#i've reread this so many times if there's a spelling mistake i might actually cry

[sweettsubaki]

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.