Anime Spotlight #20: Natsume's Book Of Friends

Article by Sean Wilkinson,

Returning to the Spotlight.

Gen Z strikes again, Ticketholders!

I am currently writing this at the end of yet a third day that hasn't gone as planned because of someone else's work ethic (or lack thereof), and I'm so sleep-deprived and anxious about the good and bad things that are to come (and have gone by) this week that I've lost track of what day it is.

It's almost like I'm living my life with the expectation of seeing something that doesn't exist. Or does it exist, but it isn't visible to me? I need to either hug someone or punch them in the face.

Whatever the case, that's both a genuine expression of how I'm feeling right now, and my lead-in to today's anime series up for consideration.

So remember to like, comment, subscribe, and follow me on Tumblr, Reddit, and Facebook for the latest news and updates on my content, and let's get back to my favorite anime genre (after four months without an Anime Spotlight): supernatural crime-solving!

Natsume's Book Of Friends is an anime series that I didn't think I would look forward to on a weekly basis as much as I have. It's a slow burner, slice-of-life kind of show that is nearing the end of its third consecutive dubbed season (six seasons in all, airing in Japan from 2008 to 2017, plus several OVA episodes and a movie that have yet to be dubbed), wherein the titular Natsume is a dreary-voiced high school boy who can see yokai (Japanese folk spirits and monsters that are invisible to normal humans). As it turns out, he becomes the target of several yokai when he discovers an old book left behind by his grandmother. This "Book Of Friends" is a list of the names of every yokai whom Natsume's grandmother "defeated" in various "battles," thus binding them to her service. But because yokai live longer than humans, Natsume's grandmother is dead by the beginning of the series, and in all that time, the yokai bound to her book have grown lonely, desperate, and twisted by their loss of identity, and unfortunately for Natsume, he "smells" just like her. So with his reluctant guardian spirit, "Master Kitty-Cat" (who is a massive, Amaterasu-looking canine yokai and takes the visible form of a pudgy, Lucky Cat-looking animal to add a degree of grating annoyance and tolerable physical comedy to proceedings) by his side, Natsume goes about finding his grandmother's yokai (sometimes, they come to him) and returning their names. This ritual also allows Natsume to see that yokai's last memory of his grandmother, and is the main draw of most episodes in the first season. This formula fades considerably as the series goes on, and Natsume's world expands around him, adding a group of human friends (three of whom have their own histories with the supernatural), a rich and vast yokai community, and a shady exorcism syndicate. Master Kitty-Cat frequently gets on my nerves, but Natsume is a perfectly simple, reluctantly obligatory hero with an "if it's in danger, protect it; if it's dangerous, punch it in the face" approach to everything, the characters around him are well-written and memorable (even though it does look at one point like he's going to end up with a monster-girl harem--extra points to mangaka Yuki Midorikawa for not doing that), and the emotional moments hook me every time. If you're expecting Bleach or Mieruko-chan levels of action-comedy, this isn't your cup of supernatural tea. But if character-driven stuff like Midnight Occult Civil Servants is in your book of anime, save a page for Natsume's Book Of Friends. It's as long as it is (and the manga is still ongoing) for a reason.

The theme of strange, abandoned childhood friends going insane continues on Friday in my review of Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood & Honey, and next week, I shine the Spotlight on an Anime with bangin' music, a bland, clueless protag-kun with protag-kun-colored hair, and sexy vampires. But tomorrow, I find that pushing a button isn't that simple, Wednesday's GFT Retrospective sees the Amazon Echo battle a house with legs, and TBT 2023 goes back in time to look at My Week With Marylin. So Stay Tuned, like, comment, subscribe, and follow me on Tumblr, Reddit, and Facebook for the latest news and updates on my content, and

Animeister,

Out.