One's a show about a socially-awkward protagonist who learns how to interact with others and there's strange creatures and magic involved; and in the other, most of the cast are brightly-colored equines.
Yes, I just did a bait-and-switch comparison, but in this case that's not intended to be an insult. I'm a huge fan of both shows, and maybe that's why I can see this similarity between these otherwise different shows from different cultures. And yes, I know Natsume Yuujinchou is available in the States officially in subtitled form while My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is officially available in Japan in dubbed form (under the title "My Little Pony: Tomodachi wa Mahou" no less).
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic stars a friendless (at first) shut-in bookworm of a unicorn mare named Twilight Sparkle who gets word of the return of the evil Nightmare Moon on the night of the one-thousandth Solar Sun Celebration (Oh-no!). But when she tells the ruler of Equestria (and her own mentor), Princess Celestia, about it she just sends Twilight Sparkle to the backwoods town of Ponyville to check in on preparations for the event; oh, and, make some friends...which turns out to be exactly what Twilight (and her new friends) needed to save the day, literally! Aside from season opener and finalies, the rest of the series is episodic one-shot stories that deliver an Aesop about the magic (or power, whatever) of friendship.
Natsume Yuujinchou (or "Natsume's Book of Friends" in English) stars a teenage human boy named Natsume Takashi (or "Takashi Natsume" if you're going by European name order) who can see yokai. Which (in this series) are like both ghosts, in that few humans can see them, and fairies, in that some are friendly and some are violent and/or people-eaters and both have some form of Blue and Orange Morality, even if they just don't care about humanity what-so-ever. But he's friendless because no one believes him when some strange thing happens and people call him a liar if he (in some form of irony) actually tells them the truth. The eponymous Book of Friends is introduced at the actual beginning of the series just after Madara (An...inugami? Maybe? Soon to be nicknamed "Nyanko-sensei") is.
While Twilight Sparkle chose to be alone while Takashi was (effectively) forced into it, both start out without friends but, after their respective series starts, gain friends (in Takashi's case, both human and yokai) and live happier more fulfilled lives because of it. Even with all the bad, nasty, or just plain unpleasant people they also meet along the way.
- In Twilight's case they are the aforementioned Nightmare Moon (redeemed as her former self, Princess Celestia's sister, Princess Luna), Gilda the Griffin, The "Great and Powerful" Trixie, Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara (although they're more nasty to Applebloom, Sweetie Bell, and Scootaloo collectively known as "The Cutie Mark Crusaders" than Twillight), Discord, Queen Chrysalis of the Changelings, King Sombra, and Sunset Shimmer. And some of these people have been redeemed.
- In Takashi's case this applies to just about any hostile and/or mean yokai plus Matoba Seiji (again switch the names around if you want the European order), the human exorcist. Both Tanuma Kaname and Natori Shuichi 'appear' to be up to no good (more misunderstanding on Kaname's part than Shuichi's) but sooner or latter end up befriending Takashi.
So...both shows endorse the positives of friendship, it's just that Natsume Yuujinchou's a bit more subtle about it; or am I just...
Overthinking Things.
(P.S.: I starting typing this on July the First, Takashi Natsume's birthday according to the Official Fan Book.)
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