Natsume Yūjin-Chō Roku

Episode 8

Natsume Yūjin-Chō Roku was delayed this week, but it was worth the wait. It's one of the storylines the show has executed expertly since the very first season: a bittersweet yokai love story. However, unlike the firefly tragedy in “Fleeting Light” or Shibata's unrequited love in “False Friend,” this story has what's closest to a happy ending. Of course, it's a complicated story with no right answer that puts Natsume's own values on display. All's well that ends well, but it's a half hour that will really make you think.

Aoi is a yokai boy who was down on his luck after injuring one of his wings. Kaoru is a human girl who befriended him and eventually fell in love with him. By the time Natsume enters their story, the two have been out of contact for about three years. In that time, Aoi devoted himself to his training in an effort to forget Kaoru, but Kaoru made no such pretensions. She continued to write to Aoi devotedly, even though she received no reply. It's clear whose side Natsume is on, as he goes along with Kaoru's plan to trick Aoi into returning to her. Even Nyanko-sensei, who is normally so reluctant to go along with Natsume's plans to help others, is all on board with reuniting these lovers. (No doubt his extended stay with somebody as kind as Natsume is having an effect.) What's happening here? One theory is that Natsume is so thrilled to meet another human who can see yokai—and whose role isn't to exorcise or harm them but simply to love one—that he sympathizes wholeheartedly.

This is a story where human desires triumph over yokai ones, which left me thinking about Natsume's role as an interloper. Without Natsume, this reunion wouldn't have happened—and I'm left wondering, would that have been for the best? Aoi says he left because Kaoru was sabotaging her human relationships to be with him, but there's definitely a part of him that left for his own sake too; he was trying to save both of them greater pain later on. When Kaoru says, “there'll be even more tears later,” it's possible he also means his own. Natsume should know in particular that yokai love stories never work out, and maybe respected his wishes to stay away. On the other hand, Aoi is remarkably attentive for a yokai. So many times, we've see yokai attempt to return to a human friend only to discover the human is now old and infirm (such as in “Mischievous Rain”) or perhaps even long dead (like in “Soundless Valley”). Meanwhile, when Aoi said Kaoru should be in high school now, he was absolutely right. This indicates that he had a greater connection to this human than yokai in previous stories have had.

In the end, Kaoru and Aoi attempt to make a go at it, but viewers' previous knowledge of so many tragic yokai/human relationships make this reunion bittersweet. This pair has a melancholy past behind them and a future filled with pitfalls ahead, but here in the present, there's a moment of temporary bliss. “Once we start learning the taste of human food, we can be difficult,” Aoi says, ostensibly about Nyanko-Sensei's gluttony, but really about his taste for coexisting with his special human. With Natsume's help, Aoi has made the decision that it's better to have loved and lost than never loved at all. At least for now, this sweet but thought-provoking episode has given him a happy ending.

Rating: A

Natsume Yūjin-Chō Roku is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Lauren writes about geek careers at Otaku Journalist.