#and while usually natsume's the one who can't tell the difference bn humans and youkai...

[coquelicoq]

[Image description: Two stills from the episode. The first is a close-up on Natori's face as he holds up a black crow feather. He's wearing glasses and a bucket hat and saying "I sent Hiiragi after him so we could take him out". In the second, Natori takes off his glasses, looking at Nanase offscreen at an exorcist meeting. He's still wearing his bucket hat, which throws the top of his face into shadow. Hiiragi is visible behind him. /end ID]

Rewatch: S2E11 Assembly of Conjurers

A horrible exorcists rewatch post. What is the horrible exorcists rewatch?

🌹Summary Natsume encounters an injured crow youkai. Natori invites Natsume to a meeting of exorcists to chase after a youkai that looks like a flying head.

🌹Canon Notes +this episode corresponds to manga volume 3 ch 11 +dangerous youkai can run around eating youkai and eating livestock +youkai are used as guides to lead people to exorcist-youkai gatherings +ideograms can be drawn on parts of human bodies for protection  +srry hiiragi, that you got punched this one time when you were trying your best to help but the misunderstanding was hilarious (and you wonder if any exorcists ever get protective tattoos of certain ideograms? probably not, knowing the negative connotations on tattoos and yakuza in japan) +both youkai and people attend the meetings; not everyone at the meetings can see youkai, some can just sense them +natori suggests that natsume should wear a mask at the meeting; info-gathering is important, while also trying not to give away too much about your own identity +natori’s family, apparently, was famous once as powerful exorcists +the lizard youkai on natori never goes to his left leg. +nanase-san knows about the name Natsume Reiko (and presumably, so do some of the others at the meeting) +natori also asks “is matoba-san here too?” at the meeting. matoba does not appear at the meeting +exorcists hunt youkai and get bounties from posters on exorcist bulletin boards +natori can find other youkai with his paper dolls if he knows the youkai’s name and he draws a circle of water for the tracking spell. +sealing pots (or objects) can be enchanted to fly back to an owner’s hand

🌹 Comments For a natsume yuujinchou episode, this one starts out on a much darker and bloodier note with the death of a crow youkai that was eaten in front of natsume’s eyes by another youkai that looks like a giant head. we find out from natori’s first appearance that individual exorcists exist; with this episode, we get a glimpse at a larger world of an exorcist community beyond natsume’s usual peaceful town and forest adventures. like all communities, they have their own conflicts, intrigues, and secrets. things we learn about EXORCIST WORLDBUILDING: entire families can become famous for their exorcist powers, as the ability to see youkai (and the ability to fight them off) is something that can be passed down through blood relatives. masks and fake names are used and seen as a wise necessity when attending exorcist gatherings; people want to get information but find it dangerous to have their identities known. we can sort of understand why this would be the case for youkai, seeing as natsume’s book of friends is seen as a powerful object, when all it has are youkai’s names in it. but why do exorcists want to hide their names from other humans? perhaps some are part-time exorcists, like natori, and can’t have their faces intefere with their other real-world jobs? or perhaps some families are feuding with each other and find it easier to gain information and reduce conflict if other people’s identities are obscured? exorcists can also get assignments by finding bounties posted on an…exorcist community bulletin board or answering requests from other individuals. from natori’s first appearance, he was disarming and charming, and a little dangerous, but was also balanced out humorously with ridiculous background roses and sparkles. in this appearance, his exorcist side is present in full-force, and he’s more grim, more serious throughout. while he’s not at ease during this episode, he seems entirely nonchalant about the life-threatening danger he faces when tracking down the giant-headed youkai, which could end him in one bite. it’s just another day’s work to him. we also get more snapshots of his background story; natori is the son from a famous exorcist family (”The Natori family have always been exorcists…I’m famous by birth, so there’s no point in hiding”). the lizard youkai on his skin never goes to his left leg, which he finds unsettling. there’s also a teasing hint of an unspecified conflict between natori and another group of exorcists (”The Matoba group and I don’t get along well”). this is also the second or third time when natori asks natsume for help with exorcist matters, worded in a way which appeals to natsume’s compassion: “You have power. There are those who need it. Will you ignore them?” power, the sight to see youkai, the ability to defeat them–these are the values of the exorcist community, and, at least in natori’s view, can be used to help others. we also meet another exorcist at the meeting–Nanase-san, who natori introduces to natsume as “something like a secretary to the Matoba group.” natori also takes the trouble to specifically introduce hiiragi, his new shiki, to nanase-san. i wondered for a moment why he would take the time to do so; but it makes sense. if shiki are introduced to other exorcist colleagues, the likelihood of someone accidentally banishing or sealing your shiki are reduced. nanase-san first appears to be a kindly character; when she is introduced to natsume, she tells him “But you need not fight alone anymore.” Were these the things natori was hoping natsume would hear, when following him to the meeting–connection, sympathy, community? (natori takes off his glasses during the brief scenes of introduction, which may not mean much of anything; but we do know that the glasses add a bit of security to natori’s mind, to help him see youkai better). as the episode proceeds, nanase-san, by her appearance a smiling respectable elderly exorcist, turns out to be absolutely ruthless in how she interacts with youkai, natori, and natsume. not purposefully cruel or rude; but ruthless. the sealing jar she at first gifted to natori turns out to be the means to help her gain a new shiki after natori had done the work of sealing the youkai and she had used the crow youkai as bait at the beginning of the episode. finally, when natsume is angry with her, on behalf of the crow youkai which had died, all she tells him is: “Oh dear. That tenderness will be the death of you.” in the exorcist community, compassion, softness towards youkai (or towards other exorcists?) leads to a person’s ruin. if nanase-san and natori had been acquainted before, had this ever been something she had said to him? we find out more about the exorcist community, the darker, dangerous world that natori interacts with outside of his acting and his roses. as for what natori thought about other exorcists when he first met them when he must have been younger, all we have to infer from are natsume’s reactions, which run from excitement to mixed, uneasy emotions: If I go, will I find others like me? Will I find people here who know my pain? Can I honestly, truly believe in others? I have to protect…the people here who understand my pain. I have to be able to at least do that!… But it’s people like me who are the most dangerous. I thought what I wanted was to be strong, because I found those I want to protect… natsume never completes his last thought on what else he wanted to be, other than someone who was strong. the parallels also diverge at the point about other people; we don’t know yet, if there’s anyone, or any people that natori wants to protect (personally), if he can understand that impulse at all.

Feel free to reblog with your own comments or to link and type a separate response post. Previous posts: S1E9 rewatch. S1E13. S2E3. More exorcists meta can be read here. Other rewatch posts will be tagged with ‘horrible exorcists rewatch’