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夏目友人帳 [Natsume Yūjinchō] #20
Natsume's Book of Friends, Vol. 20
Even though Natsume is getting better at dealing with yokai, he still tries to stay uninvolved. But when he runs into a yokai with his head stuck in a jar, Natsume can’t leave him to suffer. But the yokai’s idea of a gift of gratitude turns Natsume into a little kid with no memories of his current life!
192 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 5, 2016
9 people are currently reading
196 people want to read
About the author
Yuki Midorikawa
66 books293 followersYuki Midorikawa (緑川ゆき, Midorikawa Yuki) is a Japanese mangaka (manga artist). Midorikawa is best known for drawing the manga series Natsume Yujin-cho ("Natsume's Book of Friends").
Yuki Midorikawa started writing manga when she was an elementary school girl. When she was a junior high school student, she sent her manga for the first time to "Hana to Yume", a semi-monthly Japanese shōjo manga magazine published by Hakusensha. Since then, she had kept drawing manga to become a mangaka.
Yuki Midorikawa started writing manga when she was an elementary school girl. When she was a junior high school student, she sent her manga for the first time to "Hana to Yume", a semi-monthly Japanese shōjo manga magazine published by Hakusensha. Since then, she had kept drawing manga to become a mangaka.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
October 19, 2020
Sometimes it's really hard to write reviews for each volume because there's not a lot to talk about that I haven't already mentioned in previous reviews. Thus, here's a list of things I liked, enjoy:
1. Younger Natsume calling the yokai liars when they try to trick him into leaving was incredible. If he didn't still have some memory of his relationships with Taki and Tanuma, he would've believed the yokai because people have rarely been kind to him in the past. Also, Nyanko sensei being upset when younger Natsume called him a monster and was visibly frightened by him was the best.
2. The scarecrow yokai were so cool! And Tokanyo's an...interesting game to play to win a house. Toootally not creepy at all O.O
3. Omg, when Princess Shiba visited the villa Natsume helped restore I nearly died. Such a beautiful and heartwarming scene.
That's all, folks. Moving on!
1. Younger Natsume calling the yokai liars when they try to trick him into leaving was incredible. If he didn't still have some memory of his relationships with Taki and Tanuma, he would've believed the yokai because people have rarely been kind to him in the past. Also, Nyanko sensei being upset when younger Natsume called him a monster and was visibly frightened by him was the best.
2. The scarecrow yokai were so cool! And Tokanyo's an...interesting game to play to win a house. Toootally not creepy at all O.O
3. Omg, when Princess Shiba visited the villa Natsume helped restore I nearly died. Such a beautiful and heartwarming scene.
That's all, folks. Moving on!
April 5, 2023
I wonder what Natori really thinks about Natsume's book of friends. I cannot tell if he wants to help because he cares about Natsume or if it is because of what the book of friends is. Or what... I dislike he keeps asking others about it. That certainly isn't helping Natsume any...
June 4, 2022
ahhh, been awhile since i visited the relaxing world of natsume's book of friends. my favorite chapter was the de-aging one. love to see little kid natsume be taken care of!
4 stars
4 stars
March 20, 2018
Series Review:
In SHORT: Magical, personal and quietly brilliant.
In DETAIL:
Themes: Being different, loneliness, creatures from myth and legend, friendship and camaraderie and the meaning of family.
Setting: Rural Japan in all its loveliness! (When it comes to a time period I’d say, roughly the ‘here and now’.)
Atmosphere: At once magical and ordinary. The focus on interpersonal relationships in a world where a vast array of supernatural creatures are never far, is the key to making this story so wonderful. It is almost always less about the being’s strangeness and abilities, but rather its hopes and wishes.
Characters & Relationships: Every character is incredibly unique and loveable in their own way. What I adore the portrayal of the ayakashi is that Natsume always tries to understand the circumstances of a creature first and only if there is no other way will try to bind it or even kill it. Mostly the ayakashi are shown as having different values or being ignorant of human customs.
Plot: Natsume has to cope with his ability to see ayakashi and with the mysterious “Book of Friends” his grandmother left behind. Not to mention this erratic lucky-cat (that is actually something very different) called Nyanko-sensei. At first the chapters are rather episodic in a monster of the week style (but many really touching and never boring), but somewhere along the line more characters, supernatural and human, appear and as Natsume’s friends and acquaintances expand, the plot branches out.
Cover & Artwork: The artwork has a lovely light touch which adds to feeling of otherworldliness and gives it a sense of fragility.
In SHORT: Magical, personal and quietly brilliant.
In DETAIL:
Themes: Being different, loneliness, creatures from myth and legend, friendship and camaraderie and the meaning of family.
Setting: Rural Japan in all its loveliness! (When it comes to a time period I’d say, roughly the ‘here and now’.)
Atmosphere: At once magical and ordinary. The focus on interpersonal relationships in a world where a vast array of supernatural creatures are never far, is the key to making this story so wonderful. It is almost always less about the being’s strangeness and abilities, but rather its hopes and wishes.
Characters & Relationships: Every character is incredibly unique and loveable in their own way. What I adore the portrayal of the ayakashi is that Natsume always tries to understand the circumstances of a creature first and only if there is no other way will try to bind it or even kill it. Mostly the ayakashi are shown as having different values or being ignorant of human customs.
Plot: Natsume has to cope with his ability to see ayakashi and with the mysterious “Book of Friends” his grandmother left behind. Not to mention this erratic lucky-cat (that is actually something very different) called Nyanko-sensei. At first the chapters are rather episodic in a monster of the week style (but many really touching and never boring), but somewhere along the line more characters, supernatural and human, appear and as Natsume’s friends and acquaintances expand, the plot branches out.
Cover & Artwork: The artwork has a lovely light touch which adds to feeling of otherworldliness and gives it a sense of fragility.
August 23, 2023
This has been one of my favorite volumes of this series. Natsume is turned into a child by yokai, helps a man keep his house when he has unwittingly entered a 'game' with yokai, and (the best one), Natsume helps some spirits fix up their diorama so that a goddess will visit. Natsume remains such a sweet, kind person that I always enjoy reading about him. The perfect example of this is when he spends a day or more creating a flower garden for his aunt.
September 18, 2017
I am not a big fan of episodic stories, but I like the characters in this one and the sort of gentle occult nature; there are threats but never too big or too much, and the endings are never tragic or horrfying ones -- happy, sad, bittersweet, nostalgic, those sorts of feelings. I do not go out of my way to find this manga, but I enjoy it when I come across it.
December 3, 2017
Natsume's character development is really showing, Nyanko-sensei and he are just precious cinnamon rolls!! The stories are getting darker but have more warmth in the contrary. The bonds that Natsume created are the highlight of every series. Surprisingly it made me laugh out loud bunch of times which I adore! 5 stars!
November 25, 2021
Natsume's smile is always heartwarming. I love the ishi-okoshi chapter, and how considerate Nyanko-sensei was despite what he said. And I never thought Kitamoto is a mystery fan! Hey Kitamoto, you're the same as me!
May 20, 2024
I loved the tsukihigiu and garden chapters so much! Also hope to see more chapters with Mr. Yorishima in the future. He's so mysterious and seems to know more about Reiko and the book of friends than he's letting on.
June 6, 2024
The warm fuzzies continue with this volume! Natsume looking for ways to make Aunt Toko happy is just adorable.🥰
And the story with Natsume turning young again was sweet but also sad because it shows how alone he was as a kid.
And the story with Natsume turning young again was sweet but also sad because it shows how alone he was as a kid.
May 30, 2017
OMG, Natsume gets de-aged and its adorable. *hugs little!Natsume*
November 12, 2017
This series is so good.
October 19, 2018
I like it.
December 12, 2020
I really really loved this
April 7, 2021
screaming and crying at the baby!natsume chapter aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
August 21, 2024
“Nyanko sensei ¿somos amigos?” “Para nada, fue cosa del destino”
September 3, 2025
3.5 stars
April 26, 2018
チビ夏目って可愛いい！！！！にゃんこ先生のリアクションもすごく楽しかった。
案山子の話全然分からなかった。。。
面白いけど、名取は夏目より歳上でしょう、でもなんか夏目はもっと大人ぽい。夏目がいつも一人だったからかな。名取は「一人でやった」の態度があるたけど的場や他な祓いやや家族の書斎からならった。それだけじゃない両親とあまりよく関係なかったけど関係あった。夏目が幼いからいつも一人と他な人に頼ってなかった。名取がもっと人とつながりあるけどなかなか人の問題と突っ込まない。名取の人生は何か胡散臭いでも夏目は本心から行動する。
案山子の話全然分からなかった。。。
面白いけど、名取は夏目より歳上でしょう、でもなんか夏目はもっと大人ぽい。夏目がいつも一人だったからかな。名取は「一人でやった」の態度があるたけど的場や他な祓いやや家族の書斎からならった。それだけじゃない両親とあまりよく関係なかったけど関係あった。夏目が幼いからいつも一人と他な人に頼ってなかった。名取がもっと人とつながりあるけどなかなか人の問題と突っ込まない。名取の人生は何か胡散臭いでも夏目は本心から行動する。
April 5, 2026
Nyanko should keep drawing fish. He's very good at drawing fish, especially considering he's a cat using a brush pen.
Natsume’s Book of Friends Review
5/5 stars
I ended up down this rabbit hole of trying to find cozy/supernatural stories about yokai, partially because I’d just read Kusunoki’s Garden of Gods, and partially because I watched the movie Mononoke: Phantom in the Rain and was craving literally anything in the same vein.
So of course I ended up reading Natsume’s Book of Friends. This is the quintessential yokai manga. It’s about a teenage boy who can see yokai, which gets him into a lot of situations. Have you ever seen that thing on the internet where people are like, let’s put that character through situations? That’s Natsume. But it’s also sort of cozy, despite being all about ghosts. Not sure how that’s achieved, but it works.
Natsume ends up with this yokai trapped in a lucky cat shrine statue as his bodyguard. His name is Nyanko Sensei and I love him so much. He’s both the most helpful cat around, and also a pain in the butt. He sticks around Natsume mostly because Natsume promises to give him his grandmother’s book if anything were to happen to him.
Natsume’s grandmother’s book is a notebook filled with names of tons of yokai who she tricked into writing their names in the book. All of the yokai in her book have to do the bidding of whoever is holding the book, so all the yokai in the book either want their name released, or want to own the book themselves. Natsume is determined to return all their names, that way he doesn’t have the burden of constantly being attacked by yokai who want the book for themselves, and he doesn’t have to fear someone else getting their hands on it and controlling so many powerful yokai.
It’s a relatively episodic series where in each new chapter, Natsume comes face to face with a new yokai, which may or may not be in the book. There are a lot of fun returning characters who Natsume hangs out with, very little of whom know anything about the book, if they even know he can see yokai.
My favorite is the guy with the weird lizard tattoo. I am very curious to see if in the future we end up getting any clues as to what sort of yokai caused it, and if it can be removed, but I’m also scared that finding out that information would make that character suddenly less mysterious. I also hope this series never ends. It’s very fun, and has been going on for so long that I hope I’ll be able to keep reading it for a very long time.
This will be a spoiler free review. Onto the review!
Have a nice day/night everyone!
Natsume’s Book of Friends Review
5/5 stars
I ended up down this rabbit hole of trying to find cozy/supernatural stories about yokai, partially because I’d just read Kusunoki’s Garden of Gods, and partially because I watched the movie Mononoke: Phantom in the Rain and was craving literally anything in the same vein.
So of course I ended up reading Natsume’s Book of Friends. This is the quintessential yokai manga. It’s about a teenage boy who can see yokai, which gets him into a lot of situations. Have you ever seen that thing on the internet where people are like, let’s put that character through situations? That’s Natsume. But it’s also sort of cozy, despite being all about ghosts. Not sure how that’s achieved, but it works.
Natsume ends up with this yokai trapped in a lucky cat shrine statue as his bodyguard. His name is Nyanko Sensei and I love him so much. He’s both the most helpful cat around, and also a pain in the butt. He sticks around Natsume mostly because Natsume promises to give him his grandmother’s book if anything were to happen to him.
Natsume’s grandmother’s book is a notebook filled with names of tons of yokai who she tricked into writing their names in the book. All of the yokai in her book have to do the bidding of whoever is holding the book, so all the yokai in the book either want their name released, or want to own the book themselves. Natsume is determined to return all their names, that way he doesn’t have the burden of constantly being attacked by yokai who want the book for themselves, and he doesn’t have to fear someone else getting their hands on it and controlling so many powerful yokai.
It’s a relatively episodic series where in each new chapter, Natsume comes face to face with a new yokai, which may or may not be in the book. There are a lot of fun returning characters who Natsume hangs out with, very little of whom know anything about the book, if they even know he can see yokai.
My favorite is the guy with the weird lizard tattoo. I am very curious to see if in the future we end up getting any clues as to what sort of yokai caused it, and if it can be removed, but I’m also scared that finding out that information would make that character suddenly less mysterious. I also hope this series never ends. It’s very fun, and has been going on for so long that I hope I’ll be able to keep reading it for a very long time.
This will be a spoiler free review. Onto the review!
Have a nice day/night everyone!
April 4, 2025
Tsukihigui wants to repay Natsume after he gets a jar off his head. His repayment is shrinking Natsume and taking his memory. Taki and Tanuma watch little Natsume while Nyanko tries to find Tsukihigui and get him to return Natsume to his age. Natori needs Natsumes help to rid a man of yokai who want to take his house. Natsume helps build a garden for the Fujiwara's.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 28, 2018
This volume was really relaxing. The first chapter was my favorite. The others were okay.
September 1, 2024
Beginning a second read in sept 2024 to prepare for season 7♡
I just realised they used some of these chapters for the OVA so they may skip the two short ones and start from vol 21.
I just realised they used some of these chapters for the OVA so they may skip the two short ones and start from vol 21.
April 12, 2017
Another good volume.
April 17, 2017
Another excellent set of Natsume & Nyanko-Sensei stories.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews