Natsume Yūjin Chō

Natsume's Book of Friends
Cover of Natsume's Book of Friends volume 1 as published by Hakusensha
夏目友人帳 (Natsume Yūjin-chō)
Genre	Supernatural, Drama, Comedy
Manga
Written by	Yuki Midorikawa
Published by	Hakusensha
English publisher	NA Viz Media
Demographic	Shōjo
Magazine	LaLa DX, LaLa
Original run	2005 – present
Volumes	21
Anime television series
Directed by	Takahiro Omori Kotomi Deai (seasons 5-6)
Written by	Sadayuki Murai
Music by	Makoto Yoshimori
Studio	Brain's Base (seasons 1-4) Shuka (seasons 5-6)
Licensed by	NA NIS America
Original network	TV Tokyo
Original run	July 7, 2008 – June 21, 2017
Episodes	74 (List of episodes)
Original video animation
Directed by	Takahiro Omori
Written by	Sadayuki Murai
Music by	Makoto Yoshimori
Studio	Brain's Base
Released	December 15, 2013 – April 26, 2017
Runtime	22 minutes (OVA 1) 23 minutes (OVA 2)
Episodes	4 (List of episodes)

Natsume's Book of Friends (Japanese: 夏目友人帳, Hepburn: Natsume Yūjin-chō) is a Japanese fantasy manga series by Yuki Midorikawa. It began serialization by Hakusensha in the shōjo manga magazine LaLa DX in 2005, before switching to LaLa in 2008. The chapters have been collected in twenty-one bound volumes. The series is about Natsume, an orphaned teenage boy who can see spirits, who inherits from his grandmother the notebook she used to bind spirits under her control. Natsume's Book of Friends was a finalist for the first Manga Taishō award in 2008.

Natsume's Book of Friends has been adapted as a series of drama CDs, as well as an anime television series produced by Brain's Base, which was broadcast on TV Tokyo in 4 seasons in 2008, 2009, 2011, and 2012. The manga is licensed for English-language release in North America by Viz Media, which released the first volume in January 2010. All four seasons of the anime have been licensed by NIS America for a North American release in 2012. A fifth season began airing on October 4, 2016. A sixth season began airing on April 11, 2017.

For as long as he can remember, Takashi Natsume has had the ability to see spirits, inheriting the power from his grandmother Reiko Natsume. This ability resulted in his having a lonely childhood because children his age considered him strange. He had also been passed from one relative to another. Upon her death, Reiko bequeathed to her grandson her Book of Friends, a book containing the names of spirits she had bullied into servitude.