Chapter 229 228
The final episode of the second season, episode 239, had just finished airing.
Shiori could not hold back her tears.
"Why? Why did Uncle Hannes have to die too? Whether he lived or died wouldn't have changed the story that much, would it? So why kill him? Sora, you bastard… have you completely lost your mind?"
Still sitting in front of the television, she opened NatsuYume almost on instinct, entered Sora's official account, and began pouring out her anger there, as if every word she typed could pierce through the screen and reach the man behind that cruelty.
At that very moment, tens of thousands of viewers were just like her, devastated, crying in front of the ending of Natsume Yuujinchou.
From the television, Allen's voice echoed, caught somewhere between laughter and sobbing, sounding almost insane.
"Hahaha… I can't change anything…"
Shiori's frustration only grew stronger.
"Nothing…"
Allen broke down, swallowed by raw despair, crying as if he had lost not only someone dear to him, but every last scrap of faith he still had left.
"It's the same as back then… I still can't do anything."
"Allen! That isn't true!"
Shiori's heart skipped a beat.
In the animation, the camera slowly pulled back.
Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of titans were advancing toward Eren, who had been left behind, crying, without his three-dimensional maneuver gear. The first to approach was the very titan that had just devoured Hannes: the same monster that, years earlier, had eaten his mother.
But Mikasa merely tightened the scarf around her neck and knelt beside Eren, looking at him with a tenderness that felt almost out of place in the middle of hell.
Then, before Shiori's eyes, the most painfully moving confession scene she had ever seen in animation unfolded.
"Allen, listen to me… There's something I need to tell you."
Thank you for always being by my side.
Thank you for teaching me how to keep living.
Thank you for wrapping this scarf around me.
The soundtrack, sorrowful and delicate, began to swell as a titan drew closer to them. Mikasa smiled softly, tears shimmering in her eyes, while Eren remained crushed beneath his own helplessness, destroyed by the pain of failing to save anyone.
That single frame carried an immense weight.
Even if you couldn't save my mother. Even if you couldn't save Uncle Hannes. At the very least, you saved me.
You are not useless.
To me, you are my entire world.
All the emotions Mikasa had never managed to put into words crossed through the television screen and reached Shiori with suffocating force.
Allen had wrapped that scarf around her. And that simple scarf had protected her from all the suffering in the world.
Even if the two of them were to die there, in that very moment, there would be no fear.
"It's just a scarf! I'll wrap it around you as many times as I have to!"
Eren wiped away his tears. In that instant, Mikasa healed his broken heart.
He stared at the titan that had devoured his mother as it approached, and in his eyes there was no longer that corrosive guilt. There was no hesitation. No confusion.
"Aaaah!"
Perhaps Allen was only raising his fist against the monster that had killed his mother.
Perhaps it was merely an ordinary human striking out in rage.
I couldn't protect Uncle Hannes. But I will not let Mikasa get hurt before I die.
Who said an action anime didn't need a strong female lead?
Wasn't Sora's construction extraordinary precisely because of that?
But only a few seconds later, Shiori's feelings became even more complicated.
Was Allen going to die again?
Under those circumstances, there was no way out. He was surrounded by hundreds of titans. Even if Levi arrived at that moment, no miracle would be possible.
And yet, the soundtrack suddenly changed.
The instant Allen's fist touched the enormous hand of the titan that had eaten his mother, all the intelligent titans seemed to sense something.
Reiner and Bertholdt's expressions changed completely.
The titan in front of Allen froze. The hand that had been about to strike him stopped in midair.
Behind Eren, the titans that had surrounded him moments earlier responded to his will. They surged forward all at once and began devouring the titan that had eaten his mother.
A chill ran through Shiori's entire body.
This…
What was happening?
Eren's furious punch had made every titan attack the titan that had devoured his mother. It was as if those creatures were obeying his orders. As if Eren were the king of all titans.
While Shiori and countless viewers were still trying to understand the situation, Reiner, that involuntary commentator of his own tragedy, remained on-screen.
"The power of the Coordinate has fallen into Eren's hands… That's right. Of all the people in this world, you are the one who should least possess that power, Eren!"
Reiner tried to charge toward Allen.
But Allen shouted:
"Don't come any closer!"
Every titan that had been biting and tearing into the titan that ate his mother immediately turned against the Armored Titan, Reiner's transformed form.
The Survey Corps seized the chaos to retreat, taking Eren and Mikasa with them. While the titans surrounded Reiner, they managed to escape.
The farewell between Christa and Ymir. Reiner and Bertholdt's struggle against the titans. Eren and Mikasa retreating under the protection of the Survey Corps.
And on the ground, dozens, perhaps hundreds of soldiers who had sacrificed their lives to protect Allen became nothing more than small silhouettes beneath the orange glow of sunset.
With a soundtrack sung by women's and children's voices, that sequence became a classic the instant it appeared.
There were no winners in that battle.
Shiori kept crying for a long while.
Eren's ability to control titans was, without question, astonishing. But the truth remained there, heavy and inescapable: Uncle Hannes was dead.
Beyond that, Ymir and Christa's farewell was deeply painful as well.
The anime did not clearly explain why Ymir, who loved Christa so much, agreed to leave with Reiner. But Shiori could feel, through the final words exchanged between the two of them, that this was a definitive farewell.
Perhaps it was the last time they would ever see each other in this life.
In the sixth episode of Natsume Yuujinchou's second season, the work had already reached something like a sacred moment. But the twelfth episode elevated the entire theme of the anime to another level.
Ymir and Christa. Uncle Hannes's redemption. Eren and Mikasa. And finally, the introduction of the Coordinate power system.
Looking back at the two seasons of the series so far, one feeling became increasingly clear.
The mysteries had not been solved.
In fact, they had only multiplied.
After the twelfth episode of Natsume Yuujinchou's second season aired, online discussion exploded with far greater intensity than in previous weeks.
"So what exactly is the power of the titans? And what exactly is this Coordinate power?"
"Why was Eren able to control those titans? And that ability seemed to activate when he punched the titan that ate his mother. Is this the special power of Eren's titan?"
"The Armored Titan has armor. The Colossal Titan releases steam. The Female Titan can harden parts of her body. The Beast Titan is covered in fur. So Eren's titan couldn't be useless, right? Maybe this is one of his special abilities."
"But Reiner called it the power of the Coordinate… In other words, he knows what it is. And judging by his reaction, it doesn't seem like something favorable to his side at all."
"It's an ability that controls titans! Of course Reiner was terrified. In this world, the strongest beings are the titans themselves!"
"I still haven't gotten over Uncle Hannes's death. And Ymir? Why did she leave with Reiner and the others? Why, after seeing the so-called Coordinate power in Eren, did she give up on taking Christa with her? Didn't she believe there was no hope at all inside the walls? Then why did she leave Christa behind?"
"The story has opened too many gaps. Can Kantoku Sora really resolve all of this? I'm genuinely afraid this anime will end badly."
"Kantoku Sora has never had a history of leaving a work unfinished, has he?"
"That's exactly why I'm worried!"
"You people spend all day worrying about nonsense. Just watch the show. Stop turning everything into endless arguments on the forum."
"Damn it, there are still two weeks left until Part 3 of Natsume Yuujinchou. This is torture."
"Hahaha, you people still want to complain? We only have to wait two weeks for the third season! Other anime usually have gaps of five or six years between one season and the next. Here, it's two weeks… I already said it before, don't criticize or pressure Kantoku Sora so much just because he's too responsible. He's basically a workaholic in the Japanese anime industry. At least when it comes to release frequency, nobody can demand more from him."
The next day, the episode's audience ratings were announced.
In Japan's main broadcast region, the audience share had risen to 6.94%.
Sora felt a trace of regret when he saw the result, but he could only sigh.
The 7% mark felt like a wall too difficult to overcome. Even with the extremely high quality of Natsume Yuujinchou's second season, it still lacked that final push needed to break through that limit.
All that remained was to wait for the third season.
In the four overseas regions, however, the situation was different.
Natsume Yuujinchou's audience rating had already surpassed 6% in two of them.
At the end of the month, all the employees of Yume Animation held a celebration party.
The Tokyo Animation Festival took place on the final day of December.
There was practically no suspense.
The second season of Natsume Yuujinchou swept almost every award.
Sora received the festival's Best Animation Kantoku award for the fifth consecutive year.
But to him, those things no longer held much importance.
First, because Sora no longer needed an award from a festival to prove his worth.
Second, because the organizing committee itself needed to see him receive the award in order to prove to the public that its selection process still maintained fairness and neutrality.
December passed quickly, and the winter season after New Year arrived without asking permission.
During that period, the story of Natsume Yuujinchou advanced into the portion considered the most lukewarm in the original work.
The royal government arc.
The narrative foundation of this season revolved around Christa's return after the events involving Reiner and the others. Her true identity placed her at the center of countless dangers.
The Reiss family, which controlled the walls from behind the curtain, finally appeared. Levi's powerful uncle also entered the stage. And after Christa reclaimed the name Historia, the identity of her mysterious father was finally revealed.
To be honest, because of the limitations in the original author's political vision, the royal government arc still carried certain flaws. Many of its political scenes could not withstand stricter scrutiny.
But why demand too much from a work of entertainment?
It was like the world-building in Code Geass, the anime from Sora's previous life. Its political conflicts also had countless weaknesses, but that never stopped it from remaining beloved in the hearts of anime fans.
The royal bloodline. The massacre of the royal family committed by Eren's father years ago. Historia's father's plan to turn her into a titan and make her devour Eren, thus returning the power of the titans to the family.
Unfortunately, compared to the previous arcs, the action scenes the audience loved so much had decreased considerably.
Because of that, many viewers found those political conflicts and family revelations somewhat boring.
Throughout the winter, from January to March, the first half of Natsume Yuujinchou's third season suffered a decline in both reviews and ratings when compared to the first and second seasons.
The audience rating remained stable at around 6.6%.
The audience did not praise Sora unconditionally.
When the plot was addictive, ratings and praise naturally rose. When the rhythm weakened, the numbers fell just as naturally.
After the final episode of Natsume Yuujinchou's second season approached 7%, practically every media outlet predicted that the third season would surpass that threshold. However, as soon as the new season's numbers began to retreat, rumors inevitably spread through the industry.
Even so, in the overseas regions, audiences showed great interest in these elements, and the third season received overwhelmingly positive reviews.
That was the difference between the tastes of viewers in each region.
When the cold winter season came to an end, the spring season began once again.
And the second half of Natsume Yuujinchou's third season finally went on air.
Thus, the anime Natsume Yuujinchou remained in continuous broadcast in Japan for an entire year.
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