, even though the development is coming along.. fine…. or worse. The occasional fanservice doesn’t help much, although the boin boin~ is not overdone unlike in Sekirei.

TUTE DIED HOW COULD HE. Tetsuwan Birdy Decode really appeals to me on the other hand. Despite the leotard, fanservice is not excessive nor overdone imo. Rather, the leotard is pretty elegant sometimes, and the action scenes are all really well-done despite high speed god-mode… Just right! |D Plus the main lead isn’t really of that horrible a character, unlike NICEBOATTHAR Makoto (unrelated but anyway).

Natsume Yuujinchou seems fine for the first episode, OP and ED not really very speshul or anything, but I like the Nyanko-sensei (I liek his voice in ‘true form’ better of course) although the impression I have of Natsume (as well as the series on the whole, for now) is still more of… weird.

Also been watching Ryoko’s Case Files, now I know why I love Ryoko so much, she’s so similar to Artemis Fowl. Rich, egocentric, scheming, it’s all there! In addition the fact that they both deal with the supernatural and have exceptional deduction skills, maybe. Furthermore they aren’t very honest with themselves half the time, and are great actors |DD I really want to read the whole Artemis Fowl series but being the deprived little Shift (are you Control or Alternate?) I am, I have only read around two (plus or minus one at the most) of the whole series. Time Paradox looks intriguing *o*

Speaking of books I have been trying to read Amatsuki for the art. The story doesn’t seem to have proper transitions or logic and keeps skipping here and there though. What’s more, half the time it reeks of Philosophy, what with the ‘Is this world real?’ and who knows what else, that doesn’t really make sense. On the other hand, I really like the art style. I think the anime semi-butchered it, though probably not that badly. Not anywhere near a Yashigani anime, thankfully, since most studios are funded moderately well these days.

Note– YES Hibari is finally back to normal in the latest chapter! (his hair was indeed quite fluffy in TYL mode)

I’ve been playing Super Mario Galaxy as well, got 3 Grand Stars already. I want SSBB and Mario Kart though… or at least Okami D: Also still waiting for FFXIII and Rune Factory. It is a sad long wait. A very sad long wait.

On another note, This poupee girl rubbish actually seems to be pretty interesting. It helps my fashion sense, at the very least, which is less than non-existent, fyi.