Natsume's Book of Friends

One of the joys of discovering anime so late is that I have something like 30 years of stories to catch up on. I watch or read one thing and it opens the door to something related by the author or director. It's a crazy rabbit warren like world that I have entered. My interest in Natsume's Book of Friends came about because I really enjoyed the film Into The Forest of Fireflies' Light and wanted to see more work by its author Yuki Midorikaw.

There are six seasons of NBOF and I've completed season one. Oh boy what a show! It seems at first like a cutesy anime about a young man and his supernatural fat cat who together interact with yokai ghosts. The main story is that the hero, Takashi Natsume, inherits a book of names that was created by his now deceased grandmother. She could also see yokai and spent her life tricking them into servitude by writing their names into her 'book of friends'. Fast forward to today and the boy Takashi dedicates himself to releasing these yokai and sending them to their freedom. But as the series progresses the episodes get darker and there are some very weird yokai out there!

It seems the yokai world is as diverse and mixed as the human world. There are evil ones, sad ones, happy ones, shy ones, hideous ones, beautiful ones. There are gay and lesbian yokai, old yokai and kid yokai. Every episode features at least 2 or 3 new yokai. There are also various yokai characters that appear frequently throughout the series.

What I enjoyed best out of the series is the witty banter between Takashi and the cat Nyanko-sensei. The latter is actually a yokai beast who seems to have involuntarily taken on the form of a cat. He can transform into a gigantic wolf beast too (which bears a close resemblance to the wolf in Princess Mononoke) and in later episodes he takes on other different forms. But for the most part, he is a grouchy, wide cracking, arrogant and self absorbed 'sensei' who agrees to help Takashi in agreement that when he dies, the cat gets to inherit the book of friends (and thus ownership of all the yokai names within). The two bicker and argue but also form a closer bond of friendship as the series progresses.

There are so many laugh out loud moments of comedy and slapstick. The series also features touching moments of sadness, despair, heart break and loneliness. The latter is one of the common themes in the series. It seems humans who can see yokai feel they are cursed as no one else believes them and thus tend to lead solitary lives. That being said Takashi, because of his kind heart, seems to be doing very well for friends - both human and supernatural.

Aimee has already watched all six seasons so I've a lot to catch up on.

8/10

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