Natsume Yuujinchou: Natsume's Book of Friends - a Review

I just browsed through Hikikomori and I saw the list of upcoming anime this Summer 2011. I thought might be too busy to watch all of them, but I'm particularly happy to see the third season of Natsume Yuujinchou  will be aired. 


Natsume Yuujinchou is not your massive-action anime, though it has the taste of action in it. This anime is about Natsume Takashi and his adventure of releasing the contracted spirits inside a book created by his grandmother, Natsume Reiko. Different from Reiko, who bullied and sealed the spirits inside the book, Takashi (let's call him Natsume from now on) was busy dissolving the contracts and thus freeing the spirits from the book. Originally, Natsume was seen as a weird, awkward boy who has no friend due to his ability of seeing spirits, which made him freaked out at random times and that made his classmates took a distance from him because they thought he was insane. Upon meeting with Madara, a spirit of (I'm not sure?) giant fox which assume a form of a fat cat when he's not fighting other spirit, Natsume learnt of the book created by Reiko. And he started his adventure as a freedom-giver to those spirits, as well as providing help to them and making new friends.


Personal note: rather than an action-supernatural anime, I would say that this anime is more to heart-warming series of events. I liked how this anime paced up steadily, although few of initial episodes were a bit slow, but it certainly add the warmth in the whole story. Sometimes, the help that Natsume and Madara provides for the spirits were really touching. Despite being spirits, they actually formed bonds with humans who could see them. Some were friendships, some were love, and those spirits patiently sit in silence when humans started to drift away from them. And of course, I was glad that Natsume wasn't trapped in stereotypical plot. We've seen many plots which describe the main character ending up hating their fellow humans because they were treated bad in the past. But Natsume was different. Indeed he made friends with the spirits that he freed, initially, but later on, human friends also come one by one to his life, and he welcomed them in his calm and warm way. This anime, solemn and heart-warming as it is, silently provide a revolutionary idea of accepting new things (and friends) happily without being burdened by one's past. A highly recommended anime for tired souls (I've tried it, you have my words!).