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Reviewed by Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane Natsume's Book of Friends is just the first of several new titles VIZ has coming out this year that I've been anticipating entirely due to word of mouth. Despite the buzz, I knew very little about it other than the most basic elements of the premise when I sat down to read the first volume. Here's what we've got: Takashi Natsume is a high school student whose ability to see spirits and demons sets him apart from the people around him. He inherited the Sight from his deceased grandmother, Reiko Natsume, and when he moves to the small town where she once lived he discovers two things: the local spirits all knew her (and mistake him for her), and he's inherited a book she used to inscribe their names and bind them. Unsurprisingly, his new supernatural neighbors aren't too pleased about being controlled--although their feelings about Reiko herself seem to vary--and they all want Takashi to set them free. I can't say I really bonded with this first volume, but I get the feeling the series might grow on me more--which may depend heavily on how Takashi develops as the story continues. Right now he's something of a blank slate: he exists, he has an odd power that no one understands or believes in, and he apparently has no particular interest in the powerful book he inherited from his grandmother. The only real relationship he's formed so far is with a spirit he accidentally liberates, and it's a bit of a mixed bag--"Nyanko-sensei", who wants to possess the Book of Friends, usually takes the shape of a ceramic lucky cat, and fills multiple roles as Takashi's advisor, protector, and sometime antagonist. Takashi's grandmother appears only in Nyanko-sensei and other spirits' reminiscences, and I already find her significantly more interesting than Takashi himself. From the way the story is unfolding so far, detailing Takashi's encounters with various spirits and what they have to say about her, I'd be surprised if we aren't given a lot more information about her and why she chose to bind the various spirits the way she did. Right now, that's what I'm most looking forward to seeing in later volumes. Turning from the writing to the art for a moment, I should note that Midorikawa's style doesn't reach out and grab me. The characters are expressive and the yokai designs are often very interesting, but the overall effect is very wispy and seems vague to me. That and the often-minimal background detail may be intended to contribute to the story's otherworldliness, but to me the result is a sense of detachment, which probably isn't what Midorikawa is going for. All in all, I think there's a lot of potential here, and if it's realized I can certainly see why the series is so popular. I hope to appreciate it more with subsequent volumes. Volume 1 of Natsume's Book of Friends includes the creator's thoughts on each chapter and one page of translation/cultural notes. Review copy provided by VIZ Media. Think you could have written a better review of Natsume's Book of Friends v1 ? Write us and we'll probably let you give it a shot! --EiC PC |
23 February 2010
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