


The chapters have been collected in twenty-three bound volumes. It began serialization by Hakusensha in the sh jomanga magazineLaLa DX in 2005, before switching to LaLa in 2008. However, the forest of the monkey spirits holds many dangerous enemies, including the Matoba Clan, Natsume’s old nemesis. Natsume's Book of Friends (Japanese: Hepburn: Natsume Yjin-ch ) is a Japanese manga series by Yuki Midorikawa. Realizing that his “servant” has been taken out from right under his nose, Nyanko-sensei enlists the help of Natsume’s youkai friends and mounts a rescue operation. Natsume, while briefly separated from Nyanko-sensei, is ambushed and kidnapped by a strange group of masked, monkey-like youkai, who have spirited him away to their forest as they desperately search for the Book of Friends. His most important ally is still his gluttonous and sake-loving bodyguard, the arrogant but fiercely protective wolf spirit Madara-or Nyanko-sensei, as Madara is called when in his usual disguise of an unassuming, pudgy cat. Takashi Natsume, the timid youkai expert and master of the Book of Friends, continues his journey towards self-understanding and acceptance with the help of friends both new and old.
