Natsume’s Book of Friends (Japanese: 夏目友人帳, Hepburn: Natsume Yūjin-chō) is a Japanese manga series by Yuki Midorikawa. It started in Hakusensha‘s shōjo manga magazine LaLa DX in June 2003, where it ran until April 2008; it has been serialized in LaLa since July 2007. The chapters and special chapters have been collected in 31 tankōbon volumes as of September 2024. The manga is licensed for English-language release in North America by Viz Media, which released the first volume in January 2010.

The series follows Takashi Natsume, an orphan boy in his late teens who can perceive and combat yōkai. One day, Takashi finds a very old notebook that his late maternal grandmother, Reiko, an exorcist who possessed strong spiritual powers, used to bind dozens of powerful demonic spirits, both good and evil (known as either ayakashi or yōkai), that she defeated to follow her very whim and desire if called upon. Takashi resolves to give back all the names in the age-old notebook, Book of Friends, and in the process joins forces with another feline/wolf-like spirit called Madara (nicknamed “Nyanko-sensei” in his borrowed lucky cat-like form), who knew Reiko when she was alive. Madara takes the form of an overweight cat and intends to take back the notebook after Takashi dies. Until then, he agreed to protect Takashi from the nefarious spirits who want to harm him for being the grandson of Reiko, who died in her young adult years decades prior to the story.

The series has been adapted into a series drama CDs. An anime television series adaptation, produced by Brain’s Base (seasons 1–4) and Shuka (seasons 5 onwards), have been broadcast on TV Tokyo in 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2016 and 2017; a seventh season is set to premiere in 2024. Two anime films, Natsume’s Book of Friends the Movie and Natsume’s Book of Friends: The Waking Rock and the Strange Visitor, were released in 2018 and 2021, respectively. The first four seasons of the anime were licensed by NIS America for a North American release in 2012 and released on home video in Japanese with English subtitles. The series has also been streamed by Crunchyroll, who produced an English dub in 2022.

By September 2023, the manga had over 16 million copies in circulation.

For as long as he can remember, Takashi Natsume has had the rare ability to see and commune with yōkai, inheriting the power from his late maternal grandmother Reiko. This ability resulted in his having a lonely childhood, because children his age considered him strange. He had also been passed from one paternal relative to another. Upon her death at a young adult age, Reiko bequeathed to her grandson her Book of Friends, a book containing the names of hundreds of spirits she had bullied into servitude.

The Book of Friends is considered a highly prized item in the supernatural world, and spirits—both good and malicious—hunt Takashi constantly because of it. Takashi spends his time dissolving the contracts that Reiko created and releasing the various spirits that come to him. Malicious spirits, on the other hand, try to kill him to obtain possession of the powerful Book of Friends, which is where Madara (called “Nyanko-sensei” by Takashi) comes in. Madara serves as Takashi’s bodyguard and spiritual advisor of sorts, even though he is ostensibly motivated by his own desire to possess the Book of Friends once Takashi dies. He later begins to become more attached to Takashi, with the latter forming a similar bond with Madara.

Takashi also finds a good friend in an exorcist named Natori Suuichi, who also one of the very few humans who is capable of perceiving and taking down spirits via certain banishing or sealing spells, but also finds a dangerous adversary in Matoba Seiji who has plans for Takashi to join him and his nefarious clan of exorcists. Takashi is determined to release all of the names before the conniving Matoba clan or other malicious spirits attempt to use it for their own gain as he tries to learn whatever he can about his maternal grandmother and the strong spiritual connection they share.

Takashi Natsume (夏目 貴志, Natsume Takashi)

Voiced by: Hiroshi Kamiya, Ayumi Fujimura (young) (Japanese); Adam Gibbs, Paige Guillory (young) (English)

Takashi Natsume, just like his long deceased maternal grandmother, Reiko, is able to perceive and hear yōkai/ayakashi. It is from Reiko that Takashi inherited the “Book of Friends”—a ledger of names written by ayakashi after being bested by Reiko in some type of contest. Because possession of an ayakashi’s false name obliges it to heed any command of the one who has the decades-old magical/spiritual book, the abuse potential of the Book of Friends is vast: and as such, is considered far too dangerous and forbidden to even exist.

Because of Takashi’s strong resemblance to his late maternal grandmother, Reiko (both in appearance and spiritual powers), yōkai routinely mistake him for her, often pursuing him intensely under the mistaken presumption of shared history and understanding. Accordingly, a regular part of Takashi’s daily life is spent trying to cope with the idiosyncrasies, and discern the true intentions of such yōkai: e.g., those who still deeply resent Reiko, but covet the great power of the Book of Friends to bend hundreds of various levels of yōkai to their will; those who feel perpetually lonely and hurt that Reiko never called upon them anymore as the decades passed until her demise as a young adult underneath a tree; those who simply want their names returned to them; and pretty much anywhere or everywhere in between.

Upon discovering the Book of Friends he inherited from his late grandmother Natsume Reiko, Takashi, overly kind but detached in demeanor, driven in equal parts by curiousness and conscientiousness—decided to take responsibility on his own terms, to return the names of the dozens of ayakashi to their owners himself: and in doing so, learn more about his maternal grandmother and the spiritual connection they shared. He is aided in this by the formidable yōkai Madara (whom he calls “Nyanko-sensei”: a nod to both his usual cat-like appearance and his self-proclaimed job-title of “bodyguard”), to whom he has promised the Book of Friends should he die.

Takashi is an orphan; his mother (Reiko’s illegitimate daughter) having died giving birth to him sixteen years ago, and his father died when he was a very young child, leaving him to be passed from distant paternal relative to paternal relative: in large part due to the “odd” or “creepy” behavior one might expect from a young child able to see creatures no one else could see. Behind Takashi’s perpetual distant smile hides a childhood spent in constant anxiety and shame: borne in equal parts of the ayakashi and the people who called him a liar and attention-seeker because of them. Takashi is eventually passed on to the Fujiwaras, a middle-aged couple on his late father’s side of the family. He loves them, and does not want to cause them trouble, so he keeps this ‘alternate landscape’ problem to himself. Being the only grandchild and descendant of the infamous Reiko, his innate spiritual powers are quite immense, allowing him to actually incapacitate and/or purify yōkai with one punch alone, as well figure out if a human is possessed.

Takashi is described by the series author, Yuki Midorikawa, as “a boy who is trying to be a kind person.”

Takashi returns the name inscribed in the Book of Friends by first picturing the ayakashi in his mind. The book flips to the page on which the name is written and Takashi takes the page and places it in his mouth and exhales. Takashi is only able to do this because he is Reiko’s only direct descendant. The cost of releasing the name, however, is that Takashi’s spiritual energy is drained temporarily. If an ayakashi becomes emotionally unstable, in the same space, its dreams may flow into Takashi’s.

On the other hand, most of the ayakashi let Takashi see into their memories, so that he can understand them and his long deceased grandmother better. Takashi can also see their memories when he releases a yōkai‘s name, seeing their last encounter with a teenage Reiko. When Takashi is completely frustrated over a problem and falls asleep in class, he actually sleep-draws in his notebook about whatever is bothering him at the time. When he was being chased by a shadow he called “Mary”, he started drawing it in his sleep, making his friends wonder if he was in love with a foreigner. His incredibly strong affinity for exorcist spells and immensely powerful spiritual strength causes him to smell “yummy” to man-eating yōkai, as Madara puts it for Takashi having Reiko’s scent as well as her great looks, which draws ordinary humans, yōkai and exorcists alike to Takashi.

Takashi’s ever developing/increasing spiritual powers and his keen sixth sense regarding yōkai leave him targeted by all types of yōkai and greatly wanted by high-level exorcists; Matoba Seiji in particular. At the beginning, Natori wants him to join his exorcist clan, but later prefers him as a good friend. Seiji Matoba, one of the strongest and most dangerous of exorcists, also tries to recruit Takashi, but for his nefarious intent for being the only descendant of Reiko.

Madara (斑) / “Nyanko-sensei” (ニャンコ先生, “Master Kitty-Cat”)

Voiced by: Kazuhiko Inoue, Sanae Kobayashi (High School Girl) (Japanese); Christopher Wehkamp, Kara Edwards (English)

A mysterious inugami. Madara was sealed in a shrine until he was accidentally released by Takashi. Because Madara was trapped in a material form for so long, Madara ordinarily takes on the shape of a maneki neko (lucky cat), leading Takashi to nickname him Nyanko-sensei. In this form, other people can see him, leading for Takashi having to ask his guardians if he could keep him as a pet. He is a powerful ayakashi, who protects Takashi from others and teaches him spells on occasion, in return for Takashi’s promise to give him the Book of Friends when he dies, so Madara often complains when Takashi returns other yōkai‘s names, saying that at this rate there will be nothing left in the Book when Takashi dies. They often fight each other, which leads to Takashi punching Madara on the face and knocking him out. But as the story progresses, Madara takes a liking to Takashi. Despite his protests of not being a cat, he likes to play with cat toys. Nyanko’s design is based on a lucky cat statue Midorikawa was given as a child.

Many times in the manga, other characters call Madara a ‘pig’ because of his round shape as a maneki-neko, which annoys him greatly. Madara is implied to have had a close relationship with Reiko in both her teenage and young adult years til her premature death underneath a tree, which is implied to be one of the reasons he is content to be Takashi’s yōkai companion until the end of his own fleeting human life.

Reiko Natsume (夏目 レイコ, Natsume Reiko)

Voiced by: Sanae Kobayashi (Japanese); Alexis Tipton (English)

Takashi’s late maternal grandmother, from whom he inherited the rare spiritual ability to see and hear yōkai as well as banish or seal them away. When Reiko was a teenager and young adult, she was considered a freak by everyone else because of her ability. Since she believed no human could ever understand her, she turned to the invisible spirits for companionship and killing time. Reiko was extraordinarily powerful, and so she easily bullied hundreds of spirits in to obeying her by playing games with them or even using a mere baseball bat or broom to fend them off whenever she chose not to even display her spiritual knowledge and innate prowess either by banishing or sealing them away via sacred sutras or shikigami, quite similar to exorcist Natori Suuichi. If they lost, she would make them give her their false names as proof of their loyalty to her. Reiko gathered said aliases in her decades-old magical/spiritual Book of Friends, and commanded most spirits to follow her every whim, with the exception of Madara whom she seemed to have been quite close with.

Madara mentioned that she had sloppy table manners and was very forgetful most times. Reiko died when she was a young adult underneath a tree, either in her twenties or thirties, so no one remembered her, which was what she had wanted. Her legacy and fame throughout the supernatural world still remains strong as her innate spiritual might was feared and greatly intriguing to both yōkai and exorcists alike, which is why they are so interested in her one-and-only grandchild who possesses the exact same high level of spiritual power she possessed.

Kaname Tanuma (田沼 要, Tanuma Kaname)

Voiced by: Kazuma Horie (Japanese); Tyson Rinehart (English)

Another student that had recently moved into the area. He is sickly and quite susceptible to illnesses. Like Takashi, he is able to detect spirits, but to a lesser degree limited to seeing merely shadows and sensing slight presence of spirits. He wants to help Takashi in any way he can, but is afraid that he will just be a burden because of his weak ability. He became a close companion and even knew about Takashi’s secret of seeing spirits and always helped him whenever he is in a tight spot.

Touru Taki (多軌 透, Taki Tōru)

Voiced by: Rina Satō (Japanese); Megan Shipman (English)

A new girl at school who rarely talks because of a curse a spirit has placed on her, which Takashi later helps her to break. She is an onmyouji; she cannot see spirits without drawing a magic circle. Taki, like Tanuma, wants to help Takashi in any way possible. She has an older brother who is staying at university and flatly refuses to believe that yōkai even exist.

Jun Sasada (笹田 純, Sasada Jun)

Voiced by: Miyuki Sawashiro (Japanese); Marisa Duran (English)

The class president of Takashi’s homeroom. Sasada believes that Takashi can see, hear and battle spirits, although he repeatedly denies this to her. To Takashi’s chagrin, she frequently tries to accompany him when he is on business involving spirits. She is a recurring character in the anime; in the manga, she is rarely seen after the encounter with Shigure due to transferring to another school from her stepfather’s new job.

Shuuichi Natori (名取 周一, Natori Shūichi)

Voiced by: Akira Ishida, Fuyuka Oura (young) (Japanese); Aaron Roberts, Macy Anne Johnson (young) (English)

A man who is also able to see spirits. He is a famous actor and exorcist and has a lizard birthmark that moves around on his body. He has the ability to manipulate paper dolls (Shikigami) and has three spirits under his command. Takashi tends to disapprove of his forceful exorcism methods. When Natori is first introduced, he hated spirits for his horrible childhood. But, after meeting Takashi, he gradually softens even though his ways are not much different. Over the course of meeting Takashi, Natori developed concern for his wellbeing, for he tends to be too softhearted and reckless when it involves fellow exorcists or spirits with malicious intent alike. However, he does acknowledge that Takashi may even be much more powerful than himself or even those strongest of the nefarious Matoba clan. In the sixth season finale, he is finally told about Reiko and her Book of Friends by Takashi, who thinks that such an old artifact as powerful as it is dangerous would be better off burned, but keeps its existence for Takashi’s sake.

Hiiragi (柊)

Voiced by: Satsuki Yukino (Japanese); Jill Harris (English)

Seiji Matoba (的場 静司, Matoba Seiji)

Voiced by: Junichi Suwabe (Japanese); Reagan Murdock (English)

The head of the Matoba clan who is twenty-two years old. A coldhearted yet levelheaded young man, Seiji is a topmost-level exorcist who does not mind sacrificing innocent yōkai to reach his goals. Although he wants stronger yōkai to protect humans, he will not hesitate in hurting anyone who gets in his way. He is mostly seen armed with a bow and arrow, which he uses to eliminate yōkai. There is a scar on his right eye, covered by an eye patch with a certain protection spell on it, due to an ancestor offering his eye to a yōkai for assistance but ended up breaking his promise. This causes later heads of the clan to have their eye targeted by that yōkai, and the distrust from other clans. After his first encounter with Takashi, he immediately takes great interest in him, and even later asks him to join the Matoba clan since finding out he is the grandson of Reiko herself.

Atsushi Kitamoto (北本 篤史, Kitamoto Atsushi) and Satoru Nishimura (西村 悟, Nishimura Satoru)

Voiced by: Hisayoshi Suganuma and Ryōhei Kimura (Japanese); Mike Haimoto and Matthew Elkins (English)

Classmates of Takashi. Kitamoto is a sensible and rational person, while Nishimura is funny and easy-going, with a slightly perverted side. Although Takashi initially rejects their overtures of friendship because of his fears of his ability being found out, he eventually becomes friends with them, although they still hang around more with each other than Takashi. Nishimura has a crush on Taki, but thinks that she and Takashi are going out.

Touko Fujiwara (藤原 塔子, Fujiwara Tōko) and Shigeru Fujiwara (藤原 滋, Fujiwara Shigeru)

Voiced by: Miki Itō (Japanese); Jennifer AuBuchon and Seth Magill (English)

A childless middle-aged couple and Takashi’s current foster parents. Shigeru is a second cousin of Takashi’s dead father, and as a boy once met Reiko without recognizing it was her. Both Touko and Shigeru assure Takashi that they consider him a part of their family. They both worry often about him, wanting him to be as happy as possible. Despite this, Takashi goes to great lengths to hide his ability from them. Slowly, Takashi comes to understand that his keeping the Fujiwaras at a distance, including always addressing them formally (see Honorific speech in Japanese), is preventing him from forming close human attachments. Despite this, he still fears being rejected because of his ever developing/increasing spiritual abilities.

One-Eyed Middle Class Yōkai (一つ目の中級妖怪) and Ox-Faced Middle Class Yōkai (牛顔の中級妖怪)

Voiced by: Takashi Matsuyama and Hiroshi Shimozaki (Japanese); Brian Mathis, Greg Dulcie (English)

Hinoe (ヒノエ)

Voiced by: Akemi Okamura (Japanese); Molly Searcy (English)

A powerful yōkai whose form is a blue-haired human woman. She was madly in love with Reiko. Being knowledgeable, she often acts as Takashi’s mentor. Hinoe enjoys teasing Takashi and Madara; mostly the former because of his uncanny resemblance to Reiko.

Misuzu (三篠)

Voiced by: Takaya Kuroda (Japanese); Chris Ryan (English)

A powerful horse yōkai with many followers. He acknowledges that Takashi is a worthy holder of the Book of Friends and offers himself as Takashi’s bodyguard in place of the “useless” Madara.

Kappa (カッパ)

Voiced by: Kyōko Chikiri (Japanese); Danielle Yoshiko Phillips (English)

Kogitsune (子狐, Little Fox)

Voiced by: Akiko Yajima (Japanese); Kristen McGuire^[17] (English)

An orphaned fox yōkai whose form is a boy with fox ears and tail however humans only see him as an infant fox. He becomes friends with Takashi after being rescued from bullying yōkai.

Chobihige (ちょびひげ)

Voiced by: Chō

A large-headed spirit with a small mustache and a pale green robe. He wears a comb that he had lost and is replaced by a dragon scale-encrusted comb Natsume had made for him. His true form is that of a dragon.

Hishigaki (ひしがき)

Voiced by: Kimiko Saitō (Japanese); Kasi Hollowell (English)

Tsuyukami (露神)

Voiced by: Takeshi Aono (Japanese); Doug Jackson (English)

Susugi (ススギ)

Voiced by: Hiroki Yasumoto (Japanese); Wes Frazier (English)

Shigure (時雨)

Voiced by: Hiroshi Tsuchida (Japanese); John Burgmeier (English)

Santo (さんと)

Voiced by: Yoshiyuki Hirai (Japanese); Cris George (English)

Mikuri (みくり)

Voiced by: Tetsuya Yanagihara (Japanese); Mike Haimoto (English)

Tsubame (燕)

Voiced by: Ryoka Yuzuki (Japanese); Rachel Glass (English)

Tarusaru (垂申)

Voiced by: Akimitsu Takase (Japanese); Jerry Habibi (English)

Hotaru (ホタル)

Voiced by: Houko Kuwashima (Japanese); Elizabeth Maxwell (English)

Akagane (アカガネ)

Voiced by: Atsushi Imaruoka (Japanese); Jack Reeder (English)

Asagi (アサギ)

Voiced by: Mamiko Noto (Japanese); Natalie Hoover (English)

Evil Sealed Yōkai (印使いの邪鬼)

Voiced by: Tadashi Miyazawa (Japanese); David Matranga (English)

Benio (紅峰)

Voiced by: Misa Watanabe (Japanese); Kelsey Maher (English)

Riou (リオウ, Riō)

Voiced by: Masaya Matsukaze (Japanese); Oscar Seung (English)

Gen (玄)

Voiced by: Hiroyuki Yoshino

Sui (翠)

Voiced by: Ayahi Takagaki

Sumie (スミエ)

Voiced by: Takako Honda

Eggy (タマ, Tama)

Voiced by: Sayaka Aoki (Japanese); Jalitza Chantel, Alex Hom (Enraged form) (English)

Kirinoha (霧葉)

Voiced by: Yuka Terasaki (Japanese); Hannah Alyea (English)

Stitch Mark Yōkai (額傷の妖怪)

Voiced by: Takayuki Sugō (Japanese); Alex Hom (English)

Sasafune (笹舟)

Voiced by: Ryō Hirohashi

Miya (巳弥)

Voiced by: Yū Sugimoto

Karime (カリメ)

Voiced by: Ryūsaku Chiziwa

Kai (カイ)

Voiced by: Junko Takeuchi

Hana (ハナ)

Voiced by: Michie Kita (Japanese); Nazia Chaudhry (English)

Taniozaki (谷尾崎)

Voiced by: Satoshi Tsuruoka

Akifumi Sugino (杉野 章史)

Voiced by: Kenji Hamada

Tamiko (民子)

Voiced by: Sawa Ishige (Japanese); Dani Chambers (English)

Nanase (七瀬)

Voiced by: Mika Doi, Yoriko Nagata (young)

Chizu Sakanaka (坂中千津, Sakanaka Chizu)

Voiced by: Ikuko Tani

Yasaka (八坂)

Voiced by: Kenji Nojima

Katsumi Shibata (柴田 克己, Shibata Katsumi)

Voiced by: Yoshimasa Hosoya

Takashi’s Father (夏目の父)

Voiced by: Katsuyuki Konishi

Takashi’s biological father who died during Takashi’s childhood.

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 a supernatural story with less romance, containing supernatural elements that stir readers’ imaginations the way stories about yōkai and local gods stirred hers while 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 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, Takashi 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.

Written and illustrated by Yuki Midorikawa, Natsume’s Book of Friends was first published in Hakusensha‘s shōjo manga magazine LaLa DX from June 10, 2003, to April 10, 2008; it has been serialized in the monthly sister magazine LaLa since July 24, 2007. The chapters have been collected in thirty-one tankōbon volumes.

The series is licensed in English in North America by Viz Media, with the first volume published in January 2010.

Additionally, fanbook was published on January 5, 2009, and a notebook reproduction of Natsume’s Book of Friends was published on July 3, 2009.

Natsume’s Book of Friends has been adapted as a series of three drama CDs, which were distributed as extras with issues of LaLa.

1. LaLa Treasure Drama CD (October 2007)
2. LaLa Excellent Drama CD (November 2008)
3. LaLa Double Premiere Drama CD (May 2009)

Natsume’s Book of Friends has been adapted into an anime television series, directed by Takahiro Omori, and broadcast on TV Tokyo. Brain’s Base animated the first four seasons, while Shuka has animated the fifth one onwards. The 13-episode first season was broadcast from July 8 to September 30, 2008; the second 13-episode season, Zoku Natsume Yūjin-chō (続 夏目友人帳, “Natsume’s Book of Friends (Continuation)”), was broadcast from January 6 to March 31, 2009; the third 13-episode season, Natsume Yūjin-chō San (夏目友人帳 参), was broadcast from July 5 to September 27, 2011; the 13-episode fourth season, Natsume Yūjin-chō Shi (夏目友人帳 肆), was broadcast from January 3 to March 27, 2012; the fifth 11-episode season, Natsume Yūjin-Chō Go (夏目友人帳 伍), was broadcast from October 5 to December 21, 2016; the sixth 11-episode season, Natsume Yūjin-chō Roku (夏目友人帳 陸), was broadcast from April 12 to June 21, 2017; the seventh season, Natsume Yūjin-chō Shichi (夏目友人帳 漆), is set to premiere on October 8, 2024.

In North America, the first four seasons were licensed by NIS America and released on home video in Japanese with English subtitles. The six seasons have been streamed by Crunchyroll. An English dub by Crunchyroll premiered on July 24, 2022.

Natsume’s Book of Friends the Movie: Ephemeral Bond was released in theaters on September 29, 2018.

A second theatrical anime, titled Natsume’s Book of Friends: The Waking Rock and the Strange Visitor, premiered on January 16, 2021. The film is composed of two stories, “Ishi Okoshi” and “Ayashiki Raihōsha”. The main staff and cast members from the previous film returned to reprise their roles with the addition of Hisako Kanemoto as a guest-star.

An original video animation (OVA) titled Itsuka Yuki no Hi ni (いつかゆきのひに) was released on February 5, 2014, with the staff and cast of the previous anime seasons returning. The BD/DVD consisted of two discs, the second containing a clip of the “Sound Theatre x Natsume Yuujinchou ~ Tsudoi Ongeki no Shou~” musical event which was held the previous year on September 28, 2013.

Separate soundtrack albums for the two seasons were released in Japan by Sony Music on September 24, 2008 and March 18, 2009, respectively. The series opening and closing theme songs were also released by Sony Music. As singles, “Issei no Sei” reached a peak rank of 48th on the Oricon singles chart, “Natsu Yūzora” reached 27th, and “Ano Hi Time Machine” reached 38th. “Aishiteru” was not released as a single, but instead included on an album called Uta no Hibi by Kourin (Also known as Callin’).

Since the fifth volume of the series, the individual volumes have made the best-seller list for manga in Japan. Volume 5 was ranked at number 8 on the charts for the week of March 4–10, 2008; Volume 6 was number 5 for the week of July 8–14, 2008; Volume 13 has done the best so far of the volumes, staying on the chart for three consecutive weeks (number 2 for the week of January 2–8, 2012, number 4 for the week of January 9–15, 2012, then falling to number 19 the following week). By February 2022, the manga has sold over 16 million copies. By September 2023, the manga had over 17 million copies in circulation.

Natsume’s Book of Friends was one of twelve finalists for the first Manga Taishō award in 2008.

Both the anime and the manga have been noted for their optimistic themes and presentation.

Natsume’s Book of Friends
First tankōbon volume cover, featuring Takashi Natsume and Madara
夏目友人帳 (Natsume Yūjin-chō)
Genre	Iyashikei Mystery Supernatural
Manga
Written by	Yuki Midorikawa
Published by	Hakusensha
English publisher	NA: Viz Media
Magazine	LaLa DX (2003–2008) LaLa (2007–present)
Demographic	Shōjo
Original run	June 10, 2003 – present
Volumes	31
Anime television series
Directed by	Takahiro Omori[a] Kotomi Deai (53–74) Hideki Ito (75–)
Produced by	Ayako Yokoyama Akiko Odawara (1–13) Masanori Miyake (1–26) Ikuhide Ichikawa (1–26) Sayako Muramatsu (14–26, 53–74) Tomomi Kyōtani (27–52) Reiko Sasaki (27–52) Hirofumi Sugawara (27–52) Fumi Yazaki (53–74) Kazuya Satō (53–74)
Written by	Kenichi Kanemaki (1–26) Sadayuki Murai (27–)
Music by	Makoto Yoshimori
Studio	Brain’s Base (1–52) Shuka (53–)
Licensed by	Crunchyroll
Original network	TXN (TV Tokyo)
Original run	July 8, 2008 – present
Episodes	74 (List of episodes)
Original video animation
Directed by	Takahiro Omori (chief) Kotomi Deai
Produced by	Ayako Yokoyama Tomomi Kyōtani Tomoko Taneoka Reiko Sasaki
Written by	Takahiro Omori (1) Aya Yoshinaga (2)
Music by	Makoto Yoshimori
Studio	Brain’s Base
Licensed by	Crunchyroll (1)
Released	December 15, 2013 – February 1, 2014
Runtime	22–23 minutes
Episodes	2 (List of episodes)
Original video animation
Directed by	Takahiro Omori (chief) Kotomi Deai
Music by	Makoto Yoshimori
Studio	Shuka
Licensed by	Crunchyroll
Released	March 22, 2017 – October 25, 2017
Runtime	22–23 minutes
Episodes	4 (List of episodes)
Original net animation
Studio	Shuka
Released	April 21, 2021
Runtime	2 minutes
Anime films
Ephemeral Bond The Waking Rock and the Strange Visitor
Anime and manga portal