English Dub Review: Natsume’s Book of Friends “Heart-Colored Ticket”

Overview (Spoilers Below):
Natsume finds an old ticket among Reiko’s belongings and decides to go to the abandoned train station to see why she kept it. There, he meets a slow-witted spirit named Santo, who was waiting for Reiko the entire time to go to Kiriganuma to see and make up with his friend, Mikuri. But the trip isn’t as easy as it first seems.

Our Take:
This week’s episode sees Natsume going from solving a school haunting to helping a spirit at the train station. After discovering an old ticket belonging to Reiko, Natsume and Madara take a short trip to an old station. There, he meets a dimwitted but kind spirit named Santo, who has been waiting for Reiko to return to him so they can go to Kiriganuma and set things right with Santo’s friend, Mikuri. Little does the spirit know that Reiko’s been dead for years. So Natsume and Madara would have to take her place and help Santo reunite with his friend. Unfortunately, since the station has been abandoned for years, they’ll have to travel on foot.
With the show combining supernatural elements with the Iyashikei (slice-of-life) genre, it was only a matter of time before we had an episode exploring some heartfelt messages amid Natsume’s ghostly adventures. Fortunately, “Heart-Colored Ticket” is that type of episode. But, more importantly, it also delivers another story that effortfully balances its light-hearted tone with the supernatural action sequences, with Natsume and Madara combating a possessed Mikuri, who happens to be a catfish.
The overall theme of this episode is the value of friendship regarding forgiveness. Santo and Mikuri had a fight due to Reiko stealing their names, so Santo wanted to travel to Kiriganuma to apologize. Following a brief confrontation, Mikuri returns to normal and accepts his apology, although he’s still pretty peeved about what Santo did. A similar thing happened to Natsume’s classmates, Kitamoto and Nishimura, who got into a petty argument about a specific dish until they settled their differences in its conclusion.
This episode portrays that friends can get into fights once in a while. However, it doesn’t mean it’s too late to make things right, mainly in Santo’s case. While it’s not a perfect representation of its theme, “Heart-Colored Ticket” is a heartfelt and engaging chapter in Natsume’s spiritual journey that portrays a healthy depiction of friendship.