A chance encounter with a kindred soul causes Natsume to ponder what his powers have come to mean to him.
What They Say
As it turns out, the youkai and the human have a relationship that goes back many years. The man, like Natsume, had the ability to see youkai, and it carried the same disadvantages for him. An outcast, a loner by circumstance more than choice, friendless except for the youkai - these are parallels hard for Natsume to overlook. But something happened that Natsume hadn't counted on. The man lost his ability to see youkai one day and never recovered it. Natsume is forced to take into account the possibility that the same thing may happen to him, and wonders, to his surprise, if this is what he genuinely would want to happen.
The sense of folklore in this story is as strong as it was in the second episode, which is one of the things that attracted me almost as much as that early episode did. The legend of the mountain god that loved a human could be a good story in its own right. But instead of getting Natsume involved in that old story or using it to offset the present events, the episode links the past to the present. The tale of the mountain god contains the origin of the youkai that we meet. A new story grows out of the old. The feeling of time and the ancient ways living on is increased, and the story becomes almost mythic as it nears a poigniant end among the living lights of summer.
Summary:
This episode is the kind of story I have come to expect from Natsume Yujincho, but this time it feels like there's more behind it; the roots strike deeper. It's one of the more evocative stories told thus far. You're left thinking not only about the events you've just seen but the whole world that they're a part of. Your mind goes back to a time when human and youkai were perhaps nearer to one another than they are now. One of my favourites so far, I have to say.
Features
Japanese 2.0 Language, English Subtitles
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