Anime Like Natsume’s Book of Friends

For as long as he can remember, Takashi Natsume has been chased by spirits, but recently he discovered that the reason was because his deceased grandmother had passed on to him her “Book of Friends,” a book containing all the spirits she had brought under her control.

Now Natsume realizes that these spirits haunt him in hopes of gaining freedom. With few friends, no loving home, and constantly hunted by malicious spirits, Natsume looks for a place where he belongs.

In this world, there exist Mushi, spirits that often exist with no purpose. However, these Mushi can affect the physical world in countless forms from diseases to more pleasant phenomenon.

Why do these Mushi exist?

That is the question that Ginko the Mushi-shi, a researcher on the phenomenon, asks himself as he travels the land investigating Mushi-related incidents.

After spending his first few days of school in the infirmary after a spirit attached itself to him, Ashiya asks for the help from the owner of a small tea shop called the Mononokean.

Though morose, this tea shop owner helps spirits wander from this world to the next.

Watanuki can see spirits and supernatural creatures, an ability he finds annoying. However, one day after being bothered by some spirits, he feels compelled to enter a strange house.

Within, he meets Yuuko, a woman that claims to be able to remove his ability for a price. The price being that he works in her store where she grants wishes.

Miyako Arata is newly assigned to the Nighttime Regional Relations Department. Each ward of Tokyo has one of these offices that are dedicated to investigating the paranormal and occult-related activities in the area.

On his first night on the job, he is learning the ropes from his colleagues who are trying to ward off Tengu and Angels before a battle breaks out between them.

However, he also learns that, unlike his colleagues, he can understand what they are saying to each other. This allows Arata the ability to now mediate problems rather than turn immediately to violence.

After being raised as an orphan, Himari Momochi is thrilled when she learns that she inherited the Momochi House, a secluded mansion in the woods, on her 16^th birthday. Hoping to learn more about her dead parents, she ignores the rumors that the Momochi House is haunted and hopes to live there.

Inside, she is surprised to meets the handsome Aoi Nakamori and his two shikigami, Ise and Yukari, that live there.

Himari learns that the Momochi House sits in a space that connects the human and spirits worlds, and Aoi is serving as a guardian, a position that was once supposed to be Himari’s. While Aoi initially tries to drive her away, Himari moves in and assists Aoi with his duties.

Homeless and in debt, high schooler Nanami Momozono thinks things are looking up when she rescues a man and he offers to let her stay at his home. She soon discovers that his home is a rundown shrine.

Trying to leave, she is mistaken for the man she saved – the man that is also the land god of the shrine, Mikage.

Finding out she was tricked into being a god and not wanting to be homeless, Nanami tries to embrace her new divine duties, but has to deal with a hot-headed fox familiar to keep things running smoothly.

Rikuo Nura wants to be a normal boy. However, as a quarter yokai and the grandson of the current yokai leader, he is destined to be heir apparent to their yokai clan.

As he can only transform into his yokai form at night, Nura leads two separate lives.

When Tooru Honda finds herself homeless, she decides to live in a tent in the wilderness. However, one day she is discovered by a classmate, Yuki Souma, and invited to come live in his house.

From there, she gets to know many members of the Souma family, not realizing that they all are inflicted by a curse. When they hug the opposite gender, they turn into an animal from the Chinese zodiac.

Mars has now become known as Aqua, a planet of water. On this planet is the peaceful city of drift upon the sea called Neo Venezia.

A replica of Earth’s Venice, gondolas are the primary mode of transportation in Neo Venezia. Join a novice tour guide as she shows the wonders of her city.

The young Makoto Kowata is a witch, but her skills in magic leave something to be desired. To further train her craft, she moves to rural Aomori to live with her cousins.

This area, rich in nature, is the perfect place to commune with natural forces and hone her craft.

After being abandoned by her family, Chise Hatori is a 16-year-old teenager without hope.

In order to not have to worry about herself, she sells herself to slavers, only to be purchased by Magus Elias Ainsworth.

There, she is told she will become his apprentice and, in the future, his bride. Together, they work to build a relationship and work to control her own magus powers that will eventually result in her early death.

After the Demon King’s defeat, the victorious hero’s party returns home. After disbanding, the elven mage Frieren continues journeying to indulge her hobby of collecting spells. However, being a long-living elf, fifty years pass in the blink of an eye for her. Now, she finds her old companions and friends slowly passing away from age one by one.

Before his death, Heiter the cleric manages to foist his young ward, Fern, onto Frieren as her apprentice mage. Together, they travel to collect spells, but after visiting many locations that Frieren had once visited with the hero’s party, she begins to ponder the missed opportunity to form deeper bonds with her now-dead comrades and cherish the new opportunities she has with her current ones.

One day, an entity, for reasons unknown, threw an orb to Earth. With no emotion or identity, the orb is meant to gather sensations and is able to take the shape of things it encounters as it learns.

For many years, it was a rock, and then it became moss, and when a wolf took its last breath near it, it became the wolf. After wandering for some time, it met a boy. After a long struggle, the boy, too, took his last breath.

With human form, now the orb sets off on his never-ending journey where he will meet many new people and have many new experiences.

Rei Kiriyama recently started to live alone in his last year of high school. He is able to financial support himself as a professional Shogi player, but while he officially became a pro in middle school, he is collapsing under the pressure to succeed.

Burdened with his own problems, Rei has found solace among a kind family of three sisters, the Kawamotos. The oldest, Akari, likes to take in strays and Rei is the latest.

While he feels conflicted about spending time with them, they provide the accepting affection that he has gotten nowhere else.

After the Great War and her time in it came to an end, Violet Evergarden is adrift. Her purpose was once only battle, and now she must find a new one.

After recovering from the loss of her arms, Violet takes up a job at the CH Postal Services. Here she transcribes people’s thoughts into what should be emotional letters. While the “emotional” part seems to greatly escape her, she aims to learn how to move people with words.