Natsume Yuujinchou is referred to as “the niceness” on ADTRW. There’s really nothing else to say about this show except that it’s nice and it gives you a nice feeling after you watch it. It’s a lot like Aria in that way. I’m hesitant to call it slice of life when encounters with the youkai are such a big part, but I guess that’s like saying Aria isn’t slice of life because gondoliering is such a big part.

I remember before the first season that this was being derided as another Bleach. I’ve noticed that any time that there’s anything having to do with spirits, it becomes Bleach. I suppose it’s like if some anime were to show up being about ninjas, everyone would go hurr hurr Naruto or if some anime about four girls showed up everyone would go hurr hurr Lucky Star.

I’m surprised to find that so many people didn’t like the second season as much as the first season. I thought the second season was great and better than the first season. I liked that Natsume was a lot more comfortable in his interactions with just about everyone and more background information about Reiko and stuff like the conference for people who can see youkai.

I actually didn’t like the first season enough to really anticipate the second season when it was announced. It wasn’t that it was bad, it was just that I wasn’t sure how far they could go with another season. This time around, I’m pretty sure I’m ready for a third season.

In which I give my impressions on shows that everyone’s already talked about for the past week.

Maria+Holic

Maria+Holic doesn’t fall in my target radius for stuff I’m really interested in. The main characters are a closet lesbian who falls for a guy who’s crossdressing for reasons that haven’t been made apparent yet. But, I really like SHAFT, so I decided to have a look at at least one episode. The show is still awkward to watch, but the trap character is a lot funnier than I expected him to be. We’ll see how the rest of this goes.

Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou

One of a billion sequels this season, this one is for a show that most people didn’t follow from last summer. This second season starts with the advantage of having the characters already gone through some development. This is a really character driven show and the first episode gives us a Natsume and Nyanko that are comfortable in their relationship already and who know how to react when problems show up. It’s a nice watch that’s pretty much only for those of us who liked the first season.

Minami-ke Okaeri

I really didn’t like Okawari and I was unimpressed upon learning that asread would be doing Okaeri. But, it looks like they’ve listened to a lot of the criticism of Okawari. For one thing, the writing and direction is a lot closer to that of the first season. There’s no constant barrage of Mako-chan, there’s no annoying original character, and the glimpse of the Minami brothers in the OP gives everyone hope. On the downside, it looks like the animation quality took a hit. I guess it’d be too much to ask for them not to screw anything up.