NATSUME YUUJINCHOU SHICHI

DESCRIPTION

CAST

ANIME DramaNatsume Yuujinchou Roku
MANGA DramaNatsume Yuujinchou
SPECIAL DramaNatsume Yuujinchou Shichi Special

REVIEWS

• 

  asphodelic

  50/100
  Consistency & Stagnation

  [There is no such thing as an objective review. Interpretations and opinions of all forms of art and expression are subjective.]

  Natsume Yuujinchou’s anime adaptation launched in July 2008. Over the course of the last sixteen years, the story has had seven full seasons and two OVAs. A lot can change for the author, the story, and the audience in that time. Yet Natsume Yuujinchou hasn’t changed much. It’s still sincere. It’s still beautiful. It’s still consistent. It’s a story so comfortable with itself that it’s completely and utterly stagnant. This latest installment rejects change, ignores character development, and barely dips its fingers into deeper emotional waters.

  Few anime are blessed enough to receive seven seasons, especially episodic stories. It's a testament to Natsume Yuujinchou's timelessness and quality of its work. But for a slice of life/supernatural narrative that’s this long running, I start to wonder: How is Natsume still in high school? He hasn’t celebrated a single birthday? How does he never get sick? Why do I feel like I know so little about him? How does the titular Book of Friends still have so many pages left, and why does it look thicker now than when the show began? Since it seems to have an infinite amount of pages, the only semblance of an overarching plot lies with the sole antagonist, Matoba. At this point, he’s the only character who challenges Natsume in any capacity. But even his story has no clear trajectory. If an episodic story doesn’t have an overarching external conflict to tie everything together, then I would hope it has a really strong internal conflict and/or character development for the protagonist. On both accounts, Natsume is left empty. More often than not, he feels like a spectator in other people's stories.

  By now, those who are still following Natsume Yuujinchou are the most devoted fans. I wouldn’t have watched this season if I didn’t have any fondness for it left, and wouldn’t have written this if I didn’t love this anime and what it has to offer. Natsume Yuujinchou is a small scale, well-intentioned story with a lot of heart—all things that have defined it since its beginning, and remain to this day. It’s reliable and easy to seek solace in because its consistency and predictability are a comfort. “Don’t fix what’s not broken,” after all. But if nothing changes, then a story and its characters are doomed to be little more than broken records.

  I find it incredibly ironic that the poster for Natsume Yuujinchou Shichi features autumnal leaves when, both in universe and figuratively, this seventh season has chosen to keep its summer skin. However, just because Natsume Yuujinchou is determined to remain evergreen, doesn’t mean it can’t at least try to grow.

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• 

  terrascura

  100/100
  There’s a quiet kind of magic in this series — a precious kind of calmness that feels like a sanctuary for the soul.

  There’s a quiet kind of magic in this series — not the kind that dazzles, but the kind that lingers. The kind that drifts through you like sunlight through leaves, soft and slow, almost unnoticeable until you realize how deeply it's warmed you. Finishing this season feels like closing the pages of a well-worn journal — one filled with faded photographs, lingering smiles, and memories written in a language only the heart can read.

  

  What moves the me most about Natsume Yuujinchou is its devotion to the unseen and the unspoken. The loneliness we carry in silence. The weight of memories that outlive their tellers. The grace in small kindnesses, and the invisible threads that bind us — human and youkai alike. It never reaches for grandeur or spectacle, but instead offers quiet revelations, heart-warming moments, sweet melancholy, carried in shared glances, hesitant words, and unspoken understanding and resonance. And somehow, those moments feel so much bigger than any dramatic twist ever could.

  Season 7 may be one of my favorite seasons yet — perhaps right beside Season 4. It held some of the most tender, reflective moments in the series so far. There’s a subtle but powerful deepening of Natsume’s relationships here: with the Fujiwaras, with Nyanko-sensei, with his friends… and especially with himself. The emotional resonance of certain stories — particularly one of the flashbacks about Reiko and the origin of the Book of Friends — caught me off guard and left me blinking back tears as the credits rolled. That moment will stay with me.

  

  And though the pacing is as gentle as ever — a slow burn, even by Natsume’s standards — there’s a rare and precious beauty in that calmness. It’s a kind of stillness that feels like a sanctuary for the soul, a quiet harbor in a world that rarely slows down. This show has a rhythm all its own, and if you let yourself fall into it, you find something healing there. Something true.

  It’s been a source of quiet comfort and reflection, reminding me that kindness matters, that we're all carrying invisible stories, and that even fleeting connections can leave lasting warmth, that there is brilliance in simplicity and small moments. I'm grateful for this gentle reminder of the beauty of the impermanence and imperfections of life.

  This is a series I’ll always come back to. Not for action or plot twists, but for soulfulness. For that sense of gentleness and bittersweet humanity that’s so hard to find elsewhere. It’s a story that holds a very dear place in my heart — and always will.

  Until next time. 💖

  
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• ANIME

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