Review of Natsume's Book of Friends

This show provides a interesting world, with many interesting side characters and is without doubt worth watching The Main character in his core is a good person so to say. Maybe a bit too much, i feel it makes the story somewhat dull. And the different seasons of the show follow a certain level of consistency, the problem is the way it's done. In fact the show doesn't feel like it progresses in any form. Main character doesn't get any stronger, and keeps getting his ass handed to him, and it is at a point where it gets frustrating to watch. The show also feedsyou this information that he has such a high "spiritual level" several times. Yet all he does is get knocked out, and show no interest in learning any ways to improve himself.

The show gives you his story and it's presented well, but beyond the flashbacks. He is a completely uninteresting main character. Now this could be due to the fact that the side characters are well done or that he simply doesn't increase in capability through much of the four season if any

It follows the same rules almost every episode which is one of either two:
Scenario 1: Cat runs away, main char gets his ass handed to him while cat is gone, then cat returns and helps.

Scenario 2: Person or "Spirit" asks him for help and he helps them. And during this he most probably gets his ass handed to him

The storytelling is done decently / well, even though i dont quite feel it is on the same level as Mushishi. even though i find that they are quite similar story wise. But it really boils down to the main character, i feel that this series could have improved vastly had they offered any feeling of change. Such as more information about the Book of Friends or perhaps something interesting about the remaining pages, or even increased strength of other spirits that may be a challenge.

What i liked about the series:

-Provides good storytelling with interesting characters involved
-Gives you a good possibility to immerse yourself in the story and world
-Not really any cliffhangers

What i disliked about the series:

-With the amount of other characters that can also see spirits it makes the main character much less interesting, as pretty much any of them are more capable
-The story does not really progress in any way and main character doesn't evolve, in strength or mentally.
-Most of the important information you learn about the story through the show is given to you by the first 5 episodes or so.

Notes of things that could be either good or bad:
-As far as the storytelling shows go, most of the episodes will be it's own story and have no further affect on the rest of the episodes

Summary:
Even though there are quite a few things that bother me with the show, i wouldn't consider it to be a bad one. I would say i recommend it if the storytelling perspective interests you. But if you're looking for something a bit more meaningful as far as progression goes, I doubt anyone will find it here.

Overall i think it's a decent show, and i recommend it but wish it could have been done differently