For the second time this season Natsume Yuujinchou veers into the human realm, with the usual results. It’s exorcists who are often the series pathway into that world. And while they’re (as Natsume says this week) not all alike – Nitori and Matoba-san are quite different in personality if nothing else – these eps are almost always the series darkest and most conventional. And indeed Episode 5 and this week’s effort are about as Yin-Yang as Natsume Yuujinchou gets.
For a show as broadly consistent as this one, the poles are actually pretty polar. The fanbase seems pretty evenly divided – for my part, with almost no exceptions I tend to find these sorts of stories less involving than their opposites. But that’s a relative term. Things start off innocently enough, with Natsume and Nyanko-sensei looking for a place to get out of the rain. But as soon as you hear “abandoned train station in the forest” it’s a pretty safe bet things are going to get dark.
Matoba bookends this ep and is all over it, but he’s pretty mysterious even by his standards. He happens to be inside the station when Natsume and Nyanko arrive, and he starts dishing out his usual reptilian charm immediately. You almost never see Natsume react to anyone the way he does to Matoba – his reflex it clearly to get the hell out off Dodge ASAP. Matoba-san has a birdcage covered in a sheet that’s emitting lovely birdsong. But he says it’s actually a youkai called a hitokubi (human head). It seduces humans with its song, grows strong on their provender, and then lures in greater youkai to attack them.
How does this all tie in to what happens later, at the Hakozaki mansion? I’m honestly not sure. Hakozaki, if you’ve forgotten (I wouldn’t blame you, it’s been seven years) was the weird old exorcist in whose mansion Natsume helped search for a “secret study”. His granddaughter asked him back as she’s seeing weird things around the place, but Matoba and his retinue show up uninvited, chasing down a youkai they let slip away. And more than that, it’s one a member of the clan “created”. Also, Matoba is carrying an umbrella even though there’s no rain this day – and there’s a good reason for that.
Some of this is pretty straightforward. In both cases Matoba is using a youkai whose arrival is predictable to destroy another that he can’t or doesn’t wish to destroy himself. The one who comes to the mansion shows up every month, intent to steal his right eye. But that story he tells Natsume of how that youkai can transform itself into a human he and his clan know and trust was obviously pointed information. Was it planting seeds for something to come in the future, or is this implying something about the encounter at the train station?
Again, this is not really my favorite face of Natsume Yuujinchou but it makes for an interesting change of pace. And I’d rather get it now than eating up the final couple of episodes, as the seasons have often done. Plus there’s the matter of Natsume’s grandfather, who’s the enigma to end all enigmas with this premise. After having it hinted at twice it would be disappointing to say the least if there’s no connection between him and Hakozaki (or his house). But for now it’s just another tease – no information is forthcoming yet.
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