Natsume Yuujinchou 8 – Tugging At The Heartstrings

;_;

Summary:

Natsume heads to the lake to take a look at the fireflies and while there he encounters a man seemingly being possessed by a Youkai. The Youkai notices him and Natsume accidentally runs off a cliff in a hurry to get away, but is saved by the Youkai. Back at his home, she explains that she knew the man when he was younger as he was able to see Youkai then, but the ability suddenly disappeared one day; it’s not an infrequent thing for this to happen to those who have the power. Natsume asks the Youkai’s name, but she says doesn’t have one.

That night Natsume has a dream where he hears someone calling out. He catches the word “Kiyo” and decides to call the Youkai this, and she doesn’t seem to mind. On his way back to the lake, Nyanko-sensei tells Natsume a legend in which a mountain-god fell in love with a human, and as a gift to the fireflies which gave him a beautiful, well-lit night to spend with his love, he made them into Youkai. Many left, but some remained, and the current fireflies of the lake are said to be the ancestors of those Youkai. Natsume believes that a Youkai in the lake is trying to attack the man he saw earlier, and makes a mad dash to save him only to learn from Nyanko-sensei that the Youkai doesn’t even eat humans. He then tries to ask the man if he can see Youkai as well but is unable to do so, believing that it may have troubled the man to recall memories from when he could see them.

Kiyo meets Natsume and tells him how she and the man, Akifumi, met. Though at first he was bitter about Youkai, the more he met Kiyo, the more they talked and the more they loved each other. However, the day that he could no longer see her came, and that was the end of it. This leads Natsume to think of how he would feel if he could no longer see Youkai as well; at first he thinks it would be terrible, but then he remembers: wasn’t that always what he had wanted? He heads back to the lake in the afternoon and seeing Kiyo lying on Akifumi’s shoulder, gains the courage to ask him about seeing Youkai. Akifumi explains that his ability had always been hard on him, driving him into thye depths of loneliness, but he managed to get along with, and come to love, one Youkai. But one day, he was unable to meet her, and for a while believed she had simply left his side. Though he returned day after day to see her, they never met again. Akifumi never married because he couldn’t forget her, but then met a nice woman, who he will marry in three days.  That night, Natsume has another dream where he sees the peaceful times that Akfumi and Kiyo have together, as well as when Akifumi lost his ability and the sadness that enveloped the two. The Kiyo he heard in the dream came from the Youkai (whose real name is Hotaru) saying “Suki yo” (I love you) to Akifumi, though he was unable to hear or feel her embracing him.

He wakes up to see Hotaru above him, who has decided to once again become a firefly, just so she can meet Akifumi one last time, though she’ll be unable to return to her Youkai form. Her mask in flames and her form changed, she flies off to the lake to meet him – and Nyanko-sensei chooses this time to say that the Youkai they saw in the lake eats fireflies. Nyanko-sensei helps Natsume to the lake just in time to save Hotaru from the Youkai, who then meets Akifumi who’s walking with his fiancee along the bank of the lake. Akifumi recognises the firefly but too late as it is whisked into the stream of other flies that light the area around him and his wife-to-be. Hotaru sees Natsume once again, and he believes she’s whispered something lightly to him, but didn’t catch the words.

Days later, Natsume watches the marriage of Akifumi from afar, and heading back home realises that even if he were to lose the ability to see Youkai, he would still treasure the memories he had of them.

Next Time:

No-one who’s FABULOUS is ever sorry for anything.

Thoughts:

That was a truly heart-warming yet saddening tale of lost love. It’s definitely the most emotional tale so far; everytime you think you’ve seen a great episode of the show, it manages to create something completely awe-inspiring and beautiful.

The relationship between the two was both sweet and heart-wrenching; seeing the Akifumi find something to escape from the loneliness he felt and change his view on Youkai, only to have Fate sever the two apart so that no matter how much they desparately wanted to meet each other again they couldn’t was really depressing. It was a great touch how the echoes of Hotaru’s confession in Natsume’s dream led to the creation of her name as well. But what made the episode even better was that we didn’t have an ending where the two simply met and lived happily ever after (at least, until he dies), that’s not how love always works out. Though Akifumi wasn’t able to completely forget Hotaru, he had to move on with his life eventually; to spend his life wallowing in sorrow would have not only have left him feeling dejected but Hotaru also. She was happy to see that he had managed to find someone else; she would have greatly regretted knowing that they wouldn’t be together again, but despite this the strength of her love to the extent that just seeing him happy was enough was truly admirable. She sacrificed the rest of her (after)life, which would most likely have been a long one, just to meet him again, not only for her happiness and closure but for his as well, the two may still have the smallest of regrets in their hearts but they both realise that this could be the time to reconcile themselves to the fact they won’t meet in such a way as before, despite their wishes.

But that’s not to say that the individual case was the only great thing in the episode. Now that Natsume realises that a day may come that he can no longer see the Youkai, he’s bound to treasure the memories he has of them more. At first, like it or not, he was stuck with this ability, but now he views it as less of a hindrance; it’s something that’s allowed him to open up to people more, such as how, only when seeing how Hotaru and Akifumi looked together, was he able to overcome his shyness and simply ask if Akifumi could see spirits.

This show’s death and variety continues to place it head and shoulders above all the other summer anime, and after such an emotional rollercoaster  in this episode, I’m looking forward to a few more lulz and a bit of action next time.

Nyanko-sensei, you had a minimal role, and for this I apologise.

ISN’T MY APLOLOGY ENOUGH, YOU DAMN KITTY CAT?!