Shuuichi Natori

Shuuichi Natori is a major supporting character from the anime and manga series Natsume's Book of Friends. He has the ability to manipulate paper dolls (Shikigami) and has three youkai under his command. Natsume tends to disapprove of his forceful exorcism methods, but over time, the two become closer to the point of considering each other friends, with Natori becoming a very valuable ally to Natsume on multiple occasions.
He is voiced by in the Japanese version and Aaron Roberts in the English version.
==Appearance==
He has blonde hair, red eyes, a medium-to-taller build and often wears glasses, which he wears so that he can see youkai better due to his spiritual power not being super high and having difficulty seeing them otherwise. His most unique and distinguishing feature, however, is a lizard birthmark that moves around on his body. When he was younger, he mostly looked the same, only he didn't wear glasses as consistently back then before becoming an exorcist.
==Personality==
When Natori is first introduced, he comes off as a cheerful and personable ladies' man, as well as a friendly person in general towards most people that he interacts with. However, when it's revealed he also works as an exorcist alongside his more well-known profession as an actor, he's also revealed to have a strong disdain, even hatred, for youkai, which stems from how they negatively affected his life growing up. He takes his job as an exorcist very seriously, and particularly when Natsume first met him, he is shown to be willing to do whatever he feels is necessary to protect people from them, even if it means using harsh exorcisms and lethal force. However, after meeting Natsume, who opposes his harsher methods, he gradually begins to soften and become more open-minded to his more pacifistic approach. However, he is still willing to resort to force in situations where they pose a threat to people's wellbeing and he doesn't think they can be pacified or otherwise reasoned with, though he prefers not to for Natsume's sake, making his overall stance on youkai and how to deal with them a sort of in-between one compared to Natsume and Matoba's. 
Over the course of the series, Natori develops concern for Natsume's well-being due to his tendency to act recklessly when he gets involved with spirits and yokai. He eventually admits that when he first met him, he was looking for an ally to help him in his exorcist endeavors, but that over time, that changed, and he now views him as a real friend that he's willing to help whenever and wherever he can. He is very protective of Natsume and will go to great lengths to defend him from anyone or anything he thinks is a threat to him. He also tends to scold him for taking unnecessary risks helping youkai not too dissimilar from Madara. 
When he was younger and around Natsume's age, Natori was much more openly moody and pessimistic due to his ability to see youkai giving him grief in a similar vein to Natsume. In particular, it strained his relationship with this family, especially his father, and in stark contrast to his more friendly and personable attitude as an adult, he was very opposed to the idea of getting close to anyone at school, even repeatedly turning down girls who approached and showed an interest in him. However, after discovering a society of exorcists, many of whom could see youkai just like him and one in particular that he admired named Takuma, he became inspired to become one and prove his ability isn't just a curse, but something that can be used for good. For a while though, he still didn't find all of the answers he was looking for, such as what was truly the "correct path" that he wished to follow where he could be both a strong and kind exorcist at the same time. Therefore, it's suggested that meeting Natsume has at least given him a comparably better idea of what sort of person he wants to be.
Additionally, despite having an overall negative opinion of youkai, he seems to treat the ones under his command pretty well, especially Hiiragi, whom he's developed a pretty trusting relationship with.
== History ==
Natori was born into a family that used to be a renowned clan of exorcists, but due to everyone in the family with the abiltiy to see youkai dying out over time, they had retired from the business. However, he was the first person to be born into it in a long time that also possessed the ability, which earned him disdain right from the beginning since the others in his family were worried that the youkai they had dealt with in the past would want revenge on them as a result. This lead to him being unfairly blamed for every notable misfortunate that befell them and caused him to have a particularly strained relationship with his father. This caused him to develop a decidedly pessmistic outlook, which also caused him to be antisocial at school. 
However, after seeing an exorcist and his shiki visit his house and get subsequently rudely turned away by his father, he hears of a meeting among exorcists taking place in Ishizuki Valley. It would be there that he would meet a man named Takuma that he quickly came to respect, as well as Seiji Matoba, who immediatley rubbed him the wrong way with his arrogant attitude. However, overall he finds himself intrigued by this society of people, and after discovering both that he has a rspectable amount of spiritual power based on the colors of the kimono in a nearby tree he was able to see and Takuma's reasons for being an exorcist, he was determined to become one himself and attend further meetings to learn more. 
Eventually, he heard of a powerful three-horned youkai that had been attacking exorcists, and he became determined to be the one to exorcise it to prove both to himself and his family that his ability could be used to help people. During his effort to do so, however, he ran into Seiji Matoba again, who was also after it, and offered to join forces with him, but Shuuichi refused both due to not wanting to be used by him and being determined to do it on his own. Before long, he manages to find it in the process of attacking a couple of other people and attempts to stop it with a powerful paper spell. However, it only succeeds in doign a bit of damage and temporarily slowing it down, after which Seiji manages to shoot it and take it down for good. Despite Seiji thanking him for his help and being willing to share the credit, Shuuichi felt like he failed and owned him his life, so he lets him take all the credit for it. He subsequently contemplates what kind of exorcist he wants to be, wanting to be one that's strong, righteous, and whose heart is steadfast in what he does, but still wonders what the "right path" is moving forward. 
By the time he met Natsume, he has taken on a job as an actor alongside his work as an exorcist and is pretty well-known in the local neighborhood. He ends up being drawn to him due to him reminding him of his younger self and shortly confirms that he shares the ability to see youkai like him by testing him. He then enlists him to help deal with a youkai-related matter; recently an influential local family had hired him to investigate a case where they had opened a storehouse they weren't supposed to due to it being supposedly cursed. However, they recently did due to being desperate to use it, and how the pawnbroker that had helepd the mdo so was suffering nightmares and accidents. Surely enough they confirm it's a youkai, but when the time comes to deal with it, Natsume objects to him trying to exorcise it and recklessly enters the exorcism circle. Thankfully, it ends up destroying the rope binding her to the home and forcing her to fulfill her given role of cursing people who opened the storehouse. He also remembers that she's the same youkai he met when he was young whose wound he tended to and bandaged. He then sees Natsume off, during which they agree that while they have differing opinions on youkai and how to deal with them, they still consider each other friends and can remain in touch. In the meantime, despite now being free, the youkai that he helped decides to follow him, after which she takes on the name of Hiiragi and becomes his third shiki.
==Gallery==
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Hiiragi and Natori.jpg
==Trivia==
*When he was a teenager, he looked similar to Shizuo Heiwajima from Durarara!!.
*His Japanese voice actor, Akira Ishida, also voiced Wizardmon in Digimon Adventure/02 and Gaara in Naruto series, Kaworu Nagisa in Neon Genesis Evangelion, Xerxes Break in Pandora Hearts and Byakuya Togami in Danganronpa: The Animation.
*His English voice actor, Aaron Roberts, also voiced Hit in Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 and Kamui Woods in My Hero Academia.
==External Links==
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Category:Anime Heroes
Category:Manga Heroes
Category:TV Show Heroes
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Category:Rivals
Category:Exorcists
Category:Protectors
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Category:Protectors of Innocence
Category:Stalkers
Category:Charismatic
Category:Hope Bringers
Category:Envious
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Category:Liars
Category:Rescuers
Category:Loyal