Natsume Yūjin-Chō Go

Episode 5

Catching up with Natsume Yūjin-Chō Go feels a little bit like a reunion. Every episode re-introduces us to an old friend. This time, Natsume catches up with his pal Taki Tooru, a girl who uses a magic circle to see yokai. This episode revives old character rapports and even old animation, but with the introduction of not one but three mischievous yokai, it offers a fresh new look at the human condition. Unlike the previous two-parter arc, this week presents a quick, easily-resolved story. But under the surface, it's a discussion on love and loss and permanence, the way unnecessary feelings burrow under our skin in an intensely relatable way.

I'm so glad that Natsume has a friend like Taki, who may not be able to see yokai without help, but always believes Natsume when he sees one. In season one, after Natsume comments on the strange writing on the blackboard and Nishimura doesn't see it, Natsume would have simply turned inward and dealt with that struggle himself. Now he has a kindred spirit in Taki, and Natsume rarely has a problem he can't tell somebody about. Still, it does happen, because now Natsume is saddled with Natori's revelation that the magic circle Taki uses is a forbidden technique. It's easy to see how happy using the magic circle makes Taki, especially when it allows her to help a yokai solve a problem. Look how she treasures the plum blossom that yokai left as thanks. There's always a light, sweet side to the episodes Taki features in. She alone appreciates Nyanko-sensei's fluffiness, and she's eager to help a yokai Natsume describes as “cute.”

“Taki still believes that not all encounters with inhuman things have to be scary,” Natsume observes after hearing her tale. “She's right, but…” That “but” says everything. Natsume knows how emotionally high-strung yokai can be. Much of the tension around the big, hairy yokai who haunts this episode centers around whether he means well or ill. He's mercurial, speaking about kindness and the warmth in a human's eyes one moment, and threatening to snap Natsume's neck the next. I believe that in Natsume Yūjin-Chō, yokai represent the human id, an unchecked, instinctual, emotional force that would run rampant if we let it. A kinder description would be to say yokai are childish, wanting to play and make connections with others, even if they don't always know how to do that in a healthy way. The hairy yokai is gripped with so much emotion over his encounter with Taki that he feels compelled to scrawl out a poem about his feelings.

“Whoever forbid it was kind,” says the yokai of Taki's magic circle. Being a human myself, I only thought of the ways that banning the circle would protect humans from yokai; not how, as this yokai observes, banning it protects yokai from humans. He doesn't want Taki to know he's there, but he also finds himself reluctant to leave her side. Taki's massive home seems so empty, but it's teeming with affection—Natsume's friendship with Taki, Taki's yearning to cuddle Madara, the traveling rabbit's affection for its friend, and the hairy yokai teaming up with the humans to help. It's such a different dynamic than last week at the equally palatial matoba mansion, which was filled only with tension and negative forces, from the casual cruelty of the exorcists toward Natsume to the bloodlust of the vengeful mask yokai. This week shows that nobody's life needs to be at stake for Natsume Yūjin-Chō to deliver a kick right in the feelings. Within a storyline as simple and solvable as finding a lost yokai in Taki's house, there's no limit to the depth of emotions that can be shared between the human world and the spiritual one.

Rating: A

Natsume Yūjin-Chō Go is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Lauren writes about geek careers at Otaku Journalist