Natsume Yuujin-chou ep.04

July 30, 2008 | 9 Comments

Let's just get the bad thing about this episode out of the way. I think the dialogues on this episode are too stilted and abrupt. One moment they're talking about one thing and in a matter of seconds, they're already talking about something else without any transition in between. It's really disorienting because there are times when one can be fooled into thinking that they'll go into one direction with the dialogue only to be abruptly shifted into another topic. I also think that the motivation of the spirit in question is not very clear this time around. On the one hand, he is annoyed with the girl for coming to the school over and over again but then he also doesn't want her to stop coming to school. On the positive side, the whole ghost story part was pretty fun. I also can't help but feeling nostalgic for Honey and Clover when Kamiya Hiroshi said "Chiisai koro kara...." in this episode. The way he delivers that line sounds just so similar to the way Takemoto said it back in Honey and Clover.

Episode 4

On his way to school, Natsume encounters a Kappa laying exhausted on a street. Natsume tries to ignore the creature but can't help feeling sorry for it when it begs for water so he pours the water from his bottle onto the creature's head. Unknown to him, the entire thing was observed by the class Iinchou. In the afternoon, the same class Iinchou approaches him to remind him about tonight's Kimodameshi (a test of courage). Natsume tries to bail out of it but the Iinchou would have none of it and tells him that she'll wait for him. As he goes to the Kimodameshi in question, Natsume explains that his reluctance is because lots of spirits lurk around during summer night. When Natsume arrives in front of the meeting place, which is an old school, he is horrified to know that Nyanko-sensei has been following him. Nyanko claims that he can act as a bodyguard for him so Natsume has no choice but to agree providing that the cat doesn't talk to anyone else.

The class Iinchou then explains that the rule is that they must go in pairs, write their names on the 2nd floor's wall, then return back. While everyone is busy getting paired up, the class Iinchou tells Natsume that there's a story that there was a young God of luck that is loved by people and would take the form of a young kid and played in the village. However, a greedy merchant locked the God in the dungeon of his mansion. With the power of wealth, the merchant gained tremendous wealth. Howeer, due to his captivity, the young God became sorrowful and started to hate men. He eventually became an evil spirit and the merchant became bankrupt. The God then ends up haunting this place due to his sadness over what he's become. Natsume wonders why the class Iinchou tells him the story but she claims it's nothing important. Later on, everyone finds out that there is one student who doesn't get the draw. This causes some of the students to freak out.

Despite the incident, the students still proceed with the game so Natsume ends up going with one of the classmates. When they arrive upstairs, they are surprised to see a girl standing alone in the hallway. The girl then turns around, revealing that she only has one eye!! This causes Natsume's friend to freak out, inadvertently pushing both of them down the stairs. When Natsume regains his consciousness, he finds himself looking at a spirit with umbrella as its head. The spirit tells Natsume that he feels like he's seen Natsume before but he doesn't care. He won't allow Natsume to leave this place since people will destroy the school. Before the spirit can touch him, however, the class Iinchou sees him so the spirit has no choice but to flee. Much to Natsume's horrof, however, his other classmate has now disappeared, causing him to wonder if the spirit took the guy. To make things worse, the class Iinchou tells him that she thinks he saw something.

She then threatens to tell others unless he co-operates with her. Before Natsume can say anything, Nyanko-sensei appears and knocks the girl unconscious, thinking that she's a spirit. LOL. Later on, Natsume tries to open the door to go outside but finds out that he's unable to do so. Nyanko thinks that this is because there's a barrier around the area so Natsume asks him if he can find a way out. In order to do this more effectively, Nyanko transforms into a female student. Nyanko then goes out to look for clues and finds herself face to face with two small creatures, talking about her, saying that there's still one left behind and they should notify Master Shigure. Meanwhile, the class Iinchou explains that last year she also organized Kimodameshi but she lost an object. Because of this, she went back to the old school to look for the object.

Even though she was extremely scared, she can't seem to find the object. Just then, someone came and asked her what she was doing. That someone wore a bucket on his head. She explained that something important to her is missing so the guy told her to look for it and go home quickly. Despite this, the guy eventually returned with the object that she lost. The girl was happy, telling the guy that the object is a memento from her mother but she wondered why he gave it to her using a branch. The guy explained that he can't touch unpure things. It was later on that the class Iinchou realized that the guy was probably a ghost. She never had the chance to thank the guy so if Natsume can see something like him, then she'd like him to help her. Since the school is about to be demolished, she feels that this is her last chance. She then asks Natsume again if he can see ghosts and Natsume admits that he can see them.

When they return to the main area, they find out that no one has come back. Nyanko then snatches Natsume to tell him that while the followers are weak, their leader is strong and his name is Shigure. Since it's troublesome, Nyanko suggests that they go home. As for the barrier, he can easily destroy it. He, however, doesn't give two hoots about the others, suggesting that Natsume leave them here since he thinks Natsume doesn't even like humans, referring to his dreams. Natsume tells Nyanko that even if it's true, he can't give up on them. The class Iinchou then finds them so Nyanko transform back into his female form. She then sees a bunch of the small furballs running into the rooftop so she suggests that the person in question is probably on the rooftop as well. The class Iinchou wonders if he's referring to the guy who helped her looking for her belonging. This causes the girl, whose name turns out to be Sasada, to want to go to the rooftop to look for the spirit.

Sasada feels she needs to tell him how happy she was because he returned her belonging. Before she can do so, the roof collapse and almost hit her on the head so Natsume asks Nyanko to protect her while he goes upstairs to return Shigure's name. When Natsume arrives on the rooftop, he finds all of his classmates in unconscious state thanks to the spirit's power. Natsume asks the spirit to stop this but the spirit tells Natsume that he hates humans because they made him the way he is now and now they try to drive him away from his home. Natsume also points out that Sasada wants to talk to him so he wonders why he wont' see her. Shigure tells Natsume that he knows Natsume is Reiko's relative. He thinks Natsume is soft because he won't used the book of friends. In response, Natsume promises to return his name if he'll talk to Sasada. Much to his surprise, Shigure doesn't want his name back and wish that Reiko had burned his tarnished name.

Before Shigure can attack him, however, Nyanko appears and puts himself between Shigure and Natsume. This allows Natsume to return Shigure's name, the name of a gentle being. Shigure's memory then floods into Natsume, showing how Sasada has been visiting the old school since a year ago, wanting to meet Shigure again but Shigure was just annoyed at her. The truth is, he just didn't want to pollute her with what he considers his stained hand. He also realized that if he had talk to her, Sasada probably won't come back anymore. Before Shigure disappears, Natsume tells him that Sasada said Shigure isn't unclean because he was willing to help her. Even if Shigure doesn't believe humans' words, at least he should trust Sasada's. At the same time, Sasada makes it to the rooftop in time. Before Shigure disappears, she touches her head and thanks her. In the aftermath, Natsume finds the Kappa spirit unconscious on the road again so he pours water on the guy.

Impression

Natsume's refusal to come to the local event with his friends is understandable but rather unfortunate as well. It's obvious that him wanting to ensure that the event is not ruined by him being chased around/feeling uncomfortable leads to him isolating himself. I'd have guessed that this is also exactly why Reiko couldn't interact with other people either. Speaking of Reiko, after seeing Nyanko-sensei transforms into her shape, I can't help but wonder if Nyanko-sensei is Reiko's twisted soul. This is a tempting line of thought especially after watching this episode, which shows that a spirit can become an evil spirit due to anger. What if Reiko's final days were an unhappy one and when she passed away, her spirit couldn't rest in peace and became evil? The manifestation of this anger is Madara. Somehow a person managed to seal her in that shrine though and transformed her into Nyanko-sensei form. That would explain why Nyanko wants the book of friends.

As a side note, this is one episode that benefits from repeat viewing. When you saw it the first time around, you don't understand why Shigure disappeared when he saw Sasada even though he could have just make her unconscious like the other students. It's not until the end that you understand that he doesn't want to harm her because he like her a bit. Having said that, this still doesn't explain his schizo personality earlier where he was annoyed because she keeps coming to the school. I also wish that we get some kind of a glimpse as to what caused him to be angry in the first place (apart from the school about to be demolished). Does it mean that he's actually that young God of luck that Sasada mentioned in her story? Anyway, when I fist saw Shigure with that umbrella over his head, I'm reminded of Kasa-obake. Much to my disappointment, he was seen with a bucket instead of umbrella in the flashback. That means the objects he wear on top of his head don't have a particular meaning to them. He might as well wear a hockey mask and chase those students around.

© memento 2003