Which mean Hokuto is better than Natsume ever will.

You seem to be forgetting Hokuto had nearly the same reaction at the shrine only you know she actually physically lashed out at Harutora unlike Natsume who while she was angry never went beyond giving him a tongue lashing so by my book it seems that they both are what you call "violent tsunderes" and I personally would argue the violent part. Also given we haven't seen Harutora and Natsume interact where Bakatora hasn't been a few steps above insensitive jerk to her I'm not really she we can call her a Tsundere as he tended to give her fairly valid reasons to be pissed at him.

Nope. One is actually living human.

I remember in the manga there was a line with Toiji commenting about how perfect "bakatora" was as a nickname and the way it was said made me think that it was something Hokuto had just made up, not something that everyone had been calling Harutora for years.

Nope, none of them is "real living human" it's anime (and LN):rolleyes:

But let me say it in different way. Assuming Hokuto was just Natsume controlled puppet, we can say she is her Alter-ego. Something she wanted be but couldn't normaly. In that sense Hokuto is Natsume and thus real person. But we can still make distinction between Natsume and Hokuto!Natsume due different characterisation and appearence.

And thus Hokuto is better than Natsume can be without completely turning into Hokuto Persona, which will never happen.

There is something about Natsume voice sounds relaxing. It's not like those aggressive sounding tsunderes. Its a pity Harutora has to give up his normal life.

I think we can say for certain that Natsume was really Hokuto and Hokuto was 100% Natsume. Think about it. This girl, Natsume, went so far as to create a shikigami to approach and spend time with the boy she loved. Do you really think she would have let a self-aware shikigami take that role? No. Hokuto was just a disguise for Natsume and everything we've seen Hokuto do and behave was really Natsume all along. In other words, there is no difference between them and Natsume wasn't acting anything out. She had no reason to behave to differently since there was no reason for Harutora to be suspicious. If anything, we should be talking about how Natsume's practically a stalker.

I know that some of you may have been fooled with the mood and the BGM, but those weren't the words of a girl in love. They were the words of a predator that just caught its prey.

I'm probably late here, but who is Hokuto's summoner?

EDIT: Never mind, I did some digging up...I found the answer I was looking for.

That was quite a shock, I didn't expect to be trolled so hard with her being a familiar.
I have no prior knowledge of the ln, but now I'm kinda interested in it. So I'll probably do some digging in-between so I'd have a clearer understanding of the anime.

Btw, just curious:

Your question can't be answered here. You could ask it in the manga an LN thread but there are major spoilers going on there as vol 9 was just released and it and 8 have major bombshells in them.

Great animation, and this episode pretty much shows Natsume = Hokuto :p

Now the true story begins yay :)

Well I'll take things working out like this. Appreciate them being incredibly subtle about the whole Natsume and Hokuto connection :heh:. Well better I suppose than her being gone forever, though it's pretty darn weird. I wouldn't have minded Hokuto being her own distinct person. Mentally still separating the two of them and that will be tricky to get past.

Still somewhat find it hard to believe that Natsume could act that way even if she was taking on a different role. Plus must be a tricky business running your own life while at the same time acting like someone else. Though Natsume really doesn't have much creativity. She just grabbed the name from her dragon as a cover identity :heh:?

The rest of the episode was fine. Lot of running around action. Thought it was a nice conflict for Harutora to push himself as hard as he could to save Suzuka while at the time he had plenty of reasons not to give a damn. In the end they managed to avoid getting killed and that's a positive.

This whole Natsume=Hokuto thing is just going to be awkward for a while. Not for Harutora of course since that guy gets to remain blissfully ignorant of all the hints. Be nice if things got cleared up soon in that regard...but who knows.

Well, I had my suspects on Natsume from the start, but I didn't think that she was really Hokuto... I was tricked here. lol

I still believe that Hokuto is not 100% Natsume
maybe can see every think she see but the personality is soooo different

than again it could be character she create to relive some stress?
or to live as normal girl since from the end of this episode we learn that Natsume live her life as boy instead of girl

I kinda liked manga's artwork better, especially the expressions.
like this


in anime it is kinda weak interpreted.

so guess the OP did spoil something. I was wondering about that transition from the very start.

Then again, Hokuto seems to be the mental projection of an ideal girl from Natsume's point of view

Pretty much. Natsume is burdened by the "tradition" of the Tsuchimikado family and such that she can't really have a normal life. However by using Hokuto, she was able to experience being an energetic free girl.

Stupid tora is a very fitting game for Harutora. Even Touji noticed it. There's a lot more to Touji isn't there? He seems to know a lot and knows Natsume somehow.

Nah, if you watched it properly, Touji knew Natsume = Hokuto just from the spirit aura (and maybe personality) lol

It's Bakatora who was dense to notice.

Loved the fight in episode 3 in the first half, it was fast and the chaotic and hectic conversations during it was nicely done.