Takashi Natsume

Takashi Natsume is the main protagonist of Natsume's Book of Friends. He can see Youkais as long he remember them. He is grandson of Reiko Natsume.

Appearance
Takashi has dusty-blonde hair (silver colored in the manga), golden-brown eyes with slitted irises, and usually wears a soft smile (noted by several to occasionally be fake). He is currently around 167 cm in height.

He is often mistaken for his grandmother, Reiko Natsume, by Youkai, making him a constant target of Youkai who had a history with Reiko. Similarly, Takeshi has also been considered to be beautiful by many and has multiple fangirls in his school. He, however, seems to be oblivious to his appearance and his admirers, much to Kitamoto and Nishimura's disbelief.

It was later revealed in the Official Fanbook that Takashi has a complex about being weak and having a girly face, so he consciously makes an effort to be masculine and use tough language (Natsume uses "ore", the masculine version of "I" in Japanese, instead of "boku" or "watashi", which is more polite.)

Personality
Takashi, unlike his grandmother, Reiko Natsume, is kind towards both humans and youkai, to the point that he can be easily fooled, as mentioned by Tsubame. Prior to the beginning of the series, he was originally reserved and soft-spoken because of his troubled past and he used to greatly dislike having the ability to see youkai because of the trouble it's given him. Because of this, he had trouble interacting with other humans. Thanks to the kindness of the Fujiwaras, Kitamoto Atsushi, Nishimura Satoru, and his friendship with Madara, he slowly opens up to both humans and youkai. He does, however, occasionally suffer a slight trauma about his past, often in a dream or when he sees humans (usually exorcists) acting despicable. One of his dreams as a child was to grow up and live independently, away from everyone else. Takashi does not reveal his ability of seeing youkai to the Fujiwara couple, or his friends, Kitamoto and Nishimura, because he is worried that they would stop acting normal around him and worry about him. He also tries to hide what he sees from Tanuma Kaname because he is worried that he may drag Tanuma into his problems. The author describes him as, "a person who is trying to be kind". Though he has seen youkai all his life, he has little tolerance for their antics. When angered, he often lashes out in a punch or a kick of resistance, which has enough spiritual energy in it to knock even the highest level of youkai out in a second. However, his fighting abilities only extend to youkai; his punches, as noted by Madara, do not work on humans. Takashi is very agile and good at climbing trees because he was always running away from youkai.

However, he has a short stamina (constantly mentioned by Nishimura) and is very susceptible to heat.

Relatives
Parents: Relatives: Miyoko Aoi's Parents (uncle & aunt)
 * Unamed Father (deceased)
 * Unamed Mother (deceased)
 * Reiko Natsume (grandmother, from his mother's side)
 * Touko Fujiwara (distant relatives from his father's side)
 * Shigeru Fujiwara (distant relatives from his father's side)
 * Miyoko Aoi (cousin)

Trivia

 * He seems to be the only human (besides Reiko), to be able to read the names in Book of Friends. (However, both Natori and Matoba have not tried to read and the guide book states that anyone with spiritual power could read it.)