We sure have been talking about “that” niche a lot around here lately (I really do need to come up with an official name for it).  And boy, if any show ever looked like central casting for it, Tonari no Yokai-san is that show.  Honestly it almost seemed too on the money, a concern I have a hard time quantifying but which I suspect some of you will grasp anyway.  Still, I always like to have a series in this slot on the schedule, and this one was the natural candidate going into the season.

Any way you butter the toast, Tonari no Youkai-san checks a lot of my boxes.  Shinto, cats, idyllic rural setting.  Based on a finished 4-volume manga (which suggests one cour is doable for a full adaptation) it’s set in a small Japanese village called Engamori where the presence of “neigbors” is a routine part of daily life.  Among them is Buchio (Kaji Yuuki, sigh).  Buchio lives with Ooishi Takumi (Tamura Mutsumi) and his family, and he hasn’t been a youkai (called “ayashi” in this mythology) for long.  He’s a house cat who, at the age of twenty, split his tail in twain and evolved into a neokamta.

A little background here.  In Japanese folklore, elderly pet cats sometimes evolve into nekomata or bakeneko (which only have one tail).  In real life the legends hold that these creatures – especially nekomata, which are smarter and more powerful than bakeneko – are mischievous at the very least and often hostile and dangerous towards humans.  But here there seems no such concern.  Buchio’s fam is happy that he’s going to stick around (“20 is a ripe old age for a cat but nothing for an ayashi”).  As for Buchio himself (who can now speak the human tongue), he’s rather neurotic and insecure about the whole thing.

Meanwhile we have Mu-chan (Yuikawa Asaki, who’s going to be playing Tokiyuki in The Elusive Samurai, so it’s interesting to get a preview of her work).  She seems to have an ability to see ayashi that even in this town most people don’t, and not just that – she can see The Void, “an imaginary dimension between here and the afterlife”.  And it seems that her missing father may been swallowed up by it, though the spirit of her departed grandfather counsels her against believing that (here, Obon is presented in very literal terms).

The leaders among the local ayashi appear to be the kindly tengu – patriarch Tazenbou (Urayama Jin) and young adult Jirou (Higa Ryosuke).  Jirou offers counsel and comfort both to humans (especially Mu-chan) and ayashi.  It’s he to whom Buchio goes for help in making the tradition to youkai (this being Japan, the paperwork is a nightmare).  Jirou-san hooks him up with Yuri (Taichi You) who, as a bakegitsune, is well-placed to guide Buchio through the process of learning how to transform (the essence of nekomata-dom).

All in all Tonari no Youkai-san plays as pretty pure slice-of-life and wistful to the dangerous edge of being “healing”.  Even normally scary youkai and ghosts are friendly and warm presences here, and everyone gets along.  But the reference to The Void and the fact that it seems to be following Mu-chan suggests there may be at least a sliver of something darker here too.  It’s a good combination on the whole so far – the premiere was successful at world-building and quite absorbing, and as I’ve come to expect from Lidenfilms the visuals were very pleasing.  I’m not wholly convinced yet but the fit looks like a pretty good one.