Maddies Manga

After the gentle Natsume accidently releases a powerful spirit, he’s forced to make a deal with it for his own safety. The deal?: if the spirit dutifully protects Natsume from all the yokai that approach him, he will give it his book of names after he passes.

But as Natsume is on a mission to return all of the names to their rightful yokai owners, will there be anything left for the spirit once Natsume is no longer around?

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Official synopsis

Takashi Natsume has always been aware of the supernatural world, but after he inherits a magical book from his grandmother, the supernatural world is aware of him!

Takashi Natsume can see the spirits and demons that hide from the rest of humanity. He has always been set apart from other people because of his gift, drifting from relative to relative, never fitting in. Now he’s a troubled high school student who has come to live in the small town where his grandmother grew up. And there he discovers that he has inherited more than just the Sight from the mysterious Reiko.

When Reiko was Takashi’s age, she bound the names of demons and spirits in her Book of Friends, enslaving them to her capricious whim. Now Takashi is the owner of the book, and the creatures will do anything to get their names back.

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Sample the series!

You can pick up volume one here!

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My thoughts on this volume (Spoilers!)

It’s not all that often that I come across a shoujo series with a male protagonist, so this one caught my eye once I realized it was a Hana to Yume series. While I had been generally aware of this manga for a while—after all, it’s been around for a long time—I never really thought to look into it. I didn’t even realize it was a shoujo until I looked into it!

If you’re a fan of so called “iyashi-kei” series, you will absolutely be a fan of Natsume’s Book of Friends. Iyashi is Japanese for “to heal”, and kei can be translated as “type” in this scenario. Basically, it’s used to describe books that are so calm and kind that they literally heal you as you read them. Other books that I would refer to as “Iyashi-kei” are Mushishi, Yotsuba&, and Barakamon.

Natsume is a boy that has had a lot of difficulties growing up, but he hasn’t let it twist his personality whatsoever. Instead, he uses his experiences to become a more compassionate person. When he sees someone, or something acting out, rather than assume they’re doing bad things simply because they’re evil, he instead tries to understand where they’re coming from. After all, nothing in this world is truly completely evil.

Once he discovers his grandmother’s book of friends, he doesn’t even take a moment to think what to do with it—he knows he should give the names back. Even though he doesn’t necessarily like the yokai that are demanding their names back, he does it because he knows it’s the right thing to do.

Not all the yokai he meets are necessarily bad, as just like people, they are complicated beings with complicated emotions. While some can’t be reasoned with due to more intense emotions, he is able to form bonds with some of the more rational ones. It’s his interactions with the more rational yokai that bring out the best parts of this series. We get a glimpse into how Natsume sees the world, while also learning about the past lives of various yokai.

I’ve been incredibly invested in this story since the first chapter—the character design, the storytelling, the world building… everything is just so perfect. I liked it so much that I debated putting down this volume half-read to go buy my own volume from the book store. Buying such large series is a somewhat scary commitment, but I think this is one that deserves to be read.

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Things I particularly enjoyed (spoilers)

❤️ Poor Natsume confiding in who he thought was another human who could see yokai like him… It’s clear she didn’t have any bad intentions with him, but she still did fool him in the end.

🧡 Nyanko-sensei and Natsume’s complicated relationship—the cat goes from almost eating him in his sleep to protecting him… I wonder if their relationship will get better as the series goes on. I mean, who wouldn’t want to be friends with Natsume?

💛 Slowly learning more about Natsume’s grandmother—I feel like Natsume can probably relate to her better than anyone in his life now, even though he’s never met her.

💚 Tsuyukami’s entire storyline—he was so tiny and polite, I was so sad that his time with Natsume ended so quickly…

💛 The bird yokai’s storyline—I was so happy that she was able to achieve her goal in the end, and that Natsume was also able to learn about her success! I think it’s the yokai like her that will change his mind about them.