#look in my defense i'm a dazai stan first and foremost

[riseriseleo]

something i love abt natsume yuujinchou:

how it deals with natsume's trauma.

it doesn't brush it aside and ignore it, but it also doesn't throw it in your face and repeat the exact same scene every time (cough atsushi bsd there are ways to show trauma and it works ig but it's so. in your face. we don't need the exact same thing every time).

which is part of where natsume shines, i think. it shows natsume's journey, from a shy, closed off boy who trusts no one, not even himself, to someone who lets people in, despite the hardships and fear it brings him. now bear in mind i've not finished with the anime, nor have i read the manga, though i have it loaded and ready to read.

i'm smack in the middle of his healing process, and seeing how tanuma and taki refuse to let him be - how kitamoto and nishimura continue to seek him out - how natori so clearly latched onto him and wishes to keep him safe - it's just... heartwarming. natsume is finally in a place where he can heal and learn to live as a person, not as a ghost, with people who choose him and who he chooses back. and he recognizes that, and he makes an effort to shed his mask, even though it takes time and there are setbacks.

it's a show about healing, and trust, and people, and how though you may not realize it, no matter the oddities you may have, you will eventually find the people that love you despite - or because - of those unique quirks.

...and comparing natsume's flashbacks to atsushi's, while both are to show how beaten down they've been in the past and supposed to help with the story, showing how they overcome their troubles - atsushi always has the one flashback of the headmaster, and it gets tiring, while natsume is shown at multiple points in time with different people. the manga definitely does atsushi better, or so i've heard, but there are plenty of anime only fans that tire of it. don't get me wrong, i love them both, but there's just something natsume does better about it.