Natsume's Book of Friends

Natsume's Book of Friends
is a Japanese manga series by Yuki Midorikawa. It started in Hakusensha's shōjo manga magazine LaLa DX in June 2003, where it ran until April 2008; it has been serialized in LaLa since July 2007. The chapters and special chapters have been collected in 30 volumes as of September 2023. The manga is licensed for English-language release in North America by Viz Media, which released the first volume in January 2010.
The series follow Takashi Natsume, an orphan boy in his late teens who can perceive and combat . One day, Takashi finds a very old notebook that his late maternal grandmother, Reiko, an exorcist who possessed strong spiritual powers, used to bind dozens of powerful demonic spirits, both good and evil (known as either or ), that she defeated to follow her very whim and desire if called upon. Takashi resolves to give back all the names in the age-old notebook, Book of Friends, and in the process joins forces with another feline/wolf-like spirit called Madara (nicknamed "Nyanko-sensei" in his borrowed lucky cat-like form), who knew Reiko when she was alive. Madara takes the form of an overweight cat and intends to take back the notebook after Takashi dies. Until then, he agreed to protect Takashi from the nefarious spirits who want to harm him for being the grandson of Reiko, who died in her young adult years decades prior to the story.
The series has been adapted into a series drama CDs. An anime television series adaptation, produced by Brain's Base (seasons 1–4) and Shuka (seasons 5 onwards), have been broadcast on TV Tokyo in 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2016 and 2017. A seventh season was announced in 2023. Two anime films, Natsume's Book of Friends the Movie and Natsume's Book of Friends: The Waking Rock and the Strange Visitor, were released in 2018 and 2021, respectively. The first four seasons of the anime were licensed by NIS America for a North American release in 2012 and released on home video in Japanese with English subtitles. The series has also been streamed by Crunchyroll, who produced an English dub in 2022.
By September 2023, the manga had over 16 million copies in circulation.
Story
For as long as he can remember, Takashi Natsume has had the rare ability to see and commune with , inheriting the power from his late maternal grandmother Reiko. This ability resulted in his having a lonely childhood, because children his age considered him strange. He had also been passed from one paternal relative to another. Upon her death at a young adult age, Reiko bequeathed to her grandson her Book of Friends, a book containing the names of hundreds of spirits she had bullied into servitude.
The Book of Friends is considered a highly prized item in the supernatural world, and spirits—both good and malicious—hunt Takashi constantly because of it. Takashi spends his time dissolving the contracts that Reiko created and releasing the various spirits that come to him. Malicious spirits, on the other hand, try to kill him to obtain possession of the powerful Book of Friends, which is where Madara (called "Nyanko-sensei" by Takashi) comes in. Madara serves as Takashi's bodyguard and spiritual advisor of sorts, even though he is ostensibly motivated by his own desire to possess the Book of Friends once Takashi dies. He later begins to become more attached to Takashi, with the latter forming a similar bond with Madara.
Takashi also finds a good friend in an exorcist named Natori Suuichi, who also one of the very few humans who is capable of perceiving and taking down spirits via certain banishing or sealing spells, but also finds a dangerous adversary in Matoba Seiji who has plans for wanting Takashi to join him and his nefarious clan of exorcists. Takashi is determined to release all of the names before the conniving Matoba clan or other malicious spirits attempt to use it for their own gain as he tries to learn whatever he can about his maternal grandmother and the strong spiritual connection they share.
Characters
Main characters
Takashi Natsume, just like his long deceased maternal grandmother, Reiko, is able to perceive and hear /. It is from Reiko that Takashi inherited the "Book of Friends"—a ledger of names written by ayakashi after being bested by Reiko in some type of contest. Because possession of an ayakashi'''s false name obliges it to heed any command of the one who has the decades-old magical/spiritual book, the abuse potential of the Book of Friends is vast: and as such, is considered far too dangerous and forbidden to even exist.
Because of Takashi's strong resemblance to his late maternal grandmother, Reiko (both in appearance and spiritual powers), yōkai routinely mistake him for her, often pursuing him intensely under the mistaken presumption of shared history and understanding. Accordingly, a regular part of Takashi's daily life is spent trying to cope with the idiosyncrasies, and discern the true intentions of such yōkai: e.g., those who still deeply resent Reiko, but covet the great power of the Book of Friends to bend hundreds of various levels of yōkai to their will; those who feel perpetually lonely and hurt that Reiko never called upon them anymore as the decades passed until her demise as a young adult underneath a tree; those who simply want their names returned to them; and pretty much anywhere or everywhere in between.
Upon discovering the Book of Friends, Takashi—kindly but detached in demeanor, driven in equal parts by curiousness and conscientiousness—decided to take responsibility on his own terms, to return the names of the dozens of ayakashi to their owners himself: and in doing so, learn more about his maternal grandmother and the spiritual connection they shared. He is aided in this by the formidable yōkai Madara (whom he calls "Nyanko-sensei": a nod to both his usual cat-like appearance and his self-proclaimed job-title of "bodyguard"), to whom he has promised the Book of Friends should he die.
Takashi is an orphan; his mother (Reiko's illegitimate daughter) having died giving birth to him sixteen years ago, and his father died when he was a very young child, leaving him to be passed from distant paternal relative to paternal relative: in large part due to the "odd" or "creepy" behavior one might expect from a young child able to see creatures no one else could see. Behind Takashi's perpetual distant smile hides a childhood spent in constant anxiety and shame: borne in equal parts of the ayakashi and the people who called him a liar and attention-seeker because of them. Takashi is eventually passed on to the Fujiwaras, a middle-aged couple on his late father's side of the family. He loves them, and does not want to cause them trouble, so he keeps this 'alternate landscape' problem to himself. Being the only grandchild and descendant of the infamous Reiko, his innate spiritual powers are quite immense, allowing him to actually incapacitate and/or purify yōkai with one punch alone, as well figure out if a human is possessed.
Takashi is described by the series author, Yuki Midorikawa, as "a boy who is trying to be a kind person."
Takashi returns the name inscribed in the Book of Friends by first picturing the ayakashi in his mind. The book flips to the page on which the name is written and Takashi takes the page and places it in his mouth and exhales. Takashi is only able to do this because he is Reiko's only direct descendant. The cost of releasing the name, however, is that Takashi's spiritual energy is drained temporarily. If an ayakashi becomes emotionally unstable, in the same space, its dreams may flow into Takashi's.
On the other hand, most of the ayakashi let Takashi see into their memories, so that he can understand them and his long deceased grandmother better. Takashi can also see their memories when he releases a yōkais name, seeing their last encounter with a teenage Reiko. When Takashi is completely frustrated over a problem and falls asleep in class, he actually sleep-draws in his notebook about whatever is bothering him at the time. When he was being chased by a shadow he called "Mary", he started drawing it in his sleep, making his friends wonder if he was in love with a foreigner. His incredibly strong affinity for exorcist spells and immensely powerful spiritual strength causes him to smell "yummy" to man-eating yōkai, as Madara puts it for Takashi having Reiko's scent as well as her great looks, which draws ordinary humans, yōkai and exorcists alike to Takashi.
Takashi's ever developing/increasing spiritual powers and his keen sixth sense regarding yōkai leave him targeted by all types of yōkai and greatly wanted by high-level exorcists; Matoba Seiji in particular. At the beginning, Natori wants him to join his exorcist clan, but later prefers him as a good friend. Seiji Matoba, one of the strongest and most dangerous of exorcists, also tries to recruit Takashi, but for his nefarious intent for being the only descendant of Reiko.
A mysterious inugami. Madara was sealed in a shrine until he was accidentally released by Takashi. Because Madara was trapped in a material form for so long, Madara ordinarily takes on the shape of a maneki neko (lucky cat), leading Takashi to nickname him Nyanko-sensei. In this form, other people can see him, leading for Takashi having to ask his guardians if he could keep him as a pet. He is a powerful ayakashi, who protects Takashi from others and teaches him spells on occasion, in return for Takashi's promise to give him the Book of Friends when he dies, so Madara often complains when Takashi returns other yōkais names, saying that at this rate there will be nothing left in the Book when Takashi dies. They often fight each other, which leads to Takashi punching Madara on the face and knocking him out. But as the story progresses, Madara takes a liking to Takashi. Despite his protests of not being a cat, he likes to play with cat toys. Nyanko's design is based on a lucky cat statue Midorikawa was given as a child.
Many times in the manga, other characters call Madara a 'pig' because of his round shape as a , which annoys him greatly. Madara is implied to have had a close relationship with Reiko in both her teenage and young adult years til her premature death underneath a tree, which is implied to be one of the reasons he is content to be Takashi's yōkai' companion until the end of his own fleeting human life.
Takashi's late maternal grandmother, from whom he inherited the rare spiritual ability to see and hear yōkai as well as banish or seal them away. When Reiko was a teenager and young adult, she was considered a freak by everyone else because of her ability. Since she believed no human could ever understand her, she turned to the invisible spirits for companionship and killing time. Reiko was extraordinarily powerful, and so she easily bullied hundreds of spirits in to obeying her by playing games with them or even using a mere baseball bat or broom to fend them off whenever she chose not to even display her spiritual knowledge and innate prowess either by banishing or sealing them away via sacred sutras or shikigami, quite similar to exorcist Natori Suuichi. If they lost, she would make them give her their false names as proof of their loyalty to her. Reiko gathered said aliases in her decades-old magical/spiritual Book of Friends, and commanded most spirits to follow her every whim, with the exception of Madara whom she seemed to have been quite close with.
Madara mentioned that she had sloppy table manners and was very forgetful most times. Reiko died when she was a young adult underneath a tree, either in her twenties or thirties, so no one remembered her, which was what she had wanted. Her legacy and fame throughout the supernatural world still remains strong as her innate spiritual might was feared and greatly intriguing to both yōkai and exorcists alike, which is why they are so interested in her one-and-only grandchild who possesses the exact same high level of spiritual power she possessed.
Supporting
Another student that had recently moved into the area. He is sickly and quite susceptible to illnesses. Like Takashi, he is able to detect spirits, but to a lesser degree limited to seeing merely shadows and sensing slight presence of spirits. He wants to help Takashi in any way he can, but is afraid that he will just be a burden because of his weak ability. He became a close companion and even knew about Takashi's secret of seeing spirits and always helped him whenever he is in a tight spot.
A new girl at school who rarely talks because of a curse a spirit has placed on her, which Takashi later helps her to break. She is an onmyouji; she cannot see spirits without drawing a magic circle. Taki, like Tanuma, wants to help Takashi in any way possible. She has an older brother who is staying at university and flatly refuses to believe that yōkai even exist.
The class president of Takashi's homeroom. Sasada believes that Takashi can see, hear and battle spirits, although he repeatedly denies this to her. To Takashi's chagrin, she frequently tries to accompany him when he is on business involving spirits. She is a recurring character in the anime; in the manga, she is rarely seen after the encounter with Shigure due to transferring to another school from her stepfather's new job.
A man who is also able to see spirits. He is a famous actor and exorcist and has a lizard birthmark that moves around on his body. He has the ability to manipulate paper dolls (Shikigami) and has three spirits under his command. Takashi tends to disapprove of his forceful exorcism methods. When Natori is first introduced, he hated spirits for his horrible childhood. But, after meeting Takashi, he gradually softens even though his ways are not much different. Over the course of meeting Takashi, Natori developed concern for his wellbeing, for he tends to be too softhearted and reckless when it involves fellow exorcists or spirits with malicious intent alike. However, he does acknowledge that Takashi may even be much more powerful than himself or even those strongest of the nefarious Matoba clan. In the sixth season finale, he is finally is told about Reiko and her Book of Friends by Takashi, who thinks that such an old artifact as powerful as it is dangerous would be better off burned, but keeps its existence for Takashi's sake.
The head of the Matoba clan who is twenty-two years old. A coldhearted yet levelheaded young man, Seiji is a topmost-level exorcist who does not mind sacrificing innocent yōkai to reach his goals. Although he wants stronger yōkai to protect humans, he will not hesitate in hurting anyone who gets in his way. He is mostly seen armed with a bow and arrow, which he uses to eliminate yōkai. There is a scar on his right eye, covered by an eye patch with a certain protection spell on it, due to an ancestor offering his eye to a yōkai for assistance but ended up breaking his promise. This causes later heads of the clan to have their eye targeted by that yōkai, and the distrust from other clans. After his first encounter with Takashi, he immediately takes great interest in him, and even later asks him to join the Matoba clan since finding out he is the grandson of Reiko herself.
Classmates of Takashi. Kitamoto is a sensible and rational person, while Nishimura is funny and easy-going, with a slightly perverted side. Although Takashi initially rejects their overtures of friendship because of his fears of his ability being found out, he eventually becomes friends with them, although they still hang around more with each other than Takashi. Nishimura has a crush on Taki, but thinks that she and Takashi are going out.
A childless middle-aged couple and Takashi's current foster parents. Shigeru is a second cousin of Takashi's dead father, and as a boy once met Reiko without recognizing it was her. Both Touko and Shigeru assure Takashi that they consider him a part of their family. They both worry often about him, wanting him to be as happy as possible. Despite this, Takashi goes to great lengths to hide his ability from them. Slowly, Takashi comes to understand that his keeping the Fujiwaras at a distance, including always addressing them formally (see Honorific speech in Japanese), is preventing him from forming close human attachments. Despite this, he still fears being rejected because of his ever developing/increasing spiritual abilities.
A powerful yōkai whose form is a blue-haired human woman. She is madly in love with Reiko. Being knowledgeable, she often acts as Takashi's mentor. Hinoe enjoys teasing Takashi and Madara; the former because of his unncanny resemblance to Reiko.
A huge powerful horse yōkai with many followers. He acknowledges that Takashi is a worthy holder of the Book of Friends and offers himself as Takashi's bodyguard in place of the "useless" Madara.
An orphaned fox yōkai whose form is a boy with fox ears and tail however humans only see him as an infant fox. He becomes friends with Takashi after being rescued from bullying yokai.
Yōkai
Humans
Takashi's biological father who was deceased in his childhood.
Development
Midorikawa created Natsume's Book of Friends as an episodic serial for a manga magazine published every two months, so that each chapter was a story that could be read on its own. As the result of earlier writing a ghost story that an editor made her revise to include more romance than she initially wanted, Midorikawa specifically created Natsume's Book of Friends as a supernatural story with less romance, containing supernatural elements that stir readers' imaginations the way stories about and local gods stirred hers growing up in a rural area. For the basic story, she wanted to write about a boy and his non-human teacher, and include the incongruous element of the boy's grandmother in a school uniform.
This was the first series Midorikawa wrote in which the protagonist was also the central character. Midorikawa claimed that as a character, Takashi is almost as bad as herself at expressing his thoughts, which caused her to use more interior monologue than she was comfortable with for a male character.
Media
Manga
Written and illustrated by Yuki Midorikawa, Natsume's Book of Friends was first published in Hakusensha's shōjo manga magazine LaLa DX from June 10, 2003, to April 10, 2008; it has been serialized in the monthly sister magazine LaLa since July 24, 2007. The chapters have been collected in thirty volumes.
The series is licensed in English in North America by Viz Media, with the first volume published in January 2010. It is also licensed in French by Delcourt, in South Korea by Haksan, in Taiwan by Tong Li, in Thailand by Bongkoch Publishing, in Germany by Egmont Manga & Anime, in Italy by Panini Comics, in Vietnam by Tre Publishing House, in Russia by XL Media and in Poland by Studio JG.
Additionally, fanbook was published on January 5, 2009, and a notebook reproduction of Natsume's Book of Friends was published on July 3, 2009.
Volumes
Drama CDs
Natsume's Book of Friends has been adapted as a series of three drama CDs, which were distributed as extras with issues of LaLa.
LaLa Treasure Drama CD (October 2007)
LaLa Excellent Drama CD (November 2008)
LaLa Double Premiere Drama CD (May 2009)
Anime
Natsume's Book of Friends has been adapted into an anime television series, directed by Takahiro Omori, and broadcast on TV Tokyo. Brain's Base animated the first four seasons, while Shuka has animated the fifth one onwards. The 13-episode first season was broadcast from July 8 to September 30, 2008; the second 13-episode season was broadcast from January 6 to March 31, 2009; the third 13-episode season was broadcast from July 5 to September 27, 2011; the 13-episode fourth season was broadcast from January 3 to March 27, 2012; the fifth 11-episode season was broadcast from October 5 to December 21, 2016; the sixth 11-episode season was broadcast from April 12 to June 21, 2017. In July 2023, it was announced that the series will receive a seventh season.
In North America, the first four seasons were licensed by NIS America and released on home video in Japanese with English subtitles. The six seasons have been streamed by Crunchyroll. An English dub by Crunchyroll premiered on July 24, 2022.
Films
Natsume's Book of Friends the Movie: Ephemeral Bond was released in theaters on September 29, 2018.
A second theatrical anime, titled Natsume's Book of Friends: The Waking Rock and the Strange Visitor, premiered on January 16, 2021. The film is composed of two stories, "Ishi Okoshi" and "Ayashiki Raihōsha". The main staff and cast members from the previous film are returning to reprise their roles with the addition of Hisako Kanemoto as a guest-star.
Other
An original video animation (OVA) titled was released on February 5, 2014, with the staff and cast of the previous anime seasons returning. The BD/DVD consisted of two discs, the second containing a clip of the "Sound Theatre x Natsume Yuujinchou ~ Tsudoi Ongeki no Shou~" musical event which was held the previous year on September 28, 2013.
Separate soundtrack albums for the two seasons were released in Japan by Sony Music on September 24, 2008 and March 18, 2009, respectively. The series opening and closing theme songs were also released by Sony Music. As singles, "Issei no Sei" reached a peak rank of 48th on the Oricon singles chart, "Natsu Yūzora" reached 27th, and "Ano Hi Time Machine" reached 38th. "Aishiteru" was not released as a single, but instead included on an album called Uta no Hibi by Kourin (Also known as Callin').
Reception
Since the fifth volume of the series, the individual volumes have made the best-seller list for manga in Japan. Volume 5 was ranked at number 8 on the charts for the week of March 4–10, 2008; Volume 6 was number 5 for the week of July 8–14, 2008; Volume 13 has done the best so far of the volumes, staying on the chart for three consecutive weeks (number 2 for the week of January 2–8, 2012, number 4 for the week of January 9–15, 2012, then falling to number 19 the following week). By February 2022, the manga has sold over 16 million copies. By September 2023, the manga had over 17 million copies in circulation.
Natsume's Book of Friends was one of twelve finalists for the first Manga Taishō award in 2008.
Both the anime and the manga have been noted for their optimistic themes and presentation.
Notes
References
External links
Official Hakusensha manga website
Official anime website
2008 anime television series debuts
Anime series based on manga
Aniplex franchises
Brain's Base
Exorcism in anime and manga
Hakusensha franchises
Hakusensha manga
Iyashikei anime and manga
Mystery anime and manga
Shōjo manga
Supernatural anime and manga
TV Tokyo original programming
Upcoming anime television series
Viz Media manga
Yōkai in anime and manga