The reason being a book he inherited from his grandmother - the Book of Friends (Yuujinchou). With the infamous spirit Madara as his bodyguard, Takashi is now returning the names his grandmother once collected, and so free them from the contract his grandmother made with demons and spirits.
Natsume Yuujinchou is the first season of a light and cheerful anime. Even though there aren't much of an overall plot, each episode's story is well though out. Takashi encounters a new demon or spirit almost every episode, but all of these are very well thought out - both the episodes and the troubles and backgrounds of the demons and spirits. It might seem the story would be about these demons and spirits, but it's deeper than that - it's about the bonds and relationships between humans as well as between humans and these spiritual beings.
Takashi Natsume is our main character. He's a quite lonely person as the show starts, but he is a very nice person. He doesn't like seeing demons and spirits, but he realizes with time he wouldn't actually suddenly stop seeing them, and he gets attached to some of them. As the series goes on Takashi makes a few friends, both people who are spiritual sensitive and those who aren't.
Takashi has made a deal with a spirit - who's mostly in a form of a maneki neko-looking cat - that when he dies, that demon can have the Book of Friends. In return the spirit, Madara, is Takashi's bodyguard, as there are more spirits and demons who wishes to have the names of others.
Having the name of a demon or spirit written down means a contract is formed, where the one who has the name is the master and can call the spirit or demon. To why Reiko collected these names isn't clear, but Reiko has met the same fate as many other with spiritual sensitivity - they are thought as creepy and are sometimes bullied and disliked and was therefore, much like Takashi, a lonely person.
As I mentioned, Takashi meets other people who can see spirits too. One of them is another student at his school - Kaname Tanuma - as well as a well-known actor, who is an exorcist on the side - Shuuichi Natori. Takashi also meets a man that used to see spirits and demons too, but suddenly couldn't anymore.
This anime is a very well done piece and even though the first season is short, it feels like every character Takashi meets has been in several episodes after you get to know them, even if many of them doesn't appear again.
The soundtrack and both the opening and ending are also very suitable to this show and I am so glad I watched it. While most of the shows I see are targeted to boys and young men, this show is targeted to girls. It's also safe for all ages. The very youngest should watch it with older siblings or parents, as it can be a bit scary for them. But at the end of the day, this is really a show worth watching regardless of who your are. After all, this first season gets 6 stars from me.
And now I'm off to watch the second season. Look forward to the review!
