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sweettsubaki · 2 years

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Homura Arc (chapters 100-104) - How Ban's character highlighted Natori and Matoba's bond/Frienemieship/Whatever it is they have through cats

@joelleity here's the thing I was talking about

Heads up I haven't read the non translated chapter so this is only resting on the canon we have up to chap 108.

I've always considered NatsuYuu to be a cat people story in part because most characters have cat-like tendencies (especially if they're Ayakashi related, whether because they're Yokai or because they can see/feel them). This show is about the importance of interpersonal relationship and those are treated very much with a cat themed thesis of "even if it's just for a second and you find happiness with other people, it doesn't make its impact lesser than"...Also Natsume punching creatures bigger than he is and running away immediately is peak cat behavior u.u.

Generally speaking there are very few humans in this show who give the cat vibe as much as Matoba Seiji does.

However I didn't expect Midorikawa sensei to play with it this literally instead of just jokingly (if one day we get a chapter with any character, but especially Matoba being turned into a cat I'll die)...

More seriously though, the focus of this story is Maneki Neko exorcism tools and the fact that Ban wants to capture them for his Master who happen to be Matoba Seiji's Sister (whom I will call Lady Matoba from now on for practicality). Which actually give us these two as foils

through the Matoba siblings feud(?).

Surprising, I know. I actually don't know the point of this, I've mostly noticed a pattern and am trying to write my thoughts down.

First let's take a look at what we know of where Matoba Seiji and Natori Shuuchi are at, at the beginning of this story.

So far in the main story Matoba and Natori have been established as people who know each other through having clearly worked together before which brings some level of knowledge about each other that's common between colleagues and Natori is particularly distrustful of Matoba. They still both acknowledge the other's skills.

We've also got to know only a few chapters prior that they have known each other since high school and had moments which they remembered differently. Natori remembered not liking the loquat he tried meanwhile Matoba remembered being offered loquats only because he was with Natori and remembering the context as well as remembering Natori's experience too.

The flashback chapters, which we have had for longer, give a lot more depth to this. We know that Natori's distrust is caused both by Matoba's attitude toward casually using others (well, him specifically) AND because of Natori's family rejection because of who he is. Basically Natori has a huge inferiority complex and doesn't know how to have interpersonal relationships.

Meanwhile Matoba seeked him out regularly 'cause lonely teenage boy, and because he too sucks at interpersonal relationships, he tried to find a pragmatic reasoning for why he was there. Since he was basically raised to live, breathe and die for his clan his pragmatism is inherently linked to that. Whether he was trying to find use for his clan and took the opportunity to find a friend or he wanted a friend and took the opportunity to help his clan is left unsaid. Either way he tried to get both.

It generally seems mostly one sided in the fondness department. with the exception of that one time Natori woke up after being possessed, Matoba seems to be the only one trying to turn this into an actual friendship.

So on the one hand we've got Matoba seeking Natori out and trying to befriend him but unable to be vulnerable because that would make his clan vulnerable. Matoba even tried to get Natori to come to his clan so he'd get a talented exorcist and get an actual friend out of it (vulnerability would not be as much of a problem if it's from the inside. Granted I doubt he though that far ahead). Matoba who is used to being rejected and still tries. Though he stops trying to recruit Natori he still seeked him out. Until he stopped which we don't know a thing about.

On the other we've got Natori who doesn't want to be vulnerable out of fear of being rejected, who takes Matoba at face value and never really tries to see past the Clan Heir to who Matoba is because Matoba's front gives him an excuse to fear vulnerability.

The one time he tried, Matoba got cold feet because while hoping, he's never actually had anybody try to reciprocate a genuine interest in him as a person and didn't know how to react so he fell back on known mechanisms.

This is represented by their names. Matoba calling Natori by his first name and getting him to call him Seiji and them arriving at adulthood using their last names with a polite distance.

Neither was in a good enough place to actually manage to build strong foundations so there are foundations but they're kind of just...there waiting to be reinforced and built on.

So that's it for the run down.

But why does that matter ? Well this chapter nuances everything through more or less subtle additions which hasn't really happened yet in the main story, at least not on such a big scale.

Natori's familiarity with the Matobas

We start the arc with Natori recognizing an object belonging to someone we don't know. Just that they make him shudder. We learn at the very end that this is Lady Matoba. Which brings some behaviors to a different light.

For example when explaining who Ban is and what kind of person he is sevring, we get this:

Natori who generally acts very callously toward Matoba's feelings (not talking about politeness and rank here) is actually trying to assess Matoba. It could be for several reasons. Most likely it's because he knows it affected Matoba even if he probably doesn't know how much. Maybe he's trying to gauge how Matoba feels about it for curiosity's sake, maybe because he's worried Matoba will just be more dangerous than usual, maybe he's just worried because he does care even if just a bit. Maybe it's a bit of all those combined.

Before the reveal of Lady Matoba we just know that Natori knows who it is and that they're an enemy of the Matoba clan. However this means that he probably met her through Matoba himself. The way the conversation is frames generally make it seem like his knowledge is linked to Seiji but it is very subtle.

It also makes more sense than just meeting Ban and Lady Matoba through the colleagues excuse since he recognized a pot to be hers, as something she cares about very much. It's further proved when Natori talks with Matoba (all cozy looking) and describes the pot and later when Natori is left with Nyanko-sensei and explains how he knows Matoba because it's very clear for him that Natori and Matoba do know each other rather well despite not getting along.

It also brings an interesting point to his view of Matoba: He dislike his methods. It is a nice confirmation that Natori doesn't dislike Matoba himself and it explains why they are in this very gray area and don't fit the trope of Enemy to LoversFriends. Matoba is very much an antagonist and not a villain, and Natori sees it that way too.

Anyway I bring this up because Natori remembers he saw that pot back when he and Matoba were high schoolers which is the time period when they were the closest thing to being friends.

Natori Shuuichi's familiarity with Matoba Seiji

Chronologically we have Natori kidnapping Seiji from an important meeting.

Though I doubt it happened the way Natsume and Nyanko-sensei imagine it and Matoba was mostly just exaggerating because he's kind of a troll, it still says a lot that Natori doesn't negate his words, meaning that, while exaggerated, they're not lies. This means that Natori can get away with something that most people wouldn't be able to (even if partly because Matoba would never have refused anything to this context of a Matoba clan enemy, it still makes more sense if it is also linked to something more personal especially with Natori looking out for Matoba's reaction).

The point still remains that in an official setting where Matoba was clearly surrounded and not an easy prey, Natori managed to get in and out with the head of a clan without being stopped and was given the benefit of doubt that it was actually important. This implies a level of trust and respect from Matoba sure, but it also means that this is known by the people surrounding him. I don't doubt that Nanase knows seeing as how she treats Natori as more than a background character but I doubt she's the only one present there (and if the others didn't know before this, they definitely do now).

PS: I dare you to tell me Matoba doesn't look like a cat in Natsume and Nyanko-sensei's vision.

Speaking of cats, we're getting to the page where Matoba's love of cats gets shown:

Natori-san you have no right looking this soft for your antagonist.

PS: Taki and Matoba would probably get along in their love for cats.

Hmm anyway, we know from the special chapters that Natori was lucky enough to stumble onto Matoba hiding under a table and stealing sweets as well as just showing other childish behavior when they were teenagers and Matoba didn't yet have to put on a mask every second of every day because of his responsibilities. So it's not hard to believe that Natori would have stumbled upon Matoba geeking about cats. Depending on how far his denial of Matoba's humanity as an adult goes, this is could be him being glad that Matoba can still be like this as an adult even after he's continued on his path of apathy but it could just be a normal kind of fondness toward someone you care about. Or both.

The point is that Natori remembers this detail even years after.

Now we move on to Matoba getting lost in his quest of power to protect his clan.

Now one of the gimmick of this series is that Natsume is generally the one whose empathy reaches whoever is doing the wrong thing but when he can't directly, he does it inderectly through whoever he helped/inspired to get there and they're the ones linked to the antagonist. Usually it's Ayakashi but here it's about the most ayakashi-like humans we have in our main cast. Natsume has had enough an impact on Natori that Natori can now act and start doing something about his relationship with Matoba.

I find this interesting that this is where it stops. The next scene is officially about Natsume and Natori. Matoba isn't the type to let these kinds of actions slide but here he does. He takes a back seat. Partly because of Natsume reminding him he can't be so reckless about his own life if he wants to keep protecting his clan. It follows their parallel as people with a heavily loaded inheritance who can understand each other. Which Natori doesn't have, yet he's the one who saved Matoba and Natsume. Because he's starting to see past this concept of inheritance at the people concerned. And the following scene he shares with Natsume reinforces this (hence why it's officially about Natsume and Natori but officiously about Matoba and Natori).

He and Matoba are simply not in a place to make anything of it yet.

And Matoba was reached by both of them. Which is probably why he doesn't actually do anything. He seems to still be in a sort of daze and his eye just stays hidden.

That's how this chapter ends and the next one starts with them planning to destroy the weapon Matoba wanted.

Matoba still seems out of it and I find it interesting that Natori is still the one doing the talking. Normally it'd be Natsume's role. Yet Natori is the one using Matoba's pragmatism to stop him. He's direct but still pretty soft and genuine. Aside from the way his relationship with Natsume has evolved (and that's still a fairly recent development) and Takuma, Natori tends to either Sparkle or be pretty abrasive.

He's either growing enough that he can now be genuine with others when they had an almost emotional breakdown, or he's finally ready to see past Matoba's mask...Or both.

He also uses a different, more emotional this time, argument which is "saving the cats", to get him out of his funk. The clan was used to stop Matoba from going further into his obsession while the cats were used to get him to act.

Lady Matoba & Ban VS Matoba Seiji & ... Natori Shuuichi ?

On the one hand we have Ban who followed his master (Natori even called Ban her confident at one point) out of the Matoba clan to enter a different one together. Who wants to make her happy.

On the other we have Natori who refused to enter the Matoba clan to follow Seiji and generally dislikes being around Matoba and whatever his latest obsession is. Who tried to escape Matoba's "games" and considers himself neutral.

How could they be paralleled ? Wouldn't it make more sense fo it to be Natsume since he's the last one Matoba tried to recruit ?

Well no. Because Natsume parallels Matoba. Whereas, as far as we know, Ban does not parallel Lady Matoba.

In the scene before the last one, Natori explains why he started poking around in the first place.

Nyanko-sensei does point that Natori doesn't seem that neutral and seems to lean toward helping the Matoba clan rather than sheer neutrality. Neither of them is wrong.

I do believe that Natori is generally more neutral than most. Not that interested in politics. But that doesn't mean that he can't recognize the stability the Matoba clan brings when the world of exorcists has been so reduced and that an "anti" organization could make things more dangerous for them. It IS an unknown after all. So to him being neutral doesn't mean being completely inactive.

But there's also the fact that he does care about the Matoba clan head and has met his sister enough to consider her creepier. He just doesn't care about Matoba as the clan head (it's probably the opposite).

Actually in the next scene, when Matoba confronts Ban, he says "that person gave me an unecessary secretive report". And that's because he wasn't giving it as a report. He's not on Matoba's side in the Matoba vs others war.

This is because there is a difference between political and personal.

And I didn't notice it before I reread the arc for this meta, but right before this scene, Midorikawa-Sensei actually highlights this difference but through Natsume because neither Natori nor Matoba is ready yet.

Maybe Seiji will understand someday !

I actually find it funny that Natsume has a similar role in Matoba and Natori's relationship as Nyanko-Sensei has in his and Tanuma's (well his and everybody but especially Tanuma).

Anyway, this is how the arc ends:

Ban who followed Lady Matoba, who wants to make her happy and tried to get powerful exorcist tools, doesn't know she hates cats.

Meanwhile Natori who tried to put distance for years between him and Matoba, who doesn't trust him and only brought him in this case because it's linked to his sister so he'd be the best person to help despite how dangerous he might be...

That guy knew that Matoba Seiji loves cats

#Matoba Seiji #Natori Shuuichi #Natsume Yuujinchou #NatsuYuu #I swear Matoba's the very definition of infatuation when it comes to Natori #Such a tiny detail #Also I'm still gushing over baby tanuma at the begining of the arc #Natsume got the title 'Emotional support teenager for dumbass adults'. He's both proud and annoyed #NatsuYuu Meta

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loquatenjoyer69 · 1 hour

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More Natori/Wavering/Younger Cousin Thoughts

CHAPTER 116 SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT:

"Mitsuru will welcome you, show you that same scene; we can share our hearts without any falsehoods and become ones who stand up to those people together. You needn't walk alone into the night's darkness any longer." "...Wanting that was my weakness." Normally in scenes where a character is being offered their desire come true at the "cost" of living in a dream/illusion/etc, the expected response is something like "No, even though I want that and life is painful, it's still worth living because it's real and that would be an illusion/false," reinforcing the value of "reality" over "illusions" unquestioningly. However, Natori, instead of acknowledging that he's choosing to give up his desires to live in the Real World, goes the very unusual route of "...Wanting that was my weakness."

Or, in the mind of the reader (or me at least) with context, "...Wanting that was my weakness (which you were able to take advantage of [therefore it was dangerous to me and must be discarded])."

Mitsuru told Natsume that when she told Natori her name, he "wavered" for a moment. This was what allowed her to look into his mind and spin an illusion out of his long held desires.

"I at least wanted to know his name, to try calling out to him. So when I hurriedly told him my name... deep in his eyes, I was reflected there, wavering."

Anyway, back to what Natori says. "...Wanting that was my weakness," and...?

"I don't want that anymore. I have no use for sentimentality that just becomes weakness. I don't have a younger cousin. Mitsuru is an illusion, and you are an ayakashi, which I have chosen to spend my life fighting."

He affirms again that it's not "I don't want to live in an illusion," but "I don't want those things anymore," because "I don't need sentimentality that just becomes weakness." And then, as if he's speaking this new self into existence, "I don't have a younger cousin. The thing called Mitsuru is an illusion, and you are an ayakashi," and finally "which I have chosen to spend my life fighting," reaffirming himself as an exorcist, one who is opposed to ayakashi. It would seem that the days of wavering are over for Natori.

"I know-"

"Natori, lately you've come to resemble the Matoba brat."

#my meta #natori shuuichi #i still doubt myself on if that really is the conclusion of his wavering because it seems way too depressing and actually quite an unusual #version of this kind of arc for his like #final Decided self to be 'heartless exorcist who throws away his desires that could become weaknesses'#but also like. that is...what seems to be happening. idk #im just following the trail of crumbs midorikawa is leaving......but we shall see......#also a lot of this is copy pasted from some dms i sent a non natsuyuu friend because fsr i am most eloquent when ranting to some guy who #doesnt care about any of this and not when im trying to write coherent meta

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uniformbravo · 4 years

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lying awake in bed every night for the rest of my life thinking about how when nishimura asks natsume if he’s seriously uncomfortable with the role he’s been assigned for the culture festival and offers to take over for him and says “you’re always so polite to everyone but we’re your friends, you can be blunt with us,” natsume’s response is to bow, thank him, lie to his face, and retreat. nishimura and kitamoto ask him to be more open and honest with them and natsume instantly clams up.

like it’s not like they did anything wrong, they were just trying to be good, supportive friends; “hey, you’ve looked pale ever since they assigned you that role, do you want me to do it instead?” it’s so thoughtful and sweet and tragically hits natsume exactly where it hurts.

it’s such a wonderfully written episode; a youkai trying to feed off of natsume’s energy, his pain, urging him to “tell me your secret, tell me your secret.” a secret that natsume can’t tell anyone, one he desperately keeps hidden to protect the happiness this town has given him, one that is so, so impossibly heavy to carry alone. a youkai who possesses people in order to get to him. “you can’t trust anybody.” how can he know who is and isn’t a danger to him? How can he tell who is safe and who will turn on him in an instant?

nishimura and kitamoto show up unexpectedly at his house. are they possessed? did the youkai use them to follow him home? don’t trust anyone.

“that looks like a heavy burden, do you need help? we’re your friends, you can be honest with us.” tell us your secret.

they don’t, can’t know that the reason natsume has looked so pale all day is because he’s been running away from a dangerous youkai, not because he’s stressed about the culture festival. nishimura says, “you can trust us with your true feelings,” and it stings. are they truly his friends, or are they hidden enemies lying in wait? are they safe, or would they turn on him in an instant? it’s a chance he’s taken and paid for too many times in the past, and this time there is far more at stake than there ever has been before.

“tell me your secret.” he wants to. “you can trust us.” he wants to. “we’re your friends, you can be honest with us,” and natsume cries, “i can’t!”

he bows politely, says, “thank you; i’m okay,” and disappears behind closed doors once more.

and then, that night, in the complete solitude of his bedroom in the dark, where even nyanko sensei is dead asleep in the midst of a days’ long recovery, he cries. because only when he can be sure he’s completely and utterly alone does natsume let his true feelings out, in a place where absolutely nobody else is around to hear them.

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owletstarlet · 4 years

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Hi! Could you do devil's food chocolate for natsume and tanuma?? Many thanks 🌸

(From the ice cream flavors headcanon meme.) Devil’s food chocolate was a headcanon about vices.

So I’m not gonna attack either of their more serious deep rooted personal issues this time, let’s go at it from an inconvenient-personal-habits angle. (Which, disclaimer, are not bad or wrong in themselves or make you bad and wrong, especially if it’s a symptom of anxiety like Tanuma’s— but, like I said, inconvenient for the characters themselves.)

So the Tanuma headcanon is that when he gets really anxious he’ll start subconsciously picking at loose threads, buttons, or hems on his clothes. It’s something he tries really, really hard not to do, because he feels awful about damaging clothes his dad paid for, but I can Absolutely see him having been the sort of little kid who’d get a hole in his jeans by accident and then within half an hour it’s quadruple the size and his whole knee is visible. Or him at twelve years old coming home shamefaced with all the buttons popped off his uniform sleeves because he’d had a panic spiral over having to give a class presentation.

So it’s not often so severe now that he’s older, but he’s pretty adept at minor clothing repairs (buttons, hemming, fixing little holes), a skill which Natsume’s very grateful for after he’s been roped into Miscellaneous Youkai Shenanigans. (I’m envisioning more than one occasion where Natsume’s totally exhausted and tucked up in a quilt sipping tea while Tanuma sews half the buttons back onto a very rumpled and grass-stained shirt.) I think it’s a sign Natsume eventually figures out to watch for, if Tanuma starts plucking at his sleeves worrying at his shirt hem, that he’s way more stressed or upset than he’s letting on (or has even noticed himself, like for example if he’s in a noisy crowded place and getting overstimulated).

So the my idea for Natsume is that, especially as he hits college age, he’d fall into the trap of “each can of terrible vending machine coffee I chug is the rough equivalent of one hour’s worth of the sleep I didn’t get, right?” If he’s dealing with youkai bullshit du jour and college classes or a part time job (or, like I like to think, also learning some potentially life-saving skills from a few exorcists at the same time)…vending machine coffee tastes like ass but it’s cheap and it’s always right there. He’s never had it in the manga, but he does when he and Shigeru have their pottery-class-bonding time in the anime so I’d say he at least doesn’t mind the taste. As of canon high-school-era we know he already needs way more sleep than he’s getting, and he also hates letting people down, so once the daily tasks and responsibilities are increased, welp. Caffeine it is.

I’m imagining one day where he’s like. Huh. That’s odd, why do I feel shaky and nauseous and bad for no apparent reason…anyways there’s six different things I need to go do right now. And Tanuma, who doesn’t drink much caffeine at all because his doctor told him to avoid it years ago, is like :| :| :| Sensei takes that as his cue to just sit on Natsume’s chest and refuse to budge until he goes to sleep, which he does, and then he’s dead to the world for fourteen hours straight….

Thanks for the ask, this was a fun one! :)

#I like to imagine that natsume kind of associates the taste of the canned coffee with shigeru and with home #also tanuma's most comfy pajamas have ratty sleeves for the aforementioned reasons #tanunatsu #tanuma kaname #natsume’s book of friends #natsume takashi #natsuyuu #owlet's headcanons #owlet's meta #it's not really meta but for the sake of linking it to my page there's the tag #Two other things #natsume yuujinchou #cha-lii

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somepinkthing · 5 years

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Yuki sohma and natsume takashi are very similar in character: both are beautiful, kind, considerate, actually very snarky, secretly a mess, insecure, mysterious, quiet, awkward, filled with anxiety, sickly, popular without trying to be, cautious around people, a bit introverted, desire to be needed, scared, hide away their hurt, lonely, feel isolated, are uncomfortable in their own personas, and are trying so so hard to live happy lives. They both eventually grow past their abuse and learn how to connect with people while remaining kind. They are also very similar in love. As in I love them both so much and no one better hurt them ever again or else

#natsume takashi #yuki soma #yuki sohma #natsume yuujinchou #fruits basket #yuki souma #soma yuki #sohma yuki #souma yuki #natsume #natsume's book of friends #natsumes book of friends #natsuchou #natsuyuu #furuba #meta

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touchreceptors · 7 years

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So as everyone probably knows by now I’ve been watching Natsume to calm myself down after work. I just finished the series yesterday and would highly recommend it to everyone because all around it is the best anime I’ve ever watched!

Spoilers ahead now, because I really want to talk about this line from season 6 here since I haven’t seen it being mentioned before!

What I want to say is this line is really important to me because it immediately confirms that Natsume’s problem accepting or dealing with love and care from others is not an innate part of his character, but rather a symptom of another problem i.e. this fear that he needs to overcome. Why he has that fear built into him is completely understandable given his past experiences - and the dread of parting ways / fear of losing a connection that he values (be it with humans or youkai) is a clear repeated theme throughout the series. But the best part is how he now speaks about this problem in a very optimistic way - the entire tone sounds positive and hopeful that he will someday overcome it. (Please protect and love this sweet soft child, sobs)

While the wording is generic and doesn’t refer to any specific person, it’s also worth noting that it’s talked about in a very romantic context, placed in direct relation to Aoi’s and Kaoru’s decision to live as a couple despite their different worlds. (Interestingly this idea of loving someone but having to part is the entire theme of season 2′s ending song, especially if you look at the lyrics of the full version)

And now for ship talk/theories, because I simply couldn’t resist -- where else have we seen Natsume talk about this before? Apart from mentions of how his brief meetings and partings with youkai are somewhat melancholic, the one point at which he mentions attention/feelings from others and links it to the fear of losing them someday is:

This was a sweet moment in his friendship with Tanuma in season 4, if nothing else, but I couldn’t help but immediately link it to the much more romantic reiteration (”一緒にいられること” - “the ability to be together with someone”) of the same idea in that line from s6 when it appeared! I also believe I’m not just cherry picking lines since Tanuma’s near-death shortly after this line in season 4 sent Natsume into a pure panic meltdown, to the point where Natsume briefly considered leaving his home and his town and breaking off from the people who are giving him the love he’s always needed (until Natori steps in to snap him out of it and reassure him). And we know this meltdown happens because Tanuma is also a very important person to Natsume, romantic or not - given that he’s the only person envisioned besides Natsume’s foster parents when he talks about his “treasures” in s5! There is a part of Natsume that puts up a barrier when people try to form deeper connections with him because he has been taught to fear/expect that he will have to lose them someday, either because he’s always had to move again or because youkai have until recently often caused trouble to the people looking after him. And we’re able to see this barrier the most in the way he interacts with all 3 “treasured” people he thinks about.

But of course it improves over time! And on top of the slow burn and really good development that Natsume and Tanuma have been having over the seasons, it’s also nice to see development for Natsume w.r.t. this struggle (where he flat out panicked once, he’s now much calmer and optimistic about this fear he experiences!). As for the link that I saw between this s6 line and the bottle moment in s4 - well, I’m just really pleased it exists <333 heeh

Bonus because I can’t get enough of these two and want you all to get on board as well: Two moments of pure affection for Natsume on Tanuma’s face which I really love but haven’t seen screencapped or gif’d enough:

just look at them, look at this show. i love it so much, please watch it and join me and cry

#natsume yuujinchou #meta #kind of #tanunatsu #tanatsu #natsume yuujinchou spoilers #long post #PLEASE COME AND TALK TO ME ABOUT TANUNATSU AND THIS SHOW THIS NEW FAN WOULD BE SO HAPPY TO TALK WITH YOU ABOUT IT #natsuyuu #commentary

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fuanteinasekai · 5 years

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Oh man u gave me tsubasa reservoir chronicle flashbacks, the anime No-Homo'ed it too, yet it also retained queerness, and then I read the manga & it was just as different. Tho in trc's case the anime was generally disrespectful to the manga while natsuyuu crew clearly love it & it's otherwise faithful, its a cautionary tale about taking liberties w/ the story, especially about inserting stuff in like they both did, b/c a revelation like THAT will come & we'll all bang our heads against a wall

Ah, I’m not really familiar with that one. Though I did happen to skim the wiki page recently, and boy that’s not the sort of story you should be messing with! That’s basically inviting your anime to become nonsensical. o_o At least with Natsume it started as an episodic story, so it’s understandable that they wouldn’t expect long term consequences. Did Tsubasa have subtle queerness like in Natsume? Wiki made no mention of queer subtext that I recall, but that’s unsurprising.

I do agree they generally care about Natsume Yūjinchō! It’s pretty faithful to the overall tone. And honestly, if I didn’t love the anime I wouldn’t have sought out the manga, so clearly it is good quality—it’s just not as good as the manga, haha. Actually it felt really weird when I first started writing that meta, because Omibashira was one of my favorite two-parters. It was the story that really got me to pay more attention to Tanuma. So the fact that it was simultaneously one of the most mucked with stories kinda messed with my head a little. But it was really interesting to pick apart, because I never seemed to run out of important differences and there was such a consistent theme to the way they changed things.

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treecakes · 6 years

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hey here’s my natsuyuu meta: matoba is a piece of shit :)

#:)

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coquelicoq · 1 year

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natsume's book of friends is the hurt/comfort show of all time. not necessarily for the characters, but for me as a viewer. it hurts me, deeply, emotionally, spiritually, and then it heals me, often in the exact same instant. not in the way where they cancel each other out, but in that way where you remain forever the person who was hurt and the person who was loved through the hurt. like okay. i am literally just Sitting Here. what the fuck. who came up with this. is that allowed

#who's loving me through the hurt? that's easy. it's me. i'm loving me through the hurt.#by watching and loving natsume takashi i am loving the me who was hurt by watching and loving natsume takashi #this show should come with a surgeon general's warning #natsume's book of friends #my posts #f #hurt comfort #natsume yuujinchou #not me taking severe psychic damage every time natsume alludes to the social skills he taught himself so that people would #simply continue to let him exist in proximity to them #and then also not me immediately being healed by the fact that he is thinking these thoughts while walking alongside his friends #his FRIENDS. he has friends now. i am being flash-frozen and roasted over a low flame simultaneously #natsuyuu meta

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sweettsubaki · 2 years

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Omibashira Arc rant or how changing small details here and there is enough to turn a story's thesis on its head

So I ranted on discord about my issues with the Omibashira arc adaptation in the anime. How it's a good representation of some of its main issues. I've already reblogged posts which, probably expressed, it better but I'm still not over it so here goes my own rant. I won't be putting the screen caps of the discord discussion because I'll be adding some details and modify it so there are less spelling and grammar mistakes. I'm still gonna keep the way Iorganized it though. Which means a lot of lists. I also don't have the screenshots of the anime or the manga for comparison because my rereading marathon for metas isn't there yet. I might add it later or just make a brand new one.

Anyway here goes:

Re-reading NatsuYuu and damn, there are so many Matoba-Natsume Parallels vs Natori-Tanuma parallels, I'm crying. (The Omibashira Anime version looks kinda worse in this light though because they tend to take away half of the characters nuance).

Ok so first things first an adaptation will always have differences linked to the medium, like pacing, so the fact that they put a scene that was in a flashback as the introductory scene of the arc isn't the kind of things I'm complaining about (putting that out of the way because I'm gonna complain about details that seem trivial in the short term but kinda worsen as time goes by (if you've followed me for a few years, you know where I stand on that).

First I'm gonna talk about some general issues I have with the anime's adaptation.

Like Sasada's presence isn't a huge problem in itself but a huge part of Taki's story is her isolation, especially from other girls. So that part of her story holds a lot less weight in the curent state of the anime.

Just like how Tanuma was accepted in the Kitamoto-NIshimura group whereas it takes a lot more time and he's not as "in" with them in the manga. Because that boy struggles with people. He IS on good terms with them, especially Kitamoto but they're not what I'd call friendly until later on.

NatsuYuu is a slice of life series so ideally they should be able to take most stories out of their manga order, except it holds the issue of "Natsume actually grows alongside those stories and so does his relationship with the others". He doesn't return to the status quo at the end of each chapter ! So some of the behaviors don't always match his progression. The anime has two solutions to this: Try to lighten it a bit so it gets less noticeable or just change what happens to fit the general idea of where they're at (except they don't stick to either so things aren't especially cohesive and some stories have been almost completely changed because of that).

They also make Tanuma more assertive and Taki softer (basically reversing their roles 'cause you can't have a girl who's a bit rough around the edges and a boy who's actually soft and cautious). I'm still not over the "I had one dream of Natsume being in danger" replacing the concept of recurring Nightmares. Like people you don't have to be gay to be worried about your best friend. Why was that change necessary ?

A lot of Tanuma's care/softness seems to be lessened when another character is in the picture when it comes to the anime. But sometimes they will add others if it's just Natsume and Tanuma ? Like Natsume's only allowed to have a soft relationship with Tanuma if nobody else is in the room....that... kinda makes it a lot gayer...

As for Natori a lot of his nuance is lost. Does he want to be a good mentor ? Yes. Is he one? ...Depends. Since his introductory story, they took out the bittersweet ending of finding someone like you but not sharing their views by basically going "Let's Agree to Disagree ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ". Meanwhile in the manga, Natori learns bit by bit to value the way one can have relationships with others (people or Ayakashi) because Natsume doesn't take any shit from him. (Which is what leads to his own relationship with Matoba being slightly less abrasive as time goes on. ie. My last meta on the Homura Arc) In the anime, since he's the older brother/mentor type of figure he has to be right of course, he can't be seen as a cautionary tale who learns to get better. It's not like he's only 23...(hell you're always learning while you're living but he's particularly young).

Now on to the actual arc.

So the moral of the story is basically "strong powers aren't everything, your relationships are what matters" (which ironically is also part of the general series' thesis) and the anime arc tries to end on that note, it just sounds dissonant when they spent the whole arc saying the opposite. Some changes seem weird. Like why did you chose to spend so much time adding useless things and then took out most of the important stuff ? Literally the first episode is mostly shenanigans built from 1 chapter and then they cram 3 chapters into another episode. which wouldn't be that much of an issue if their choices about what to keep and what to change hadn't be so weird. They chose to spend time on putting funny scenes and took the agency from the kids. Because of that they relegated Nyanko-Sensei's role of support to comic relief.

Let's start with "agency taken away from Natsume and Tanuma (by Natori once he appears in the story) in the anime starting with their manga counterpart":

In the manga, Natsume realizes he doesn't need to eat or go to the bathroom on his own. He doesn't need somebody else to tell him. They do discuss the context of why together but that's it. In the anime. It's played up and Nyanko-sensei's the only one who thinks about it.

In the manga, Tanuma realizes something is really wrong with Natsume immediately. Not just different but really wrong while the anime plays on him taking some time to go from "something's different to something's wrong".

In the manga, Natsume's the one who asks for paper masks to protect him and Tanuma, Natori doesn't automatically takes charge of the situation unlike the anime where Natori is always the amazing adults who knows everything (I'm barely exaggerating).

In the manga, Natsume's the one to decide who will go with who. He puts Tanuma with Sensei because he knows how powerful he is. Natori would have no reason to know or believe Nyanko-sensei would/could protect Tanuma. So in the anime, the fact that Natori decided it makes the part of him giving the protective stone more helpful and less arrogant. Like he can't be allowed to be such. It's not as if it wasn't actually helpful. That's the point. Natori is an ass about it to both Tanuma AND Nyanko-sensei, but he still tries to be useful because Natsume cares about these two. Why turn him into the bland nice helpful mentor who just tries to be helpful ?

There was literally no need to change those. Changing most of those actually affected negatively the pace of the story in the first place.

Times Tanuma was either toned down or put down in the anime + their manga counterparts :

The time it took him to realize something was wrong with Natsume. As said above, it doesn't take half as much time for him to realize it because Tanuma's biggest strength is how observant he is !

Natsume's kidnapping from Tanuma's PoV is probably to give it a more "mystery" vibe...Except they took out his internal monologue as well. The one where he wonders if there exist other humans with strong enough power to help look for Natsume. In the manga, it seems to be there to introduce Natori in the arc and shows that Tanuma had already been curious about how the whole spiritual thing works but never dared to ask Natsume (hence his conversation with Natsume toward the end) so everything happening is just a build up until he asks Nyanko-sensei about it. Taking it out might be for the mystery feel, to not give it away except...when Tanuma ends up talking to sensei, his interest for Natsume isn't just about himself !!!! they tried to add the Touko part to counter Tanuma's self-centerdness a bit but it's very small.

Tanuma mistaking Natori for a Youkai is played up a lot in the anime. In the manga it's dispelled immediately when Natori saves him and Natsume. It's done and over with within a few seconds.

Tanuma just decides to do stuff on his own without thinking and without any incentive? At least when he acted as if he had the real Natsume in a bottle (both Anime&Manga) the incentive was that Natsume was in immediate danger. Here there's...no reason ? And it's very unlike him to take charge.

Tanuma thinking Natori is nice is a huge fuckery. Granted it makes more sense with the above change, Natori was still being an ass (his word were actually harsher in the anime than in the manga where his actions are worse. That might be a translation issue though but calling Natori "nice" still seemed strange).

Tanuma asking sensei about how Natsume feels about his presence and generally being self-centered. Tanuma has a lot of issues. Self-centeredness is not one of them. He kind of tends to be the opposite... Anyway. All his questions, as said above were about the exorcist world. Because he feels comfortable enough asking Nyanko-Sensei when he doesn't feel comfortable asking Natsume yet. (Nyanko-Sensei is an emotional support Youkai for lonely teenagers, change my mind).

Tanuma's generally more assertive in the anime so they had him just act thoughtlessly and come off as an idiot who needs to be protected (so when Natsume says Tanuma is cautious it's a bit hard to believe even if the situation could call for it in some cases).

the Jar poke which is weirdly 'violent' for him since his friend is in it. (He also admits to being embarrassed by what he said to Natsume then at the end of the arc in the manga whereas the anime considers it a 'normal' thing for him to say)

Tanuma's dangerous "plan" which is played as fully Tanuma though in the manga, only part of it is his (later on that), and it was spurred on by urgency.

As pointed above when he wants to start searching by himself.

When Natori saves them and starts talking to Natsume, Tanuma just...goes up to them and asks what's going on (that one isn't much, it's just....weird for mister "I don't know how to ask people")

Nyanko's part being reduced. It's like they just wanted him for the funny slice of life part and just chose not to use him once Natori was there. Nyanko-sensei's a support role in the story but that doesn't make him an unimportant character ! In the manga :

He's the one who helps Tanuma sneak into the mansion. It's THEIR plan. Though once inside Tanuma's left to his own devices and improvises (he only does so when there's a clear goal right in front of him) because they separated so Nyanko-Sensei would look for Omibashira. Nyanko-sensei literally entrusts the task of finding and helping Natsume to Tanuma. That's not a small thing !

When he and Tanuma are looking for Omibashira, he answers most of Tanuma's questions about exorcism and ayakashi before he gets annoyed. There's also the matter of Nyanko-sensei's explanation of Natori's actions which feels less like an apology in the manga than in the anime because of context : the anime changed it to Tanuma thinking Natori is nice and Nyanko explaining why Natori is great which is so weird. In the manga, Tanuma calls Natori presumptuous and Nyanko-sensei explains why he is so. Generally though, Nyanko-sensei makes Tanuma comfortable enough to be able to ask his questions.

Nyanko is the second one to find Tanuma on the floor, not Natori. So all the remarks about his powers come from the one who trusted Tanuma and not the one who belittled him.

Nyanko coaxes Natsume to leave Tanuma's side to seal Omibashira by telling him the only way to get both him and Tanuma home is to help seal Omibashira whereas in the anime he just says "I'll do it then" so Natsume could answer "no it's okay I will".

Now Natori... Natori is supposed to be in the wrong so in the manga he's prortayed as being an ass and being wrong about it. Because he isn't perfect and is still learning a lot himself. In the anime he's presented as being right about it until the end lesson hits. In which he's still portrayed as being right even if he changed his speech for no reason.

In the anime, when they all hide after Natori save them, Natori and Natsume speak equal to equal and Tanuma has to force himself into the frame by asking what's going on, only for Natori to push on the fact that Tanuma's normal and weak. And then Natsume defends Natori when Tanuma tries to defend Natsume. By taking responsibility. It could make sense since Natsume is easily guilt tripped into thinking everything is his fault. But here Natsume is actually defending Natori being an ass. In the manga you just see the shame and fear build on bit by bit because the manga has Natori shame Natsume for "letting Tanuma get involved" too, except Tanuma's a lot less confused (even if he doesn't know what is going on exactly) and was helped by Nyanko-sensei so Natori comes off as a lot more arrogant. Natsume and Tanuma are also generally in the same frame so Natori is trying to put Natsume out of frame because they're equals but Tanuma isn't theirs. Now, unlike in the anime, where Natsume and Natori are framed together, it doesn't actually work in the manga. Natsume stays in Tanuma's frame even if there are more and more of him alone because the shaming did work and he is trying to distance himself from Tanuma to protect him. However, It does not put him in the same frame as Natori (they need to be separated from Tanuma and Sensei for it to happen).

they also add him saying that Natsume's starting to learn he can't trust everyone "so that's good". I don't think I need to comment on that...

Natori finds Bonked out!Tanuma with Natsume instead of Sensei so when he talks about Tanuma being weak to poison (just overwhelmed by Omibashira in the manga, though once again it might be translation issues), it adds to his tendency to look down on Tanuma. One more reason why Tanuma shouldn't have been here in the first place. Meanwhile when Sensei does it in the manga he's just talking about a weakness that need help recovering from (fun fact everyone has their weaknesses and this is how it's treated in the manga. Not a terrible mistake) because so far he's the only one who has shown belief in Tanuma.

So Natori saying that the moral of the story is that Natsume needs his friend makes little sense ? Because he has no reason to believe so. The anime did everything so he could be right about separating himself from others.

But the point of the manga is that Tanuma is hella observant and sometimes, even if someone is weak for something, it doesn't mean they can't bring something to you. It's part of what relationships are for. In the manga both Natori and Tanuma noticed that Natsume was starting to shake from fear at the idea that Omibashira was close to the school. But only Tanuma tried to get Natsume to pause for a second to regroup. And he was right because when Tanuma was attacked Natsume became "useless" and they needed to coax him out of his state of shock.

The anime just kept the last scene so Natori could be the hero.

One of the other things important in this arc is that it changes Tanuma and Nyanko-Sensei's relationship:

The scene where Natsume and Nyanko found the flyer explaining what was going on in the anime, happens between Nyanko-Sensei and Tanuma in the manga (including the conversation).

And as said above, Nyanko is the one who chose to have Tanuma sneak in, even if he left him afterwards. He gave him the job to find Natsume. That's a lot of trust to put in a weakling.

Sensei is also the one Tanuma asks all the questions he doesn't dare to ask Natsume about. Above I talked about how Tanuma asked him self-centered question in the anime, well it was to replace this scene.

...

It's a lot of details but if you add them up, the arc's thesis in the anime is almost the opposite of the manga's thesis. Which is why the end might feel like cognitive dissonance.

As for the Matoba/Natsume and Tanuma/Natori parallels: Matoba and Natsume are incredibly powerful and can see stuff others can't. Tanuma tries to be empathetic toward Natsume and help however he can and tries to reduce the distance between them. The Natural one and the wall that Natsume built over the years. Even if he doesn't believe he deserves it and it causes its own set of issues. Meanwhile Natori just chose to think that since they didn't live in the same world, it wasn't worth trying despite Matoba not actually wanting the wall to be there in the first place (mostly) and was chasing after him. He gave up on whatever friendship they could have had. This arc is Natori realizing that just because he chose to separate himself from others doesn't mean it has to be the case for others. He's also starting to question it for himself. That's a pretty freaking important lesson to learn for him.

#Tanuma Kaname #Natori Shuuichi #Natsume Takashi #Nyanko Sensei / Madara #Natsume Yuujinchou #NatsuYuu Meta #Matoba Seiji #Barely but he is sort of important in the long run #This arc marks a change in Sensei and Tanuma's relationship.#Since then Tanuma has stopped calling him Ponta and actually often carries him #around unless Natsume actually needs him in his arms as an emotional support Pet (and Natsume is starting to need him less). Sometimes #Sensei will even ask Tanuma directly for things when he knows Natsume will just say no bc he doesn't want to be a bother

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coquelicoq · 1 month

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hmmm for the shipping meme! matonato and hankim or yoohankim?

[ID: A graph with the x-axis labeled "makes sense" on the left and "doesn't make sense" on the right and the y-axis labeled "compels me" at the top and "doesn't compel me" at the bottom. points labeled MN for matonato, HK for hankim, and YHK for yoohankim have been situated on the grid: MN in the top left (makes sense, compels me), HK at the top and to the right of MN (makes some sense, compels me), and two points labeled YHK, one slightly above and to the left of the center (makes some sense, compels me some) and one in the bottom right (doesn't make sense, doesn't compel me). /end ID]

wow this threw me off because for some reason i assumed that makes sense would be on the right instead of the left! so hopefully i made all the necessary corrections to what i originally wrote lol.

matonato: makes sense, compels me. probably obnoxiously obvious to everyone at this point. do they get a happy ending? i mean it's very fun to think about and i love me a good actually-together-matonato concept, but probably the most compelling thing about them is the star-crossed aspect. it's not will they won't they, it's why they why not they. why do they want this and why can they never have it? it's, how can i make this about natori's self-hatred? it's, who is matoba if he quits the exorcist business? (EXTREMELY JUICY AND COMPELLING QUESTION 2 B ASKING.) it's, what changes in their individual priorities and self-conception would be necessary before they could get together? asking myself these questions and understanding why they in their current forms can't be in a relationship helps me to better articulate who exactly they are and what motivates them and gives me avenues for thinking about possible character development. but like i said i do really love thinking about matonato endgame, and even though i know it's never going to be canon (which it doesn't need to be, obviously! we are in our sandbox making our own dreams come true), i'm reading the homura arc like girl why did you do that. where are you going with this??? fellas is it gay to stalk your homoerotic rival's enemies and the answer is a resounding YES. they are a good ship because thinking about each of them in the context of the other expands my understanding and appreciation of their individual characters, but also because it would be sexy for them to mash their mouths together. both are very important elements of shipping 2 me.

hankim: i want to say this is one of the most compelling relationships in orv but they are all compelling, it's actually insane. however hankim is definitely tied for first (with twenty other relationships). her love for him is the beating heart of the story. like the entire plot hinges around her loving him so much she would [redacted], but also the central themes are exemplified by how she feels about him and what she does about it. and he trusts her in a way he can't really trust anyone else, because she knows enough about the world that he can be open with her about things he can't tell others, and because he trusts her to be competent and able to achieve his objectives. mostly to me though their relationship Is About her love for him because of how badly he needs it and how little he can understand it, and how central it is to his entire character that he needs but cannot understand receiving that kind of love. i have not yet succeeded in imagining any kind of compelling sexual relationship for them, except the somewhat indirect one where he gives her permission to make a kim-dokja-looking avatar with which to fuck yoo joonghyuk while kim dokja is elsewhere minding his own business, but that's fine, they don't need to be having sex to have a compelling relationship, obviously. so yeah it's compelling af and it does make sense, but i'm taking some sense points off because the kdj-to-hsy direction is pretty standard shipping material while the opposite direction is like the entire point of the book. it's a lil unbalanced.

yoohankim: this ship fascinates me because i definitely never would have come up with it myself. hankim? see above. yookim? see below. but yoohan - DESPITE THE WHOLE DEAL AROUND WHO YOO JOONGHYUK IS AND HOW HE GOT THAT WAY - are just like. Only Here For Kim Dokja. any relationship they have with each other is a proxy for a relationship with kim dokja, mediated by their feelings for kim dokja, and put through the sieve of who the other person is to kim dokja. i think they have a very psychosexual thing going on where they're having a lot of sex with each other but mostly in order to feel close to kim dokja, who is not involved lol. which is its own kind of compelling, certainly. i guess you could say yoohankim is the ONLY way that yoohan makes any sort of sense to me whatsoever, so in that regard yoohankim is squarely in the northwest quadrant. but at the same time i feel like if kim dokja is actually present, their relationship with each other is more like in-laws than anything else. it's indirect. they don't have divorced energy…they don't even have metamour energy. i don't know. they're like this is my sister's mailman and i have no idea what he's doing at my nephew's piano recital, which is insane to me because they should have (nonsexual) parent-child energy if nothing else. so i also have to put yoohankim in the southeast quadrant. so far this is where most yoohankim fic i have read falls, but probably i just haven't yet found the one that would unlock it for me.

to close the loop i gotta talk about yookim (joongdok). the most enjoyable thing about it to me personally is that yoo joonghyuk so clearly wants kim dokja to hold him down and it's very fun to see kim dokja have to shift his entire paradigm to make that make sense. i mean, i think all of kimcom wants to hold kim dokja down (most of them nonsexually imo), but yoo joonghyuk is the one guy who's like "if you would just stop trying to kill yourself for two seconds then i could let you out of these handcuffs so you could have your way with me. you bastard." they make me crazy because they work together SO well and trust each other SO implicitly while also being like, wow this idiot has terrible priorities and so i have to manipulate him into furthering my agenda (keeping him safe) instead of his agenda (keeping me safe). they're also that evergreen combo of guy with low self-worth who's oblivious to other people's love for him/guy who loves so hard but never uses his words about it that makes me wanna read about them getting together 100 different times. in a slightly different sense than with matonato, thinking about them as a twosome better elucidates aspects of their own individual personalities and worldviews, which makes for a compelling shipping experience.

#it's funny after i wrote the matonato part i was like wait. am i actually saying matonato DOESN'T make sense to me?#and i decided that no it does. it makes sense to me that their current iterations can never be together. but in a way where i'm #still shipping them #it makes sense that they don't make sense. and 'here's how [ship] can still win' is a backbone of the shipping economy #natsume's book of friends #orv #natsume yuujinchou #horrible exorcists #natsuyuu meta #shipping #asks #not anon #thank youuuu for asking <3333 v fun to think about!

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coquelicoq · 6 months

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i also think it's interesting how natsume's early episodes with both tanuma and natori point out a lot of ways in which he's different from them, and then slowly over time he learns how to deepen those relationships. with taki i feel like it's their similarities that are emphasized from the outset, PLUS natsume loses his Sight temporarily, putting him and taki on a more even footing very soon after they meet. of course he gets it back, but the scene in which he meets up with taki after getting it back is very telling - chobi and sensei are having an argument, only half of which taki can hear, and she asks natsume what they're saying. natsume doesn't answer, but sensei starts mockingly repeating chobi's words, which achieves the same result from taki's perspective. much 2 think about...

#i love sensei as the bridge between the youkai and human worlds. instead of natsume having to do it for once #and like. tanuma had no idea sensei could talk whereas sensei revealed himself to taki much earlier in the process #so part of this is that natsume is learning from his relationship with tanuma #like natsume is better able to trust her and be more open with her than he was initially with tanuma BECAUSE over time he learned to #trust and be more open with tanuma. and sensei is aware of that #but it's not just about natsume's character growth over time. i think taki is also just special in her own way #sensei tells taki about the BOF for crying out loud. pretty sure tanuma doesn't even know about the BOF at this point in the story #natsume's book of friends #natsume yuujinchou #taki tooru #natsume takashi #natsuyuu meta #my posts #where is the taki tooru meta i so want and crave #it must be out there somewhere...please direct me to it if you know of any!!

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coquelicoq · 1 month

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[ID adapted from alt: Pages from chapter 115 of the Natsume's Book of Friends manga. Natsume kneels on a ladder to look through a small hole in a mask near the ceiling. Natori asks, "Can you see anything?" Natsume says, "It's fitted with a lens. The perspective is narrow…is it a picture? I see a white camellia flower." Natori, who's standing near a mirror, says, "White camellia…of course! That mirror must be visible from there. And…the mirror reflects the next room over. A wooden tile mural of white camellia on the wall…All the flowers look the same." He touches one of the flowers in the mural. Natsume says, "The eye only sees one. That one!" Natori says, "This flower…" as he pushes on it, and exclaims when it clicks. He says, "It becomes a handle when you push it in. A hidden cubby unique to this house…" /end ID]

so natori on purpose went to his uncle's house and put himself under the thrall of a youkai because he thought that the house held a secret that could possibly help natsume with the book of friends. as a failsafe he asked natsume to come snap him out of it if he wasn't able to break free, which natsume was happy to do. natsume then insisted on staying to help natori look for the house's secret (not knowing what natori wanted it for), and in the end the secret was hidden in such a way that it could only be found by two people working in concert - one to touch the wall, and one to look through the mask and tell them when they were in the right area. aw. the power of friendship! they really have come so far.

#natsume wanting to stay because he's so happy that natori trusted him enough to ask him to help...#natori (who thinks that not wanting to be alone is a weakness) saying okay. stay by my side...#each of them at every juncture just wanting to do what would be helpful to their friend...#which turns out to be what would be helpful to themselves as well...#sure the secret did not help with the book of friends. but maybe the real secret was the trust we forged along the way 🥰#as sensei would say. good grief. you and this kid!!!!#natsume's book of friends #natsume yuujinchou #my posts #natori shuuichi #natsume takashi #younger cousin arc #natsuyuu meta

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owletstarlet · 5 years

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natsuyuu + singing/music

[From this themed ask meme.]

Oh, yes, good….

I’m gonna answer about musical talent instead of musical tastes (because regarding musical tastes of rural Japanese teenagers circa 2005, I dunno a fuckin’ thing, my guy).

So Natori is probably a decent singer, or has at least practiced enough to be passable at it, because it’s a marketable skill to have as an entertainer. He doesn’t do it super often, and he doesn’t particularly like or dislike it, any more than acting, just something he views as another facet of his job, releasing a few formulaic tracks here and there to go with whatever drama he just starred in… And the first time Natsume heard one of the songs he was just in a music store with his friends minding his own business and then it starts playing over the speakers and he’s torn between incredulous laughter, throwing up in his mouth a little, and being very slightly impressed. When Matoba first learns about this he does his very best to make fun of Natori for it, but that pretty much dissolves into bickering and sniping—(“You’re singing pop music now? I see there’s really no depth the last pandering face of the Natori clan won’t sink to. If you’re that desperate just get over yourself ask for help already.” “Well why are you following my career closely enough to know I’m singing pop music?” “Even I go to the mall sometimes. It really is tiresome to see your gigantic overly retouched face plastered all over every available inch of advertising space and now I have to hear you everywhere too…” etc., etc…)

Moving right along to Tanuma. I have talked about this somewhat in meta asks before but whatever– In canon (ch 84) we get the one singular scene where he’s shown sitting at a piano, talking with Natsume in what looks to be an empty music room at the school. I guess the implication is that he’s practicing for a class or club while Natsume hangs out and listens, which are both normal and plausible assumptions. But unless canon directly states otherwise I’d headcanon it as him using the pianos for self-practice (and the chance to spend time with Natsume) once nobody else is using the music room. I think unless it’s mandatory he wouldn’t opt to take a music class because even if he loves piano he would absolutely not love having to play in front of groups of people. As to clubs—lest I go off into a diatribe about my strongly mixed feelings about Japanese school clubs as an institution and their impact on the emotional, psychological and physical health of students that I’ve seen firsthand (including music clubs with some really petty nasty politics and ridiculous practice schedules in addition to the stress of performing), I’ll just say a music club would be a Bad Time for Tanuma and not something he’d likely choose for himself. Side note, he also seems to have more free time in canon than a club schedule would likely allow. It makes more sense to me that it’s something he does for himself as a relaxing hobby and has done on and off since he was little.

I’d say due to costs and him frequently ill and moving towns a lot, he probably didn’t take consistent lessons, if anything it was probably some inexpensive community center lessons he’d attend as he was able throughout elementary and junior high. I think, though, that this is a great hobby for him to have had growing up, because if you’re too sick to leave your house and lonely and bored, a keyboard you can set up on your bed (with headphones so nobody else can hear if you mess up) and a stack of old piano lesson books can be a good remedy and comfort. Tanuma never thinks to mention to Natsume that he can play, until one day he comes by unexpectedly to check on Tanuma when Tanuma had been home sick from school, and Tanuma’s in the middle of practicing in his room (sans headphones) and not realizing for a good several seconds that Natsume’s in his doorway. Tanuma’s first anxiety-brain instinct is of course oh god put it away now before you embarrass yourself or bore him but he also realizes that that would be kind of a dick move when Natsume’s come out of his way to check on him. And provided Tanuma’s not going to keel over in the middle of it, Natsume Would In Fact Very Much Like To Listen, so that’s what happens, for the fifteen or so minutes before Tanuma’s dad makes him stop to to get some rest. And objectively it does Not sound all that great, even though he intentionally chose simpler stuff he has memorized from years of repetition so he won’t fuck it up, because he’s both sick and hyper-aware of his audience and thus keeps missing notes. But Natsume’s totally enthralled because I’m sure that rarely if ever has he gotten to listen to anyone play an instrument, least of all for his ears only.

From there it ends up becoming a weekly-ish occurrence, and Tanuma’s still a little baffled that it genuinely seems to make Natsume and relaxed to hear him rather than bored and too polite to say so. In terms of musical genre, I don’t think he’d particularly favor any one over another, and that it’d come down to whatever he can successfully teach himself, and whatever (most often secondhand) sheet music he gets his hands on. His dad will often give him music books as gifts, especially if he’s been on a trip, and will look for music shops and secondhand shops with sheet music when he travels. And a big (and very wholesome) motivator for Tanuma to keep practicing, I think, is to be able to show his dad the pieces he’s learned from the books his dad found for him. And his motivation, frequency of practice, and personal enjoyment of it all get a big ol’ boost once Natsume starts listening too. He’d want to start picking new things he’d think Natsume would enjoy hearing, but it’s difficult to gauge exactly what to choose when Natsume seems to genuinely enjoy every piece he hears. (Of course, Tanuma’s conclusion would be “he really likes to hear the piano” and he would not quite make the connection of “he really likes to hear me play the piano” until much later on, even if Natsume were to tell him outright.) Still, Tanuma’s perceptive enough to have worked out which specific pieces Natsume likes best, and will make sure to play those first if Natsume has clearly had a rough day or week. (Side note, one of those pieces is the Tottoro March, because early on after moving to Hitoyoshi he mentioned he’d never seen the movie before…to which Nishimura was like *dramatic gasp* “You’re coming over RIGHT NOW and we’re fixing that.” So it’s a very warm association for Natsume when he hears the song. And Tanuma, knowing this, does try to work some more Ghibli into his repertoire because whether Natsume’s seen the movies or not—and probably not in most cases—it’s got a similar gentle tone and feel to it, and very easy to find.)

Two additional sidenotes here: one, Touko has Absolutely knitted Tanuma a scarf with a piano key design…he did not quite know how to react upon receiving it, and worried later that he made a seemingly ungrateful ass of himself for getting all tongue-tied over it but he takes very good care of it and wears it all the time. Two, an effect of having a bunch of random mostly secondhand sheet music is that a lot of the pieces are scores from random movie/anime/game franchises that Tanuma knows literally nothing about, and of course if he got it from his dad/picked it up himself because it looked like it would sound interesting he’ll try to learn it regardless. And I’m Positive that at least once Nishimura hung out with him while he was practicing and almost had a stroke when he heard Tanuma start playing a piece like this from [insert whatever series/franchise Nishimura happened to be obsessed with at the time here], only to be like “what do you MEAN you’ve never seen it and also you sound GODDAMN AMAZING but I also feel slightly betrayed okay.”

Thanks for the ask, sorry for the wait, this was a super fun question!

#megumibex #owlet's headcanons #owlet's meta #ask meme #natsume yuujinchou #natori shuuichi #matoba seiji #horrible exorcists #tanuma kaname #natsume takashi #tanunatsu #nishimura satoru #natsume's book of friends #natsuyuu

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owletstarlet · 5 years

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Ooh I gotta ask for natsuyuu + animals/pets

Aaah, good prompt, my guy—it’s long so it’s under a cut but I touched on the Fujiwaras, Natsume, Tanuma, Taki, and Natori! [From this ask meme! Askbox is always open!]

So I vote Touko most likely character to take in frequent strays—and certainly not limited to people’s lost dogs and cats, if her fondness for her crow visitor is any indication. But lost dogs and cats are probably the most common guest in the Fujiwara house, and Touko makes it her mission to get them back to their homes—she becomes an unstoppable force of nature, going door to door and making flyers and making sure everyone and their mom knows that a Friend Has Gone Astray. This has been going on for years before Natsume came into the picture, and when Natsume brought Sensei home, there was already a kitty bed and some catnip mice tucked away in a closet. (Side note, she’s known at the local pet store as That Weird Lady who called one time about how to take care of an injured lizard, and Shigeru’s known as Weird Lady’s Husband who showed up 20 minutes before the shop closed, clearly on his way home from his own office job, to buy a tank and heat lamp for aforementioned injured lizard. The lizard made a full and comfortable recovery). Meanwhile she is making sure to spoil the daylights out of the lucky critter. And Natsume is always foremost concerned about Sensei being a dick about sharing food and living space and even the kitty toys he never really plays with—which he always is, but as loud as Sensei grumbles about it and swats and hisses he also tacitly makes sure the critter never gets messed with by whatever Youkai of the Week Natsume’s attracted to the house.

Natsume doesn’t really consciously consider himself to be good with animals, but we’ve seen how caring and empathetic he is to all manner of “strays” throughout the series, and fiercely protective of any being weaker than him or dependent on him for its safety. I think any visiting pets can generally sense that Natsume is a Safe Person and will often be affectionate towards him/sleep with him/at the very least tolerate him if they’re standoffish. It would bother him a lot more than he’d ever admit if a stray didn’t like him, and I think this has its roots in his childhood. He could never get close to the families he was staying with, but I think when the families had dogs or cats, he would spend a lot of his time/affection on them (sneak them snacks, talk to them about his day, sleep cuddled up with them) and generally become very attached to them, and when he would have to leave they’d be the only thing he’d really miss. So when the Fujiwaras say goodbye to the dogs and cats especially, Natsume has to make a visible effort not to look broken up about it, and holds Sensei extra close on those days. He’d never ask for it, but the Fujiwaras would adopt a hundred pets in a heartbeat if they thought it would make him happy.

Tanuma once won a goldfish in a festival game when he was in kindergarten, much to his father’s quiet apprehension. He felt very responsible for making sure his fish had a nice home, and got a book from the library about how to care for it, and spent an hour at the pet store picking out a nice tank for it. And when the fish died a week later (due to the fact that it was a festival fish), he cried and cried and was too scared to buy another one in case it died too. This formative experience had left him generally too nervous to want to keep a pet since, because however irrational he’d got it into his head that if he can’t keep a fish alive he certainly couldn’t keep a cat or dog alive. Temples often look after cats, though, so I’d imagine that he liked to seek them out and sit with them and pet them growing up, because even when they didn’t particularly like him it was easier being around them than being around people. I think Tanuma would do well with a large, calm dog, because wrapping his arms around a Big Warm Friend who licks his face sometimes and looks at him adoringly would do wonders for his anxiety. We know in canon that Tanuma likes to hold Sensei as often as possible, and in no small part that’s a soothing/security thing just like it is for Natsume. I like to think that Tanuma and Natsume get a big ol’ doggo a few years down the road, and Sensei’s quite vocal about how much he dislikes the thing but also sleeps beside it semi-regularly because, as stated above, it is warm and shaped like a friend.

Taki may love cute animals in part because she’s never really been able to keep one in a house with so many precious family heirlooms and papers. She would never turn away a stray pup or kitty they needed a place, but it would stress her out having to look after both an animal meandering through the house and the safety of her grandfather’s life’s work.

Natori tried to keep a cat once, because they can be good sensors of the supernatural and I think often kept by exorcists for this reason. She was a pretty, dainty tabby named Hina, and she was a complete asslord whose hobbies included biting, shredding up furniture and peeing on important exorcism documents. But incidentally Hina could sense and was very fond of Urihime and Sasago, and would purr so loud you could hear it in the next room when they were near. Natori eventually had to give her over to a clan that was willing look after her, and Matoba has gleefully never let him forget about the whole thing.

#natsume yuujinchou #natsume's book of friends #natsuyuu #natsume takashi #nyanko sensei #tanuma kaname #taki tooru #natori shuuichi #fujiwara touko #fujiwara shigeru #matoba seiji #tanunatsu #owlet's headcanons #owlet's meta #ask meme #mayorofcattown

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