Natsume stops running from what he is and starts choosing who he wants to be around it. The yokai he meets aren't obstacles to solve, they're proof that loneliness has a face, and that talking to it changes both of you. By season three, the show has already earned the right to break your heart quietly, knowing you'll sit with that sadness instead of looking away.

Natsume carries the Book of Friends, a list of yokai names bound to serve that once belonged to his grandmother, Reiko, and holding it has made him a constant target for attacks. Because he can see yokai, he has long been shunned by the people around him. Now he has found a home with the Fujiwaras and made friends at school, and he works to return the names in the book to their yokai, aided by his bodyguard Madara, known as Nyanko-sensei. In this third season he stops seeing his ability as a curse. As his bonds with both humans and yokai grow, he realizes how much each side means to him and decides that happiness does not require choosing between the spirit world and the human one. The show pairs gentle slice-of-life drama with supernatural encounters.