REVIEW: Natsume's Book of Friends (manga, vols. 11-13) by Yuki Midorikawa, translated by Lillian Olsen

Another vacation reading post. I had a huge stack of these available during my vacation. I somehow forgot how good this series was and put off starting them until just a few days before I had to go back home, so I only managed to get through three of them. I'm definitely going to be continuing this series during my next vacation. I'm pretty sure I still haven't made it past the point where the anime stopped (or at least what I've seen of the anime, since apparently there's now more).

As usual with these vacation reading posts, there are spoilers beyond this point.

REVIEW: Natsume's Book of Friends (manga, vols. 9-10) by Yuki Midorikawa, translated by Lillian Olsen

This is one of those series I'd have read more of, if my vacation had been a few days longer. I had a pretty large stack of them. I started reading them in an effort to deal with my post-election funk, and the overall gentleness of the series brought me to tears.

I wish I knew how many more volumes I'd have to read it make it past the point at which the anime stopped. Or at least the point at which Season 4 stopped – I recently learned that there's a Season 5 now. I'd love to see some completely new-to-me moments in this series, although I should add that seeing the anime first has in no way lessened my enjoyment of the manga.

Warning: this post includes spoilers.

Natsume's Book of Friends (manga, vols. 1-8) by Yuki Midorikawa, translated by Lillian Olsen

If you count the Alice in the Country of stuff separately, I read more volumes of this series during my vacation than any other.

The words I'd use to describe Natsume's Book of Friends are: warm, gentle, bittersweet. It's such a lovely series. I already knew that from watching the anime, and the manga didn't change my feelings. I had expected I'd get bored with the series, since, even eight volumes in, I still wasn't able to make it past events covered in the anime (although I think the anime may have shuffled some events around a bit). However, I really enjoyed it and would have read more if I had had the time. I'll definitely be reading more of this, next time I go on vacation.

Natsume's Book of Friends, Season 3 Premium Edition (anime TV series)

This Natsume's Book of Friends boxed set was published by NIS America. While Seasons 1 and 2 were packaged together, in DVD form only, Season 3 is included all on its own, in both DVD and Blu-ray format. I watched the Blu-ray discs.

There will be no watch-alikes or read-alikes included at the end of this post. Take a look at my original post for the series if you want anything like that.

If you liked Seasons 1 and 2, you'll like Season 3. It continues to deal with a lot of the same themes covered in the first two seasons: Natsume's difficult childhood, the bittersweetness of yokai/human relationships, and Natsume's difficulties with learning to trust and rely on his human friends and family.

This season had several more Matoba clan episodes, including the first appearance of the head of the Matoba clan, which I think I would have enjoyed more if I hadn't already known that the Matoba stuff was going to fizzle out in Season 4. My favorite episodes of the season tended to be less action-oriented. I particularly loved the ones that dealt with Natsume's childhood.

Natsume's Book of Friends, Seasons 1 & 2 Premium Edition (anime TV series)

This Natsume's Book of Friends boxed set was published by NIS America.

My anime boxed set purchases have gone way, way down since I started watching streaming anime. I think I only purchased four series total in 2013. This was one of them. Getting the whole series was expensive (tip: Amazon doesn't have the best prices – I purchased it via Rightstuf), but, after seeing the series on Crunchyroll, I decided it was worth it. Since I've already written up a post for all four seasons, this post is just going to be about my re-watch experience and the boxed set itself. There will be no watch-alikes or read-alikes included at the end of this post. Take a look at my original post for the series if you want anything like that.

Natsume's Book of Friends, Seasons 1-4 (anime TV series), via Crunchyroll

Natsume's Book of Friends (Natsume Yūjin-Chō) is a slice-of-life anime with lots of supernatural elements. Assuming the fourth season is the final one, this series is 52 episodes long. Crunchyroll is streaming the first three seasons here and the fourth season here.

Sorry for the long synopsis. Four seasons gave me a lot of material to cover, even though I did my best to avoid spoilers.

Synopsis:

When Natsume was very young, his father died, and he was sent to live with one distant relative after another. Everywhere he went, he was eventually called a liar, or teased for being strange, because he could see yōkai (various supernatural beings) that no one else could see. By the time Natsume was old enough for high school, he had almost given up on finding people who would accept him. Then the kind Fujiwaras took him in, and he inherited a book his grandmother, Reiko, left behind.

Reiko, like Natsume, could see spirits and was shunned by many humans. Whenever she came across any yōkai, she challenged them to a game or a fight. Whenever Reiko won, which was every single time, since she was pretty powerful, she made the yōkai write their names in her notebook. In theory, she could have used their names to call on those yōkai and force them to obey her, but she never did.

Rather than use the Book of Friends to turn yōkai into slaves, Natsume chooses instead to give the names back to their owners. Madara, a powerful yōkai, agrees to act as Natsume's bodyguard on the condition that he gets to have the Book of Friends and whatever names are left in it if Natsume dies. Because Madara usually takes the form of an adorable lucky cat, Natsume nicknames him Nyanko-sensei.

When Natsume gives a name back, he is usually able to see a little of its owner's past and how Reiko originally came to meet them. He is also occasionally able to see yōkai memories in his dreams. Although he had previously mostly been frightened and resentful of yōkai, now he begins to befriend some of them. His efforts to help various yōkai lead to him eventually befriending (or being befriended by?) several humans, including a boy who can detect spirits, although not nearly as well as Natsume, the class president, a girl who is a descendant of onmyōji, and an exorcist.

At one point, the series introduces an entire society of exorcists. The Matoba clan is composed of some of the most powerful ones. The head of the Matoba clan is very interested in recruiting Natsume, but his approach to dealing with yōkai (he believes in enslaving, killing, or exorcising them, not befriending them) is not something the much more gentle Natsume can get behind. The exorcists only take up a small portion of the series, however - most of the focus is on Natsume making both human and yōkai friends and gradually learning to trust and rely on them.

Review:

I've been finished with this series for some time now, but couldn't figure out how to word my review. While I'm still not sure I've adequately described how I feel about this series, it's time to finally get this out of my Draft section.