Natsume Yuujinchou Movie: Utsusemi ni Musubu

Takashi Natsume and his spirit companion Madara, nicknamed "Nyanko," continue returning the names of spirits from the Book of Friends given by his late grandmother Reiko Natsume.

On his way back from school one day, Takashi encounters a lurking spirit named Monmonbou, who recalls memories of Takashi's grandmother after hearing his name. Takashi's natural curiosity leads him to explore a mysterious town where his grandmother used to live. Befriending her old acquaintance Yorie Tsumura and Yorie's son Mukuo, Takashi unveils more of his grandmother's past.

In the meantime, Nyanko detours for food and stumbles upon a suspicious "Spirit Seed," which miraculously sprouts into a fruit tree overnight. Giving in to temptation, Nyanko consumes the fruit, splitting him into three. Seeking a solution to Nyanko's predicament, Takashi and his friends lend a hand, unexpectedly uncovering more secrets the town holds in the process.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Natsume, Takashi Main

Kamiya, Hiroshi Japanese

Madara Main

Inoue, Kazuhiko Japanese

Natsume, Reiko Supporting

Kobayashi, Sanae Japanese

Tanuma, Kaname Supporting

Horie, Kazuma Japanese

Natori, Shuuichi Supporting

Ishida, Akira Japanese

Taki, Tooru Supporting

Satou, Rina Japanese

Hinoe Supporting

Okamura, Akemi Japanese

Fujiwara, Touko Supporting

Itou, Miki Japanese

Hiiragi Supporting

Yukino, Satsuki Japanese

Misuzu Supporting

Kuroda, Takaya Japanese

Satou, Yumi Producer

Muramatsu, Sayako Producer

Yazaki, Fumi Producer

Yokoyama, Shuko Producer

Reviews

Jan 19, 2022

lamaraptor

Recommended

A really great story that follows typical trends set by the series so far. The movie is a slow start for long time fans as it spends a good 20 minutes re-establishing the setting as though you aren't already familiar with it. With that out of the way, though it goes into a unique story that blends a lot of different elements together. At first I thought the movie was trying to do too much and it was just throwing a bunch of new plot ideas at you for no reason but it actually did a decent job of tying it all back together in ... the end.

There's disappointingly no information of Natsume's grandparents that we didn't already know. I just checked the status of the manga after finishing this, wondering if I'd ever get answers, and I see that it's still ongoing at least as of late 2021. There's no sadder event than finding a long-running anime series and getting all the way to the end of it only to find that the manga it's based on isn't even finished. Sigh, that's just the nature of the industry I guess.

I think there's a lot more narrative value in stories that have planned out definite beginnings middles and endings, but for stories like Natsume where the focus isn't necessarily the plot but simply the emotions and drama, then an episodic series that never really progresses is probably fine. I love stories with proper endings, and hate being strung along indefinitely on mysteries with no real answers, but I can still enjoy the series for what it is in it's current form. Maybe one day the manga will stop being popular/making money, which is the only way manga series end really, and then maybe they'll see fit to continue with an anime adaptation of that ending.

For now this is chronologically as far as the series will go, so expect no conclusion to the Reiko storyline if that's what you were here for. Just enjoy another story about Natsume and his dealings with youkai or ayakashi depending on who did the subtitles 8/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Mar 21, 2020

WdaCdaShdaDid

Recommended

Basically it's a regular series episode that's a bit longer, with even better drawn environments, which is awesome.

The story is pretty great, although I can't help but feel teased into thinking maybe we'd learn more about Natsume's grandfather in this - not by marketing materials, but by the plot. It's still lovely without it, but it's annoying that they keep doing that. It does the usual OVA thing where it has basically the entire cast show up and they aren't that important to the story at first, but it actually uses all of them in important story ways, which is unique. It also has the ... usual OVA infodumps like "here's what's going on in the plot right now", but quickly moves back to the story, which is good. I think the ending was overly drawn out, but overall, good story.

Later seasons of the show are already clearly getting a budget increase, and the OVA clearly got some more. I think it was mainly used on environments, though. The characters look normal, and Nyanko sensei is almost laughably worse than usual. But at least the bushes look quite pretty!

The music isn't markedly different from the series. I definitely heard familiar tunes, and they were used well. It helps better create the effect that this is just a longer regular episode.

The new characters are lovely, although again, they feel built to tease us about Natsume's grandfather. That aside, there's some more great Reiko stuff, the Dog's Circle is ridiculous and lovely, Natsume's friends are great, Natori in particular has a great bit here, and the mini Nyanko senseis are cute.

I was honestly expecting the same disaster of the first OVAs that starred Nyanko sensei, with the repeated footage and bad story, but I didn't see any of that. This gives me hope if they do this in the future. Great film!

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Feb 7, 2021

ShrinePriest

Mixed Feelings

I'm going to go against the grain and rate this move poorly compared to other people as well as compared to how I would rate the Natsume series overall.

Spoilers below.

This movie would have been a lot more effective if it had been reduced to one or two ~23 minute episodes. It was only about an hour into the film when the film finally decides to tell you what the film is actually about: Mukuo and Yorie.

It's not super difficult to find ways to shorten this film. For instance, a putative episode could have opened up with Natsume's mom asking him to go to Gochou (sp?), ... Natsume and Nyanko-sensei going, Nyanko running off and visiting the tree and getting the seed, and Natsume meeting the woman who recognizes him, says he looks familiar, and him asking her if she knew Reiko. The film spent thirty minutes on the two trips to Gochou and some side material. This could have been reduced down to say ten minutes by combining the two trips into one, and cutting the other material that just waters down and distracts from what the plot is really about.

And that's the problem with the film. Beyond the film taking so long to reveal what it's even about (Mukuo and Yorie), the film never actually gives Mukuo and Yorie the screen time they deserve. Instead, the film wastes its time with so much else that their importance gets pushed into the background.

The film has a strong hook: a woman loses her son and a youkai mimics him and replaces him and the woman's memory of his death. And yet, never once did I cry during this film, because the film completely squanders its story.

And consider the film's subtitle: Ephemeral Bonds. This theme isn't actually present in the film. This theme doesn't apply to Natsume's friends or family. You can argue the theme applies to Nyanko because Natsume misses being able to talk to Nyanko when he's split up. But that's a weak and unexplored theme in the film. At best the theme applies to Mukuo and Yorie, but again, they get so little screen time that the theme doesn't really do any work with them.

It's not a shock to discover that this movie was an anime original story not written (albeit "supervised") by the original manga author.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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