#nbof

[natsumeweek]

Natsume Week Prompts Decided!

Hi everyone! We are super excited to announce the prompts for Natsume Week 2023, running from Monday the 3rd of July to Sunday the 9th in UTC+9 (Tokyo Time):

Monday 3rd July: Sun / Moon Tuesday 4th July: Keepsakes / New Meetings Wednesday 5th July: Kindness / Cruelty Thursday 6th July: Calling / Answering Friday 7th July: Healing / Forgiveness Saturday 8th July: Home / Travel (to your country*) Sunday 9th July: Handmade / Non-traditional Media**

*Only if you’re comfortable showing the characters travelling to your home country — otherwise, it’s up to your imagination.

**Crafting, knitting, scrapbooking, music, games, collage, mosaic, calligraphy — if you’re used to digital drawing, painting or writing, how about trying something new?

As always, interpret the prompts however you'd like and follow them as closely or loosely as you want! If you need a refresher on the rules they can be found here, or you can always send us an ask or message in the Natsume Week discord server.

We're looking forward to seeing your wonderful creations!

[bold-embrace]

Forgot your umbrella 🌧

[10-dutchies-12-bicycles]

im watching natsume's book of friends s1 AND ENCOUNTERED THIS GUY

THATS THE FUCKER FROM THE GIFS MY BELOVED MUTUAL REBLOGS

[justaregulardecoratedemergency]

i did not go into the natsuchou dub expecting the chuukyuu to be the stars of the show but i am in STITCHES

[quillmasblog]

A wip I may make into a full digital piece

[msperfectsheep-posts]

Natsume's Book of Friends Reaction Blog - Episode 1

(Below the cut as to not destroy my followers' feeds)

My pure unfiltered thoughts, in chronological order, for Episode 1:

[DISCLAIMER]

oh great we're starting off by calling women despicable--i see how it is, show /j

"just think of all the babes and bikinis you'll meet" what an odd sentence

ooh i love natsume's eyes

they're like a bronzey copper

"is everything okay with you? since you're, like, covered in dirt" "i'm good. anyway--" natsume my friend you were just running from something that called you a despicable woman

"what's weirder: the weather, or natsume" my man is running for his life don't bully him too

nevermind natsume is yokaiphobic. kill him girls

RIP bozo he didn't even make it to a shrine

well that was a short anime

ARE YOU DEADNAMING HIM?

HIS NAME IS NOT REIKO!!!

oh god we have an evil advisor yokai edition

everyone keeps misgendering my man natsume this is so sad

AND they're misogynistic towards him

unbelievable

my poor man

"lets tear out her tongue so she can't utter a word" MY MAN CAN'T EVEN SAY HIS PRONOUNS?

KICK TO THE EYEBALL RUN RUN RUN

oh god this kid has been seeing The Horrors

Takashi Natsume... we have his first name, folks

this poor fucking guy

he gets misgendered and misnamed several times

he gets slammed against a tree and probably breaks several ribs

he's threatened to have his tongue cut out

he has been seeing yokai since he was a kid and was labelled mentally ill and attention seeking for it

he just tripped over a giant rope and landed on said probably broken ribs

THE TRIP JUST UNLEASHED A DEMON

AND INSTEAD OF DOING ANYTHING HE JUST LOOKS IN FEAR AND SAYS "ah. here we go"

THAT CAT DEMON IS SO FAT??????

the smug fat cat demon: "are you not afraid?"

takashi, clearly dissociating: "i'm just used to it, that's all"

HIS NAME IS NOT REIKO!!!!!!!!!! LEAVE HIM ALONE!!!!!!!!!!!

my god the entire yokai world is trying to either deadname or convince him he's a transwoman named reiko

oh that makes more sense. his grandma is reiko. but now this just says more about reiko if her grandson looks practically identical to her???

"unlike humans, we do not concern ourselves with things as inconsequential as gender" based???????

DAMN THIS CAT DEMON REALLY DID JUST CALL HIM A LONELY BITCH

oop cat's gone

"i'm fit as a fiddle, honest!" (had all the experiences above)(takashi you are either Lying or very out of touch with what it means to be fit)

oh AND he's an orphan too

leave the cat in the wall

GIVING A CAT WATERMELON???

> calls it the book of friends

> is a roster of every yokai his grandmother took down in combat

AND THEIR NAMES BEING WRITTEN DOWN BOUND THE LOSERS TO HER FOR LIFE

BASED GRANNY

EVIL ADVISOR DUDE IS BACK

TAKASHI MY MAN HE JUST TRIED TO EAT YOU

oh wait he actually listened to me

the way takashi takes physical pain/damage is so concerning to me. he is constantly falling/running/getting squeezed to death and he just brushes it off afterwards but it isn't in a plot armor-feeling way. it's in a way where it feels like he's just not processing the pain and that's Worse

"and if i happen to die in the process, then so be it" TAKASHI PLEASE

CHOMP HIM

Super interesting first episode!!

Other thoughts now that the episode is done:

I love the animation--I'm by no means someone who can really tell good animation from bad animation because all animation is really cool in my opinion and it's hard for me to usually distinguish what's stylistic and what isn't, but NBoF's animation is so simple but pretty to me??? Like I love the way Takashi is drawn and how he's so deeply expressive with micro-expressions that are usually hard to make on anime faces without being super exaggerated. It has a cozy slice-of-life look but then it hits you with what i saw above and I'm like????? curious to see if it goes further with "Takashi Natsume experiences the horrors in a nice setting" or if it cools down and becomes much more chill with time. I'll have to see but I literally have NO clue

And because you specifically requested this, @versaphile! Hope you enjoy :)

[winepresswrath]

Natori's face after the Matoba name drop is so good. Also incredibly funny to me that Nanase knows, if not what's up, that something's up.

[ousama]

10 characters 10 media 10 tags, tagged by @pekingoperas

i  just did this like yesterday or something but you know what i can do it again. new guys. lets go im probably into at least 20 things. this is gonna be such a random grab bag ok

1. Rarity (mlp) 2. Grima (fea) 3. Warp (kaiba) 4. Miss Poggy (muppets) 5. Misa (dn) 6. Izzy (digimon) 7. Black Jack (...black jack) 8. Crona (se) 9. Masayoshi (samflam) 10. Natsume (nbof)

im not tagging people again but i just love an excuse to list funny dudes i like

[fangirleaconmigo]

re: comfort watch. No clue how you feel about anime, and its been awhile since I've seen it, but Natsume's Book of Friends is one for me. I've always loved "Slice of life, but with a supernatural twist" stories, and NBoF has scratched that itch for me. I just love how the series explores the nature of friendship, lonliness, complicated feelings surrounding a family member you never met but keep getting compared to, stuff like that. There's a lot of heartwarming moments in the series that will make you happy-sad cry if you ever decide to give it a watch.

Also, my favorite episode is from a later season when the protag gets kidnapped by a yokai and one of his human friends crashes the yokai-only party to rescue him. No powers, just a stolen disguise, iron-clad audacity, and quick wits.

I haven't watched a lot of anime but that sounds really really down my alley as far as themes. Thank you!! I'll add it to my watch list. (I keep a 'notes' list in my phone of stuff I want to watch) (also your blog name is amazing)

And thanks to everyone who suggested comfort watches. I'm feeling a lot better today, thankfully.

I ended up just watching the X-Files again, but I got a lot of ideas to add to my watch list from you.

[acewithapaintbrush]

Natsume Yuujinchou or Natsume's book of friends is my comfort anime. It is beautiful all around and I would die for Touko, ok?! It's an older piece I already uploaded on Instagram under my other username MelanieReload but Tumblr folks are so nice and supportive, I wanted to share here too. It's acrylic on canvas btw.

[pillowgraveyard]

Natsume Yuujinchou / 夏目友人帳

[natsumeweek]

If you’re just as hyped as we are (and we are SUPER hyped) about the new season announcement happening just before Natsume Week is set to begin, please come join us in the Natsume week discord server and general Natsume Yuujinchou server to chat with other fans about the announcement! We’d love to have you!

[bold-embrace]

🌺

[10-dutchies-12-bicycles]

i think madara should try shrooms. to spice things up in his life

[natcat5]

I really cannot recommend natsume’s book of friends enough....god it’s so formulaic it does the same thing over and over and yet somehow each little story is poignant enough to push me to tears! can’t watch a single episode of this thing without my eyes welling up! it’s so good for a nice show to watch over a period of time, take a few months, watch an episode a week, it’ll always be there to welcome you. it’s just such a good story. i love rediscovering it every few years. also the anime always has THE most emotional-hitting ending songs I don’t know how they do it

[boldembrace]

Time for that yearly natsume rewatch, redrew my favorite scene from the first episode