This week in anime

[shirono]

1. The final episode of Ao no Exorcist was unsurprisingly underwhelming.
2. The first episode of Kimi to Boku was just as boring as the first chapter of the manga. But I got Manga!Boy x Pretty!Boy vibes from the manga, I'll probably pick it back up if that ever goes anywhere. Otherwise there's really no way I'm gonna spend time watching more of

Comments

[herongale]

You know I watched it all recently too, right?

I really liked it! The one thing I kind of got tired of was the constant narration by Natsume about how he doesn't understand people because he has no friends-- I get why he's preoccupied with that, but it felt sometimes like more of a refresher for the casual watcher than something character-driven, you know?

After the first episode, I told Ten that it really reminded me of Mushishi, and it continued to do so throughout. I think Mushishi is a better story with better animation, but it's also almost strictly episodic, and the advantage here is that there is some continuing storyline, and in any case it's like comparing something excellent with something even more excellent. I'm especially curious about Natsume's grandmother-- we currently know nothing about who she happened to end up being with (marrying?) to bring one of Natsume's parents into the world, and I'm not especially satisfied to believe that she's actually dead either, so I suspect that at some point this will be addressed (maybe in the manga). I don't have those kind of lingering questions about Mushishi, because each episode was so self-contained.

I think my favorite episode for season three was the one with the tree youma who used to tease Natsume when he was little. Bit by bit we are getting to see that his past wasn't a simple experience of being dumped onto people who feared him, but that his own standoffishness and refusal to connect was a part of why people ultimately ended up rejecting him and calling him a liar and not accepting his weirdness... he was a singularly unloveable kid, who never really trusted the good intentions of anyone. I really love how he sought out that tree youma just to say hi and see how she was doing. She was so lonely. ;__;

[shirono]

Oh, nice! I didn't know, but I do now!

Not understanding people is one thing, but I'm getting pretty tired of the "I can't tell them about the book of friends" and "I can't tell my family that I can see yokai." Again, it's all probably viewer refresher, but from my end, it sounds like he's trying to convince himself even though the right answer is clearly otherwise. Since he bangs around the idea that he can't tell the Fujiwaras about his abilities, I'm still holding out hope that the ultimate moment in this show is him actually TELLING them. SO many of his companions have told him that they can't "Be a real family" until he is open with them (wow, does this ever sound like Kare Kano, or what?) and that's why episode 16 was so beautiful to me, because Natori lays it all out for him very bluntly. "You are deceiving them."

I did pick up the Mushishi manga a while back (because it was at my library, woot!) but I couldn't make it through the first volume. Then again, I wouldn't have been able to make it through the first chapter of Natsume... that art is even worse than Oofuri. In that it is bad but also boring. At least Higuchi's anatomy flounders are interesting.

So you think I should give the Mushi anime a try? That the manga was episodic is what turned me off. Without something overarching, something that had evidence of little steps to a larger goal, I get bored. S'why I could never finish Aria.

(I did, however, poke through the bits of the manga that haven't appeared in the anime, though, and I think with some certainty we will have glorious crossdressing Natsume in season four. If not, it's because they tried to wrangle up some ridiculous dramatic original ending involving the Matoba clan and I will barf.) For the first time, I think I actually want more of the same thing from last season. With the climax that he tells everyone he loves the truth and everyone is a happy family. Look, I don't even want anyone to die!

The tree youma one was delightful. I loved seeing grumpy little boy Natsume, though seeing inside a neglected little kids life is always tough. I love it when Yokai hug Natsume. He always gives them great big, meaningful hugs.

I love how Natsume is such a teenager. There's a lot of realistic characterization in this, and that's what excited me the most. Natsume has different kinds of friends, just like people do.