And right on cue, we’re back in exorcist mode. And it’s truly like a switch has been flipped. Few shows have such a perfect dichotomy of forms as Natsume Yuujinchou. Each is absolutely recognizable and they’re so different that they hardly seem like the same series. Natsume and especially Madara are the glue that binds them together of course. But tonally it’s just night and day. You know my feelings on the matter so I won’t belabor the point, but it’s at least interesting from an object perspective.

A two-part exorcist story is pretty standard practice with this adaptation. I haven’t counted but I’m pretty certain more seasons have had them than not. At least we’re not finishing the season on this one. In fact we get both main exorcists here, so you know it must be big happenings. Natori and Matoba are the light and dark of exorcism in Midorikawa’s eyes, seemingly, but they’re maybe not so different as they seem. The driver here is Natori-san, who actually calls Natsume at home to check up on him and winds up trapped in conversation with Touko. To cover his interest he tells her about a mansion with loquats growing on the grounds deep in the mountains, and she insists he take Natsume with him when he visits it.

Those loquats are growing at the ancestral home of Yorishima-san, who we met in Episode 3 (and who I predicted would be back – in some form). He’s asked Natori to fetch some books for him, being as he no longer wants to be involved with youkai and the area is crawling with them. But while picking the loquats (Nyanko’s cat-butt wriggle as he joins him is adorable) Natsume spies something odd on the grounds of the mansion next door – a hand with scissors cutting loose a cloth flag (which promptly blows across and swallows Natsume).

A bunch of abandoned exorcist mansions in the mountains is bound to spell trouble. And of course plot, which these types of eps have a surfeit of. And where there’s plot, there’s probably Matoba-san. He’s in the house next door wearing a paper mask, with a bunch of his clan members. Everybody asks why everybody else is there, and it turns out this is the Miharu mansion – the Miharu being an extinct branch of the Matoba clan. But the three Kami who protect the house (“like a zashiki-warashi in shifts”, as Nyanko-sensei describes it) still expect to welcomed when they arrive every few decades. Rather than cause a fuss, the Matoba go through the motions to avoid trouble – but it’s a ceremony built on a lie and imbued with a fair amount of risk.

The concept of the three Gods – with their varying degrees of capriciousness – is an interesting one no doubt. As is Matoba and Natori’s tug of war over what role Natsume should play in all this. There’s also a youkai in the house (scissors) trying to disrupt the welcoming ceremony because she hates the Miharu. Natsume gets involved with her, and will no doubt try to convince her that the Miharu have already died out (a hard concept for youkai to grasp). The two exorcists get trapped in a room together (now there’s a sitcom pitch) by her just as the Kami is arriving.

There’s not much emotional payoff, which is ultimately why I love this series, in these sorts of eps. But this one is perfectly fine for what it is. That said I am indeed glad these two eps are placed here and not at the end of the season, because I’d much rather see that deliver the sort of bittersweet pathos – and Nyanko-sensei hilarity – that are Natsume Yuujinchou’s greatest strengths.

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