Natsume Yuujinchou 7: HE’S TOO CUTE!!!

KYAAAAAH!!!

Stealing biankita’s summary as I’m too lazy to write it up for a late post :p.

Next Time:

Lovers stand within the glowing night.

Not much of a message for this episode, most of the time I was just thinking “Awwwww”. I mean look at him! Just so damn CUTE!

You had to feel sorry for the little fox, him being alone as he’s lost his mother at such a young(?) age (seeing how exactly would’ve been interesting) and then being bullied by two youkai who look extremely similar to the ones we saw in episode 3, only different colours (creators running out of ideas?) What the hell was their problem, anyway? Because he’s small he’s useless and therefore we must beat him up? That’s some stupid reasoning, and anything that could hit something as moe as that just has no soul. Thankfully, what I thought was going to happen did:

Take that, bitches.

Anyone as young as him would feel lonely having lost their only parent and friend, so it’s natural that he would take to someone who showed him a level of kindness and compassion, be it human or Youkai. You can think the same thing from his treatment of the hat; it’s been left in the forest, though it’s so pretty and white and the fox would see it as something in a situation akin to him. Yet another similarity is Natsume. The fox manages to discern (quite well) that Natsume still seems lonely though among his friends and believes that the two should be together as they are both lonely, but upon seeing that Natsume’s got a good connection with his foster family, he thinks that he’s pretty much alone again. But Natsume demonstrates the depth of his new-found kindness and consoles the little spirit, even showing that he admires the fact the kid was able to put so much effort into finding someone that he could befriend not only for himself but for that person he perceives as lonely as well. Natsume says he wouldn’t have been able to do this as a child, but simply acknowledging this shows his strength of character (and though he still has a ways to go until he can be less “fake” with his friends, this at least shows that he’s now trying).

What a fantastic watercolour style.

Just take that in for a moment.

Ahhhhh…

I could have done with less of the stills/montages that occured throughout the episode, but it must have been to conserve budget for the weirdly well-animated section where Natsume jumps into the air and saves the fox.  The style did work really well for the fox’s search though; the shadow of the spirit walking across the bottom while the images were relegated to the background made it seem a bit sad more than anything, and I got Evangelion vibes from the train section.

The track played during this scene is one of the best I’ve ever heard in a show.

I’ll probably put togeter a top ten list or the like sometime.

If I’m not too lazy :p

Natsume’s pleasure at being asked a favour from someone again shows how he no longer wishes to be lonely (thought he’s still kind of apathetic) and does appreciate people wanting to be around and talk to him.

Next time seems like a deeper episode, the idea of someone losing the ability to see Youkai is fascinating, especially if a particular Youkai happens to be the person they love. On a side note, only 13 episodes? ;_;

What’s that in the sky?

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

No, it’s…

Irrelevant when there’s such a cute fox in the episode.