In my review of a previous volume I mentioned that my favourite stories are the ones featuring either Tanuma or Natori. This volume has a long (and absolutely) fantastic story featuring Tanuma, Natori and Natsume (and Nyanko-sensei, of course) and I kind of want to give it six stars. Or maybe seven.

I really loved it - it's another story about Natsume feeling that having friends - and having friends who know about yokai and get dragged into dangerous situations - means they could get hurt because of him. It's a familiar problem when it comes to his relationship with Tanuma, who *wants* to help him so desperately. And then you have Natori, who is older than them and pretty much has made his choices.

There is no simple answer to this problem, and I love the way it's dealt with here.

The only thing that saddens me right now is that I am almost caught up. At least I still have the anime to watch.

Natsume just gives me all the warm fuzzies!
I especially enjoyed the 2-part story in this volume. Tanuma is my favorite of Natsume's (human) friends, so it was fun to see more with him!

Holy FUCK, that last arc was DISTURBING. I keep forgetting that as heartwarming and fun this series can be, it's also not afraid to dive head first into creepy, spooky territory.

I really loved seeing Tanuma work so hard to save Natsume and learning about how much of a burden Natsume's refusal to confide to him about his troubles is. What I love about this series is that, to me, the core themes are learning to open and trust others, despite past experiences. But what makes shine is that Natsume's a sympathetic character, but isn't without fault. A lot of his problems could be solved by accepting help and opening up more to others, but instead he tries to shoulder the burden on his own, not realizing the impact it has on the people he loves. And yet, readers sympathize with Natsume and understand his struggles because we've spent so much time learning about his circumstances and upbringing. It's a balancing act, but is handled incredibly well and therefore makes for a great read.

It's amazing how I kind of want to take breaks between volumes so I can digest what I've read, but always end up jumping right into the next one. I truly love this series and can't wait to see what happens next.

Review TBA.

~3.5-4/5
[Also available on my blog.]


I love Natsume, as I’ve said before. He’s just so sweet and I love watching him grow. This series is so… understated, but in such a sweet, calm, almost serene way. It’s so good, and yet after every volume, I usually don’t have very much to say.

A couple volumes ago (the last one? the one before that?), Natsume took a trip and there was a lot of information and growing up from his past experiences, and I loved it. One of the reasons that this series seems to go by so slow, seems to move forward slowly, is that there are so many one shot chapters, which are not usually my favorite. I guess because I want more about Natsume, and I want to see him getting closer to his friends and the people around him, not learn about new yokai all the time. That doesn’t mean that the one shot chapters are bad, or slow (in fact, I know that it’s some people’s favorite part), it’s just not one of my favorites.

The first two chapters were one shots, where we met two new yokai who Natsume helps. They were both sad and sweet, one about a yokai who falls in love with a human, and another where an older yokai threatens Natsume but really just wants some affection, but I don’t want to ruin too much of it.

The other three chapters were a storyline in which Natsume gets trapped in a bottle, and then taken to some God welcoming ceremony that’s really just a trap for everyone, yokai included. There’s also a scene where Nyanko-Sensei transforms to look like Nastume, which is just funny because he’s so much more harsh and blunt and rude, and it’s just hilarious seeing him act like that with Natsume’s face. We also get to see Tanuma, who is just kind of a delight in how sweet he is and how much he wants to be there for Natsume if he’d let him, as well as Natori (the professional exorcist), who gets to meet Tanuma for the first time.

This series tends to go rather slowly, but it’s easy to grow attached to the characters, and then it always turns out to be a surprising little delight, whether you know you’re going to like the volume or not.

I already have the next volume, and am now very ready to read it.

What scarlettraces said! I like the Natsume-Tanuma friendship development, I like the little extra insight into Reiko, a half star off because yeah, the stories are getting to feel a wee bit repetitive. I still like the themes it returns to though! 4.5 stars

In the first part of the volume, a yokai tricks Natsume into letting him in - he wants Natsume to use the Book of Friends to summon a yokai named Karikami in order to restore a fragile old note. Natsume gradually learns that

Spoiler

the yokai had once loved a human woman. The man she loved left without telling her and married someone else. To keep her from being hurt, the yokai pretended to be the man for a while.

In the next part of the volume, Natsume meets an elderly former god who wants to return a mirror to a dangerous yokai

Spoiler

who, it turns out, was actually Reiko, Natsume's grandmother.

The volume ends with a story in which Natsume gets trapped in a jar by a yokai. Tanuma tries to save him and ends up in trouble, at risk of being eaten by yokai. He and Natori finally cross paths.

The first story was very bittersweet and part of an established pattern in this series, in which yokai have fond memories of humans they loved who have long since moved elsewhere or died. I couldn't help but wonder about the woman's part in this story, and what she thought about this strange event in her life.

The second story felt a little scattered - it was intertwined with a cup yokai and a dangerous yokai that could cause trouble for the Fujiwara household. Still, it was nice to see

Spoiler

Reiko again, even though it was yet another bittersweet moment in her life. The poor girl thought she'd finally found a human friend, and it turned out it was yet another yokai. I wonder if the series will ever touch on how she died, and who the father of her child was? I hope he was one of the rare humans she could trust, but I worry that he wasn't.

The third story hurt my heart. There was Tanuma, trying to help Natsume but worried that he was just making things worse. And Natsume, worried about Tanuma getting caught up in his messes - he still can't help his knee-jerk desire to keep his supernatural troubles from his friends. Natori is what Natsume might have been, if things had gone a little differently, and he knows it. He's jaded, but hopeful that Natsume can have the kind of life and relationships that he felt he had to cut himself off from.

Not as good as the previous volume, but still quite good.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)