Natsume Yuujinchou Roku Specials

“ Sayonara. ” A single word filled with so many emotions. These two special episodes continue the episodic nature, so I'd even recommend it to anyone that is unfamiliar with the setting and background of Natsume Yuujinchou yet want a taste of emptiness inside the heart. Surprisingly, Natsume takes a backseat in these two stories, being a small contributor to the plot that focuses on one important thing - promises. First episode is on the promise that an old youkai of Suzunaru tree made with a human in the festival night, which he seeks help from Natsume to find out what it was before he fades away with the tree. Second one is on a promise that a girl, Tamami made with a white owl to return a red-stoned ring to him in a forbidden forest where she met Natsume. As always, both stories offer a strong bittersweet aftertaste on how fragile memories are, with the melancholic ending that emphasizes the feeling. If you've been holding tears throughout the whole Natsume franchise, you might just cry in this one.

For being just two episodes, these specials pack a powerful emotional punch, right to the feels. I'll analyze them separately. In the first we have a typical setup for Natsume at this point. He meets a youkai who once had an interaction with a human, and decides to take pity on him and help him reunite with said human. Only problem is the old youkai can't remember so good anymore, so Natsume spends the episode investigating. Through exposition from the Fujiwara's he learns that the old youkai was famous for the way he could make the leaves on his tree sound like bells when they shook. It's a real Polar Express situation, where only true believers in the heart of the cards or friendship or whatever can hear it. I'm using a disparaging tone, but I assure you I was in tears by the end, when the youkai's final wish came true. Really I can't sell the emotional weight of it without just describing exactly what happened, and I usually don't care about spoilers but I'm going to use them as a get out of jail free card for not having to type out a beat for beat plot synopsis. It's good, it hits the right balance of sappiness and genuine emotion. I didn't think the second episode would hit quite as strong. It starts out as an Alice in Wonderland type adventure with a new girl we've never met. She even points out the Alice-like nature of it, twice. But in the end it's another tale of a youkai and human reuniting. The real conflict comes in the form of a memory erasure that the youkai has to perform as part of the arbitrary rules of the forest or something. Though Natsume protests against stealing even a second of time away from the memories of another person, he himself knowing the tremendous value sweet memories can have, the youkai insists it's the only way. He ends up wiping the girl's memory but in sappy anime fashion she still has lingering phantom memories anyway, like a dream you can't quite remember. Overall it's just the sort of thing I've come to love about this franchise and it's 2 more great episodes if you've finished the rest and were looking for more. 9/10