Natsume's Book of Friends

Natsume's Book of Friends (Japanese: 夏目友人帳, Hepburn: Natsume Yūjin-chō) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated 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. Its chapters have been collected in 32 tankōbon volumes as of April 2025. The manga is licensed for English 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 called the "Book of Friends", left by his late maternal grandmother Reiko Natsume, an exorcist who possessed strong spiritual powers. The notebook was used to bind dozens of powerful demonic spirits, both good and evil, to follow Reiko's every whim and desire if called upon. Takashi resolves to give back all the names in notebook; in the process, he joins forces with another feline/wolf-like spirit called Madara (nicknamed "Nyanko-sensei"), 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 agrees to protect Takashi from the nefarious spirits who want to harm him for being the grandson of Reiko.

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, 2017, and 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.