Alright! It’s back! My featuring post about anime you’ll hate or enjoy. Let’s start this week on a good note and talk about anime that I really enjoyed and hope you did too.The only change I’ll have in this new and reborn Jerkpop is, I think I should try and get through the new anime first before going through the old ones. No, seriously, anime I was reviewing in the old posts were at least two seasons old.
Right then, since this Jerkpop is ‘new’, I think I’ll restart the count from #1 again. Note that the numbers doesn’t mean anything other than just a count. Aka, not ranking.
Anime I enjoy watching #1: Natsume Yuujinchou
“Natsume Takashi has the ability to see spirits, which he has long kept secret. However, once he inherits a strange book that belonged to his deceased grandmother, Reiko, he discovers the reason why spirits surround him. Containing the names of these spirits, a binding contract was formed between the spirits and the owner of the book. Now, Natsume is determined to free the spirits and dissolve the contracts. With the help of a spirit cat, his days are filled trying to return the names to these spirits.” -ANN
Alright then, a hero that can see spirits and keeps it a secret. Inherited some item from his ancestor that has some great power and every spirit in town wants it. Where have I heard of a plot line like this? Hmm…hard call. Perhaps just about every other anime. However, that’s only on the surface. The whole plot line wasn’t enough to make me watch it when it first came out, and it wasn’t until TubeOxen bothered me enough telling me to watch it that I did.
However, when I actually got around to watch it. Oh boy. First of all, I have to clarify. The story is not as cliche as it sounds, even though the structure of it is. Natsume doesn’t stand out at all, he doesn’t give of the ‘protagonist’ aura at all. He is completely normal, and you get the feeling that he could be someone your neighbour is. The main focus of this anime is actually tracing back to his grandmother, Reiko. The story actually focuses on Natsume discovering Reiko’s past little by little through meeting the spirits his grandmother once met.
As said before, Reiko; Natsume’s grandmother, plays a great part in this anime. She doesn’t have much presence either, seeing as how the only time the audience sees her is from a flashback. However, this is exactly what makes this anime interesting. You see the view of the spirits from Natsume, and you also see what Reiko sees of the spirits. It’s the same anime, with two flavor.
The art style of this anime gives off a traditional Japan view for some odd reason. Although still very anime, you also feel that it is very traditional Japanese. The animation budget doesn’t feel skimped either, although a few frames might be reused, they are generally high quality.
The music is where this anime really stands out. Every BGM gives off a really easy feeling, it puts you into a relaxed state. As with the art style, each piece of music gives off a heavy Japan taste to it. You forget your normal day troubles when you watch this anime thanks to the music, and you would want each episode to last longer. You would feel that each episode is very long because of the slow pace this anime goes at.
What makes this anime so good, however, isn’t something I can explain through words. There is a certain X factor that makes everyone I know fall in love with it. So even if my review doesn’t give you the motivation to go see this anime right away, give it a try anyways.
Alright! That’s it for now. I was going to review Eve no Jikan as well, but I decided that I should put that off because I’ve only watched one episode so far. It’d be more fair to review after watching another one or two episodes. (Even though the whole series will ONLY have 6 episodes…) That’s it for now, have a great time watching Natsume Yuujinchou (or named as Natsume Yūjin-Chō).
