There are few phenomena in manga like Natsume Yuujinchou.  And there are few anime which have been a part of my life for so long.  It’s one of this series that I can be away from for any length of time, and as soon as I return I’m instantly transported not just into its world. but into the frame of mind it puts me in.  Its so fundamental to who I am as an anime fan that it’s impossible to know where I begin and Natsume Yuujinchou ends – at this point we’re tied together at the genetic level.

Maybe for the same reason as Majimoji Rurumo, I felt like watching Natsume Yuujinchou: Utsusemi ni Musubu, which had been sitting in my queue for some months time.  Natsume Yuujinchou has a way of being sad and healing at the same time, which certainly seems appropriate for the moment.  Natsume has had any number of OVAs and specials over the years, but Utsusemi no Musubu was its first venture onto the big screen and thus, kind of a big deal.  It fared pretty well at the box office in Japan (and even better in China) – not a blockbuster, but typical consistent Natsume success.

“Consistency” is a buzzword that could have been invented for this franchise specifically.  Not just commercial success, but creative.  And one element of that has been that the anime-original episodes have tended to be just as good as the manga stories – a rarity for manga adaptations, and a surefire sign that the anime team under Oomori Takahiro elementally understands this series.  Original stories like “The Little Fox’s Watch” and the “Itsuka Yuki no Hi ni” OVA are among the very best (and most emotionally powerful) Natsume Yuujinchou has ever been.

I don’t quite put Utsusemi ni Musubu on that level, but it’s not far off it.  This is a low-key, contemplative and wistful story even by this franchise’s standard.  Perhaps because it has so much more time to unfold its story, “Ephemeral Bond” feels more measured and introspective than most Natsume serials.  There are lots of interesting new faces here – the kindly wall youkai Monmonbou, the strange boy Yuuki from Natsume’s past, the paper artist Yorie, and her odd and clumsy son Mukuo.  Their threads will all tie together eventually, but Utsusemi ni Musubu is in no rush to do so.

Most delightful to me is the subplot which sees the tree which is imbued with Mukuo’s magic split Nyanko-sensei into three ko-nyanko after he eats the fruit growing from it.  I’ve noted it before, but Inoue Kazuhiko would be one of the names I’d seriously consider for the title of finest seiyuu anime has produced.  Certainly his range is unsurpassed, if not unmatched.  He’s always superb in his twin roles as Nyanko and Madara, but his turn as the three kittens is an absolute comic tour-de-force.  It’s an indescribable to joy to listen to such brilliant work, and impossible to overstate how important Inoue’s genius is to raising this series to another level.

At heart, the tale of Mukuo and Yorie – which loops in Tanuma-kun and especially Taki – is as classic as Natsume Yuujinchou gets.  They embody the essence of the story – both the pain and the joy the intersection of the youkai and human worlds can generate.  Memory is certainly the central theme of the film, and it’s especially poignant when Natsume – in returning Mukuo’s name – sees Reiko telling Mukuo that she hopes no one remembers her.  The ever-smiling face Reiko presented to the world clearly belied the loneliness she felt, but she was never able to take the same solace in the youkai world that Natsume does.

In the movie’s denouement Yuuki tells Natsume that he wishes he could see the things Natsume does – and that pretty much sums up Natsume Yuujinchou in a nutshell.  For all the pain it’s caused him, Natsume would never trade his sight for a “normal life” – not now, anyway.  And the series as much as anything has been a chronicle of his journey to reach that point.