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 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. The chapters and special chapters have been collected in 31 tankōbon volumes as of September 2024. The manga is licensed for English-language 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 that his late maternal grandmother, Reiko, an exorcist who possessed strong spiritual powers, used to bind dozens of powerful demonic spirits, both good and evil (known as either ayakashi or yōkai), that she defeated to follow her very whim and desire if called upon. Takashi resolves to give back all the names in the age-old notebook, Book of Friends, and in the process joins forces with another feline/wolf-like spirit called Madara (nicknamed "Nyanko-sensei" in his borrowed lucky cat-like form), 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 agreed to protect Takashi from the nefarious spirits who want to harm him for being the grandson of Reiko, who died in her young adult years decades prior to the story.

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 and 2017; a seventh season is set to premiere in 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.