Natsume's Book of Friends (夏目友人帳) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yuki Midorikawa. It started in Hakusensha's manga magazine LaLa DX in June 2003, where it ran until April 2008; it has been serialized in LaLa since July 2007. Its chapters have been collected in 31 volumes as of September 2024. The manga is licensed for English release in North America by Viz Media, which released the first volume in January 2010. The series follows Takashi Natsume, an orphan boy in his late teens who can perceive and combat. One day, Takashi finds a very old notebook called the "Book of Friends", left by his late maternal grandmother Reiko Natsume, an exorcist who possessed strong spiritual powers. The notebook was used to bind dozens of powerful demonic spirits, both good and evil, to follow Reiko's every whim and desire if called upon. Takashi resolves to give back all the names in notebook; in the process, he joins forces with another feline/wolf-like spirit called Madara (nicknamed "Nyanko-sensei"), 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 agrees to protect Takashi from the nefarious spirits who want to harm him for being the grandson of Reiko. 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, 2017, and 2024. 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 spiritual ability to see and commune with and, inheriting the powers from his late maternal exorcist grandmother Reiko Natsume. 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 such demons 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 book, 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 once Takashi dies. He later begins to become more attached to Takashi, with the latter forming a similar bond with Madara (despite the latter's attempts to deny it). Takashi also finds a good friend in an exorcist named Shuuichi Natori, who is 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 Seiji Matoba, who has plans for 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

Yowake High School

Exorcists

Recurring yōkai

Other characters

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 while 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 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-one volumes. The series is licensed in English in North America by Viz Media, with the first volume published in January 2010. 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.

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, Zoku Natsume Yūjin-chō (続 夏目友人帳), was broadcast from January 6 to March 31, 2009; the third 13-episode season, Natsume Yūjin-chō San (夏目友人帳 参), was broadcast from July 5 to September 27, 2011; the 13-episode fourth season, Natsume Yūjin-chō Shi (夏目友人帳 肆), was broadcast from January 3 to March 27, 2012; the fifth 11-episode season, Natsume Yūjin-Chō Go (夏目友人帳 伍), was broadcast from October 5 to December 21, 2016; the sixth 11-episode season, Natsume Yūjin-chō Roku (夏目友人帳 陸), was broadcast from April 12 to June 21, 2017; the seventh season, Natsume Yūjin-chō Shichi (夏目友人帳 漆), premiered on October 8, 2024. In North America, the first four seasons were licensed by NIS America and released on home video in Japanese with English subtitles. The seven 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 returned to reprise their roles with the addition of Hisako Kanemoto as a guest-star.

Other

An original video animation (OVA) titled Itsuka Yuki no Hi ni (いつかゆきのひに) 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.