#people pleasing and desire not to make trouble for whoever's watching him. i dunno if the manga drops it or it's just an element that's

[ladyloveandjustice]

for someone wanting to get into Natsumes book of friends, would you recommend the show or the manga/ what are the pros or cons of each?

(I'm gonna tag this for my own archival but please don't argue with me about this it's just my opinion and I don't feel like it)

I haven't really read the full manga so I might not be the exact best person to ask on that! However, my introduction was the anime and I think it's a great intro.

For the manga...I don't want to anger anyone but I gotta be honest here...the art doesn't really do it for me a lot of the time especially compared to the anime. It's a very loose, sketchy style, and sometimes it an be a little hard to tell characters apart or they look just a little less cohesive in the anime (Hinoe is an example, she's got such a flashy vibe in the anime but looks a little weird in the manga imo, at least in the early chapters).

There's not a lot of backgrounds, which is a kind of common shoujo style and works for a lot of shoujo, but a big charm point in the anime is the pastoral vibes, the feeling of this vast wilderness Natsume is exploring and the sleepy small town vibes, you really feel whatever season it is...the anime's art is just generally more detailed and expansive.

The anime also has the luxury of arranging things to have more narrative cohesion. The story is fairly episodic, so though it does have character development and ongoing plotlines, the chapters can be moved around easily.

It's pretty clear in the manga Midorikawa is making it up as she goes along (she directly says this) so chapters that involving a character or theme can be father apart in the manga, while the anime generally tries to arrange things so it fits a certain theme or arc, so we get a little focus on each reoccurring character at least once per season, the first season especially. I think a big example of this was I was really surprised it took so long to introduce Natsume's foster dad in the manga (he shows up in ep 6 of the anime and chapter 19 in the manga) and in the mangaka's notes she says she was just maybe going to allude to him like Columbo's wife (lol) at first and didn't have a place to fit him in until this chapter. He's a pretty important presence in Natsume's life, so it made sense the anime introduces him a bit earlier.

The anime also adds a lot of original content, and integrates it so well I can't really tell it apart most of the time! I was surprised most of seaon 2 episode 5 was anime original because it lines up so well with the rest and is an episode I really love.

And there were some mild characterization changes I like, such as with Hinoe. I like that the anime also apparently integrates Natsume's gal pals into the friend group much more. According to a post I saw trawling through Taki's tag, she doesn't actually hang out with the broader friend group in the manga? Like we don't really see her with Nishimura and Kitamoto (natsume's "average guy" friends), just as part of a trio, whereas in the anime there's lots of time she's just included in the full group. And there was an entire backstory focus episode on a (older and morally ambigious!!!) female character that was anime original too, so that's nice.

There's also the soundtrack which is SUCH an all time great, it's so soothing and chill.

ON THE OTHER HAND, the manga is still great, and there are a lot of little moments I'm noticing that the anime misses that are pretty cool. Bits of backstory, extra characterization flourishes, sad and sweet moments, sometimes a plot point makes a lot more sense, and so on.

There's also the occasional "something I didn't quite like in the anime isn't in the manga" moment, but nothing major.

So I think reading the manga is a great experience, but you should probably check out the anime first, I think it's a better entry point, and after that you can read the manga.