Natsume Yuujinchou Go – 10
Move over, “Girls Talk”, it’s time for “Obaa-san Talk”
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I can’t believe this season is almost over…I feel like everything is moving too fast! No! Go away 2017!!! |
Natsume Yuujinchou strikes gold again this week with a delightfully adorable offering. As per usual, it leaves me with a bittersweet feeling, albeit in the best way possible. But unlike usual, the star of the show is a middle-aged couple. They’re not just any middle-aged couple either, but the cutest husband and wife pair ever!! Natsume’s adoptive “mom” is potentially the most moe character this season. I’m still reeling at how cute it was to see her wave enthusiastically to a crow, only to blush at some passing schoolgirls who giggled at her expense.
It wasn’t a mean laugh either, they just couldn’t ignore the cuteness
I can’t find much to actually say about the episode aside from how sweet it was, to be honest. Touko and Shigeru have been established as these impossibly nice folks for the entirety of the series, and we’ve seen firsthand how they slowly got Natsume to open up to them. If anything, this episode was just a reminder of all these things that already happened, so there’s not much new for me to add.
There was one thing that struck me, and that’s the topic of death. Natsume and the other moody teens all have their own personal issues, but most of them boil down to “making friends.” Can humans and youkai become friends? Can they stay friends? Can awkward, introverted teenagers manage to form friendships with other teens and learn to build a social support system? It’s mostly about the formation of these new, budding relationships and doing your best to maintain them for as long as possible.
However, once you start to become old enough that death is a very real threat, priorities can change. Instead of thinking about moving forward with relationships, Touko mulls over what will happen towards the end of one. More specifically, what would she do if either herself or Shigeru died at different times? It’s not something I really find myself worrying about at this age, so it’s a dilemma that hasn’t really crossed my mind since it’s not yet relevant. It’s such an obvious thing though…we all will likely die at different times. We’ll have to deal with loved ones dying, or carry the guilt of knowing me might leave them behind to carry the burden. It’s scary to think about inevitably losing something that you love dearly, and wondering if you’d even be able to continue on with your life afterwards.
This episode took a rather dark turn as Touko was lying in bed, lamenting the fact they will both die one day and drift apart. However, the great thing about Natsume Yuujinchou is that it doesn’t dwell mercilessly on pessimistic thoughts. Once the night has passed and Touko is back with Shigeru, she doesn’t act strangely. Death is a fact of life that’s scary when you think about it, but you have to just move on or those thoughts will consume you. It was also a nice twist that the crow was being followed by a white crow youkai/spirit thing – likely the dead mate’s reincarnation. Whatever it was, only Natsume could see it. It made life seem not quite so lonely to see that even this scruffy little crow had someone that loved it enough to follow it around even after death.
This also gives Natsume’s addition to the family a new meaning. When Shigeru or Touko dies, they will no longer be alone, because Natsume will be there to provide support. They will no longer be entirely alone. I was thought of their adoption of Natsume as being primarily to save him from abusive households, but in a way, he’s also saving Touko and Shigeru.
Hmm, so I’m blogging two shows where some blonde boy with a tight connection to mythical creatures gets adopted this season…wouldn’t Natsume make a cute tanuki?
I almost died at how cute this date was
About Overcooled
A neuroscience graduate, black belt, and all-around nerd. You'll either find me in my lab or curled up in my rilakkuma kigurumi watching anime.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I’ll take a whole episode of Miki Itou anytime. This was really nice, and one thing I thought was really great was that there wasn’t a snap decision about inviting Takashi to live with them. Shigeru took his time to think about it, and then after he brought it up to Touko, they both then took their time to think about it as well. We rarely see that kind of deliberation in a medium like TV, where they usually feel that things have to keep going at a quick pace.
And take it from me, people do think about what’ll happen when they get older, if they have kids or not. And for me, a lot of it was thinking that Touko and Shigeru are actually pretty close to my age. Maybe most people watching think “Oh, they’re *old*” like some grandparent, but I’m at the age where, yes, I could be a grandparent.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
I really appreciated that it didn’t happen all at once as well. It felt much more real that way, especially since this is a huge decision to take someone in (especially someone who is already a teenager and has been branded as this strange, black sheep of the family). I like that part of it was even just cleaning up the guest room to see if he’d even fit in their house.
Ahh so it really is something you can’t help but think about when you get older. It’s funny, I always thought Touko and Shigeru were an elderly couple, but after this episode I was like “oh wait they’re probably just a bit older than my mom”.