English Dub Review: Natsume’s Book of Friends “Autumn Banquet”

Overview (Spoilers Below):
Tanuma finds out that Nyanko-Sensei is a spirit. Tanuma and Natsume enjoy the autumn festival and previous acquaintances are seen again.

Our Take:
The series is wrapping up its first season with a peaceful and joyous day at the autumn festival. But, of course, that doesn’t mean there will be a lack of spirits running around. The festival has been teased in the previous episode, which usually means that something important might happen during this festive day as far as dramatic finales go. “Autumn Banquet” seems to be no different, with the spirits from Natsume’s previous adventures reuniting for the festival.
Additionally, the episode finally sees Natsume hanging out with Tanuma throughout the entire plot after the latter discovers that Madara is a yokai. We rarely see the two characters together for more than ten minutes since Tanuma’s first appearance in the third episode, “The Mysterious Person At The Eight Fields”. Tanuma is only seen talking to Natsume briefly or helping Natsume escape from Sasada in at least a few episodes. The season finale finally gives Tanuma more to do than just those things, including assisting Natsume in finding Madara at the festival and questioning his decision to hide his secret from everyone, including the Fujiwaras.
The episode also focuses on the familiar spirits swarming around at the festival grounds. One of them, in particular, is Kogitsune, who arrives to look for Natsume. However, his encounter with the bullying yokai resulted in him losing his pouch, so Shuuichi Natori sent his yokai assistant to help him find it. Then, there’s Madara, who’s left behind by Natsume only to be captured by Sasada. Luckily, Tomiko arrived just in time to rescue him. Finally, we have Hinoe, who sits in the tree enjoying the events unfolding.
“Autumn Banquet” has many side plots to juggle in its 23-minute runtime. However, it managed to pull this balance off well with its charismatic humor and harmless narrative. More importantly, it does so without a massive, threatening yokai spoiling the fun, which is good news for the titular character and his friends. As a result, it became a festive, relaxing, and heartfelt conclusion to the show’s remarkable first season.