Gekidžóban Nacume júdžinčó: Ucusemi ni musubu

"Natsume's Book of Friends" is one of my favorite shows, so I really could not miss this movie released for the tenth anniversary of the anime series. However, in all honesty, I was not completely impressed. The movie is very good, however... The beginning lacks that classic ease that is so characteristic of this anime series for me. In the beginning, it is even slightly confusing, and it seems as if the cinematic Natsume has no idea what he wants to tell, so the movie is jumping from one subject matter to another and gradually (= very slowly) interweaving them. However, it eventually all works out, the narrative accomplishes what I expected from it, and there is again that pleasant magical quality that has put a smile on my face so many times - in other words, all those seemingly disparate pieces from the beginning come together to form a very enjoyable puzzle. Nevertheless, I could not forgive them for the fact that I watched the first half of the movie (almost an hour) sort of half-assedly, wondering what would come out of it and how some things were connected, and even a triple helping of my favorite cartoon cat could not possibly redeem it... 7.8/10. (24.06.2019)