An old bus ticket leads Natsume to another youkai that needs a helping hand.
What They Say
Natsume comes across an old ticket in Reiko's belongings and decides to go to the abandoned train station to see why she kept it. There, he meets a slow witted spirit named Santo, who was waiting for Reiko the entire time to go Kiriganuma, to see and make up with his friend, Mikuri, but the trip isn't as easy as it first seems...
The Review!
This episode of Natsume Yujincho begins with a revelation that answers a question which might have been raised during the earlier episodes. Whenever Natsume returns a youkai's name he gets a glimpse of his grandmother's memories of that youkai. This explains why we see a flashback every time a youkai is set free. It also makes it clear to us that Natsume sees these flashbacks as well and is learning through them something about his late grandmother. Very little of that is exactly flattering, but Natsume is giving her a little more credit for goodness than she deserves. At any rate, the memories Natsume has seen spark an interest in his grandmother, and he starts going through some of her old personal effects to see what else he can learn about her. When he discovers an old ticket tucked inside a book, it starts him off on a search to find out just what she was up to at that old station so many years ago.
Naturally there's another youkai at the station, and he's been hanging around there for who knows how many years, waiting for Natsume's grandmother to show up and help him talk things through with his best friend. After Natsume has convinced the youkai that he isn't his grandmother (this youkai isn't the most cunning we've seen) he and the Lucky Cat take up where she left off.
This would be a lot easier to do if the youkai were a little bit smarter; but when you have to deal with a youkai who can't even describe how big his friend is, that makes it difficult to know even where to begin. Fortunately, the second youkai doesn't take a lot of looking to find. Unfortunately, he's got a pretty big chip on his shoulder.
The resolution of this episode has a good deal more action than I've come to expect from this show. That's not necessarily a bad thing; but action isn't something the show does all that well, in spite of all the supernatural material it has to work with. The climax seems a bit arbitrary. Once the youkai has been defeated, everything works itself out without any real problems being addressed. The show recovers a bit as we watch Natsume ponder over what happens afterward, and reflect on the rockier parts of friendships.
Summary
The fifth episode of Natsume Yujincho is the one that's so far interested me the least. The second half of the show seems a little off track, and the resolution could use some work. Also the first youkai we meet isn't all that interesting - just dumb without being endearing. But there are still some good moments. Natsume continues to get along better with people, and this time, when he starts thinking about friendship, he has a couple friends of his own to help him along.
Features
Japanese 2.0 Language, English Subtitles
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