Natsume Yuujinchou pre-screening event
So I saw the first episode of Natsume Yuujinchou Go... >w<
And I could see it really well! Apparently the ticket I got was for a seat right in the middle front block, really close to the stage and screen! The venue was a lot bigger than I expected. During the event it was mentioned that over 1000 people would be seeing the episode today, and there were two screenings, which means there must have been at least 500 people in the room. There was great variety of people too, not just young women, but also many older women (maybe the majority, even ^^;), and men of all ages too. =O I was at the first screening of the day, meaning that I was amongst the very first people ever who got to see the new episode! ^o^
View from my seat... Not bad, huh? =3
At the entrance, everyone was given this nice fan. Though I think it would've been a much better idea if they'd handed out free tissues or handkerchiefs instead! It was cool enough today, so you don't really need a fan, and... The girl next to me was already crying before the show had even started! And I heard sniffles thoughout the entire room during the whole show... ^^;;;; Missed opportunity there, marketing people. xD
Flowers from Midorikawa Yuki-sensei and some other people...
The event itself was a lot longer than I thought, too! One anime episode is only about 20 minutes, so including a brief talk from the voice actors, I was expecting it to be less than an hour long... But it ended up being close to TWO hours, and more of a talkshow event (like the previous ones they did) than a screening. The actors present were Kamiya Hiroshi, Inoue Kazuhiko and Horie Kazuma.
The latter was really happy that they finally made a pin with Tanuma on it for the event, because there's barely any merchandise for him. xD So I bought it. xD Well, it was part of a set, but still. I also got the pamphlet, which came with a clear file, because I really wanna read the interviews with the seiyuu and the director.
Loot~ The other side of the free fan has Nyanko-sensei's face. x3
Gonna read it later tonight... =3
The first talk segment was an announcement of the results of a survey that was apparently held over the past few weeks, where people could vote for their favourite episodes in different categories. The first category was the "funniest episode", in which the winner was the scene where Nyanko-sensei transforms into Natsume. They talked about how there's a Line stamp of Nyanko!Natsume giving a thumbs up, and Horie said he uses it all the time. (Me too! xD )
Next was the "saddest episode", which was of course the one where Natsume visited his old family home. (Cue an entire room of 500 people all sniffling... Serously, I"m not kidding. Myself included ^^;;;) There was also one for "best episode" overall, for which the Moon Splitting Festival episode was chosen. When reading out some reasons why, most people had said it was because Natsume looked so cute in the Houzukigami outfit, at which Kamiya Hiroshi seemed slightly disappointed. ("THAT'S why you chose that as the best episode!!?" )
They played some of the episodes that were chosen, with the actors giving commentary on them. What stuck with me the most is Kamiya talking about the scene where Natsume is crying at his old house. Apparently he practiced for the scene while lying down himself (Or maybe even recorded it that way, I didn't quite get that nuance ^^;), to help him convincingly convey that sense of powerlessness though his voice. =O
They also had a popularity contest for people's favorite youkai, in which surprisingly (after Nyanko-sensei, but that's a given...) Hinoe won! I wonder why, because she never quite seemed THAT interesting to me. Apparently people like how pretty she is, and how she looks after Natsume as a reliable older sister figure, despite hating humans and men in general.
After that the voice actors were asked to talk about the new episode, but they didn't want to give anything away (other than Inoue's very unhelpful "I like the part where everyone shows up!"), so they decided to talk about it afterwards instead.
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It looks like the episode covered chapters 57-59 from volume 14, though with some minor changes. It's the story called "kawaranu sugata", or "unchanging form", referring to how Reiko always looks the same in Natsume's visions of her, I think?
...But that means they skipped over the entirety of volume 13!!!! =O I HOPE this just means that they're shifting the order of the stories around a little again, and not that they're leaving it out it alltogether! I REALLY wanna see the chapter that I cosplayed from in animated form! (And find out how wrong my interpretation of the character design was, and then fight the urge to re-make the costume according to the anime design, probably...) >wwwwwww<
Anyways... Maybe they just picked this story as the first episode because it's a good opportunity to re-introduce all the characters, especially Reiko. (It's a little easy to forget that she exists, sometimes ^^; ) And they probably also picked it for the meaningful title, I guess. It has a double meaning, implying that the anime is back and as good as ever, and that nothing really has changed since the previous seasons.
And it really hasn't! The animation style is about the same as San and Shi, with the slightly brighter colours and a slightly younger look to Natsume himself. The only difference in design I noticed is that Nyanko-sensei seems to be a bit fatter than before? Though he's gradually been getting fatter every season so far (it's something the seiyuu have often joked about in previous events), so maybe it's intentional. xD
The music was mostly the same or similar too; if there were any new soundtracks, I sure didn't notice them, probably either because they blended in with the old ones so well, or because they were remixes or remakes of them.
The opening and ending... were decent I guess? The opening song is as just catchy and fitting as the previous ones, and my heart skipped a beat when the first picture shown in opening was the scenery of Matsutani valley, and the third was Tengu bridge. (Don't remember the second... ^^;) And Setoishi station was in it, too. xD The Opening mostly just showcased all the places and youkai from previous seasons in turn, so it didn't really give away which stories will be animated this season.
The ending was just a still picture of some pressed flowers all the way though, so there's not much to say about that. =( Though I"m wondering if it was just a placeholder, and they'll have an actual ending sequence with animation for the actual airing? 'Cause it almost looked TOO lazy to be the actual ending...
The story itself was the one about Kayatsubo, the youkai who'd picked up a doll that belonged to a human child. Reiko learned about that and took the doll back, intending to give it back to the child, but the child's mom wouldn't accept it. So instead she tried to give it back to the youkai, but they never came back to collect it, thinking that Reiko had stolen it. So in the present day, it comes stalking after Natsume wanting its doll back, and then Natsume has to go and find it.
It's also the episode in which Natsume dreams about being Reiko, which was both hilarious and intriguing. (I remember when it showed up in the manga, it fueled this whole theory that he's actually a reincarnation of her =O) And I think the anime may have added some information about Natsume's grandfather? In the Reiko flashback, she said that "recently, there's been a (human) man who talks to me a lot, telling me it's dangerous to climb in trees and stuff". And it heavily suggests that she's been hanging out with him a lot... I don't remember this from the manga at all!! If it's true that they added it for the anime, that's... a pretty big thing, isn't it!? I wonder if they consulted with the mangaka before putting it in? Because it would at least confirm that Natsume's grandfather was a human, and not a youkai or anything... =O
Another change was that they took out the whole thing where Natsume considers asking Natori to teach him spells to protect himself, all that was kept was the line about him wondering how Reiko protected herself. They also took out the part where Natsume tells Tanuma to stay away from him until he's resolved the incident =(
Other than that, everything was adapted pretty faithfully I think! The pace felt a bit on the fast side, but that's probably because this one episode spanned 3 whole chapters in the manga, and a bit of time was spent on re-introducing the characters and plot in the beginning. But the next stories won't need to do that, so I'm sure they'll slow down a little.
After the episode, the seiyuu gave their impressions about it. They mostly said how nostalgic it was and that it really doesn't seem like four years have passed since the previous season. So you could rewatch all the previous seasons, and head straight into the new anime, without anything feeling out of place. Then one of them said "I bet all of you in the audience was up watching Natsume Yuujinchou re-runs or DVDs yesterday night!" ...Yeah, I was, actually... ^^;;;; ( I rewatched the Tsuyukami and Kogitsune episodes) Horie also talked about how the scenery in the new anime reminded him of when he traveled to Hitoyoshi with Inoue a few years ago, and on the inside I was like "tee-hee, I traveled there last week!" xD
I thought the event would be over after they'd talked about the episode, but then there was another segment! =O They played a quite long game of "20 questions", or something similar to it at least. One person had to sit with their back to a giant Yuujinchou, and then a name or word related to Natsume Yuujinchou would be displayed. Then they had to guess what it was, by asking questions to their fellow actors, who could only answer by "yes" or "no" (Though I feel like that rule got thrown out pretty quickly, 'cause they were chattering about all sorts of things in between ) For example they could ask, "Is it a youkai?", "Is it male?" "Is it an item?", "Is it food?", etc. Once they got the right answer, the page got torn out, meaning that they'd "returned a name", and the word on the next page would become visible. The person who could guess the most words within a certain time would win a box of manjuu.
It was pretty hilarious when their own names or characters were displayed and they just couldn't guess it (It took Kamiya WAAAAY too long to guess "Natsume Takashi"...! And Inoue got both "Inoue Kazuhiko" and "Nyanko-sensei" in a row, which was a total coincidence, 'cause they'd decided the order of the players by rock-paper-scissors xD ) , or when the name of a seiyuu was displayed, and then they answered "yes" to the question whether it was a youkai. (Apparently Kamiya, Inoue, Ishida Akira, and the director Oomori are all youkai xD ) In the end. Inoue and Horie got a draw, both getting 5 correct answers, while Kamiya only got three, since he got stuck on "Natsume Takashi" and "fried squid". xD
You'd really have to see the game to get how hilarious it was though, it's kinda hard to explain in words. I wonder if footage from this event is going to be on any of the DVDs for the new season...? I would assume it will be, since the previous seiyuu events were released that way. Though it might not be until next year until the DVDs of this season come out. U.U
Anyways... Now begins the long, long wait of 10 days until episode 2 airs...! (Though I'll probably still re-watch episode 1 when it officially comes out. =P )
And I could see it really well! Apparently the ticket I got was for a seat right in the middle front block, really close to the stage and screen! The venue was a lot bigger than I expected. During the event it was mentioned that over 1000 people would be seeing the episode today, and there were two screenings, which means there must have been at least 500 people in the room. There was great variety of people too, not just young women, but also many older women (maybe the majority, even ^^;), and men of all ages too. =O I was at the first screening of the day, meaning that I was amongst the very first people ever who got to see the new episode! ^o^
View from my seat... Not bad, huh? =3
At the entrance, everyone was given this nice fan. Though I think it would've been a much better idea if they'd handed out free tissues or handkerchiefs instead! It was cool enough today, so you don't really need a fan, and... The girl next to me was already crying before the show had even started! And I heard sniffles thoughout the entire room during the whole show... ^^;;;; Missed opportunity there, marketing people. xD
Flowers from Midorikawa Yuki-sensei and some other people...
The event itself was a lot longer than I thought, too! One anime episode is only about 20 minutes, so including a brief talk from the voice actors, I was expecting it to be less than an hour long... But it ended up being close to TWO hours, and more of a talkshow event (like the previous ones they did) than a screening. The actors present were Kamiya Hiroshi, Inoue Kazuhiko and Horie Kazuma.
The latter was really happy that they finally made a pin with Tanuma on it for the event, because there's barely any merchandise for him. xD So I bought it. xD Well, it was part of a set, but still. I also got the pamphlet, which came with a clear file, because I really wanna read the interviews with the seiyuu and the director.
Loot~ The other side of the free fan has Nyanko-sensei's face. x3
Gonna read it later tonight... =3
The first talk segment was an announcement of the results of a survey that was apparently held over the past few weeks, where people could vote for their favourite episodes in different categories. The first category was the "funniest episode", in which the winner was the scene where Nyanko-sensei transforms into Natsume. They talked about how there's a Line stamp of Nyanko!Natsume giving a thumbs up, and Horie said he uses it all the time. (Me too! xD )
Next was the "saddest episode", which was of course the one where Natsume visited his old family home. (Cue an entire room of 500 people all sniffling... Serously, I"m not kidding. Myself included ^^;;;) There was also one for "best episode" overall, for which the Moon Splitting Festival episode was chosen. When reading out some reasons why, most people had said it was because Natsume looked so cute in the Houzukigami outfit, at which Kamiya Hiroshi seemed slightly disappointed. ("THAT'S why you chose that as the best episode!!?" )
They played some of the episodes that were chosen, with the actors giving commentary on them. What stuck with me the most is Kamiya talking about the scene where Natsume is crying at his old house. Apparently he practiced for the scene while lying down himself (Or maybe even recorded it that way, I didn't quite get that nuance ^^;), to help him convincingly convey that sense of powerlessness though his voice. =O
They also had a popularity contest for people's favorite youkai, in which surprisingly (after Nyanko-sensei, but that's a given...) Hinoe won! I wonder why, because she never quite seemed THAT interesting to me. Apparently people like how pretty she is, and how she looks after Natsume as a reliable older sister figure, despite hating humans and men in general.
After that the voice actors were asked to talk about the new episode, but they didn't want to give anything away (other than Inoue's very unhelpful "I like the part where everyone shows up!"), so they decided to talk about it afterwards instead.
------------------
It looks like the episode covered chapters 57-59 from volume 14, though with some minor changes. It's the story called "kawaranu sugata", or "unchanging form", referring to how Reiko always looks the same in Natsume's visions of her, I think?
...But that means they skipped over the entirety of volume 13!!!! =O I HOPE this just means that they're shifting the order of the stories around a little again, and not that they're leaving it out it alltogether! I REALLY wanna see the chapter that I cosplayed from in animated form! (And find out how wrong my interpretation of the character design was, and then fight the urge to re-make the costume according to the anime design, probably...) >wwwwwww<
Anyways... Maybe they just picked this story as the first episode because it's a good opportunity to re-introduce all the characters, especially Reiko. (It's a little easy to forget that she exists, sometimes ^^; ) And they probably also picked it for the meaningful title, I guess. It has a double meaning, implying that the anime is back and as good as ever, and that nothing really has changed since the previous seasons.
And it really hasn't! The animation style is about the same as San and Shi, with the slightly brighter colours and a slightly younger look to Natsume himself. The only difference in design I noticed is that Nyanko-sensei seems to be a bit fatter than before? Though he's gradually been getting fatter every season so far (it's something the seiyuu have often joked about in previous events), so maybe it's intentional. xD
The music was mostly the same or similar too; if there were any new soundtracks, I sure didn't notice them, probably either because they blended in with the old ones so well, or because they were remixes or remakes of them.
The opening and ending... were decent I guess? The opening song is as just catchy and fitting as the previous ones, and my heart skipped a beat when the first picture shown in opening was the scenery of Matsutani valley, and the third was Tengu bridge. (Don't remember the second... ^^;) And Setoishi station was in it, too. xD The Opening mostly just showcased all the places and youkai from previous seasons in turn, so it didn't really give away which stories will be animated this season.
The ending was just a still picture of some pressed flowers all the way though, so there's not much to say about that. =( Though I"m wondering if it was just a placeholder, and they'll have an actual ending sequence with animation for the actual airing? 'Cause it almost looked TOO lazy to be the actual ending...
The story itself was the one about Kayatsubo, the youkai who'd picked up a doll that belonged to a human child. Reiko learned about that and took the doll back, intending to give it back to the child, but the child's mom wouldn't accept it. So instead she tried to give it back to the youkai, but they never came back to collect it, thinking that Reiko had stolen it. So in the present day, it comes stalking after Natsume wanting its doll back, and then Natsume has to go and find it.
It's also the episode in which Natsume dreams about being Reiko, which was both hilarious and intriguing. (I remember when it showed up in the manga, it fueled this whole theory that he's actually a reincarnation of her =O) And I think the anime may have added some information about Natsume's grandfather? In the Reiko flashback, she said that "recently, there's been a (human) man who talks to me a lot, telling me it's dangerous to climb in trees and stuff". And it heavily suggests that she's been hanging out with him a lot... I don't remember this from the manga at all!! If it's true that they added it for the anime, that's... a pretty big thing, isn't it!? I wonder if they consulted with the mangaka before putting it in? Because it would at least confirm that Natsume's grandfather was a human, and not a youkai or anything... =O
Another change was that they took out the whole thing where Natsume considers asking Natori to teach him spells to protect himself, all that was kept was the line about him wondering how Reiko protected herself. They also took out the part where Natsume tells Tanuma to stay away from him until he's resolved the incident =(
Other than that, everything was adapted pretty faithfully I think! The pace felt a bit on the fast side, but that's probably because this one episode spanned 3 whole chapters in the manga, and a bit of time was spent on re-introducing the characters and plot in the beginning. But the next stories won't need to do that, so I'm sure they'll slow down a little.
After the episode, the seiyuu gave their impressions about it. They mostly said how nostalgic it was and that it really doesn't seem like four years have passed since the previous season. So you could rewatch all the previous seasons, and head straight into the new anime, without anything feeling out of place. Then one of them said "I bet all of you in the audience was up watching Natsume Yuujinchou re-runs or DVDs yesterday night!" ...Yeah, I was, actually... ^^;;;; ( I rewatched the Tsuyukami and Kogitsune episodes) Horie also talked about how the scenery in the new anime reminded him of when he traveled to Hitoyoshi with Inoue a few years ago, and on the inside I was like "tee-hee, I traveled there last week!" xD
I thought the event would be over after they'd talked about the episode, but then there was another segment! =O They played a quite long game of "20 questions", or something similar to it at least. One person had to sit with their back to a giant Yuujinchou, and then a name or word related to Natsume Yuujinchou would be displayed. Then they had to guess what it was, by asking questions to their fellow actors, who could only answer by "yes" or "no" (Though I feel like that rule got thrown out pretty quickly, 'cause they were chattering about all sorts of things in between ) For example they could ask, "Is it a youkai?", "Is it male?" "Is it an item?", "Is it food?", etc. Once they got the right answer, the page got torn out, meaning that they'd "returned a name", and the word on the next page would become visible. The person who could guess the most words within a certain time would win a box of manjuu.
It was pretty hilarious when their own names or characters were displayed and they just couldn't guess it (It took Kamiya WAAAAY too long to guess "Natsume Takashi"...! And Inoue got both "Inoue Kazuhiko" and "Nyanko-sensei" in a row, which was a total coincidence, 'cause they'd decided the order of the players by rock-paper-scissors xD ) , or when the name of a seiyuu was displayed, and then they answered "yes" to the question whether it was a youkai. (Apparently Kamiya, Inoue, Ishida Akira, and the director Oomori are all youkai xD ) In the end. Inoue and Horie got a draw, both getting 5 correct answers, while Kamiya only got three, since he got stuck on "Natsume Takashi" and "fried squid". xD
You'd really have to see the game to get how hilarious it was though, it's kinda hard to explain in words. I wonder if footage from this event is going to be on any of the DVDs for the new season...? I would assume it will be, since the previous seiyuu events were released that way. Though it might not be until next year until the DVDs of this season come out. U.U
Anyways... Now begins the long, long wait of 10 days until episode 2 airs...! (Though I'll probably still re-watch episode 1 when it officially comes out. =P )