Natsume's Book of Friends, Vol. 6

夏目友人帳 [Natsume Yūjinchō] #6

by Yuki Midorikawa

Takashi rescues a young boy named Kai from an abandoned house, where he had been locked in a box. But this isn't just a case of bullying gone too far. Kai has been complaining about being chased by ghosts. Does he see yokai too, or is there something darker going on?

Genres: Manga, Fantasy, Supernatural, Comics, Shojo, Young Adult, Slice Of Life

200 pages, Paperback

First published July 5, 2008

About the author

Yuki 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.

Reviews

[Mir · Rating 3 out of 5]

One long and several short stories structured around the theme of loneliness.

In the series' first three-episode arc, Natsume encounters his most powerful yokai yet. Appearing again are Taki, the girl who can't see yokai herself but knows about them, and Mr Natori the actor/exorcist.

Two of the shorter stories also have returning characters -- the bullied orphan fox spirit (so sweet! I wish he would get a better deal) and Reiko herself.

For some reason the collection ends with a completely unrelated story about a high school girl who develops feelings for an unfriendly teacher. It is well done and fits the loneliness theme but is not fantasy, doesn't have any of the usual characters, etc. In short, I have no idea why it appears in this collection.

[Clau MZ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Comfort read ;-;

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume features a three-part story--the first in this series. Natsume comes across Natori again, and while they start off at odds with each other about how to deal with a yokai named Kai who looks like a young boy, eventually they come to an agreement. Unfortunately, as Natori and Natsume work together, Natsume's budding friendship with Kai suffers. It's been awhile since I've watched the anime, so I don't remember whether they reconcile, or if they even meet again. I'll have to read more to find out!

I don't think this volume had as strong an impact as many of the previous ones. I'll attribute that to the author getting used to having more room to work with than single-episode stories allow. As of this writing, there are 20 more volumes of this series available in English, and since I have them all, I'll be able to see how this series develops in the long term. I'm looking forward to it.

Other than those three chapters, there are a couple of side stories: one featuring the little fox spirit who Natsume met on a trip, and one where Hinoe tells Natsume about her first meeting with Natsume's grandmother.

And then there's an unrelated short story about a high school girl who falls in love with her male teacher. Not again! It is definitely in Midorikawa's style, and I'm sure it's intended to evoke similar emotions to Natsume, but I'm so resistant to this kind of story by now that it had little or no effect on me.

[Katey Flowers · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m enjoying the longer Natsume story’s - in this volume, we get one story over three chapters. There are however, some bonus story’s included at the end, one of which is entirely unrelated to Natsume and involves a student falling in love with a teacher. Absolutely not my thing and I don’t really understand why it was included in this otherwise solid volume of Natsume.

[Dee · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️

I think this is the first arc in the manga that spans over three chapters? Nevertheless I really enjoy this. I had a feeling that about Kai and when it was revealed why he did what he did, I could feel the loneliness and sorrow his character evoked. It reminded me of Natsume in some ways.

Again, I’m genuinely happy that Natsume has more friends who understand him now, it feels like he’s growing so much. Taki is so precious, even when she didn’t have the full information of what was going on, she put her trust in Natsume fully.

I love the fox yokai so much in the anime and I’m glad we can see more of him in the manga.

[Nikoletta (nikisjournal) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Natsume = top of the top mang wydawanych w Polsce. Mało kto tak pięknie potrafi opowiadać o uczuciach i istotności relacji, jak Yuki Midorikawa.

[Kejty · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
Zabieram gwiazdkę za ostatnie opowiadanie zajmujące 1/4 tomu, a niezwiązane z serią i słabe

[Heather D-G · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this volume. This still hasn’t caught up to anime, but it’s lots of fun to revisit these stories. There’s something so refreshing about Natsume and his friends. I never get tired of reading about them.

[Khari · Rating 5 out of 5]

きゃ！チビ狐だ！この子は一番好きなキャラ。超可愛い！もっともっと見せてください緑川先生！
今回の話はアマスパ、小さな神の話が泣かせた。それ以上あまり覚えない。この巻を読んでいる間に手術したからあまり集中できなかった。今はリハビリ中のであまり集中できない。ましょうがない。

[Mely]

The series shifts to something less episodic and more arc-based. I'm neutral to positive on this; I like the series' steady emotional continuity and subtle change, and am happy we're apparently going to see more of it, but I also enjoyed the miniature grace of the individual episodes. It's a big plus not to have to reread the origin story of the Book of Friends in every single chapter, though.

So, we have a three-chapter arc about Natsume's encounter with a young boy who sees spirits and a conflict with Natori, showcasing Natsume's growing connections to and emotional openness with both humans and yokai. Taki shows up again, too. The arc comes to a pause but not a stop; there will clearly be further follow-up.

It is a real joy to see Natsume able to be honest with people -- Taki, the young boy Kei, and even Natori, much as they misunderstand each other.

Filling out the volume is an unrelated short story about a student/teacher romance, which is about as inoffensive as manga student/teacher romances get: it starts with her crush, the teacher doesn't encourage it, the student behaves responsibly rather than stalkerishly, they kind of talk around maybe getting together after she graduates but they can't do anything while she's in school. I still hate student/teacher romances. Please stop trying to make me sympathetic to your massively problematic abuses of authority as signified by imbalances in age, authority, presumed emotional maturity, and power, mangaka of Japan!

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Natsume and his bodyguard meet a yokai who is able to take the form of a human boy.

For the first time, the story plays out in a three part arc rather than separate unrelated stories. This added a nice bit of depth to the story. Natsume is gradually building a group of friends who know about his ability to see spirits.

I'm giving this three stars because the last story, which is not at all related to Natsume, took up too much space. I want more Natsume, not a story about a schoolgirl falling in love with her teacher.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved the story about Kai and the decision Natsume chooses to protect both humans and yokai alike. He struggles in both worlds, especially when he was young, and to choose to help both regardless of this is very admirable.

The short stories from the yokai's point of view are also adorable.

I couldn't stand, however, the last inclusion between a random student and the love she has for her teacher. It left me feeling wrong-footed especially because I couldn't tell where this was supposed to fit in with the rest of the story. I didn't enjoy reading this part of the manga.

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the three part story. I want to see more of Kai. He needs his cookies.
The schoolhouse story at the end was out of place and inappropriate. I read Natsume’s Book of Friends and donate the volumes to a library for middle schoolers. The schoolhouse story is not okay for this age group.

[Angela Kocheshkova · Rating 5 out of 5]

this volume is so sad. one story about a crying kid spirit after another. i think kai's story is the most upsetting to me in the whole series.

also this volume has a bonus story that has nothing to do with the series that i didn't care for

[Rebecca J · Rating 3 out of 5]

The last story had nothing to do with Natsume, Yoki, or The Book of Friends…I am so confused…why was it in there at all? A teacher and student relationship? What? The teacher going “yeah no” then by then end going “uh maybe” Make it make sense!!!

[Carla · Rating 5 out of 5]

We get to see more growth from Natori, who as usual pushes growth in Natsume as well. The episodic nature of each chapter is starting to drop off a bit more in this volume for something more cohesive, which I'm delighted to see. It was also fun having the bonus chapter about Reiko.

[Rici · Rating 3 out of 5]

Erneut gute Kurzgeschichten, die immer deutlicher machen, das Natsume zwischen den Menschen und den Yokai steht, sodass er sowohl Vermittler als auch das problem sein kann.

[Elias Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story is just getting better and better. I also really liked the short story at the end. I wonder who those two are. Maybe they could be his parents. Maybe we find out in the next volume

[Mizuna · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

[Munch · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5, I took off .5 for the boring nothing related to Natsume or yokai story at the end

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was pretty good.

[R · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story arc! I like the new characters and seeing some different stories. I like the one shot at the end.

[τλιϓλ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I still do not understand why it took me so long to finish it, really enjoyed it as the previous ones.

[Bee (BacchusVines) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like that we get to see more of the exorcist world. Also, I just love Natsume's personality.

[Jesica · Rating 4 out of 5]

necesito el siguiente tomo.!

[GlutenFreePixels · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had to lower my rating because of the unnecessary teacher/student romance. It made me extremely uncomfortable. It wasn't yokai related, and I'm not sure why the author decided to put it in this book.

[Beck B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aside from the short story at the end, loved these chapters!

[yam · Rating 5 out of 5]

IM BAWLING THAT YOKAI WENT ALL THE WAY ON A TRAIN TO SEE NATSUME OMGGG I LOVE HIM

[Kadee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series gets better and better each chapter I read. Would recommend.

[S46354595 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Did not like the last chapter. I get it, she's a teenager who does stupid things, but it's still weird.

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!