English Dub Review: Natsume’s Book of Friends “It Must Not Be Bound”

Overview (Spoilers Below):
Taki informs Natsume about a hairy yokai she helped leave her home when strange writing on the school chalkboard starts appearing.  He approaches Taki’s home, covered by her grandfather’s magic circle, to find two rabbit yokai and a hairy white one.

Our Take:
After our recent encounter with Matoba, the season returns to its roots of Natsume helping yokai without any exorcists spoiling the fun.  Don’t get me wrong; the tranquil yokai-of-the-week episodes still have sweet and amusing moments that elevate the previous seasons.  It’s that the confrontations between Natsume and the exorcists seem to be the only elements preventing the episodes from being repetitive and stale.  Well, that and the multi-part ones that expand upon their typical 23-minute structures.
Unsurprisingly, this episode continues to rely on this structure, with Natsume solving another yokai-related mystery with Taki.  The mysterious writings on the chalkboard and Taki’s story of her encounter with a yokai lead Natsume to Taki’s home, which is affected by her grandfather’s magic circle.  There, Natsume, Madara, and Taki join forces to assist a rabbit-like yokai in finding his friend after they’re separated by the house’s magical traps and mazes.  During this trek, Natsume also discovers a sizeable hairy yokai who’s revealed to be responsible for writing on the chalkboard. The yokai is also the one Taki helped escape her house via her magic circle, changing his perspective on humans after his home was destroyed years ago.
While serving as another yokai-of-the-week episode, “It Must Not Be Bound” continues the element introduced in the previous two episodes, in which forbidden techniques are used on yokai.  It’s revealed that Taki’s grandfather’s magic circle, which she uses to see spirits who stepped into it, is one of the forbidden spells.  However, unlike the exorcists who use them for evil, Taki uses her grandfather’s magic circle out of kindness, seemingly resulting in the hairy yokai having feelings for Taki, as explained in his writing.  It’s unclear when that’ll be brought up again, but the callback involving the forbidden spells was enough to inject some interest in its episodic structure.