A trip with Shigeru allows Natsume to meet a young fox friend of his.
Opinions:
It was nice to see the little fox again. Really seems like the kid has grown up a little since the last time we saw him. Now able to fight back against those bully youkai and doing so in a pretty comical way. At least things seem to be going alright even though a tough point was made by that rock spirit in the episode.
The watch was a good representation for the different times that exist between the types of characters in the series. You have humans with their lifespans, animal spirits, and of course full youkai who have the longest lifespans of all. It was even hinted with Nyanko’s injury at how different time is for Natsume and Nyanko. In no time Natsume will grow old and die, simply to become a memory like Reiko. Even Natsume and the fox have different lifespans and will eventually be parted simply by time itself. Of course its not like I support the rock’s position that it’s better to not have any bond just so there isn’t pain. They should still be allowed to be friends and live their lives as they wish. Think even the rock believed differently when in the end he sacrificed almost eternity to protect the fox.
One nice part of the episode was just Natsume spending time with Shigeru. I mean we don’t get a lot of time with him spending time with Shigeru in the series so this episode was worth watching for that reason. Natsume really didn’t get to know his parents so getting to go on a trip with Shigeru who is his father figure is a good thing for him. He had to balance things with finding the fox, but he still got to spend quality time while working on the pottery. I think the pottery was good evidence for the different motives Natsume had. In part he wanted to find herbs for the injured Nyanko, but he also wanted to see his friend again.
It wasn’t a long reunion, but it was still good to see Natsume and the fox spend a bit of time together. While Natsume didn’t know everything that happened he could still mostly understand the main message. There’s no way Natsume can ignore the meetings and partings between him and those he meets just because their time in the world might be different.
I was glad to see another familiar face from previous seasons. Looking forward to seeing what kind of situation Natsume will get into next episode.
Score: A
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