6 Things Natsume Taught Me About Friendship | Natsume’s Week

6 Things Natsume Taught Me About Friendship | Natsume’s Week

Hello everyone and welcome to our place! 😀

Today I bring you something very special to me! Scott had this idea of doing this awesome collab where 6 lovers of Natsume’s Book of Friends join together and look (and write) about it in their own perspective and theme. Well, when I saw his tweet I just had to make part of it! So, thank you so much, Scott, for creating this awesome collab and for giving the chance to come along. Here’s what these awesome people have to talk about Natsume:

  • Monday: Scott did a brilliant job talking about pacifism, while at the same time giving more or less a review of the show.
  • Tuesday: Keiko wrote a lovely piece about meetings, taking focus on one of the most important meetings for Natsume’s growth.
  • Wednesday: Karandi took the floor and wrote about how the Anime tackles loneliness… Expect some references here at this post 😛
  • Thursday: Irina wrote a piece about responsibility. It’s a great piece that shows that we do not need to see responsibility a something bad, but a very good one.
  • Friday: That’s today, so read the post 😛
  • Saturday: Time for Neha take the floor! I just say that she is going to talk about the Japanese Buddhism part of the series, which seems really interesting!

Now, at my side, we will be talking about friendship. As you can already see, it contrasts Karandi’s post about. While she talks about Natsume’s path of loneliness which occur in the first few seasons, I’m looking into a more late stage where he already has a bunch of true friendships.

See that I say true friendships, not just friendships, which is something completely different. A true friendship is that kind of friendship where both parties would take a bullet for each other if needed. To be honest, I would say I have 4 friendships (more if I count with my online buddies!) like that, which to be honest it’s a lot and I’m so fortunate to have met these people.

However, since Natsume has a path of loneliness to overcome as you could read from Karandi’s post and the Anime is about a coming of age as so well Irina spoke into her own post, Natsume had to actually learn how to bring his acquaintances’ relationships to another level. Although in a subtle way, we all can also learn a lot from Natsume’s path. This way, I decided to do a 6 things Natsume’s Book of Friends teach us about true friendship. I mean, we ARE 6, and it IS 6 days, so I just thought it would fit the best with 6 xD

1. True Friends Do Not Always Agree With You

It’s not always fun and games

It would be amazing that we were always right. However, we are not! And, actually, we need people in our lives that will tell just that even if that means to have an argument with you. That’s what true friends do, they will give their own advice and won’t be afraid to tell you no if needed.

You can see a lot of this from Nyanko-sensei. Although their relationship does not start as a friendship or anything near to that, they end up developing a deep and true friendship along the way. Nevertheless, Nyanko-Sensei won’t be the kind of friend that will tell Natsume that is right or just put their own thoughts to himself, no. In fact, Nyanko will go against what Natsume is going to go. He does this to protect Natsume and help him with the best of his abilities. Even though Natsume almost never does what Nyanko-sensei says lol

2. True Friends Will Not Go Away Even If You Go Against Their Advice and Do Some Mistake

Madara to the rescue!

“I told you so!”… Those are 4 words that many people love to say. This doesn’t come from a place of friendship or caring. These 4 words come from a place of wanting to be right, even if it will put the other person even sadder than already is.

As I said, Natsume goes against Nyanko’s advice many times. However, contrary to what you would expect, Nyanko always go there to help him and save him if needed. And, that’s what a true friend does. Even if you go against their own word and mess things up, they will be there no matter what to take the pieces and help you come back together again.

3. True Friends Accept You As You Are

As Karandi talked in her post, Natsume’s loneliness comes from seeing Yokai, which made most people to not approach him. When it becomes older and becomes doing some bonding with others, he is terrified to let others know that he is able to see Yokai, afraid that he will become alone again.

However, this time, he was able to meet people (and yokai) that actually care and like him, which means that they won’t go away after knowing this secret. And, that’s what true friends do! Everyone has their own skeletons in the closet, everyone has their good and bad sides. True friends will stay no matter what and will help you regardless.

4. True Friends Do Not Have Walls to Each Other

Almost everyone has their own walls! Life is difficult and it will throw you things that you may not want to share with others. It may be because it’s too difficult to talk about, or it may be something that you are ashamed of. However, if you want a deep connection with someone, you need to push those walls down and let these people enter.

This is the one that Natsume had the most difficult part in doing. Again, because is afraid of letting others know that he sees Yokai and end up alone again. However, Tanuma is the first human to know his deepest secret and guess what, he stays regardless. This shows how much Tanuma cares about Natsume and shows how a true friend should react with something like this.

On the other side, Natsume had to learn to lower his walls for him and actually let him enter inside his world. This was not something easy for him to do, not because he was afraid at this point, but because he also cares about Tanuma deeply and does not want to put him at risk. However, the only way for this friendship to come to the next level was by Natsume welcoming Tanuma to his own crazy world.

5. True Friends Care About Each Other Deeply

True friends will not wait for you to ask for help. They will be the first ones coming to you and ask if there is anything that they may help you. I’ll give you an example: When I talked about me trying to get a new job there were a few companions here on WordPress that DM me asking if everything was alright and if I needed something. Not in a million years I thought they would care me so deeply. That day I knew these people were my true friends and I will cherish them with all my might.

And this is something that you can see many times along the series. Natsume cares deeply for everyone who he is able to meet. However, every single person and Yokai that he was able to meet and befriend also care deeply for him. While Natsume tries to protect his humans’ friends by not letting them enter in contact with Yokai, on the other hand, they try to enter this world so they can help in any kind of way they can. When it comes to Yokai, we can see there are many yokai that will jump and fight for Natsume so they can protect him. This is only possible because they all care deeply for each other.

6. True Friends Are The Family You Choose

To me this is family

When you are born you have a family. There is no way to know if you will actually like them or not. In fact, there are many things that can happen that your family will not really be the ones that should be your family. You can get lucky, or not… You can’t actually choose your family.

However, when it comes to friends, it’s completely different. These are people that you choose to befriend, that you choose to lower your barriers and people you choose to actually have one of the deepest bonds you could have. It’s kind of mind-blowing if you think about that.

In Natsume, you can see this. By the end of the last season aired, Natsume has, in fact, 3 families. His own adoptive parents (which are the freaking best parents in Anime history). But, he also has his yokai and human friends family.

It may sound strange, but that’s what I can see. Every each of one cares deeply for each other and accept each other and would take a bullet for each other… Isn’t that what a family is supposed to be?

I can say that I treat my biggest friends as family. Especially, I even call my best friend sister. Yes, the bonding may not be so strong as someone I picked to be my partner in life. However, I’m pretty sure if something goes wrong that even not my boyfriend can handle it, she will be there with open arms. A family is supposed to be your safety nest, which for me is a synonym to true friendship.

I know this is not as brilliantly written as other people have written so far. But, well, this is the best I could think of, so I hope you liked it! Tell me in the comments what Natsume taught you when it comes to friendship and, also, don’t forget to read all others brilliant pieces:

See You Soon! 🙂 image found here

23 thoughts on “6 Things Natsume Taught Me About Friendship | Natsume’s Week

  1. This post is really good too. It contrasts with other themes that others wrote about but that’s what makes it great! I really loved that you included Tanuma so much since I sincerely think he’s up there with Madara/Sensei in importance. Where Madara is Natsume’s first true friend in the yokai world, Tanuma is the first true friend in the human world. I mean, I love Taiki and his other school friends but they still don’t know his deepest secret quite yet. They are his human friend-family

    Really great thoughts, thank you for writing!!

    1. Thank you so much for the kind comment! 🙂

      To be honest, Tanuma just came to me naturally. When I think about friendship and Natsume those 2 always appear together in my mind ahah

  2. This was a lovely post and I really enjoyed reading it. I’m going to echo the previous comment a bit and say I love that Tanuma got quite the feature here as well as Nyanko. I love Tanuma’s character but I couldn’t really work him into my post so I’m really happy to see him get some love here.
    For me, I think Natsume teaches me, or at least reminds me, that all relationships are hard work. They come with baggage and strings attached and all kind of obligations. But, some of them at least are worth it. When you find those people who will, as you put it take a bullet for you, none of those things matter. So even though it might take awhile it is important to keep trying to connect with others. That’s kind of the hope I take from Natsume.

    1. Thank you so much for the kind comment Karandi ^^

      Yeah, Tanuma just came naturally while writing this piece ahah

      That’s also a great take on it and Natsume actually shows that a lot, and not only on the Natsume’s baggage side 😛

      And yes, I also think it is important to keep trying making new connections! 🙂 I think that sometimes, with all the hard work and how busy we are, we end up forgetting that part a little bit :/

  3. What a beautiful post on friendship! Tanuma doesn’t get enough love so I was glad to see him here! ? The last point you made is my favourite and made me think of my own friends though all your points were great! ?

  4. “Not as broodingly brilliantly written post?” Are you kidding me? This is wonderful. I’m glad you talked more about Nyanko Sensei and Tanuma. And all these aspects are completely true about friendship in this anime and real life.

    Thank you for taking part! ?

    1. ahahah it’s just because you all did a brilliant job in “marrying” Natsume passages with your themes while what I did was just a list ahah

      Thank you for creating this awesome collab eheh

  5. Awww… This post is so cute!! I have yet to watch Natsume…. Yes, I know… Shameful. But, I’ve been hearing amazing things from so many anime blogs that I follow! This was really the clincher!! ??

  6. And the trend of absolutely wonderful Natsume posts continures! Great job Arthifis, you brought me back to one of the very first things that made me love this series so much!

  7. You should really stop not giving yourself enough credits (yep….I’m directly picking number 1: True friends do not always agree with you?). ” This post is not as brilliantly written as other people have written so far”. That had better have been a joke. You have amazing skills as a writer….and you should really have that faith in yourself you know? This post was terrific, and it captured perfectly the essence of why no one can be without friends. I loved reading it, and just like Karandi’s post it struck a chord in me. So…all I can say is: keep writing like this! Wonderful post, but I guess I hopefully made that clear already ?

  8. This post is so excellent!! Friendship is one of my top three favourite themes from the anime and I think you did such a superb job here. I also just love the message of different kinds of friendships in this series, and as you’ve wonderfully stated, how friends are family we choose. Loved reading this!! ??

  9. Hi! Just saw this post you did about Natsume’s Book of Friends. I really love Natsume’s Book of Friends (its one of my Top 3) because of how the story was set up and the character development. Natsume always has deep meaning or points in each chapter and episode that makes the series interesting and I really like how you you brought up one of them.

    I am a beginner blogger too and I wanted to write something about Natusme, so this post also helped me gain some idea/inspiration too!

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