Name: Natsume's Book of Friends Natsume Yuujinchou 夏目友人帳
Season 2: Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou
Season 3: Natsume Yuujinchou San
Season 4: Natsume Yuujinchou Shi
Status: Completed
Episode: 13 (4 Seasons, 13 or 12 each)
Release date (for eng subs): -
Summary:
Natsume Reiko, had strong spiritual powers. She fights every youkai (Demons) she meets and make them write their names. To youkai, their names are very precious and contains their life itself. After many battles, the stack of names soon became a book, and was called "the book of friends".
Her grandson, Natsume Takashi, follows after her; being able to see Youkai, since young. However, due to his close resemblance to his grandmother, he is constantly being chased by Youkai who wants power, or who wants their names back.
One day, while running away from a youkai, he broke a barrier. A strong youkai, Madara, appears. He, too, wants the book of friends, however the both of them made a contract stating that he would protect Natsume from any danger relating to youkai, in return, when Natsume dies, the possession of the book of friends would go to Madara.
As Natsume tries to give back as many names as he can, they slowly got attached to each other.
Summary by: AngelaAgness
Personal Ratings: 3.5
At first when I saw the picture I was thinking that it is going to be some old traditional show, so I was really reluctant to go and watch it. But after seeing that there were so many seasons, I decided it had to be really nice for it to have so many seasons.
Once I started watching, I really could not stop watching, until I was done with at least one season. I liked how not every story in this show is all about the book of friends, but also other incidents that helps Natsume change his perspective about both humans and Youkai. Even though this show seem to be lacking in in-depth thinking, behind all those simple incidents, however, as I watched, I realized that wasn't true. There is actually a lot of meaning behind everything in this show. Interesting story in each episode. They also sometimes link stories together, and I think it's very beautifully done.
A single episode type of anime. I think that the good thing about this anime is that you would never really know when the youkai or person would become part of the group. So there is that progress throughout the whole anime, in relation to both the human side and the youkai side.
The OST is really soothing. I thought that setting a theme and the atmosphere for the OST was a great idea. After 4 seasons, I really developed a meaning behind all those OSTs.
I thought they were quite good when it came to the emotions part. Even though it does not really bring out really strong emotions; like clannad or anohana, I could somehow feel something from deep within, even though their from the simplest actions that can be seen in any anime. The anime is not really in-depth or hard to understand, so I guess that kind of emotions flows through easily for the viewer. Natsume Yuujinchou just makes it possible for you to realize just how much we shouldn't take for granted and to treasure those simplest act of kindness.
I think that they didn't actually show us much about Natsume's spiritual powers. I was really hoping that they could have use a form of measurement to measure his powers, and give Natsume more of that cool factor. Overall he is quite plain for a main character, and throwing one punch doesn't really allow us to gauge his powers. They just kept saying about how strong he is to be able to see youkai's clearly, but that doesn't really tell us much as a whole.
However, I really liked how they did kept that "having high spiritual powers and seeing youkai are rare" part. In most animes, even though they say that some powers are really rare and things like that, there seem to be a lot of other people having that same power, so it really takes away that unique selling point after awhile. So in this case, whenever there is a chance that someone could see youkai, it really excites me, even though in the end they turn out to not be able to see much.
One thing I really did not like was the fact that they keep saying that Natsume can see weird things since he was young, like almost in every other episode. They also kept on dwelling on his past, on how they always call him a liar and things like that.
Some episodes can get pretty shocking and scary. Since the whole anime is pretty calming, those sudden scenes can be quite scary and shocking, it can really leave an impression and change the pace of the anime a little. But honestly, when I re watch this anime, I usually try to skip those scary parts.
The start of the 2nd season was great. I really liked that kind of nostalgic feeling, in comparison to the first episode.
The start of the 2nd season was great. I really liked that kind of nostalgic feeling, in comparison to the first episode.
You can actually see the progress when you compare the different seasons. Season 1 and season 2 are obviously closely related with the similar starting, and the difference in the ending really makes you see how Natsume has grown as a person (be it when it comes to ayakashi and when it comes to social relationship with people).
As for the 3rd season, it's more about Natsume getting closer to youkais and understanding them more, and also more about the true colors of the exorcist group. Honestly, I prefer this ending more then season 4's ending.
For the 4th season, it's a lot more on Natsume and his social skills; it mainly more about human interactions, lesser youkai.
The approach to the 4th season was really a lot more different then the first 2 seasons. There were a lot more things about the past, a lot more flashbacks, and a lot more flashback from a different perspective. I guess all these were to let us compare Natsume back when he was younger and the current him. But honestly, the drastic change of approach really made it seem quite foreign.
Hoesntly thought that there were a lot of cringing moments when it came to the 4th season. I'm not really sure if it's just me, but I thought that they could have done a lot better for the 4th season.
Really hope that they would continue to release specials (or OVAs), because I really like them. Natsume Yuujinchou is a really really good anime as a whole.
As for the 3rd season, it's more about Natsume getting closer to youkais and understanding them more, and also more about the true colors of the exorcist group. Honestly, I prefer this ending more then season 4's ending.
For the 4th season, it's a lot more on Natsume and his social skills; it mainly more about human interactions, lesser youkai.
The approach to the 4th season was really a lot more different then the first 2 seasons. There were a lot more things about the past, a lot more flashbacks, and a lot more flashback from a different perspective. I guess all these were to let us compare Natsume back when he was younger and the current him. But honestly, the drastic change of approach really made it seem quite foreign.
Hoesntly thought that there were a lot of cringing moments when it came to the 4th season. I'm not really sure if it's just me, but I thought that they could have done a lot better for the 4th season.
Really hope that they would continue to release specials (or OVAs), because I really like them. Natsume Yuujinchou is a really really good anime as a whole.
Art Ratings: 3
Weird way of drawing the eye lashes. Other than that, I really love the way they drew the cat~ (Super duper cute, It's all round and fluffy)
I also liked how they choose a more simple art, to really bring out the calming part about this anime.
I also liked how they choose a more simple art, to really bring out the calming part about this anime.
Recommended for:
Gender: Female & male
Age: 11 and above
My Ratings: PG
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