Natsume Yuujinchou: Ishi Okoshi to Ayashiki Raihousha

It's no doubt that natsume yuujinchou was a booming iyashikei franchise. Manga has been ongoing since 2005, 6 seasons of anime adaptations, No 36th in NHK top 100 anime series, and doing very well in manga selling stats. Now after almost 3 years of adaptation absence, Takashi-kun blessed us with a 2-parts movie this spring.

First part is about helping mitsumi the Ishi-okoshi to do his quest. I thoroughly enjoyed this episode. Nice combination of comedy and heartwarming moments with a slight touch of drama. And I always welcomed more hinoe screentime.

Second part was interesting in its own way and opened up the relationship between two ... friends and two neighbors. We saw more through misuzu, tanuma, and sasame, the neighbor/rival of misuzu. Overall great stories, first story was a bit better.

Artstyle remains almost the same, but nice tweaks have been applied.

Nothing special about the sounds. Usual osts used. Seiyuus were done good as usual.

Overall, natsume yuujinchou: Ishi Okoshi to Ayashiki Raihousha is another great movie which was nothing less expected from the franchise. Never misses the chance to make you mesmerized with its own world, characters and the story.

I know it's months late as almost all my Natsume reviews are but I hope you enjoy reading the review :D

Natsume Yuujinchou is one of the very very few anime I consider an art. Always coming up with new stories and adding intereseting characters without being repetitve nor forced. It has been like that for many years and I hope it continues to be so.

This "Movie" is pretty much 2 different OVAs combined together. The 2 stories are based on the same themes, trust and friendship, and that might explain why they were grouped together.

The first story is about an adorable little ... Yokai called Mitsumi. Mitsumi is entrusted with the mission to awaken ,Gantetsu, the Yokai Master she follows. She is using a small map to get there but there is a small problem she faces while doing that, every other Yokai is trying to get that map to earn the reward from waking him up.

The second story is about Tanuma who just woke up from a very weird dream. He is then met by a unique visitor who came to his house and is starting to see him almost daily. Between the feeling of being happy to interact with the same Yokai Natsume sees and the feeling of not wanting to ask Natsume and making him worry, Tanuma goes on and starts meeting with the guy waiting to see what that will lead him to.

Both the stories were done brilliantly and their conclusions are ones that leave you satisfied.

The art, animation and overall direction were brilliant and the voice actors did a very good job. I personally loved Misumi's voice as it was so cute :"D

Overall, a 10/10. A really entertaining "Movie" that is just what I really needed to watch. Hoping to see more of Natsume soon.
Would recommend it and would recommend the whole series.

This movie is basically two standalone episodes of the anime. They don't touch on the main plot of the series, but I really liked the individual stories.

The animation, music and voice acting are as always beautiful.

I enjoyed these episodes very much since they kept the feeling of the series, with all the relaxing, supernatural and beautifully written stories. One was of Natsume trying to help a little yokai fulfill its duty while nyanko-sensei is as always on the hunt for fun and good sake. The second one was helping Tanuma with a very interesting guest.
Both were wholesome with their heartwarming& funny moments while showing ... the stories of the yokai involved. I really wish there was more, I love the calming atmosphere and the way the ayakashi are portrayed, debatably more human than humans at times, but also with the bit of sadness granted by their large lifespans as they know how fleeting time is.

As part of the series though, you'll probably not fully understand the characters, jokes& references, so I wouldn't recommend watching this "movie" if you haven’t seen anything of the anime.

Overall, if you enjoy the series I have no doubt in my mind that you'll enjoy these two as a little treat until we get more! If you haven't... Then what are you waiting for?

Bonus: If you like this anime& haven’t seen it already watch the Mushi shi series. They have a very similar atmosphere but slightly less.. colorful. I think you'll enjoy it as well.

It's a little disappointing that it'd been 3 years since the last Natsume related thing was released and this is all we got. I was hoping for maybe a bit more backstory for Reiko or something remotely resembling character progression but instead we get what is essentially two OVA episodes crammed into one.

The first one is a standard youkai of the week story where Natsume gets tangled up in the affairs of some new monster he meets and learns a valuable lesson about the true meaning of friendship or something. You can maybe tell that I've become a little burned out on the series after ... binging 6 seasons of extremely episodic content back-to-back.

The second episode was a little more interesting, involving Tanuma with one of the youkai in Natsume's little group that follows him around disguising himself as a human. Tanuma is an interesting character for his connection to youkai without ever being able to directly see what's going on, so having a youkai appear to him even as a human was kind of neat. I think I'd be happy to get more of this series but for now, as I said, I'm a little burned out and happy to take a break. These episodes get a pass at an average 7/10