The BEST episodes of Natsume's Book of Friends

Every episode of Natsume's Book of Friends ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Natsume's Book of Friends!

Natsume Takashi has the ability to see spirits, which he has long kept secret. However, once he inherits a strange book that belonged to his deceased grandmother, Reiko, he discovers the reason why spirits surround him. Containing the names of these spirits, a binding contract was formed between the spirits and the owner of the book. Now, Natsume is determined to free the spirits and dissolve the contracts. With the help of a spirit cat, his days are filled trying to return the names to these spirits.

Last Updated: 2/3/2024Network: TV TokyoStatus: Ended
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Young Days
star
9.45
58 votes

#1 - Young Days

Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired 7/26/2011

Midterms are over, and Natsume leaves on a trip with Nishimura, Kitamoto, and Sasada. He realizes that the scenery he's viewing from the train is from one of the places he grew up in, when he was passed around from one family to the next. He'd thought he didn't have any good memories of the time, but then he remembers what happened when he lived there...

Directors: Takahiro Omori
Watch Now:Amazon
Touko and Shigeru
star
9.39
56 votes

#2 - Touko and Shigeru

Season 5 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/14/2016

Touko and Shigeru are the kind elderly couple who took in Natsume when no one else would. But what were they like before they let Natsume move in?

Watch Now:Amazon
A Place to Go Home To
star
9.39
54 votes

#3 - A Place to Go Home To

Season 3 - Episode 12 - Aired 9/20/2011

A youkai from Natsume past has found him and memories of living with relatives before the Fujiwaras are explored.

Directors: Takahiro Omori
Watch Now:Amazon
The Stolen Book of Friends
star
9.35
86 votes

#4 - The Stolen Book of Friends

Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/5/2009

While outside during school Natsume is hit with a ball while reading. He goes to retrieve the ball and ends up breaking a Youkai's seal (much like he had with Nyanko-sensei). Later that night Natsume and Nyanko-sensei discover a look-a-like of Nyanko, only to have him steal the Book Of Friends!

Directors: Takahiro Omori
Watch Now:Amazon
Melting into Spring
star
9.33
83 votes

#5 - Melting into Spring

Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/12/2009

While fooling around in the snow, Natsume and Nyanko-sensei run in to Gen, a forest guardian who lives inside a statue. Gen tries to take over Natsume's body, but instead takes over a snow rabbit that Natsume had made. Gen pleads Natsume to help him find an evil spirit who destroyed Sui, his guardian partner, and Natsume agrees. But it seems Gen isn't telling everything he should...

Directors: Takahiro Omori
Watch Now:Amazon
The Days Eater
star
9.31
52 votes

#6 - The Days Eater

Season 6 - Episode 1 - Aired 4/12/2017

Natsume helps a youkai out of a pot, and as a "reward", is made young again. But Natsume is already young, and making him younger just confuses him and addles his memories. When he doesn't know who to trust, will he have the strength to know who his real friends are?

Watch Now:Amazon
Natsume's Book of Play
star
9.24
55 votes

#7 - Natsume's Book of Play

Season 3 - Episode 13 - Aired 9/27/2011

The youkai hold a party to celebrate Natsume. Things get out of hand when they ask Natsume for a human game, and he suggests Shadow Tag. When Nyanko-sensei becomes "it", he starts stomping youkai left and right. And then Misuzu-sama, the 100 foot tall youkai, shows up...

Directors: Takahiro Omori
Watch Now:Amazon
Long Way Home
star
9.23
57 votes

#8 - Long Way Home

Season 4 - Episode 13 - Aired 3/27/2012

Natsume is possessed by a spirit. Obsessed with returning home, he remembers the events that occured just after his father's death.

Directors: Takahiro Omori
Watch Now:Amazon
Other Side of the Glass
star
9.22
51 votes

#9 - Other Side of the Glass

Season 4 - Episode 6 - Aired 2/7/2012

Natsume overhears whispers that a powerful youkai is reviving, later that evening he is trapped in a bottle as an offering. Humans can’t see or hear him, so Nyanko-sensei decides to help the “best” way he can…

Directors: Takahiro Omori
Watch Now:Amazon
The Fox Child's Watch
star
9.21
53 votes

#10 - The Fox Child's Watch

Season 3 - Episode 8 - Aired 8/23/2011

Natsume is invited to go to a pottery classroom with Shigeru. It's being held in an inn where he once stayed. When he goes there, he meets an old friend: the young fox child he once saved.

Directors: Takahiro Omori
Watch Now:Amazon
It Must Not Be Bound
star
9.20
55 votes

#11 - It Must Not Be Bound

Season 5 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/2/2016

Natsume's friend Taki lives in a house filled with traps and mazes for youkai. She can't see the youkai herself without the aid of a special circle, but she can hear them when they're trapped in her house. She saves one of them, but it refuses to leave her home. Natsume suspects that there may be danger involved, and visits her to make sure that everything is okay.

Watch Now:Amazon
Stand-In
star
9.19
52 votes

#12 - Stand-In

Season 4 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/24/2012

Natsume is at home early one evening when he hears a knock on the door. He sees Tohko outside, asking to be let in. But when he opens the door, there's nobody there, and a gust of wind rushes past. Another Youkai is after the book of friends!

Directors: Takahiro Omori
Watch Now:Amazon
Tree of Promise
star
9.18
55 votes

#13 - Tree of Promise

Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 2/2/2009

Natsume encounters a spirit who was enslaved by his grandmother Reiko 50 years ago by writing his name on a torn page from the Book of Friends, and tying it to a tree in a forest. Can Natsume help locate the torn page? What was Reiko's intention of tying it to a tree?

Directors: Takahiro Omori
Watch Now:Amazon
Temporary Home
star
9.17
54 votes

#14 - Temporary Home

Season 2 - Episode 10 - Aired 3/10/2009

Mysterious footprints and markings are left on the gate of the Fujiwara house. Strange things start going on inside the house and Shigeru verifies with Natsume that the cause of this activity involves the husband and wife who used to live there. And so Shigeru tells story of those two but in a unusually childlike manner...

Directors: Takahiro Omori
Watch Now:Amazon
A Day That Will Someday Come
star
9.16
55 votes

#15 - A Day That Will Someday Come

Season 6 - Episode 8 - Aired 5/31/2017

Natsume is on his way home when he finds a letter on the ground. The letter seems to belong to a nearby man, who asks Natsume to take him to his school. The man is actually a youkai, who was once deeply involved with a human girl. He cut the relationship off, but the girl isn't ready to give up...

Watch Now:Amazon
The Bound Ones
star
9.16
49 votes

#16 - The Bound Ones

Season 6 - Episode 5 - Aired 5/10/2017

Natsume finds that Tsukiko's home is haunted by not one, but three separate youkai, each with its own motivations. One wants to protect Tsukiko's father, and the other two... Natori wants to exorcise them and protect Tsukiko, but Natsume wants to find some way to protect them. Is there a peaceful solution?

Watch Now:Amazon
To You, From Bygone Days
star
9.15
52 votes

#17 - To You, From Bygone Days

Season 4 - Episode 5 - Aired 1/31/2012

An old classmate Yuriko, remembers her time watching Natsume and how he was a little weird. A clingbug from Natsume’s past reminds him of the time he spent running from a youkai with a grudge.

Directors: Takahiro Omori
Watch Now:Amazon
Humans and Youkai
star
9.15
55 votes

#18 - Humans and Youkai

Season 2 - Episode 13 - Aired 3/31/2009

Why don't you decide already? Which is more important to you? When Natsume finds out what Kai really is, that is what Natori asks him.

Directors: Takahiro Omori
Watch Now:Amazon
Mischievous Rain
star
9.14
58 votes

#19 - Mischievous Rain

Season 5 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/12/2016

On a rainy day, Natsume meets a young girl youkai. Her name isn't in the book of friends, but she wants his help anyway: she wants him to find a man she met once. The man couldn't see Youkai normally, but a mischievous trick of the weather let him see her for just one day. For the next fifty years she visited him, hoping he'd see her one more time, but he never did. Now he's vanished. Can Natsume find him for her?

Watch Now:Amazon
What Matters
star
9.14
51 votes

#20 - What Matters

Season 6 - Episode 11 - Aired 6/21/2017

Natori's group searches the Hakozaki mansion for the study. But other forces want the powerful magics contained within, and Natsume doesn't want them to have it...

Watch Now:Amazon
That Which Is Not Human
star
9.14
51 votes

#21 - That Which Is Not Human

Season 3 - Episode 6 - Aired 8/9/2011

There is something killing Youkai and draining them of their blood. Natsume can’t help but investigate and runs into old friends.

Directors: Takahiro Omori
Watch Now:Amazon
False Friend
star
9.12
50 votes

#22 - False Friend

Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 7/19/2011

Natsume is approached by someone he knew from elementary school. He wants nothing to do with them, but they threaten to reveal his secret: that he can see Youkai, if he doesn't come along with them. He reluctantly goes with them, and is taken to meet a strange girl...

Directors: Takahiro Omori
Watch Now:Amazon
It Blooms Tomorrow
star
9.12
51 votes

#23 - It Blooms Tomorrow

Season 6 - Episode 2 - Aired 4/19/2017

Natsume's town is visited by a stonewasher: a powerful magical being capable of purifying tainted rocks. The stonewasher is looking for its lost student, and turns to Natsume for help.

Watch Now:Amazon
The Little Fox's Hat
star
9.12
69 votes

#24 - The Little Fox's Hat

Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 8/18/2008

Natsume goes to a hot spring for a school trip, with an errand from Shigeru to pick up Teacups from a near by pottery. While there he meets and helps a little fox spirit, who quickly grows attached to him.

Directors: Takahiro Omori
Watch Now:Amazon
A Chick Hatches
star
9.11
54 votes

#25 - A Chick Hatches

Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/26/2009

Natsume takes care of an abandoned egg from a nest, not considering it could be a Youkai. After it hatches, it turns out it is a rare baby spirit called Tatsumi, who thinks that Natsume is its parent. Natsume can't help but get attached to the little spirit even as Tatsumi grows tired and sick. But as Natsume takes care of Tatsumi, a mysterious spirit comes and wants to take away Tatsumi for his master... who wants to eat him!

Directors: Takahiro Omori
Watch Now:Amazon