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REVIEW: Natsume's Book of Friends GN 9-11


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dtm42



Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 14084
Location: currently stalking my waifu
PostPosted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 1:32 am Reply with quote
Great review. I haven't read of any of the Manga but I am a huge fan of the Natsume Yuujinchou Anime. If I ever was to get into reading Manga then this is definitely one of the titles I would pick up straight away.
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poonk



Joined: 05 Jun 2008
Posts: 1490
Location: In the Library with Philip
PostPosted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 1:50 am Reply with quote
I started crying at work while reading volume 11. It's not the first time that's happened with this series either.
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ss-hikaru



Joined: 16 Nov 2010
Posts: 269
Location: Western Australia
PostPosted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 3:34 am Reply with quote
poonk wrote:
I started crying at work while reading volume 11. It's not the first time that's happened with this series either.


Same, I cry almost every volume. I have to make sure my book is far away from me so my tears don't fall onto the pages and ruin them Anime hyper This series is so bittersweet ^__^
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Keichitsu0305





PostPosted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 7:24 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
The theme of the book would have to be “loss,” but in the sense that you cannot grieve and move on from one until you have fully accepted that a loss has occurred. Some parts of the second story, three chapters about Natsume returning to his parents' home, are genuine tear-jerkers, but without leaving the reader feeling manipulated. If a single word was to be applied to this series as a whole and to these three books in general, “gentle” would probably be the best choice, as it guides you, but does not force you, in the emotional direction that it wants.


Rebecca has basically summed up the many reasons why I love Natsume's Book of Friends. Calm without being boring, subtle with humor, genuinely sad moments, and so many other positives that I could write paragraphs of how much I adore this series. I will admit though that character design isn't Yuki Midorikawa strength. At times, Takashi and Natori almost look like brothers. Anime hyper

I'm very grateful that Viz Media is releasing this wonderful manga (and that NIS America has the anime). I hope some of Midorikawa's other manga like The Scarlet Chair or Hotarubi no Mori E would be released too. [/url]
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shukero



Joined: 13 Feb 2012
Posts: 493
Location: Michigan
PostPosted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 7:50 pm Reply with quote
I absolutely LOVE this series. I just wish the anime as brought over so I could own it legally.
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dtm42



Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 14084
Location: currently stalking my waifu
PostPosted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 8:08 pm Reply with quote
Keichitsu0305 wrote:
At times, Takashi and Natori almost look like brothers. Anime hyper


I wonder if that is intentional. I don't know if it is, but it could well be. And it wouldn't be the first time that there would be an actual reason why two characters looked so similar. I mean, let us not forget spoiler[how Nyanko-sensei's human form looks like Reiko. Not because the author got lazy you understand, but because Reiko is the only human other than Takashi that Nyanko-sensei has ever been around for any length of time, so he looks like her when transformed.]

So yeah, there may well be a reason why Natori and Takashi look related; maybe they are.
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Keichitsu0305





PostPosted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 9:12 pm Reply with quote
dtm42 wrote:
Keichitsu0305 wrote:
At times, Takashi and Natori almost look like brothers. Anime hyper


I wonder if that is intentional. I don't know if it is, but it could well be. And it wouldn't be the first time that there would be an actual reason why two characters looked so similar....
So yeah, there may well be a reason why Natori and Takashi look related; maybe they are.


Hmm...
Maybe since spoiler[it turns out Takashi's Mom past away after giving birth to him. However, we don't really know what happened to his Dad. If he had connections to the Natori clan is unknown so far.]

That would be an interesting twist...

shukero wrote:
I absolutely LOVE this series. I just wish the anime was brought over so I could own it legally.


Your wish has already been granted! Very Happy
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shukero



Joined: 13 Feb 2012
Posts: 493
Location: Michigan
PostPosted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 9:24 pm Reply with quote
Keichitsu0305 wrote:


shukero wrote:
I absolutely LOVE this series. I just wish the anime was brought over so I could own it legally.


Your wish has already been granted! Very Happy


Awesome! Now for a release date!
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dragon695



Joined: 28 Nov 2008
Posts: 1377
Location: Clemson, SC
PostPosted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 7:43 am Reply with quote
dtm42 wrote:
Great review. I haven't read of any of the Manga but I am a huge fan of the Natsume Yuujinchou Anime. If I ever was to get into reading Manga then this is definitely one of the titles I would pick up straight away.

Both are very well made and I sometimes wonder why the anime was put in a late-night slot. I mean that implies they actually had to pay TV Tokyo to run the anime like it was some sort of infomercial. Does not compute.
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dtm42



Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 14084
Location: currently stalking my waifu
PostPosted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 3:53 pm Reply with quote
dragon695 wrote:
Both are very well made and I sometimes wonder why the anime was put in a late-night slot. I mean that implies they actually had to pay TV Tokyo to run the anime like it was some sort of infomercial. Does not compute.


Yeah but most Anime are in late-night timeslots. That Natsume Yuujinchou Shi is aired at 1:30am is perfectly normal.

Anime is just not big enough to support advertising, hence why the producers have to book in infomercial-type slots.

Anyway, the past three seasons of the Natsume Yuujinchou Shi Anime have all been rather profitable, so I don't think we have much to worry about here.
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sakurablossoms23



Joined: 20 Dec 2011
Posts: 7
PostPosted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 4:28 pm Reply with quote
Which do you guys prefer-the anime or manga?
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st_owly



Joined: 20 May 2008
Posts: 5234
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
PostPosted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 4:37 pm Reply with quote
sakurablossoms23 wrote:
Which do you guys prefer-the anime or manga?


Unusually for me, I prefer the anime over the manga (99 times of 100, I tend to prefer the original source material to its anime adaption.) The episodic nature of the series lends itself well to anime, and I do really like seeing the series in colour and I love the background music. It's such a perfect adaption that in my opinion that it's better than the manga. I think I'd like the manga better if I read it a chapter at a time in a magazine, but in a book of several chapters, it gets diluted a bit. Not to say the manga isn't good, but the anime just edges ahead of it to me.
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ringoiero360



Joined: 20 Oct 2007
Posts: 73
PostPosted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 8:17 pm Reply with quote
sakurablossoms23 wrote:
Which do you guys prefer-the anime or manga?

I love them both! There are some scenes that are better in the manga (especially since some arc episodes in the anime had pretty bad pacing), while the anime has some nice fillers and added content to episodes that were based on chapters that were short (i.e. ones that were based on omakes).
I wish they'd release a hardcover artbook of Midorikawa's art since I also agree about how nice her color artwork is. The fanbooks are only manga-sized and don't have much so i'd loved to see more of her art in a high quality large scale book.
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Aylinn



Joined: 18 Nov 2006
Posts: 1684
PostPosted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 4:54 am Reply with quote
sakurablossoms23 wrote:
Which do you guys prefer-the anime or manga?

I like both equally. The anime has colours and music that the manga, for obvious reasons, doesn't have. As for the plot, there are some differences, but they are not significant. However, I like more the way manga is done. The third season of anime focuses on Takashi's relationship with people and this season, the forth one, focuses on exorcists. In the manga it's much more mixed up, for instance: if one story has exorcists, it's unlikely that the next one will have exorcists as well. I think it happens only once, when a Natori arc is followed by the third Matoba arc. I like to have something different each time, so I prefer the manga in this regard.

Moreover, some things are added and some are changed, for example: in the anime Nanase is obsessed with Reiko while in the manga she is not, she is a far less prominent character who hasn't appeared for a very long time and Matoba is the one who takes interest in Takashi and Reiko. Apart form this, it's a faithful adaptation.

Like ringoiero360 I love them both, but for different reasons.
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tuxedocat



Joined: 14 Dec 2009
Posts: 2183
PostPosted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 2:03 pm Reply with quote
Great review as usual Rebecca!

I love both the anime and the manga. I will second the desire for a full color artbook.

The anime's greatest appeal for me would be Kazuhiko Innoue's hilarious portrayal of Nyanko-sensei. It really seems like he is having a blast playing this character. I can't even read the manga anymore without imagining his voice.
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