Natsume Yuujin-Chou - 23
Short Synopsis: Natsume’s foster father tells him about Reiko.
Episode Rating: 8,5/10 (Awesome)
Okay, so I’ve had my share of problems with the second season so far, but this episode was without a doubt the best episode of Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou, and not just because of the strange change in animation style (which did help, though). This episode really was everything that makes this such a good series, and FINALLY we get some more background on Reiko!
I think that one of the reasons why we’ve seen so little of Natsume’s friends and family is that he hardly ever hangs out with them. This episode felt like the first time he spent some quality time with his foster father (or however that’s called, I think his name was Shigire), and after all this time, he’s still having trouble to fit in. When at the end of the episode, he destroys his own room, seeing Shigire accept everything that happened, including Natsume’s very bad attempt at lying, it felt like Natsume had grown much, much closer to his family.
And I’m not sure who exactly was responsible for the animation in this episode, but it looked really good. At the expense of a bit of detail, there was lots of movement, and this worked especially well with the Youkai that appeared in this episode, especially when it tried to eat Natsume. That one would have failed completely if it was just handled with the regular animation of this series.
It also was very interesting to see Reiko from the perspective of someone who can’t see Youkai. When Shigire met her, she really looked like a strange girl who talked to trees, instead of the manipulative yet good-hearted girl that we’ve come to know her as. The choice for the boy’s voice actor also was a strange one: he nearly continuously screaming, but I guess that that’s where the realism comes in: real boys his age also tend to scream and yell when they get worked up.