Natsume Yuuhjinchou (AKA Natsume’s Book of Friends) is a 13 episode episodic supernatural drama anime featuring a lot of Japanese mythology and a pinch of comedy. This anime reminded me of XXXHOLiC a lot and feels very similar in a slice of life, episodic way. It’s a positive and relaxed anime, with themes of peace and friendship, but it does have some action. The main character has a long term goal and for that, this anime has a main story arc.
Animation
The animation quality is beautiful. I watched it in 720p and I could feel the fluidity of the animation and the simple details were well defined. The visual style of this anime is a bit relaxed, but is almost like a generic anime. It pulls ahead with the designs of most characters and it helps that these characters aren’t exactly human. It’s very well stylised, the cat especially resembles a chubby ornamental lucky cat. Though I personally prefer a more realistic cat, due to cuteness, they had a reason to go with that style here. Of course, there’s nothing shady depicted in this anime, some casual fights here and there.
One thing I found disappointing is the gender ambiguity with one character in this anime. The fox kit has long hair, sounds like a girl, looks like a girl and just seems to be a little girl. But the last episode they were repeatedly referred to as ‘he’ or ‘him’. I think the hair is the biggest issue, what little child has long hair when they are a boy? I was annoyed at being slightly mislead concerning this character.
Sound
The music of this anime is very suiting to the mood. The intro and outro are very acoustic tracks, featuring emphasis on the vocals and give off a gentle, peaceful vibe. It’s similar for the background music of the anime itself, very mellow and simple, just like the anime itself. Things may sound a bit comedic for the slightly funny scenes, but that’s just good use of sound and thusly good sound design.
The anime is only available in Japanese. I’m trying to think off the top of my head and I can’t think of any American voice actors (who usually do the dubs) who would sound suitably easy going here. But then again very few of these types of anime get a dub, so I wouldn’t know. The voice acting was done well, the voice actors were chosen correctly and the voices just sound right unlike a similar anime which I may have already mentioned in this review. I did notice that the Japanese used in this anime is slightly different than most anime. Perhaps this is an accent or there is a lot of use of older or more formal Japanese. An example is that ‘yuujin’ [ゆうじん] is used for the word friend much more than the regular ‘tomo(dachi)’ [ともだち], noticeable even in the title name of this anime.
Takashi Natsume is voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya, who voices Otonashi in Angel Beats, Levi in Attack on Titan, Shinji Matou in Fate: Stay Night, Seijirou Akashi in Kuroko no Basuke and Kouhei Morioka in Tsukuyomi Moon Phase. Nyanko-sensei is voiced by Kazuhiko Inoue, the voice of November 11 in Darker than Black, Kazkis Hauer in Ergo Proxy, William de Farnese in Romeo X Juliet and Keiichi Tamaru in Haruhi Suzumiya. Reiko Natsume is voice by Sanae Kobayashi, who has voiced Ennis in Baccano, Lucy in Elfen Lied, Daedelus Yumeno in Ergo Proxy, Xing Huo in Tsubasa Chronicle and Hitomi Kashiwa in Welcome to the NHK. Jun Sasada is voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro, having voiced Masami Iwasawa in Angel Beats, Chie in Eve no Jikan, Asako Shibasaki in Toshokan Sensou and Kotoho Isone in Yozakura Quartet. Kaname Tanuma is voiced by Kazuma Horie, who has voiced characters including Ryuu Tsuji in Special A. Touko Fujiwara is voiced by Miki Itou, the voice of Natalie Beriam in Baccano, Android 18 in Dragonball (Z), Taiga Fujimura in Fate Stay Night, Miyo Takano in Higurashi and Eri Minami in Persona 4.
Characters
Takashi Natsume is a blonde haired, brown eyed highschool boy. He is quiet and has a reserved character, being rather sensible and not getting involved in other people’s matters. Except the matters of Youkai, as Natsume has the very rare ability to see and interact with them. Being able to see them has caused him a lot of trouble in the past, others thought him to be weird and even his own parents wanted nothing to do with him. It also happens to be that these Youkai come to him to fight for the Yuujinchou (book of friends) or to have him help them as the Youkai often mistake him for his grandmother, who also had the same powers. As the only heir to his grandmother, her belongings have passed down to him, including the Yuujinchou. Natsume has a realistic personality, unlike most protagonists in anime. He acts like a normal guy, while he’s generally nice to people, he won’t hesitate to use casual violence on the likes of Nyanko sensei to knock some sense into them. He’s not much of a violent person though. He likes to leave people out of his life with the Youkai, for fear that they’ll despise him but also to protect them.
Nyanko Sensei AKA Madara is an egocentric Ayakashi (Youkai) in the form of a cat. Normal people can see him, which is a very unique ability for such beings. He can also transform into a big powerful wolf creature, usually when a bit of speed or brute force is needed. He can’t do much in his fat cat form, which looks funny like a lucky cat statue. He also has a human form as a school girl that looks a lot like Takashi’s grandmother. He hangs around with Takashi and is generally accepted as his pet cat. But he has a selfish deal to protect Takashi while he returns the names of some of the Youkai, in return for possession of the Yuujinjou when Natsume dies. Thus every time Natsume returns a name and the book gets thinner, he complains about it. He has bad manners and is lazy. He eats a lot, drinks a lot, acts lazy and is very rude. But he means well. He could let Natsume died in order to gain possession of the Yuujinjou as per the pact, but even he himself questions whether he has gotten attached to the boy. He claims to dislike humans too. He is adored by the various humans who come across him and they each affectionately call him by a different name.
Reiko Natsume is Takashi’s late grandmother. She passed away at a young age, likely before Takashi himself was ever born. She is the one who made the Yuujinjou and was its original owner. Like Takashi, she was able to see Youkai and was distanced from other people because of it. She had a very rowdy personality, she went around picking fights with Youkai and demanded their names if they lost. She used a baseball bat enchanted with spells. The names of these defeated Youkai were added to the Yuujinjou. She also was the type of girl who had her head in the clouds and forgot various promises and appointments she made with folks. Madara seems to use her image if he transforms into a human form.
Jun Sasada is the class representative of Takashi’s class at school. Like Takashi has the behaviour of a normal boy, Jun genrally has the behaviour of a normal girl, though the sensible type just like Takashi is a sensible guy. She’s had an encounter with Youkai before, though as she is a normal human being, she has been mostly unaware of them. She is the closest thing to a female friend Takashi has.
Kaname Tanuma is a boy in Takashi’s school, though from a different class. His father is a priest who often does exorcisms and he has weak powers similar to Takashi, he can’t see Youkai so clearly but he can sense them. He knows Takashi can see them and does his best to help him keep that fact a secret and also to make sure that others don’t get in his way when he’s dealing with Youkai.
Touko Fujiwara and Shigeru Fujiwara are Takashi’s legal guardians. They were his next-door neighbours when he was younger and still lived with his parents. Unlike his parents, they aren’t too aware of or freaked out by Takashi’s powers. They are kind and thoughtful towards him. Touko in particular is very motherly towards him, getting worried about him like a normal parent should. Takashi feels indebted towards them for taking care of him, but the Fujiwaras are happy to have him as their adoptive son. They are very lax and allow him to keep Madara (in his cat form) as a pet, they themselves even get accustomed to him and treat him well, giving him good food, much to Madara’s delight.
There’s various other characters like Atsushi and Satoru, Takashi’s best friends from school. The one-eyed Youkai and Ox Youkai are some minor recurring characters, peaceful Youkai who look up to Natsume as if he were some sort of lord. Shuichi Natori is an exorcist who can see Youkai, but has a different way of dealing with them, Takashi doesn’t agree with the way this guy treats Youkai.
Story
Takashi Natsume, the teenage boy with the unique ability to see Youkai and spirits, runs into a strange talking cat Madara (Nyanko sensei) who reveals that he is in possession of a book known as the Yuujinchou (book of friends). On each page is the name of an Ayakashi Youkai subdued and made into servants by Natsume’s grandmother, the creator of the book from whom Natsume inheritred it from. Natsume decides he will return as many names from the book as he can via a ritual since the book has a profound effect and is a powerful artefact sought by evil Youkai who want to abuse its power. Anything that happens to the page happens to the Ayakashi within and possession of the book is enough to control the Ayakashi. Madara agrees to help him on the condition that he gets the book if he gets it when Takashi dies.
The plot is episodic and feels like a peaceful slice of life. It has some comedy with Nyanko sensei, the buta neko (fat cat). But it’s also quite serious, Natsume’s ability to see things causes him a lot of trouble, and has left him feeling lonely in the past as people shunned him for how weird they thought he was. Loneliness is one concept explored here, in conjunction with friends and friendship. The friends that Natsume makes and the experiences they share. Despite the various threats made at him and things, it’s a very peaceful and pleasant anime to watch.
Of course the maor annoyance here is that while a plot is set up, it seems to be an endless one, much like [SPOILERS]< Tsubasa Chronicles >[SPOILERS]. It does have a few seasons of sequels, so who knows, there may be an end to it. But that will put off people who like a complete story and it does annoy me, despite the fact that I can enjoy some slice of life anime.
Conclusion
It’s a pleasant anime and I’d recommend it for any age group who isn’t too fussed about anime that are a bit slice-of-life and having little overall plot.Other than that, you’d probably like it if you liked XXXHOLiC, though this is much more enjoyable to watch since there were no annoying things like XXXHOLiC had. It has zero bullshit and the narrative manages to hold itself. The only minor complaint I have is the gender ambiguity of one character which was very misleading for me, regardless of what gender they actually are. Unless there was an error in the subtitles and it meant to say ‘she’. Give this anime a good try. I enjoyed it and found it rather relaxing, even if at one point (or more) Natume’s death became a real possibility. The lack of a conclusion holds it back, but it has sequels which may potentially redeem it in that regard. Thus I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt, but I’ll be more critical of the plot in the sequels.
Family-friendliness Rating: 1/5 Um… erm… monsters want to eat Natsume? (lower is better)
Overall Rating: 7.5 /10 (higher is better)