Natsume Yuujinchou 5: All Hail Nyanko-sensei

The smartest thing possible that could have been said in this episode.

Summary:

While searching through Reiko’s things on a whim, Natsume discovers an old ticket for a train station that has long gone out of use. He also mentions how every time he returns a name, the memories of Reiko and that Youkai together flow into him; little by little he feels he’s growing to understand his grandmother. At school, his classmates have an extremely pointless argument about what type of udon you eat first. They confront Natsume, who rightfully tries to remain neutral, but who drops the ticket which is then picked up by Sasada. Her interest is piqued, and though she returns the ticket to him, after school she follows him and tries to go with him as she rightly believes its something to do with Youkai and she has the hawts for Nastume. Some quick thinking on the part of the magical disappearing school friend, Tanuma, distracts Sasada long enough for Natsume to escape her advances.

Natsume arrives at the station and spots the overgrown furball known as Santo, who proceeds to grab Natsume and whirl him around thinking he’s Reiko (he can’t see, only smell). After returning his name, Reiko’s memories inform Natsume of the reason Santo’s still here; he had had an argument with his friend Mikuri, and Reiko had promised to come back the next day and go with Santo to Kiriganuma where Mikuri was, but she never showed up. Natsume decides to go with Santo today (due to his previous experience of waiting for someone who would said they would come back “tomorrow” -_-) and the three set out for Kiriganuma. On the way, Santo acts like even more of an idiot, but as night descends a dark atmosphere suddenly settles upon them.

The trees come to life and grab Santo. Nyanko-sensei mentions that it’s a grudge, a combination of a lingering spirit and  Youkai who has feelings of anger or hatred. Nyanko-sensei shifts into his more powerful form and saves the two, and Natsume decides to continue on to Kiriganuma despite the danger. They arrive at the cold, fog-covered station and Natsume starts shouting for Mikuri and though he asks Santo to describe him, the furry one is useless.

Suddenly, out of the lake appears a giant catfish. It’s Mikuri, according to Santo at least, and Mikuri proceeds to restrain Nyanko-sensei and demand the Book of Friends. It captures Natsume and he drops the fanny pack with the Book of Friends in it. Mikuri makes a grab for it, but it’s caught by Santo, who yells for Mikuri to recognize him. The catfish just keeps beating him with its tentacle, but at that time Nyanko-sensei breaks free, attacks, and defeats Mikuri.

From the water emerges the true form of Mikuri, an irritable little Youkai. He explains (while beating Santo) that he had a fight with Santo because he so easily gave up his name to Reiko. Natsume tries to stop Mikuri from hitting Santo, but Nyanko-sensei shows him that that’s just the nature of the two’s friendship. That night, back at the house, Nyanko-sensei tells Natsume that Reiko most likely didn’t have a reason for not showing up; she was just inconsiderate and plum forgot. As he says this, even more tickets fall out of a book that Natsume is looking through, further demonstrating Reiko’s forgetful nature. The next day at school, Natsume’s two classmates have made up. Though Sasada tries to glean from Natsume what happened with him the previous day, Natsume just runs away and she ends up caught up in another pointless argument between the two friends. Natsume sees Tanuma outside in the hall and thanks him for his help the other day.

Next  Time:

The Swallow At The Bottom Of The Water

Thoughts:

Sorry for the lateness, as I was waiting for a softsubbed copy of this episode to watch (as well as one of better quality). This episode could have been much better than it was if not for the glaring annoyance that was Santo. Everything about him just irritated me, his look, his voice, the way he acted. It’s exactly what Nyanko-sensei said, only he was most definitely annoying. If you can somehow, with extreme effort, look past his existence then the message portrayed in the episode was a heartfelt one. Just like in the last case where Shigure’s case mirrored those of Natsume’s, this time the two friends’ argument was like that of Santo and Mikuri. Best friends argue sometimes (though that’s never happened to me, as I avoid confrontation quite a lot -_-”) and its just the way that those types of friendhips work.

From a different perspective (helpfully pointed out by Memento) we looked further into Reiko’s character; she probably knew it was her fault that this happened, so we can approach this two different ways; either she really did forget or she was just trying to get out of dodge by saying she would come back the next day. The latter’s just plain cruel, but the former’s kind of hard to believe.

I like the way the show’s revealing more about the main characters little by little, for example, when Natsume said he saw a little bit of Reiko’s memories each time he returned a name. I previously thought that it was the Youkai remembering these things, but perhaps it could be both Natsume and the returnee. Plus, we have some love vibes from Sasada, which was cute to watch ^_^. The inclusion of some Japanese folklore (the grudge) was welcome as well; the Hollywood version of a case like this scared the crap out of me (at least when I was 13).

The next episode looks very exciting, much better than this one. Youkais from the depths of a lake, Nyanko-sensei fights something of equal size to him (if not strength), and we even have some possession thrown in for good measure.

Nom Nom, Nyanko-sensei style ^_^