Natsume’s Book of Friends

Takashi Natsume was able to see things called yokai (monsters) since he was a child, and because of this he was shunned by those around him. One day, while he is being chased by a yokai and takes refuge in a shrine, he meets a yokai in the form of a beckoning cat.
From this yokai named “Madara,” he hears that the yokai mistake Natsume for his grandmother Reiko, and that they want their names back. Among Reiko’s belongings was a book called “Book of Friends,” which Reiko, who could also see yokai like Natsume, had written the names of yokai as proof that she had made them her slaves out of loneliness because she was shunned by humans.
Natsume inherits his grandmother Reiko’s legacy, the “Book of Friends,” and spends his days returning the names of the yokai (monsters) tied to it, together with his “bodyguard,” Nyanko Sensei

(“Madara“).

As he begins to seek his own path through his interactions with yokai and the people involved with them, Natsume, with the help of friends who share his thoughts, tries to find a way to safeguard his precious days.

A long-running series set in the scenic Hitoyoshi and Kuma regions of Kumamoto Prefecture.