Natsume's Book of Friends, the hugely popular work now getting its seventh anime adaptation since 2008. The original manga, counting from its one-shot days, began back in 2003 and is still running as of 2025. Among shoujo manga, where works tend to wrap up relatively quickly, it's quite the long-lived series.

Hakusensha has many manga with a slightly different flavor compared to other shoujo manga, and Natsume's Book of Friends is one of its representative works. In shoujo manga, romance is the central pillar of many works first and foremost, but here romance elements are sparse, and heartwarming stories unfold as the main thread, which lets it draw in even readers like me, a middle-aged man. Compared to other shoujo manga, it has a wider entry point and thus a broader readership, which is probably why its popularity has lasted so long.

It's a story in which the protagonist, Natsume, is tossed about by the "Book of Friends" left behind by his grandmother, Reiko Natsume. But it features quite a lot of stories that work through relationships with the youkai, and it's a work that quietly moves you. Many of the stories are self-contained one-episode arcs, so it's not a case of "you can't keep up unless you've watched from the very first season," which is a welcome thing for viewers thinking of giving it a try from here.

Natsume's Book of Friends is set in the countryside. As a result, scenes set out in nature come up frequently in the anime. And each time, a lovely score perfectly suited to the scene plays.

For example, in Episode 3, "Tokakanya," the loneliness of wandering through unfamiliar places is expressed through chord work and melodic riffs, while at the same time a strange sense of comfort—the flowers you spot, the beautiful trees, and the people who live and breathe there—is expressed through the timbre of a bell-like instrument. Also in Episode 3, in the scene explaining how, while placing a scarecrow in a field, one unknowingly uses a forbidden technique, the score is a beautiful flute melody, playing a riff that goes back and forth again and again as if repeating two notes. In this way, I feel that "Natsume's Book of Friends Season 7" has many pieces that express seemingly contradictory things through music. They're really addictive, or rather, they leave you not knowing whether you're feeling at ease or uneasy—just pieces packed full of a strange, mysterious charm, and that grapples right alongside the world of Natsume's Book of Friends. To express the world the original author wanted to depict so vividly through music is truly a divine feat. Pieces that conjure a quintessentially Japanese rural landscape in your mind's eye through notes alone, with no visuals needed, are another charm of the Natsume's Book of Friends score.

The Composer Is That Familiar Face!

Now, the composer of this work's score is, of course, the pianist Makoto Yoshimori. Having handled the score for every Natsume's Book of Friends from the very first season through the films, maybe that's exactly why it keeps getting better and better with each installment.

The Natsume's Book of Friends score Yoshimori writes isn't the kind that crams in tons of sound like the recent score trends; rather, its leisurely atmosphere, where you sense emotion even within the rests, is so pleasant to listen to. The flowing music's gentleness lets you feel the kindness of the protagonist, Natsume, and its somehow fleeting notes let you feel the relationship between youkai and humans. It's built in such a way that I'd even go so far as to say you can't talk about Natsume's Book of Friends without this music.

I think the proper form and charm of a score—one that further heightens the mysterious appeal of the original—is packed right here.

Quoted from the official site https://x.com/natsumeyujincho