To say that my backlog of OVAs and specials is immense would be an understatement.  But in moving overseas (again) in the midst of one of anime’s busiest seasons in a while, any hope of cleaning it up soon is a pipe dream.  In fact while theoretically Monday doesn’t have any new episodes to cover this spring, this is the first time all season I’ve had a day where I haven’t had regular episodic backlog combined with a laundry list of stuff to do.  While the temptation to crawl into bed at 7:30 was immense, I feel so guilty when I’m not doing something these days that I decided to dip into the pile and make a tiny little dent in it.

Likewise an understatement would be that there were a lot of directions I could go, having decided to take the plunge.  But while I have some stuff in that folder even older than this OVA, the mood for some Natsume Yuujinchou just struck me.  This is not a series that demands a lot of psyching up for me – losing myself in Natsume Yuujinchou is pretty much my default state.  I could, as Jerry Seinfeld said about reading the sports section, probably watch this show if my hair was on fire.

Once more I’m not sure if this special is anime-original or not, but I suspect it is.  Many of the Natsume OVAs have tended to be, and this one has the feel of a standalone work.  It’s not the emotional blunderbuss the first “Roku” OVA was, but it definitely treads similar ground – and it’s the ground on which this franchise seems most comfortable.  And, in thinking about it, to some extent it’s similar thematically to Gegege no Kitarou – though of course the two franchises could hardly be more different stylistically.  It never would have occurred to me that Midorikawa Yuki was influenced by Mizuki Shigeru, but in hindsight I think she actually was – in the same way all modern authors of youkai-themed manga surely are.

This story finds a young girl named Tamami in the midst of some strange ritual in the forest – which her friends dismiss with mirth and a bit of caution, suggesting that Tamami is a bit of an eccentric generally.  She has a very funny encounter with Nyanko-sensei, who’s here on other business and sniffed out her fried shrimp.  Having blown his cover by talking in front of the girl Nyanko-sensei tries to convince her this is all a dream, and it almost seems to be working until Natsume arrives on the scene.

The long and short of it is that Tamami is searching for a white owl – an owl she rescued after it was caught in some wire, in the process taking possession of the red stone it wore on a band around its foot.  Natsume is here searching for the master of the forest so that he can return his name, and he agrees to help Tamami – not realizing that the two of them are in fact looking for the same being.  That would be Hakuhi (Hayami Show), who takes the form of a white owl when he leaves the forest – which he hadn’t done in a very long time, leading to his unfortunate entanglement and rescue.

What’s the takeaway here?  That Natsume is so adamant that Hakuhi not erase Tamami’s memories – despite the obvious danger to herself and to the forest if he doesn’t, and the fact that she also knows there’s a talking cat roaming the countryside.  Natsume has definitely decided that it’s worth it – the connections he has to the youkai world, no matter how painful they can be, are his and his alone.  They’re a part of his experience, and should be valued for that reason – and he wants that same courtest extended to Tamami.  It can’t be of course – Natsume is special, and some laws cannot be broken.  It’s up to the viewer to decide who’s the lucky one here, Natsume or Tamami – but I know which one I’d pick.