Natsume Yuujin-Chou - 17
Short Synopsis: Natsume takes care of a strange kind of egg he finds in his garden.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10 (Awesome)
just when I thought that this series couldn’t get any more adorable after the fox-kid. This episode showed me that the creators have not lost their touch, like I originally feared, and they could actually surpass the first season one of these days.
This episode shows how Natsume takes care of an egg he finds in a nest in his garden, after the mother abandoned it. It probably was because the mother couldn’t see the egg, and therefore Natsume decides to take care of it, and eventually it hatches the cutest little youkai you could imagine. this episode was really good in displaying the strange mother-child relationship (and in Nyanko-sensei’s case it would probably be something like an uncle-child relationship) with this youkai, which they later name Tama.
And since this is a show about Youkai, the ending is a bit different from what happens in nature. When the time comes from Tama (a bird Youkai, after all) to spread his (her? After the fox-kid I’m not sure anymore) wings, s/he simply refuses to eat in order to avoid saying goodbye to Natsume, who did so many kind things to her.
One thing where the first and two seasons sort-of differ from each other is Nyanko-sensei: his banter is much more extreme than what it was in the first season, and he wasn’t exactly tight-lipped in the first season either. I guess it’s his way of warming up to living with Natsume (either that, or the writers are getting more confident and creative :P).