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It's a kind of fantasy, slice of life story with an OP character going about her days and interacting with the other quirky characters. Overall if I think about each component of the story it's not horrible too. The plot's fine and most of the characters are fun and originally enjoyable. The dialogue is quite entertaining as well.

But there is something off about the way the story unfolds and the thought processes of the characters. The story touches on lots of super serious topics, on the psychological level. The main character begins to feel uneasy or conflicted, as she should, but then she just ... goes"whatever" and the comedic story resumes. It makes no sense. And I get that the main character is supposed to be a little nutty, and possibly disconnected, so maybe she would brush off these things nonchalantly, but then why did the anime make a point of exposing her conflicted feelings if they weren't gonna actually have it influence her actions in the slightest? No character development whatsoever. In the end it makes the vibe of her and the plot really 2 dimensional. It annoyed me.

I couldn't get into it. There was no emotion to pull me into the world or characters and make me interested in how things would turn out. So I'm just gonna put this one as a 5. Not good or bad. Maybe you'll like it, maybe it'll fall flat with you like it did me.

Natsume Yuujinchou (I'm speaking about the overall series, not this one season), has SUPER cute and likable characters and a great plot that kept me watching more and more. There is a reason there are so many seasons. It has a really peaceful atmosphere, while still having meaningful content. It's not a comedy or anything, but the interactions between characters often had me smiling. It's a good anime to chill with when you have extra time. And kept me coming back for more from genuine enjoyment and not just to resolve cliffhangers like many series. It doesn't have many cliffhangers since its slice of life. ...

It's big selling point though, is that it's unlike most shoujo stories. It's clearly targeted towards girls, with its cute, fluffy atmosphere, but it's completely unique. For one thing, the main character is a boy. But its not one of those series that has a bunch of handsome boys purely for fan service. (though I absolutely love Natsume's character design, I can't call him an ikemen, he's like an actual human being). But also more than anything else, this story is unique because it does not concentrate on romance. It has an ACTUAL PLOT. I'm not saying romance is bad, in fact, I quite enjoy romance, but I prefer it not be a focal point that everything revolves around. The show isn't completely devoid of romance; side characters get together sometimes, but the main character does not have a love interest so far, and I imagine it'll stay that way, at least for a while. The story mainly focuses on friendship, rather than romance, especially since many of the characters are not even human. If the story added some romance now, I would be happy, but I'm also grateful they have not so far.

I do have one complaint that you might want to keep in mind if you are wanting to watch it. It's a slice of life story with little mini plots in each episode as Natsume meets new characters. There is an overarching plot though, and it's really good, but its SUPER SLOW. If you stick with it purely for the main plot, you're likely to get annoyed. I was pretty sad when I got to the end of, like, the seventh season and still didn't have the answers I wanted. You develop more mysteries concerning the main plot than you get answers as you watch (Its a bit hard to explain without spoiling, I hope I'm getting my point across).

I'm also sad that its not English dubbed. WHY.

Okay so I am going to spoil here but I feel it is necessary to spoil here because otherwise you may make the same mistake I did and fall in love with the story only to be crushed with disappointment. If you can't stand stories with incest themes or large age gap couples then DO NOT READ THIS. There is technically no blood relation but I still found it appalling. If you don't mind this then go ahead and read it and don't read this review any further because it has severe spoilers
I started reading this after I watched the anime and thought that cute ... 7 year old Rin was adorable and awkward Daisuke was a good main character. The first section of it takes place when Daisuke is 24 and he adopts Rin: an adorable 6 year old girl. This is the part that is shown in the anime and contains the two of them becoming a a family and Daisuke learning about parenting and becoming responsible. I loved this section. It was sweet with great characters and had an implied romance between Daisuke and a single mother of the troublemaker boy Kouki in addition to the adorable interactions between Daisuke and Rin and the great character development of Daisuke.
Then the second section skips to when Rin in high school and has some romance between her and Kouki along with the romance between Daisuke and Kouki's mom, Nitani-san. I was concerned with this double romance because if both couples ended up together, that would mean incest, but I kept reading anyway and was relieved to see it didn't end that way (little did I know that the real ending was far worse). Circumstances didn't allow Daisuke and Nitani--san to become a couple and after many years, Nitani-san decided to marry another. They remained friends which made me happy. Rin rejected Kouki despite having liked him at one point, deciding that dating him would cause to much trouble and strife. While I liked their pairing I was also happy with this because it showed how well Rin thought things through and didn't follow a typical romance sequence. I grew to like Rin as a responsible high school girl who acted like a granny and was smart and knew how to avoid trouble and her relations with the other characters were still cute and fun.
The third section is when things break down: Rin gets a crush on Daisuke. I only kept reading at this point because I had like the rest of the story so much and trusted the author to bring it back on track. Daisuke thought of Rin as a daughter and had no romantic feelings towards her at all. Another potential love interest was introduced too so there was hope of bringing the story in a different direction. But the love interest ended up just being a tool to reveal Rin's feeling to Daisuke and in the end I don't even remember his name. As the relationship between Daisuke and Rin becomes strained Daisuke comes to the pretty logical decision that he will put this problem on hold until Rin is an graduates high school and becomes an adult. He tells Rin he will think about their relationship over the next two years and in that time she should think about moving on and finding a boyfriend around her age. I agree with his actions at this point wholeheartedly as well. But then they do a time skip to when she graduates. And he basically says "You know I can never say no to you, my Rin" and they decide to become a couple. They discuss getting married right away and she says she wants to have his child and is looking forward to seeing him raise it wonderfully as he had raised her. I find all of this ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING AND WEIRD. I lost all respect for the characters and my point of view of the beautiful story so far is ruined. Just because he wants to stay close to Rin no matter what does not mean that it is okay for them to become a couple. Not to be crude or anything but romance, especially marriage with children involves not only kissing but SEX. The fact that Daisuke could HAVE SEX WITH HIS DAUGHTER is beyond disturbing. Not to mention the 24 year age difference is already kinda... I don't care if there is no blood relation, he was still her father and its appalling to think that they end up together. The entire manga was ruined and its only more devastating because I loved the rest of it so much. If it weren't for the ending I would have given this story a 9 or even a 10 but as things are I can only rate it a 1.

I honestly don't know why I love this anime so much, but I have to say this is one of my very favorite animes. The characters are adorable and the relationships in the show are just perfect. The thing I like about it most would have to be the timing. That might not make sense. What I mean by that is that there are times when the show just drags a moment out. The first, like, thirty seconds of the show you just watch Tanaka sleep. And Oota watches him sleep. When there is an awkward silence, you just sit there and feel it. ... I guess I'm not explaining it well, but it is hilarious. There isn't much of a plot to the show, but the whole time I'm watching it I have a grin on my face. I have now watched it in both dubbed and subbed and love it both ways. The art isn't the best, but the way the eyes and hair are drawn is really cute. I have seen that this isn't the most liked show and lot's of people think it is stupid but I think it is a masterpiece. How can you look at Tanaka's listless face and say, "I hate you"? I can't. I love the show. I hope you watch it and agree with me, because I REALLY NEED a second season. EDIT: Now I have rewatched it again and read all of the manga and just have to add to this. This may be my FAVORITE ANIME OF ALL TIME and I've watched A LOT of anime (too much actually). I can also say that some of the main reasons I love it are: the humorous misunderstandings, the cute characters and their relationships with each other, and my ability to relate to Tanaka and his laziness (I also sometimes relate to Oota on a deep level or the other characters, but less so since many of them have kind of extreme personalities and are prone to getting carried away with their misunderstandings; which is probably the only thing I don't like about the entire show, though it leads to great comedy).

The story was good, but the drama could get a little boring. The thing I loved about it was the main character. He is apathetic and seemingly unmotivated. You start to notice some odd things about him throughout the show, though. I don't want to spoil, but he is great. The whole show I am wondering, What is he thinking? What is going on inside his head? Sometimes it shows a flashback of when he was a kid, but doesn't explain it at all. The other characters are good too, and I really relate to Suzune Horikita and her dislike of humanity. The other characters ... don't seem all that original to me, sadly. The ending really left me wanting more. It will be sooooo disappointing if there isn't a second season. There are still many, many things I want to find out. This show is awesome, but if there isn't another season, then watching the first season seems kind of like a waste of time. It leaves too much information out. I will complain that there was too much fanservice which I have no patience for, but if you like that or can get through that then I can suggest this to you. And when I say fanservice I mostly mean random close ups of girl's chests. That brought down my rating some.

I thought the concept of this anime was good, but the actual work? No. The curse was pretty cool, but all it made him do was really embarrassing or pervy things. I guess some people are into that, but not me. Despite all of the horrible things he does, he magically gets a harem. That happens all the time in anime and it needs to stop. Girls aren't really that shallow. I was kind of curious as to the nature of his curse, and how he was going to deal with it, but by the end he hasn't really accomplished much and knows very little. ... He does discover some things, and the show can be funny, but that doesn't compensate for the overall stupidity.