Reviews

Natsume Yuujinchou turned out to be a rather simple, very human series at heart. The gentle simplicity to some of the tales, and each tale's lovely cast of characters, does a great job with creating a relaxing, slow-paced yet heartwarming series. The subtleties to a lot of the stories, and their endearing yet sometimes melancholic themes, tailors a rather lovable series that touches upon simple themes of life. While I was initially worried about was the very episodic nature of this series, it ended up that such worries were unfounded. Each 1-2 episode arc did an excellent job telling the story of Natsume as he looks to help out youkai in his own little way. The strength to this series would, almost definitely, be the characters, especially Natsume, Nyanko-sensei, and quite a few of the spirits(aka youkai) involved in the plot. There is a great sense of characterization amongst the cast, resulting in a fair number of enjoyable and well thought out characters. The pacing is a bit on the slow side, though, so don't expect any sort of hot-blooded, fast paced youkai action or anything of the sort.

The basic premise to the story is actually rather generic sounding, which originally rang off alarms in my head. Natsume, the main character, is a boy who was able to see youkai since his childhood. He inherits a book with the names of youkai written in it, and Natsume decides to return the names of the youkai to their respective owners.

While the story sounds typical, it's really the execution here that makes the series so endearing. The stories aren't very one-sided like one would expect, but rather, they are more balanced in perspective. It's easy to see how both Natsume (as a human) and the youkai (as spirits) both interact with each other and teach each other about the simple things in life. We learn about each of their respective hardships through their own perspectives, which adds some interesting insights to the main cast.

Each arc tends to have very retrospective, happy yet thought provoking endings, but at the same time this series doesn't hold back with it's melancholic, saddening arcs as well. This series touches upon simple themes in an unobtrusive, yet great way. It's amazing how powerful things such as a simple "thank you" or friendly "hello" could mean for some people, and this series does a great job at emphasizing such. This series may not always be very subtle about it's ideas, but it's certainly a series that you can easily relax to as you watch through it's endearing story arcs.

Artwork and music fit in almost perfectly with the general dream-like atmosphere to a lot of the series, adding gentle and pretty elements to the series as a whole. I can't say the music was exactly memorable, but it was very fitting for this series, and really contributed to the wonderful atmosphere this series had.

Notably, this series does have a rather slow pacing (similar to the famous Aria slice of life series), which means this is definitely not for people that can't stomach slow slice of life series. In a sense, Natsume Yuujinchou does require a bit of acquired taste, but that doesn't stop it from being a great series to just sit down and relax to. The atmospheric calmness to the setting, and the charms to the main cast, all add together in a wonderful little 13-episode package that certainly took me by surprise.

Animation/Art: 8.5/10

Music: 8.0/10

Characters: 9.0/10

Story: 8.5/10

Setting: 7.5/10

Overall Enjoyment: 8.3/10 (rounded down to an 8 on MAL)