Totali on February 20, 2012 · in Natsume Yuujinchou Shi

Summary:

Natsume is once again mistaken for Reiko, then being asked by a small spirit for help. The spirit’s friend had been sealed in a stone, and the Book of Friends would probably free him from it. Natsume of course agrees, but is separated from Madara during the exchange. Madara comes across a well while wandering in the forest, meeting Nanase inside. Surrounded by stones used for sealing yokai, Nanase decides to tell Madara a story about her past:

As Nanase was recognized for her talents early in her life, she worked as an exorcist even in her childhood. She one day failed to seal a violent ayakashi, however, when a smaller spirit was caught between the two. She was scolded for this afterwards, but having heard a conversation from the nearby spirits, she sought to find Reiko for advice. Nanase was instead led to a man named Mikage, who suggested that humans and yokai live in a balance. Nanase gained a great respect for this man, but upon returning to him later, learned that he was a yokai himself. As he used parts of his own body to create stones to seal yokai, he would eventually give in to evil himself. Because of this, he wished for Nanase to seal him away before this happened. Nanase did so, and from that day forward, she had no hesitations towards exorcism.

Madara and Nanase are able to escape the well, while Natsume elsewhere finds the stone sealing the small spirit’s friend. He returns the yokai’s name, which turns out to be none other than Mikage. Time had caused the evil to dissipate from him, and after thanking Natsume, Mikage also expresses his wish to thank the one who sealed him in the past. While neither the small spirit nor Madara reveal who this person was, Natsume is told that she had her own unique circumstances as well.

Reaction:

Argh!! I spent the entire first half of this episode expecting to see the hinted Reiko, but didn’t get any of it!! …Still, Nanase’s background story was probably interesting enough in itself to make this a decent episode. Not only did she seem to have the same struggles as Natsume growing up, with rumors about her behavior spreading among her classmates, but she may have even suffered more from the stress of having to practice exorcism from such an early age.

The talk about balance and karma, along with Mikage’s suggestion that Nanase held strength by recognizing the difficulties that came with her practice, all translated to another life lesson that we could take from the story. As I guessed last week, this notion also made us empathize with who we may have previously only viewed as an enemy. Just because one has a different philosophy, does that necessarily make them the bad guy?

It was also wonderful to see the episode go into full circle by the end, with Natsume returning the name to Mikage. This even went a step further, as Reiko had a distant connection to Nanase through this encounter as well. This thread may continue in the future, but as for next week, it seems like we’ll be seeing Natori again for some more epic yokai action.