Sequel Season

Of the new seasons animes I’m only watching sequels of former series so far, namely the ones of Minami-ke, Tower of Druaga and Natsume Yuujinchou. All three I enjoyed much at their air-time and I’m hopeful that their sequels won’t disappoint me neither.
The first two episodes of Minami-ke Okaeri were definitely better than (almost) everything Okawari accomplished, but it doesn’t emit the same feeling and atmosphere of the first season so far. None the less, being produced by the same people who made the first season they still look promising and I’m far from being in despair here. hopefully they have learned their lesson from the second season and try to tie in with the first season much better this time.
Sword of Uruk is only one episode old, but I like what I’ve seen in that episode. Jil and Fatina get along quite well now and their interaction is nice to watch. The main crux should be the handling of the reunion of Jil/Kaaya and Neeba/Fatina, thus it might take a while to see if this sequel will succeed.
Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou manages to follow its first season in every aspect, it’s like there wasn’t a break at all. Consequently both new episodes were great entertainment and I’m eager to watch more and more of this series.

So, to sum up my estimation of all three sequels together I’d say ‘Huge Success’. Now I’ll have to see if there are also some new series worth to watch out there.

Natsume Yuujinchou

I picked up Natsume Yuujinchou a bit late in this season, but surely don’t regret to have finally done so. Since Mokke I found a liking in series which deal with supernatural-sensitive people who try to live a fairly normal life nonetheless. I liked Mokke a bit more because it’s spirits had a more general influence for the world in a whole while in Natsume Yuujinchou their influence is far more focused on Natsume because they want to loot his “Book of Friends”. On the other hand, Natsume’s supernatural “Nyanko-sensei” (illustration not to scale) is definitely a much more likeable character than old grumpy grandpa of the Mokke girls. Bottom line is that I enjoy watching Natsume Yuujinchou and that the announcement of a second season is quite good news for me. Only problem I have at the moment is that while watching I often think that poor little Misaki is part of this anime’s cast.

Guess it’s a bit understandable given the similarities of both Natsume Yuujinchou and Wagaya no Oinari-sama, namely a supernatural guardian who can form-shift (abusing this ability whenever possible), spirits aiming for the main character (splitting him into two brothers doesn’t help here) and flashbacks of the main character’s grandmother in her teens. Also with Sasada a at least possible (stalking) love interest was introduced to Natsume, but she doesn’t had enough time to leave a solid impression to far, so I guess I just fill her seat with Misaki each time.

Not that she is the worst placeholder there is…