Natsume Yuujin-chou ep.01

July 8, 2008 | 27 Comments

OP Theme: 「一斉の声」 (Issei no Sei) by Kita Shuuhei - AVI version (12.1MB) | PSP version (11.2MB)

Of all the new anime that has been released thus far, I feel that this one has the best mix of story, humor, OP/ED, and voice acting. It's a pretty encouraging first episode in my opinion. To begin with, Kamiya Hiroshi (Takemoto in Honey and Clover) and Inoue Kazuhiko (Kakashi in Naruto) delivered their excellent voice acting as usual. I'm especially impressed with Inoue Kazuhiko here, who can change his voice from sounding silly and childish when Nyanko-sensei (the cat spirit) is in the form of Maneki-Neko, to sounding mature and dangerous when the spirit is in its original form. Upon seeing this episode, I finally realize why Kamiya Hiroshi was chosen to be Natsume and that's because just like Takemoto, Natsume is equally contemplative about his life. Anyway, the only thing that is missing here is a solid animation. The animation/style that they have here is not too bad but I think the series could benefit from a much stronger color palette and less soft filter. I really hope that the second episode will rectify this particular problem.

Episode 01

A young man is running through the forest before bumping into two of his classmates, who recognizes him as Natsume, a new student who's just transferred into their school. Despite the look of panic in his face, Natsume claims that nothing is going on and wonders if there's a shrine nearby. Upon finding out its location, Natsume runs towards the shrine, but some kind of large wind seem to be following him. After a while, it becomes apparent that the wind in question is actually a large spirit. Natsume narrates how ever since he was a kid, he was able to see 「妖怪」(Yokai, spirits). The spirits used to be nice but for some reason, lately they've started to go after Natsume. As soon as he finished saying this, the spirit punches him into a tree and manages to capture him. Another spirit then appears, suggesting that they pull out 'her' tongue so 'she' can't say their names. Natsume, however, kicks the spirit's face and runs away.

As Natsume continues to run, he remembers how in the past, he often saw a spirit and weirded out his parents by asking if he should prepare another plate for their 'guest'. As a result, not only his parents were creep out by him, they also thought that Natsume was probably lonely. In the present time, Natsume accidentally hits some kind of rope in the forest. In the process, he breaks a barrier that sealed a mini shrine in the forest. Natsume freaks out upon realizing this, wondering if he's just broken a barrier that sealed something bad. Much to his surprise, the spirit that resides within the mini shrine is actually in the form of a small 「招き猫」 (Maneki-Neko, Fortune Cat statue). When the cat gets closer to Natsume, it realizes that Natsume is not "Natsume Reiko", the name of Natsume's grandmother. The cat explains that Reiko could see strange things as well when she was alive and no humans could understand her.

Because of this reason, Reiko amused herself with spirits. The cat then asks Natsume if he's ever heard of a thing called 「友人帳」(Yuujin-chou, Book of Friends). When Natsume confirms this, the cat disappears. Natsume decides to return to his house, where a woman calls him "Takashi". Later on, Natsume explains that he stays with a family called the Fujiwaras, a relative of his father. He, however, keep a secret the fact that he can see spirits. That day, Natsume goes through his grandmother's items and finds the book that the cat referred to. He, however, loses interest upon finding out that the book is just a collection of scribbles. Despite this, for some reason names of spirits start to flood his mind. While this happens, the cat statue suddenly appears in the room trying to obtain the book. The cat, however, didn't anticipate Natsume to dodge. As a result, the cat is stucked in between the paper sliding door.

After pulling the cat out of the frame, Natsume asks the spirit to leave after having a watermelon. He also decides to call the cat "Nyanko" despite the cat's protestation. Despite this, Nyanko is grateful to Natsume for setting it free. Because of this, it will protect Natsume for a while and become his mentor. He also explains that the "Book of Friends" is basically a book where Reiko wrote down the name of the spirit that she harassed. Because Reiko didn't have many friends, she often played games with spirits. The spirits who lost against her in a game must become her followers and to bind them, she wrote their name in the "Book of Friends". Natsume wonders why anyone would want a book like that so Nyanko explains to him that it's because if someone has it and calls out the name of the spirits, their command can't be denied. He also warns Natsume not to treat the book badly because if he burns the book, for example, he'd also burn the soul.

Their conversation comes to a halt when someone knocks on the door. Natsume tries to tell the person that everyone's out tonight but as it turns out, the guest is actually another spirit that tries to attack him. Natsume manages to dodge the spirit and runs into the forest with the book. Upon seeing this, Nyanko chases him and manages to catch up with him. He tries to persuade Natsume to hand over the book but Natsume refuses. Unhappy with this, Nyanko transforms into its real form, a large mystical cat which immediately pounces Natsume into the ground, trying to crush him. Natsume, however, refuses to hand over the book because he believes Nyanko will use it to do something weird. In desperation, Natsume punches Nyanko in his nose, causing it to stop pouncing on him. He then explains to Nyanko that the book belongs to her grandmother and since he didn't get to know her well, Natsume would like to have something that used to belong to her.

Natsume also intends on returning the names to the spirit if possible. The cat tells him that although the process for releasing the names is simple, he doesn't think Natsume can handle it. Natsume, however, is not afraid because the cat will look after him. He didn't actually want to get involved but he feels that his grandmother owed the spirits. Because of this, he intends on returning their name even if it kills him. Eventually Nyanko agrees to help Natsume as long as he can get the book after Natsume passed away. Nyanko then teaches Natsume how to release the spirits name. He wants Natsume to focus his mind on a spirit and open the book. By doing so, the book will automatically flip to the correct page. Before the book can find the right name, however, two spirits already chase after him. Nyanko deals with the smaller spirit while Natsume is trying to find the name of the one-eyed spirit that's been chasing after him.

Eventually, the book finds the correct name so the cat tells Natsume that he'd need Reiko's salive and breath. Since Natsume is her descendant, he should be able to do it. He then orders Natsume to put the paper containing the spirit name into his mouth and to put his hands together. Upon doing so, the scribble on the book returns to the spirit's forehead. Natsume also finds out that when he bites the paper, he can see the spirit's memories. Because of this, he sees how his grandmother first met this particular one-eyed spirit. He can hear the spirit saying that it's lonely. It was then that Reiko came over and ate the offering that was meant for the spirit. She told the spirit that if she wants to eat delicious Manju, she should go to Nanatsuji. She also promised to treat the spirit at the shop if it can defeat her. She also told the spirit that she's not afraid of her because she's strong. To prove this point, she beat up the spirit.

Later on, the spirit wondered why Reiko's face has a black mark. She explained that someone threw a book at her because that person thought she was creepy. It was then that Reiko told the spirit that she wants the spirit to come to her when she calls its name. Unfortunately, Reiko never called the spirit's name even though the spirit was waiting and waiting for her to do so. Eventually it lost its patience and decided that if Reiko is not going to call its name, then it wants its name returned. In the present time, Natsume manages to find the spirit name and calls its name "Hishigaki". Upon hearing this, the spirit wonders if Reiko will be okay all by herself now before disappearing into thin air. In the aftermath, Natsume still wants to release the other spirits as well so Nyanko decides to follow him. The episode ends with the two visiting the shop that Reiko promised to take one-eyed spirit to: Nanatsuji.

What's Good

The Story - I personally find the storyline to be touching and meaningful. It's rare to see a story that touch upon the meaning of friendship and the efforts that are required to keep the friendship intact throughout the years and different forms of separation. I'll talk more about this in the story section.

The Characters - Natsume is an interesting character. Just like his grandmother, he's actually a pretty interesting person to converse with after you get to know him. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to have many friends. The challenge here is for him to not repeat what Reiko has done. He needs to go out more and find human friends. Nyanko-sensei is equally interesting because his/its true motive is always unclear. I get the impression that the cat was some kind of evil spirit that was sealed by Reiko because she couldn't defeat it. It remains to be seen if he'll end up being friends with Natsume or if he'll become Natsume's enemy at the end of the series.

The voice acting - I've mentioned this in my introductory paragraph so there's no need to repeat it again. Needless to say, both performers deliver excellent performance.

The OP/ED - I really like the OP and ED. I think they are highly unusual for anime series. Between the two, I like the OP better but the ED is not bad by any means.

What's average

The animation/character design style - I'm not terribly fond of the extremly soft look of the animation. It reminds me of early version of Bleach. I'm hoping that as the show progress, the style will morph to that of Honey and Clover, where the airbrush effect still remains but the color are more distinct and less soft.

Story:

The best part of this story is the revelation that "Book of Friends" contains sinister and sad back stories about Reiko and the spirits. In a lot of ways, Reiko didn't have real friends, be it humans or spirits. The 'friends' that she wrote down in her book was gained out of bullying and coercion. Having said that and despite what she did, it's hard not to feel sorry for her. She must have been terribly lonely that the only way she could have friends was to force them to befriend her. Even then, she probably felt that she still doesn't have any friend. If I have to guess, the reason Reiko never contacted the one-eyed spirit again was probably because she felt that she never really earned its friendship. In addition to that, she likely believed that the spirit didn't like her due to her treatment of it. Unknown to her, the spirits actually didn't mind Reiko's company. In fact, it felt lonely when Reiko never called its name despite her promise to do so. Despite this, the spirit continued waiting for Reiko to call its name. Understandably, the spirit eventually lost its patience after years of waiting.

I'm not sure which one is worse: living in uncertainty if your friend really wants to be your friend, or being told by a friend that he/she will call you but that friend never calls back. The first one was applicable to Reiko while the second one was applicable to that one-eyed spirit. In this case, the misunderstanding happened not only because the friendship started on wrong terms (through bullying), but also because the two didn't communicate much. When the latter happens, it's easy for anyone to imagine various negative scenarios. The thing is, the scenarios in question is probably not true at all. The spirit probably believed that Reiko wasn't serious when she promised to call its name. However, it's likely that the reason Reiko never contacted the spirit again was because she didn't feel that she really was the spirit's friend. When a person does not even know if he/she is welcome to be someone's friend, then it's likely that the person would be reluctant to keep in contact with the person in question.

ED Theme: 「夏夕空」(Natsu Yuu Sora) by Atari Kousuke - AVI version (12.4MB) | PSP version (10MB)

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