アサギの琴 | Asagi no Koto | Chapter 8
Natsume gets possessed by a gravely ill youkai koto player named Asagi as she wishes to play the koto one last time for a friend.
Tropes associated with the episode:
- Bandaged Face: Akagane's face and head are bandaged with only one of his eyes showing and some tufts of hair that stick through.
- Broken Angel: Asagi was a beautiful youkai and gifted musician who has a disease which is causing her to crumble into dust.
- Cherry Blossoms: There are petals falling delicately in scenes from Mibu-sama’s glade in the Isozuki Forest.
- Combat Tentacles: The floating youkai that helped direct Natsume to the stump needed for the last part of the koto attacks him with tentacles to try and eat him as its reward for helping.
- Curtains Match the Window: Asagi has blue eyes and hair.
- Desperate Object Catch: When Akagane moves to protect Natsume from the attacking floating youkai it knocks the koto over a ledge an Natsume jumps to catch it.
- Dream Sequence: A dream Natsume and Asagi share is shown.
- Gotta Get Your Head Together: When Asagi speaks to Natsume while she is possessing him he clutches his head with both hands, though it seems to be in surprise rather than pain.
- Heroes Gone Fishing: Akagane and Natsume go fishing for a youkai which has strings around it’s mouth used to build a special type of youkai koto.
- In-Series Nickname: In the anime Natsume calls Akagane Janome-san when he refuses to give his name to a lowly human.
- Invisible to Normals: The episode starts with Natsume pointing out an umbrella to Kitamoto and Nishimura before their reactions tell him it’s not visible to them and then it lands in-between him and them while he pretends he was mistaken.
- Nightmare Face: The floating youkai that shows Natsume the way to a tree stump with a bamboo shot sticking out of it.
- Piggyback Cute: Akagane carries Natsume, who currently contains Akagane’s crush Asagi home with a piggyback after fishing.
- Possession Burnout: Natsume starts feeling more ill the longer Asagi is possessing him and wonders if he is sharing her fever or if it is just a side effect of the possession.
- Running Gag: Akagane mistakes Nyanko for a tanuki instead of a cat.
- Shrines and Temples: There are a number of shrines in the episode and Nyanko yells at the statue in one for smiling.
- Symbiotic Possession: Asagi tries to be very polite while she is possessing Natsume as it was Akagane who put her there in the first place and Natsume allows her to stay in order to fulfill her wish, forbidding Nyanko from head butting her out.
- Voices Are Mental: Asagi speaks with her own very feminine voice while possessing Natsume.
- You Can See Me?: When Natsume walks around the umbrella to look inside the bandaged youkai inside asks if he can see him.
- Zigzag Paper Tassel: There are some shide hanging from a shrine Netsuke and Akagane pass while they are looking for components to build a new koto and several other shrines like the one at the fork in the father near Natsume’s home.
