Natsume's Book of Friends (2024)

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Natsume's Book of Friends (夏目友人帳, Natsume Yuujinchou) is a Japanese fantasy manga series by Yuki Midorikawa. It began serialization by Hakusensha in the shoujo manga magazine LaLa DX in 2005, before switching to LaLa in 2008.

Chapters have been collected in twenty-seventh volumes as of January 2010.

The series is about Natsume, an orphaned teenage boy who can see spirits, who inherits from his grandmother the notebook she used to bind spirits under her control once she defeated them.

It been adapted as a series of drama CDs, as well as an ongoing anime television series.

Story[]

For as long as he can remember, Takashi Natsume has been able to see and commune with spirits (or yokai), a rare ability inherited from his maternal grandmother Reiko Natsume, who was also able to see spirits. Upon her death, Reiko bequeathed to her grandson her Book of Friends, a notebook containing the names of the yokai Reiko had bullied and forced into servitude after easily defeating them in a match.

The Book of Friends is a highly prized item in the world of yokai, as the possession of it lets one control all whose names are within the book, leading to spirits haunting Takashi constantly. Whereas Reiko formed the contracts, however, Takashi spends his time rendering the contracts null and void and releasing the various spirits that come to him for help.

However that doesn't mean there aren't malicious spirits trying to kill him. Which is where Madara (called Nyanko-sensei by Natsume) comes in; Madara serves as Natsume's bodyguard and spiritual advisor of sorts, even though he is motivated by his own desire to possess the Book of Friends once Takashi dies. He later on begins to become more attached to Takashi.

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 supernatural story with less romance, containing supernatural elements that stir readers' imaginations the way stories about yokai and local demon-gods stirred hers while she was 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 a 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 Natsume 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[]

Main article: Volumes and Chapters

Natsume's Book of Friends is written and illustrated by Yuki Midorikawa and published in Japan by Hakusensha. It began serialization in 2005 in the bimonthly shoujo (aimed at teenage girls) manga magazine LaLa DX; in 2008, serialization switched to the monthly sister magazine LaLa.

The untitled chapters have been collected in twenty-eighth tankōbon volumes. The series is licensed in English in North America by Viz Media, with the first volume published in January 2010. It is also licensed in French by Delcourt, in South Korea by Haksan, in Taiwan by Tong Li, and in Thailand by Bongkoch Publishing.

Reception[]

Natsume's Book of Friends was one of twelve finalists for the first Manga Taishou award in 2008. ^[1]^[2] It was also listed at 25th place in the My Anime List.net for the Natsume Yuujinchou Shi ^[3]

Since the fifth volume of the series, the individual volumes have made the bestseller list for manga in Japan. Volume 5 was ranked at number 8 on the charts for the week of March 4–10, 2008;^[4] Volume 6 was number 5 for the week of July 8–14, 2008;^[5] Volume 7 has done the best so far of the volumes, staying on the chart for two consecutive weeks (number 2 for the week of January 6–12, 2009 then falling to number 16 for the following week). ^[6] ^[7]^[8]

The 18th volume, which recently got released, placed at 5th place ^[9] during the first week of September 2014, later rises up to 3rd ^[10] for the second week, then falls into 13th place ^[11] for the third week, finally placed on 35th for the fourth week. ^[12]