English Dub Review: Natsume’s Book of Friends “A Chick Hatches”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Natsume takes care of an abandoned egg from a nest without considering it could be a yokai. After it hatches, a rare baby spirit called Tatsumi emerges and thinks Natsume is its parent. Natsume can’t help but get attached to the little spirit even as Tatsumi grows tired and sick. Then, a mysterious spirit comes and wants to take away Tatsumi for his master — who wants to eat it.

Our Take:

You would think that caring for a baby would be easy. But when that baby happens to be a yokai that hatched from an egg, it can be far from a straightforward task. The episode sees Natsume and Madara taking care of an egg left behind in a bird’s nest. However, this egg is no ordinary egg. The egg houses a rare yokai that’s way more adorable than any other spirit that Natsume came across.

The baby yokai is a Tatsumi, a half-bird, half-dragon spirit that can assume any form from anyone it sees. Since Natsume has been taking care of the Tatsumi, it assumes the form of a young boy. Although, it would’ve taken on the form of a cat since Madara did the heavy lifting by keeping it warm.

“A Chick Hatches” undoubtedly takes the pages out of other movies and shows centering on characters watching over babies, whether they’re humans, animals, or even ghosts. The most notable one is “Rock-a-Bye Bivalve” from SpongeBob SquarePants, which depicts SpongeBob and Patrick taking care of an abandoned baby scallop as adopted parents. “A Chick Hatches” has a couple of moments that are similar to that classic Nicktoon episode, including an abandoned baby and Madara watching over the egg while Natsume’s at school, similar to Patrick going to work all day with SpongeBob doing the heavy lifting as the mother.

Thankfully, this episode doesn’t go in the same direction as “Rock-a-Bye Bivalve”. Instead, it has Natsume protecting the Tatsumi, whom they named “Eggy”, from a spirit sent by his master to take the baby yokai away to be eaten. I know eggs are supposed to be good for us, but eating the ones that have already hatched is just plain wrong, let alone an adorable baby like Eggy. Still, that doesn’t prevent “A Chick Hatches” from feeling similar to other episodes with a familiar plot.

It’s far from another groundbreaking episode, but it’s also not the worst I’ve seen in season two. It still carries the same amount of heart and tranquility from the previous chapters, with Natsume understanding what Eggy has gone through and Eggy building a vase-shaped nest for Natsume. The episode also has some decent humor, mainly Eggy biting Madara’s tail twice. It falls a tad short from the season’s previous episodes regarding its emotional depth, but it’s also another solid addition to the “babysitting storyline” category.