Natsume Yuujinchou Shi – 05

That mysterious transfer student

This episode has been sitting in my laptop for a while, but I make sure that I’m in my bestest mood when I watch Natsume, and it has to be at night (the light in my room is better at night). Natsume deserves that special treatment, hehe. This episode gives it the more reason to get special treatment because I get to know more about his past, which involved a girl! I’m too excited right now. By the way, I’ll be doing the summary for episode five because Jrow’s pretty busy right now. Now, I suck at writing summaries, so please bear with me here. Jrow’s coming back next week.

The girl arrives at a shrine to give her prayer because of a bad math grade. When she walks down the stairs, she slides from the stairs like a klutz and almost gets hit by a car until a sudden force pulls her back, preventing the accident. Her friends scold her, Ogata, a little for her injury while mentioning Ogata’s habit of visiting the shrine every time she gets a bad grade. This is the time when Ogata reminisces of that special visit to the shrine when she was in middle school.

Ogata had a bad math grade, and she needed to go to the shrine to redeem herself (this practice is obviously not working). When she reaches the shrine, she sees the transfer student Natsume sleeping like a log. She ends up getting kicked by Natsume when she woke him up, just like what others would do when they wake up. Natsume left the stunned Ogata screaming, and she got the chance to confront him cutely the next day. It seems that Ogata forgot what her mother said about not talking to the rumored transfer student. She also felt guilty for saying things she thought to be insensitive, but this cliché confrontation under a tree started the bud of their friendship to the point where Natsume and Ogata shared an umbrella on a rainy day. As expected, Ogata’s mother didn’t take it too well.

Ogata’s frustration at people’s judgment on Natsume escalated, when he was accused of breaking the school’s windows. Ogata tried to prove Natsume’s innocence, but he stopped her for doing that. Ogata could only cry, and Natsume had to transfer to another school, again. Before he left, he and Ogata shared a memorable walk as their last memory. After Ogata finished reminiscing, her friend mentions that a male friend from middle school saw Natsume in another city. What a coincidence.

Coming to present, Natsume brings a parasite youkai that attaches itself on humans. It’s a rare youkai but not the first time Natsume has seen it. It is, in fact, the same youkai he met at his previous town Ogata had been reminiscing about. Natsume saw the parasite youkai on his teacher, which made him panicked. Because of that, his polite friends didn’t try to talk to the transfer student Natsume again. The parasite youkai ended up sticking on Natsume, and he accidentally slammed the youkai in the process of shooing it.

The next day, Natsume saw the parasite youkai about to be attacked by a Komainu youkai. The parasite youkai got a slit on his back, but Natsume managed to save him (somehow). However, the Komainu ended up cursing Natsume, and the Komainu decides to undo his curse if he could hide from him for thirty days (but not moving to another town).

Avoiding the youkai was impossible however, and the youkai stalked Natsume wherever he went. Also, Natsume had a hunch that the youkai was just teasing him. Things climax when the youkai attacked him at school, breaking the school windows. Natsume didn’t let Ogata to prove his innocence, and he was passed to another relative because of that. Before he left, Natsume begged Komainu to undo his curse. It turned out that Komainu is a real Komainu, the youkai who helped the gods by protecting humans from misfortunes. He can’t curse or hurt humans by rule. Komainu just “teased” Natsume because he “hates humans”.

And we come back to Natsume’s last walk with Ogata, when he accidentally slipped his thought of always making people hate him. Ogata said the opposite however, saying that not everybody hates Natsume. She knew because she had always been watching Natsume.

Suddenly the parasite youkai jumps out of the window, breaking off Natsume’s nostalgia. He hopes that the youkai could tell Ogata that he’s having fun and is happy right now. As for Ogata, she does finds out that Natsume’s indeed happy and lives with a nice lady now. Ogata doesn’t know what Natsume saw, but she guesses that it’s somehow involved with the incident in front of the shrine. We also get proof that the one saving Ogata was indeed the youkai who pretended to curse Natsume.

Natsume x Ogata:

D’aaawww

Gravity doesn’t exist

Obligatory random megane bishie

RAWR FEAR ME

Hi thar Natori

What made this episode different from the rest is the fact that it has more than one person’s (Natsume) PoV. If you see the way I write (and argue), I’ve never been a fan of hypothesizes based on characters’ behaviors. I do that of course, but I try not to make assumptions. Well, tried and still trying although it’s not working. I prefer a fact stated by the character himself. Imagine how glad I was when Ogata’s PoV was also used in this episode. Ogata’s feelings can be known right away without having to guess based on Natsume’s impression on her. Of course, that’s not the only reason why Ogata’s PoV makes this episode more special. Natsume is a character that I will always enjoy no matter what, but I’ve also been curious about the interesting characters Natsume met. Every time I see the character of week, there will always be that moment where I ask myself, “What do they truly think of Natsume?” Of course, all of those dreams and talks Natsume had with those characters helped me in guessing, but there’s nothing better than knowing straight from the characters themselves.

There was not much about youkai this week, but that Komainu was sure interesting. His simple “I hate you” intrigued me. Who does he hates, Natsume or the humans? Does he actually hate them?  From what he did to Natsume, it seems that Komainu was just lonely. He did mention something about used to help the gods at helping the humans. I can only guess that the humans worship him less and less now as time passes. That’s so sad. So yeah, I’m pretty sure Komainu was just lonely and wanted to have company when he found out that Natsume could see him. Aw, Komainu is such a tsun.

It’s reassuring to see Ogata as a part of Natsume’s past. There’s actually something good in Natsume’s past. She is what people would say as a truly good person I think? She didn’t judge Natsume straight from his behavior. Natsume has been showing the sign of being “weird” by swinging his bag and talking by himself, yet Ogata didn’t say anything about it. Instead of judging him from the rumor (just like her mother), she decided to know him better by actually talking to him. Yup, definitely a good person. Why can’t everybody be like that? /sigh. Moreover, she was frustrated when Natsume was falsely accused. She was able to feel Natsume’s pain, and she also vented it out by crying.  She reminds me of that best friend character that always cried in the place of his cold friend. Wait, that’s what she is. Don’t know what Natsume think of her as, but I’m sure he enjoyed his moments with her.

Ogata said something that caught my interest though. No, not her stalkerish behavior of “watching” Natsume. Before Natsume bid her farewell she told him that not everybody hates him. Also, the girls saw him as “calm and handsome” too before he became frantic in the school hallway. Ogata’s female friends didn’t say anything bad about Natsume, and there was no sign of him being bullied. So basically, Natsume was just being paranoid? He was too used at being hated to the point that he can’t think of anything but that? Sadly, that’s what the signs showed.

What Ogata said made me imagine if Natsume wasn’t that paranoid. There’s a big chance that he might’ve stayed in Ogata’s town if he had opened up to his middle school friends little by little, starting from Ogata. Maybe they would’ve developed a relationship too (I’m sorry but I’m a sucker for romance). He could’ve been happy being friends with them! But then I remember about his alcoholic relative who took him. He won’t get a happy family like the Fujiwaras if he had stayed in Ogata’s town. He wouldn’t have met Madara, Natori, Matoba (ugh), and Tanuma. The town where Natsume lives right now might be smaller, but he’s definitely happier there, with the Fujiwaras. Know what, I like the way Natsume is right now. Everything happened for the best.

Preview: Natsume in a bottle. I suspect that a youkai somehow caught him. But that’s not what I’m amused about. Nyanko-sensei is going to replace Natsume for a day! Next week will be fun.

Wild “Natsume” next week!