I drink and watch anime

Sometimes dreams come true…

Irina

A dream is a wish your heart makes

All of this might sound a little dramatic to some of you. It might be a bit too much production for what I’m about to talk about. But to me, it’s barely enough. I cannot overstate how happy the news made me. It made my heart race like when you get a text from someone you have a huge crush on and left me smiling for… well I’m still smiling. I’ll let you know if it wears off!

I started this blog around the time the last season of Natsume was airing. When I started the blog, I had actually never heard of the show and when I stumbled on season 1, I thought I had just made the discovery of a lifetime. I was so eager and excited to tell everyone about this obscure little show that had utterly captured my heart and how everyone should watch it as well!

It turned out that I was in fact not the first person to have heard of Natsume’s Book of Friends. And that knowledge did absolutely nothing to calm my fervor. Over the next year or two, I went through the 6 available seasons and wrote increasingly unhinged love letters to the show that I called reviews for tenuous reasons.

I am not a person who is comfortable with the idea of have a “favourite” anime although there are certainly shows that come up often when I think of anime I have deeply enjoyed. Natsume’s Book of Friends is the closest I have to an actual favourite and I have loved it ever since I finished the second episode. (There’s a story behind that 😉)

And somehow, in my head or heart or whatever, Natsume slowly became a bit more than a show. I have attempted to explain this before without sounding completely unhinged but I’m not sure I succeeded. I’m going to try again.

I’m one of those people who think that there is a degree of truth to the old saying: You are what you eat. Or at the very least, You are what you consume. Our environment, the news we chose to take in, the people we hang out with and the entertainment we enjoy does shape us and our world view which in turn affects our attitude and even our sense of self.

This is a complex question and I’m not saying it’s a 1 to 1 direct correlation thing. I don’t think that violent video games will make a person violent or that endless romantic comedies will make them particularly lovey dovey. Maybe a little eccentric… But well, here’s my deeply unscientific take:

When I watch shows that I consider thoughtful, touching and ultimately optimistic, I feel better and more appreciative for everything around me. In turn that makes me more likely to be a little more patient, understanding or kind than I would normally be. Which gives me a particular endorphin boost and it becomes sort of a spiral. But a good upward spiral that lands me in a happier place. Because I’m just quirky that way, I like being happy. And Natsume’s Book of Friends is of those shows that pretty much guarantees this particular effect.

Moreover, it’s a show that, as the title suggests, has helped me make a lot of friends. I’m not saying that it’s universally loved and everyone’s favourite show but I haven’t ever met anyone who downright disliked it. At least not that had the gumption to say it to my face. So I slowly gravitated to people that also had a soft spot for this soft little show and we had a grand ol time giggling about it. I find that as I have made more real life friends that watch anime, most of the ones I get along really well with also love this show. And for a lot of them, they hadn’t seen it before I suggested it. (I know what you’re thinking, I hyped it so much they would feel bad saying it wasn’t their thing. But they asked me for al the manga and stuff…)

Oh wait… I’m 700 words in and I haven’t actually said what this post us about. Why I babbling on about a show that seemingly ended in 2017.

Ok, so season 6 of Natsume’s Book of Friends aired in 2017. Since then there have been two movies but that’s it. On this blog, I have consistently written with complete assurance that a new season was on the way. I don’t have any insight on the matter. I didn’t know. It wasn’t even a form of manifestation since I don’t believe in that. I guess it was just that I wanted to live in a world where a new season of Natsume was going to come out. I was too timid to make it an official wish but it was a dream.

A few weeks ago, season 7 of Natsume’s Book of Friends was officially announced. Shuka will once again be the studio behind the production and they did a great job on the last season so I have no complaints. I wasn’t able to find an official release date yet but I don’t care. I’ve waited this long I can wait more. The announcement was made for the 15-year anniversary on July 1, 2023 For those of you who are extra nerdy that’s also Takashi’s birthday… Like he’s 15 in the series and his birthday is on July 1st so the announcement coincided with the character’s birthday and the the anniversary of the first season. How is that for an overload of adorable…

Oh, here’s the trailer:

Ok all this announcement talk and 15th anniversary stuff has me all excited and worked up in a tizzy again. I’m not sure I wouldn’t find this a bit too precious if this was another show but as it is, it’s just a bag of cherries on top of the world’s most delicious Sunday.

This is neither here nor there but July 1st is also Canada day which means I had a 3-day weekend to celebrate. It’s been good folks! My life is really coming together.

Actually, you know, I’m going to go on a tangent. As if this entire post has not been a tangent… I’m going to talk cryptically about me for a little bit so feel free to skip if you’re only here for Natsume. I understand perfectly and might do the same.

My life has been really good lately. There are the usual ups and downs of course but after a series of professional frustrations and personal upheavals, I decided to get myself together and really try to be positive and work towards my own happiness. It sounds trite. A little disgustingly so, I do realize that I really wish I had come up with a better way to say that. But anyways, I just sort of manually flipped a switch and this time, it worked. I feel like I’m getting somewhere. Somewhere nice and exciting and where I want to be.

Now this is completely unrelated to Natsume’s 7th season but it’s just such a nice way to really sit back and go ahhh, right now, things are good. I want to take a moment and enjoy it as much as I can. And I will have my favourite show to celebrate with!

For those of you who do not read the manga, it gets better as it goes along so I have high hopes for this season and also season 8. I’m NOT being greedy!

Have I meandered long enough? It’s not like there isn’t tons of Natsume content on this blog already. See?:

and I’m not even going to put in the posts where I mention Natsume’s Book of Friends or wish for another season… Is this a problem I should worry about you guys?

TLDR: Natsume season 7 has been announced and I will be reviewing it as it airs 😊 I hope you join me!

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