Madara

Madara, also known as Nyanko-sensei, is a powerful beastly youkai who more commonly takes the form of a maneki-neko. He acts as Natsume's bodyguard on the condition that when Takashi Natsume dies, he will inherit the Book of Friends, thus giving him control over a vast number of yokai.
He is voiced by and by while in his human disguise as High School Girl in the Japanese version and by Christopher Wehkamp in the English version.
==Appearance==
He have the form of a maneki neko (lucky cat) that is round and cute. Other characters such as Tanuma have noted that his head in this form is unusually large. His maneki neko form is white, with an orange and grey marking on the top of his head and back, black eyes, wearing a red cat collar with a gold bell on his neck and has small red markings on his face.
In his original/true form, he is a colossal (so large he can cover Takashi underneath a single paw and his eye is larger than Takashi's head) wolf-like youkai with white fur, red markings on his face, and gold eyes.
==Personality==
Being a powerful yokai, Madara has a pretty high opinion of himself and often speaks down to other yokai he sees as inferior to him. He is also rather indulgent, often stuffing himself with foods that he likes or drinking too much sake to the point of getting drunk. Additionally, especially in the beginning, he generally acts very self-centered and makes it clear to Natsume that he only stays true to his promise to protect him from harm because he finds watching him and his selfless antics amusing, and that because yokai like himself are immortal, he's in no hurry to inherit the Book of Friends from him, though he occasionally express frustration at his tendency to give yokai their names back since at that rate, by the time he inherits it, there won't be any names left in it, meaning there won't be any yokai for him to be in control of. In many ways, this makes his personality the opposite of Natsume's, which often leads to the two butting heads over various matters. 
However, for all his negative traits, Madara is actually nowhere near as cruel and callous as he likes to claim. He particularly has a soft spot for Natsume, and will always come rushing to save him when he's in need, even when allowing him to die would technically benefit him. He also often helps Natsume help other yokai, even in certain cases when he's reluctant to due to suspecting that the yokai in question is likely tricking Natsume, which often leads him to chastising him for his foolishness and/or naivety, which can sometimes put him in serious danger that he could have avoided. However, he will rarely, if ever outright admit how much he cares for him and often come up with excuses for helping him by claiming he either happened to be passing through or was doing it for self-centered reasons, even though he's not fooling anyone. He also often clashes with other yokai, but can give good advice to them too on occasion. All in all, while he often comess across as selfish, arrogant, indulgent and seemingly cruel, he's actually a pretty loyal companion to Natsume, and compared to many of the more duplicitous and evil yokai seen, is actually pretty benevolent altogether. 
He also has a tendency to get offended whenever anyone mistakes him for an actual cat, but despite this, he has very cat-like tendencies, like playing with cat toys and preferring to lounge around eating. 
==History==
At some point, Madara was sealed in a shrine for an unknown reason.
==Plot==
He was accidentally released by Natsume. At first, he tries to take the Book of Friends from him like many other yokai try to do, but Natsume quickly makes a deal with him that he can have it once he's dead, which he agrees to, after which he quickly moves in with him, protecting him from other hostile yokai in the meantime. Because Madara was trapped in a material form for so long, Madara ordinarily takes on the shape of a maneki neko (lucky cat), leading Natsume to nickname him Nyanko-sensei. In this form, other people can see him, leading for Natsume having to ask his guardians if he could keep him as a pet. 
==Trivia==
*Kazuhiko Inoue changed his voice for Madara's cat form in order to fit his form.
*In Madara's cat form, he gets fatter as the story progresses.
*Nyanko-Sensei gets several different nicknames from other characters over the course of the series: He is called Nyankichi-kun by Touko, Nyangoro by Shigeru, Ponta by Tanuma, and Nyan-Nyan-Sensei by Nishimoto.
*His Japanese voice actor, Kazuhiko Inoue, also voiced Kakashi Hatake in Naruto Series, Hatori Sohma in Fruits Basket and Professor Ozpin in RWBY.
*His English voice actor, Christopher Wehkamp, also voiced Odanna in Kakuriyo -Bed & Breakfast for Spirits-, Clover Ebi in RWBY, Kishou Arima in Tokyo Ghoul, Denjiro in One Piece, Miles Edgeworth in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, and Eraser Head in My Hero Academia.
==External Links==
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