Before the Vanitas case study, there was this

Key things

• Natsume's Book of Friends and The Case Study of Vanitas focus on the importance of nomenclature in driving the story.
• Both series feature orphans deeply connected to powerful books central to the story and accompanied by fantastical creatures.
• The concept of real names used in both series drives the narrative forward and explores the meaning and implications of names.

Given that Natsume's Book of Friends returns to television for the first time in 7 years and celebrates its 15th anniversary; not to mention that it will be part of the highly-charged Fall 2024 anime season, which features a number of new and returning Supernatural titles. With relatively few recorded “members” on the MyAnimeList aggregator site, for such a great title, it makes perfect sense to reiterate what Natsume's Book of Friends such a great title using a similar title that gained quite a fan base when it aired in 2021.

Natsume's Book of Friends is a title that can be seen as Vanitas case studypreviously Vanitas case study; or, much less sensationally, it is a performance which may be regarded as titles having some spiritual relation; whether direct inspiration or a spiritual relationship of predecessor/successor. Here's why.

A quick look at both titles

Some basic information

Natsume's Book of Friends based on the manga of the same name created by Yuki Midorikawa and published in Hakusensh's shōjo manga magazine LaLa DX from June 2003 to April 2008, and appearing in LaLa from July 2007 to the present. It was collected into 31 volumes. Originally produced by Brain's Base, the anime has six completed seasons, the first of which ran for 13 episodes from July to September 2008, with the seventh season, produced by Shuka, released this fall.

It follows an orphan named Takashi Natsume who finds an old notebook that belonged to his maternal grandmother, Reiko Natsume, an exorcist who bound powerful evil spirits, ayakashi and yōkai to her pages by removing their names and subjugating them to her will. Takashi decides to return all the names in the notebook, called the “Book of Friends”, and does so with the help of the cat/wolf spirit Madara, more affectionately known as Nyanko-sensei.

Vanitas no Cartein English known as Vanitas case studyis based on a manga created by Jun Mochizuki, serialized in Square Enix's Monthly Gangan Joker since December 2015. It has since been collected into 11 volumes. The anime currently has one season, which was split into two halves, with the first airing from July to September 2021 and the second from January to April 2022.

Set in a fictional 19th century Paris, it combines a steampunk aesthetic with fantasy elements such as vampires. Vanitas is a young man who is part of the Blue Moon vampire clan and owns The Book of Vanitas, a grimoire that has the power to cure vampires who have become uncontrollably bloodthirsty due to the corruption of their True Names through a phenomenon called the malnomen, possibly induced by the influence of a mysterious entity known only as “The Charlatan”.

The biggest similarities between Natsume's book of friends and the Vanitas case study

Meaning of nomenclature

As you may have already picked up, the main connection between these titles is how they use nomenclature; more specifically, the concept of True Name as the main driving force behind the story. For Mochizuki, Vanitas case study was an attempt to divert from Heart of Pandoraher previous success in manga, and draw something with impressive fight scenes and a focus on hidden identities as a thematic component.

Both main characters are orphans who have a deep connection to the book that is central to the story, with Vanitas inheriting it from the vampire who saved his life as a child. Both characters are also accompanied by another character who represents the main fantasy element of their respective worlds, with Madara often serving as an interface between Natsume and the yokai world, and Vanitas being accompanied by Noé Archiviste, who is part of the bloodline. able to read the memories of individuals whose blood they have consumed. Naturally, these titles differ in their approach, p Vanitas case study with much more action and fight scenes than Natsume's Book of Friendswho has a greater sense of life; however, both titles explore the mysterious pasts of their protagonists through their own immersion into the history of the mystical figures that inhabit its universe.

Nomenclature is very important in both titles, as the meaning and interaction with names is a major theme that moves the story forward, and in both cases, having one's own name can spell disaster for the individual, as names act as the core of that existence and are the summation of their abilities and experiences. When Takashi Natsume summons the power of the Book of Friends, it comes at a temporary cost of spiritual energy, but it is also an artifact that is highly sought after in the yokai world, making it a target for all kinds of factions that want access to the book's power. Like Vanitas, Takashi is only able to use the book because he is a direct descendant of his grandmother; while in the case of the Book of Vanitas, the titular character is also able to use it due to Blue Moon vampire blood coursing through his veins, giving him powers beyond that of the average human.

An ancient concept

Nomenclature: The Tie That Binds

What inspired Mochizuki's exploration of vampires in this way was her desire to portray Vanitas as a character who cures vampires of their illnesses, but she didn't think readers would be interested in the kind of narrative where vampires go under the knife. Rather, it drew on the concept of a real name; one that appears constantly in Japanese folklore and media and applied it to give the above healing a more abstract quality that better relates to the theme of hidden identity that is prevalent in Vanitas case study. Natsume's Book of Friends very likely has a similar inspiration behind this mechanic, although the goal isn't to “heal” the yokai, but to use the notebook to restore their names and thus return them to their true state, is very similar to the goal of Vanitas.

Natsume's Book of Friends and Vanitas case study are available to stream on Crunchyroll.