Natsume Yuujinchou Shi Review

Sometimes you don’t need to watch many episodes to know you found a true hidden gem. It’s rare to find a second season in a anime that will surpass an epic first one. But its even more rare to find the next following seasons that surpasses both. This is Natsume Yuujinchou Shi, the deserved fourth season of the series that keeps following the adventures and daily life of a young teenager, Natsume Takashi, a boy who can see spirits (youkai) and is protected by a lazy funny fat cat that is a fox spirit. If in the end of the first season, the series got a legion of fans, in the second season, those same fans got wonderfully surprised, and if we thought that making better than that was impossible, then, the third season arrived just to prove us the contrary: Natsume yuujinchou san is the proof that a third season can surpass the previous ones, and now it’s the fourth season and continuation of one of the most popular slice of life series. This continuation seems promising, and everyone who followed the previous ones already missed it.
With an amazing Voice cast, wonderful soundtrack, and an awesome direction, the fourth installment of the series is even better animated, and with more interesting plot, since, although it keeps its episodic pace, it also focus more on Natsume´s life and friends than the previous ones, it continues what was left on the previous season.

Story: Following the line of the previous seasons, Natsume keeps helping the youkai and ayakashi, while he starts to open up his heart to his friends and family, always accompanied by Nyanko-sensei. Some other characters from other seasons return, too.

Art: It might not be the best art in anime, but its definitely unique, and you cannot imagine Natsume with other type of art, because this one is simple, colorful, soft one, its not detailed but its cute enough to become captivating.

Sound: Although in my opinion the previous soundtrack from the third season was better, this one is also wonderful. Not just the inserted melodies, but also the OP and ED, that leave you with a warm, relaxing happy feeling inside (or sad, depending on the perspective). The Voice actors do a splendid job in matching the characters personalities.

Character: The only thing that it remains unveiled until now and could be better explored is the story of Natsume´s grandmother, Reiko, but its not a plot hole and it doesn’t affect the main story yet. I expect more yet to come.

Enjoyment & Overall: a big 10, because this is outstanding. Even if this series gets labeled as overrated someday, I would say it’s actually still underrated. Because there is no score enough to express the enjoyment you have while watching it, it surpasses all expectations.