Review of Natsume's Book of Friends
Listen,,, if you're looking for an anime with fast-paced action scenes and a long, overarching plot like a typical shounen anime, then this isn't your thing. Turn back. Look for another anime. But if you enjoy/don't mind episodic series, then this is the one for you. Firstly, the stories that Natsume Yuujinchou presents are all self-contained and cohesive; they'll get you to choke up and it doesn't even have a long-ass plot like One Piece! Still, the smaller bite-sized stories will pack a punch with the way they introduce information through flashbacks - and NO, the flashback "gimmick" doesn't get old. In fact, each one will feellike a well-earned puzzle piece to add to your information stock about Natsume's past. Honestly, the long haul is the game that you want to play with this series.
There's a reason - a GOOD reason - why this series has 6 fuckin' seasons (of which I've watched them all), a movie, and more stuff to come. It's a big thing in Japan too. Basically, the reason is that every episode provides a little more information about the world of Natsume Yuujinchou; so while you aren't exactly advancing a "plot," it still feels like you're moving down a dimly lit path on a foggy mountain, finding your way through a world that opens up to you the more you tread through it. The worldbuilding is great - probably because it takes the real world and steeps it in something hidden, something traditional and old and so very close. Like pressing your hand to a glass window, knowing that there is more beyond it, but being unable to see through the fog.
The art itself supports this feeling. Watching this anime is like looking at a moving water colour painting, and I absolutely love the atmosphere it gives off. If you're the kinda bitch that loves the fantasy in a forest/supernatural youkai/there's-something-magical-in-the-air with a dash of hurt/comfort setting, then this is soooo gonna be your jam.
Seriously, I could wax poetic about the aesthetics and the FEEL and the atmosphere of this anime - no matter the in-anime season this anime covers, the overall feel always manages to stay nostalgic and like a small town full of hidden childhood secrets across the little stream in a forest past the bridge. It's like eating ice cream on the porch of your grandparent's house in the summer, overlooking the street and watching cars pass over blurry concrete. It's like looking up through a canopy of leaves turning yellow and red and seeing the setting sun light it up like gold fire while your boots crunch over dead twigs. The art may not be what others would consider "high budget," with fast moving action comparable to that of One Punch Man (first season) or flashy like Space Dandy, but that's the charm of it. It's humble and airy and painted with brushstrokes that know what they're doing. It's a delight to my eyes.
The characters are lovable and I just want them to have a good time. This poor traumatized boy and all his slightly less traumatized but understanding and supportive friends!! I just wanna see them happy :)) Nyanko-sensei is literally my spirit animal, hehe.
The soundtrack for this anime is iconic. It's relaxing and the kind of OST that you could put in the background while you work/study. Actually, I'm listening to it right now! It's the kind of music that you'll remember - and they always fit well with what's going on in the anime too. If you like instrumental OSTs, specifically with a sort of backwater town or traditional sound with a touch of that ethereal melancholy, this will please your ears to no end. And along with that, the anime has its pick of really good openings and endings too. Especially the endings - that shit eases you from a sad episode into a melancholy ED and it's over- the tears start coming out. (Btw, if you knit to de-stress, this anime's OST will get you feeling like an old widow out of some Howl's Moving Castle shit, looking fondly out the window, reminiscing about when you were younger and full of magic or some shit)
ANYWAY-
Each time I watch an episode that's bittersweet (which is actually most of them because being in a shared world of youkai and humans that can't see or talk to each other is a SAD SLOWBURN PINING HELL), I feel like I'm left with a warm hollowness. The kind that you feel when you've come out of a really good book and you feel bereft and pushed adrift onto a dark lake, fairy lights and glowing fireflies keeping you company across the rippling surface. It's a feeling that only Mushishi has been able to evoke in me previously.
It's just that good.
Obviously, you don't have to share my opinion, but you'll never know how good Natsume Yuujincho can get till you try it for yourself. So please give it a try. I can't guarantee that you'll like it as much as I do, but if you've gotten to the end of this review and were intrigued by all the descriptions I gave of it, then you know that you're probably interested in the vibe of this anime enough to give it the 3-episode test.
When all's said and done, this is one of my favourite anime of all time. It's one that I will almost always recommend to new anime watchers and sentimental friends alike, aside from Mob Psycho 100. And I've watched a LOT of anime. ;)