Onmyoji Finally Lands Natsume Collab — Author Rejected It When the Game Was at Its Peak, Says Yes Now That It's Dying

Eight years. That's how long Onmyoji fans have waited for a Natsume's Book of Friends collab. The original manga author, Yuki Midorikawa, once flat-out rejected the crossover because she 'didn't want to see Natsume fighting yokai.' Now, as the game bleeds players and revenue, the collab has finally been announced — and the irony is not lost on anyone.

Here's the backstory that makes this sting. Back when Onmyoji (阴阳师, or YYS for short) was at its absolute peak — dominating charts, massive playerbase, goldmine potential for IP crossovers — the author said no. The reason? She didn't want her beloved characters, known for their gentle interactions with spirits, dragged into a monster-slaying gacha game. Fair enough. The collab had incredible commercial value and she still turned it down.

Fast forward to today, and the tables have completely turned. Onmyoji's glory days are long behind it — revenue and player counts have been steadily declining for years. Yet somehow, the Natsume collab that was 'impossible' during the peak era is now a reality. As the original poster put it: 'When YYS was at its peak, the author refused because she didn't want to see Natsume fight monsters. Now YYS is practically dead and the collab finally went through.' The cope is real.

The announcement itself was also a comedy of errors. Eagle-eyed fans spotted that the official Natsume Weibo account @'d the wrong Onmyoji account not once, but TWICE before finally tagging the correct one (@网易阴阳师手游) on the actual announcement. As one commenter quipped: 'Petty drama, but sweet — a game that's half-dead and a PR team that can't even tag the right account. Match made in heaven.'

Fan reactions are a cocktail of excitement and bitterness. One player who's been waiting five years admitted they quit three years ago: 'As long as the crown prince and princess are still there, I won't go back' — referring to beloved characters they refuse to see ruined by greedy monetization. Another said yesterday's entire livestream left them stone-cold until the Natsume collab popped up as the final reveal — the one moment that actually felt like the old Onmyoji magic. One commenter even dubbed it '牢zen resurrected for a day' (牢zen = 'imprisoned Zen,' a meme about Onmyoji's dev team being perpetually clueless, briefly showing competence).

Others were more blunt: 'If this collab had come two or three years earlier, maybe I wouldn't have quit. Now all I want is for the game to take its garbage food-box mechanics and roll.' Meanwhile, players who stayed acknowledged that Onmyoji's collab track record is actually decent (besides one infamous misfire) — they'd given up on seeing Natsume and had resigned themselves to hoping for Noragami instead. So this was a genuine surprise.

The thread also went off the rails in spectacular fashion when a user confused Onmyoji for a Japanese game and started demanding updates on NetEase's old lawsuit against Tencent for alleged copying. Other users piled on: some educating them that Onmyoji is a Chinese game by NetEase, others firing back with 'Oh, so Honor of Kings using Naruto IP is fine but this isn't?' It devolved into the classic NetEase vs. Tencent stan war — the real endgame content of any Chinese gaming forum.

Bottom line: this collab is a mirror reflecting Onmyoji's journey from gacha royalty to fading veteran. The author who once said 'absolutely not' now said yes — but only after the game lost its leverage. It's the gaming equivalent of getting a text back from your ex three years later. Sweet? Sure. But also painfully late.

Dramatic irony: the creator of 'Natsume's Book of Friends' — a story about a lonely boy finding connections with supernatural beings — only agreed to connect with a supernatural game once it became lonely and forgotten itself. You can't write this stuff.