Noragami

I, like most everyone on this planet, like things. The things that I like come in many different shapes and sizes. One such thing that I like is the Winter 2014 show Noragami, a 'feels' shounen brought to you by Studio Bones, that brings together elements of shows like Soul Eater and Rurouni Kenshin to give you a 'family-centric' journey exploring what it means to be alive. Or rather I wish it did. At its best you've got tear jerking moments of mortality, family, and the struggles of existence. You have a cast of characters you care about, the voice acting encapsulating each character almost perfectly,flowing between emotions and the changing tone beautifully. At its worse you have long 'bouts of 'struggle of the week'. Slow buildup to something with mediocre story telling until the conclusion. And foreshadowing that is either so obvious it hurts, or massively fascinating and never really answered. This show's strengths are in its characters, mainly Yato - who consistently brings out the best interactions of the entire show, be it his sweetness or his harshness - and are the primary reason that I want more and more of Noragami. Don't get me wrong, the rest of the cast are all better than average. Certainly better than what I expect from a battle shounen. And when the show is being a harsh drama I am utterly entranced, fulfilled and cathartic. But. When it is not being amazing. It is mediocre beyond belief. Slow pacing, which ,whilst forwarding the overall plot, could easily have been something else more in line with the show at its best. This is further exemplified by the animation quality which just seems disappointing. The art style deserves better than what it got. The art style on its solid and certain 'Phantoms' (The primary antagonistic beings for most of the series) just ooze awesome. Others look about as cool as a blue frog can look. And whilst I couldn't call the animation terrible, for the most part it does nothing good, the creepiness is not exemplified, the sadness is not exemplified, the little details are simply absent. I'm never impressed and at my worse I'm disappointed by how often the shounen “Power up to kill shit” is copy and pasted. Sure it is cool the first couple of times, but with the amount it is reused it loses its power quickly. The soundtrack takes some interesting steps. Using more electronic and dubsteppy tracks than your standard rocky shounen. I personally found it kind of bland, but I can easily see others enjoying it far more as the tracks are not out of place and certainly match the moods of the scenes. Being unique in this regard should be applauded, but whether it really works or not is something we can question heavily. However the biggest and most substantial flaw of this show is where the overall plot goes. This is a 12 episode series that does not buckle down and focus. Most of what fascinated me in the earlier episodes was not really built upon. Instead I have a Kenshin-esque fight scene and a re-establishment of the strange 'friend-family-esque' trio, which was only broken up an episode earlier. I want more exploration of Yato and Yukine's character depth and backstory. I want my weird romance subplot between a kinda human and a deity. I want the three main plot lines to be resolved. But I don't have that. Instead I'm left here waiting and hoping for a season two that takes everything amazing about this show and continues, without the flaws of the first season. Which in itself is an issue, because the ending track is completely and utterly gorgeous. Easily amongst one of the best EDs, based on track alone, that I have had the fortune to listen to in my lifetime. But a single music track alone is not something most people will watch a show for.

(This is a spoiler-free review adapted for this site) [Synopsis]: Lacking both recognition and a shrine, Yato (Kamiya, Hiroshi) is a god down on his luck, forced to take on mundane requests in order to earn his meager offerings. On one of these menial tasks he is rescued from the path of a racing truck by Iki Hiyori (Uchida, Maaya) who subsequently is subjected to inconvenient out of body experiences when her soul leaves her body. After Hiyori requests for Yato to fix her condition they meet Yukine, (Kaji, Yuuki) a wandering spirit who becomes Yato’s divine weapon. The three fight ayakashi and do odd jobsin order for Yato to one day become a recognizable god with both a shrine and followers. [Characters]: Noragami has a fairly small cast which can be nice in terms of simplicity however it can also lead to the show feeling over-reliant on only a few characters. Yato, the penniless god who dreams of becoming a well-respected deity, is a fairly lighthearted and comedic character however is perfectly capable of becoming serious given the proper conditions. He’s not afraid to take on simple jobs in order to earn his 5-yen donations however I also felt that this trait was somewhat troublesome as the character has high aspirations but only progresses towards them at a snails pace. Iki Hiyori is a generic enough school girl (outside of her interest in professional martial-arts). She isn't a very intricate or even interesting character however her place in the show is well situated enough as she acts as a sort of layman for the viewers so we can have an introduction to the implications and concepts of Noragami‘s world. She is a good source of comedy however I don’t think she holds much intrigue within the story. Lastly we have Yato’s divine weapon: Yukine. He was a wandering spirit when Yato found him and by nature of this was once human which makes for a good deal of the shows drama as well as Yukine’s own internal anxiety. I found him to be rather irritating as a character – it is eluded to that he had a tragic or traumatic past as a human however his conflict with Yato and his lot in the show is not tied to this and therefore feels needlessly whiny and unpleasant. He is often at odds with Yato however there didn't appear to be any unique character qualities within Yukine that would give way for this and so his discomfort feels petty. He doesn't exhibit very good character development either and while he does become less unpleasant after a point, it is not even his own doing that leads to this near 180 of attitude. All in all, I felt he was rather annoying and I thought his poorly written character exploration took up much too much time. [Art/Animation]: The character designs in Noragami are fairly simple except when it comes to the more supernatural characters like other gods or the ayakashi – Yato himself is best visually characterized by wearing a jersey and sweat pants. The character designs tend to get a little relaxed or lazy if the scene is not of great import or when the characters are depicted as far away however they never become outright terrible. The combat in the show could almost entirely be described as single-strike or clash based because many of the battles are between Yato wielding Yukine against an otherworldly monster. This isn't necessarily bad however if one was to look into the show for action reasons then these scenes leave a bit to be desired in terms of choreography, length, and overall complexity. [Story]: I think this is where Noragami falls short for most people – not because the story is poorly written or because the characters act stupid but because there doesn’t seem to be much there to begin with. The premise of the story – that Yato wishes to become a famously worshiped god and that Hiyori wants her body fixed – is not something that the story spends much time chasing after. Yes, Yato takes odd jobs in order to increase his recognition and earn his offerings however, as I stated in the [Characters] section, he seem to have much actual ambition and therefore hardly progresses towards his dream within the course of the 12 episodes. The content that the show actually covers, concerning primarily Yukine’s emotional disposition and later Yato’s dark history, I didn't find as interesting as if the show pursued its original premise more actively. In all honesty, because the show is primarily lighthearted for a good deal of its episodes, I would say that the comedic interactions between the main cast of characters is ultimately of more interest than the plot the show shallowly explores. [Music]: The music was pretty good and some people may recognize a similar approach and style as to that of Katanagatari as the composer is Iwasaki Taku. I wouldn't say that the music is nearly as good as his other work in my personal opinion however I would say the soundtrack is one of the show’s better appeals. The music mostly occupies a BG-type quality whereas Iwasaki’s work normally takes more of a center stage role in my experience – the action scenes do play up the music accordingly so I generally enjoy these parts of the music more than others. [Final Thoughts and Rating]: While there is a second season now confirmed for Noragami, these 12 episodes felt forgettable to me. The characters weren't very interesting and there were so few of them that the cast of the show felt pretty lackluster. Rating: 5 I gave the show a 5 because its well enough animated and has decent music but the show spent its 12 episode run quite poorly in the progression department and had a few actively annoying elements such as Yukine’s dialogue and characterization. [Recommendations]: Because the show offers very little in overall content – I have a hard time recommending the show to anyone for genre purposes however someone that’s looking for a supernatural anime would not go amiss as the ayakashi and gods are fairly present throughout the show. The action in Noragami i felt was pretty lackluster save maybe the final confrontation in the show however I don’t think it was a worthy payoff and wouldn't recommend it for this reason. I would say that the show’s strongest point is its comedy and so anyone looking for a good few comedic reaction faces and decent gags would do fine in watching the show however there is a fair amount of drama as well so its not a pure comedy by any means.

This is one of the few anime I got to watch with my brother all the way until the end, which is quite the rare feat. It isn't all that surprising, however. If you read the summary or watched the show already, you know its plot and characters show potential, or that it at least is serviceable/enjoyable. ... Serviceable it was indeed, but it's nothing more than that quality-wise. The plot is basically about this chick named Hiyori saving a guy from a car accident but in the process, becoming half-dead (her soul can leave her body and all that jazz). That guy turns out tobe a minor god named Yato who wants to have his own shrine with many followers one day by doing all sorts of services in exchange for five yen each. Wanting him to turn her back to normal, Hiyori sticks to him because she has to remind the guy that he needs to solve her problem practically every time she sees him. Well, when you get down to it, this conflict stops having any actual importance a few (2 or 3, I think) episodes later, so uh, no wonder Yato basically shrugs it off. Anyway, gods apparently need these spirit things called Regalias to cut down phantoms and basically be their personal servants, which is where the third protagonist Yukine (can also be Yuki or Sekki because these Regalias apparently have three different names for some reason) comes in to become Yato's Regalia. The story follows these three characters, and the conflicts they go through together... or... something like... that... Pfft. Yeah, right. You're at first made to think the focus is gonna be on Hiyori and Yato, and trying to get her back to normal, but that's a ruse. Instead, Hiyori turns into thin air and acts on nothing despite her initial actions making you think she'd be a decent girl protagonist and Yukine's problems become the focus of the show for way too many episodes, especially when you consider the fact that it all could have been solved if Yato and Yukine just bothered talking to each other about said problems. However, how could there be the magnificent/pointless thing called misunderstandings if they just talked to each other like normal people? I mean, Yato's not technically a person anyway, am I right? I wasn't asking for the story to be about taking down phantoms, the recurring monsters that influence people on bad levels that only the people on the Far Shore (aka the afterlife) can see, and figuring out how to get Hiyori back to normal: in hindsight, focusing on creatures with no character or depth whatsoever would make for a dull episodic format, which I wouldn't want. However, I also wasn't asking for it to go in this strange direction, all the way until episode 9 at that! The problem with this, if you put aside the bit of stupidity present, is really just the fact that it takes up the majority of the show, and not that it's focusing on a character, or that character in particular: focusing on him is great and all, but I also wanted focus on other characters throughout the anime, like, I dunno, Hiyori (too much to ask out of the show). Anyway, after that, you're introduced to the final arc (I guess: if you consider the beginning to be one arc, and the Yukine part another, then this would be the last arc in the anime), where there's a fairly dramatic conflict caused by a villain that challenges the friendship formed between the three protagonists. Sounds good, right? Even better, you see that no matter what methods are used, this dramatic conflict doesn't get solved so easily, and instead, the villain has to be confronted in this great climax of a final fight and episode. Hyped, aren't you (if you aren't, just roll with it!)? ... Let me tell you why this didn't work: - There's this character cooperating with the villain who has clear ties to Yato's background and seems really important overall, and yet you get to know nothing about her. At all. Even though you can basically attribute the good dramatic part of this arc to her, you don't see anything about her! - The villain himself is mediocre. Serviceable, even, like the whole show. Even though he was somewhat hyped with stuff like the opening and whatnot, he's really as generic as you can get. Needless to say I was disappointed, as you'd expect someone more... important or grand from the villain that shows up at the end. You could replace him with a different guy with an equally generic backstory and nothing would really change; - The fight's not very interesting. It's basically sword fighting, with no noteworthy moves and, well, it's emotional and, uh, um, power-ups, I guess (the pinacle of fine writing). Seriously, the people behind this anime even bothered to put a PANTY SHOT in the midst of the final episode (possibly the most pointless panty shot in the world, by the way, and panty shots are practically pointless to begin with), and it's not like Noragami is littered with fanservice or anything like that! It can make up for not being anything special by the stakes being high (making things more emotional and getting you to care about what's happening), which they were... somewhat. If you care about the characters, that is. Besides, you can't really care about the action when... - The resolution of the conflict and climax is just stupid. As in, devoid of intelligence, yes. I can even give you examples: Yato is very, very early on established to being able to teleport. He teleports a fair amount of times in the show. He tends to scare Hiyori with this from appearing so suddenly! Teleporting is a total thing with Yato. And yet, Yato doesn't teleport at the very end, when it's needed most, to save a really important x that's on the verge of falling (avoiding spoilers as much as possible), basically dooming what he was trying to save in the first place. Why? Because consistency, man: this show has it in spades, I guess. The stupidity doesn't end here, however: I'm just gonna tell you straight up that every method used to try to solve this conflict, which were legitimate attempts, apparently pales in comparison to the CLEARLY much more meaningful solution of "I can smell dudes!". Not even joking (beyond the sarcasm). And that's when the situation's seemingly hopeless in every aspect! Like, are you freaking kidding me?! In general, when it comes to the plot of Noragami, my brother even goes as far as to say that "It's like the show was passed around ten different people" (basically, that it's all over the place) and you can kind of see what he's talking about. It's first about gods and phantoms and Hiyori's problems (somewhat), but then it starts being all about Yukine, and afterwards it shifts its focus 100% to Yato and gods and the final stuff with their friendship. If you think about it, phantoms are basically irrelevant to the final arc, Yukine's stuff is irrelevant to the first arc, and Hiyori herself becomes irrelevant for a good chunk of the show. They just have no connections whatsoever with each other, so it really feels like certain details get suddenly forgotten along the way for no reason whatsoever. Even though I could sort of sense (with shipping goggles) Yato/Hiyori shipping coming with the show, my brother and I legit got misled into thinking Hiyori/Yukine was gonna be a thing midway to the point where my brother got confused when this turned out not to be the case at all. Despite these direction problems, you do end up being behind the developments of Noragami: it's that serviceable. Part of that's because of the equally serviceable cast of characters. Yato is a likable, cheerful guy, and a lot of humor comes from him. He wants to be well-known, and us, the viewers, want to see that happening too. He's also mysterious in the sense that there's a lot of backstory to him that we don't know, and that he's not devoid of a serious side. However, we don't get to know anything truly relevant about Yato's past in this anime beyond the fact that he has many female acquaintances and that he killed stuff or whatever (totally unexpected of a god of war, huh?). Not only that, but his serious side wasn't what you'd call meaningful: it just seemed like it was there for the sake of being there, as in, "Ooooh no, I'm serious, you can't get close to me!". You know, that sort of thing that easily gets brushed off. Yukine's also not that bad of a character. You can't expect him to be rainbows and sunshine when he's a spirit who's died at a young age, after all. It's just that he was the victim of that middle arc, which I can imagine got many people annoyed with him. Sure, he's not that likable when he basically acts all mean towards Yato and whatnot, but it's not like he's insufferable, and he does fit in with the cast alright. Hiyori's another problem entirely. She's shown to be fairly spirited (badum-tss), with an interest in wrestling and overall a personality you can get behind. This goes as far as to have her copy a move from her favorite wrestler to take down a phantom at the very first episode! Sadly, you don't see any of this afterwards. Instead, she just happens to be 'there' for the rest of the show. You can understand why this is the case: she has no ties with the stuff happening; only Yato and Yukine do. Even so, that doesn't excuse the striking flaw of making a pointless protagonist: when you have a protagonist, they have to have some sort of tie with the events of the story, some role, or at least participate in something. However, Hiyori doesn't do anything special until final episodes, though you could argue she actually doesn't do much there either seeing as it's still Yato saving the day and she's basically a damsel in distress. While I also can't call her a wasted potential because she's not amazing or anything of the sort, she was definitely poorly-handled. I'd literally get surprised whenever Hiyori had some semblance of focus in the middle of the show, like, "Oh, wait, she isn't being thin air now?". It was pitiful. The supporting characters are alright, I guess. They weren't explored all that much, like a lot of the actually interesting stuff going on in the show related to Yato. After all... everything is tied to Yato. Might as well call the show 'Yatogami', am I right? Overall, the character cast is nothing special as far as I could tell from watching the show. Like the story, it's likable, enjoyable and serviceable. The same applies to the art and sound. The art looks pretty good, and some of the designs for the phantoms were somewhat creepy, along with the voices they'd have. The character designs are also good, and the animation's not bad at all. The opening's pretty cool to listen to, but I personally didn't really like the rest of the soundtrack. The techno-ish, japanese style-ish sounds with some dude singing out vowels just did not appeal to me (with this, I'm referring to the more prominent tracks). Even so, I can't say it didn't fit the anime. When it comes to voice acting, Hiroshi Kamiya did a good job as always, Yuki Kaji was chosen for an unfortunate role as always and Hiyori’s voice was somehow growing to annoy my brother. In other words, it was good, I guess. Despite the criticism I throw at it, my brother and I were enjoying Noragami a fair amount: though I knew it'd be worthy of a 5 (which doesn't count as a negative score to me) from the get-go, I didn't have a terrible time watching it. Even my brother, who doesn't watch anime all that much and drops anything if the tiniest thing doesn't appeal to him, wanted to see it through to the end, which is definitely saying something about how enjoyable it is to watch, and not in that 'so bad it's good' way. Instead, Noragami is the kind of show you enjoy in that 'turn your brain off and it's a masterpiece' way, and there's nothing wrong with that. After all, it is really serviceable. ... Seeing something yet? Like me hammering the fact that Noragami's serviceable? Because that's really the point of the review. To point out that Noragami's an alright show. That it's enjoyable, likable, 'meh'. There's nothing really deep you get out of it, and you don't have to either. It doesn't convey anything truly meaningful or absolutely breathtaking, but that's fine: you can pass time with this anime. The story's enjoyable, the characters are likable, the production values are pretty nice, and it's overall a serviceable, 'meh' show. There's nothing in it that makes me feel anything more. But that's not what I can call a flaw. So, well, I suppose I'd recommend this to basically anyone as a way to kill time. It can appeal to a lot of people, after all. I mean, it's even got a second season now... which I'll never watch. Though I've originally written the review before such an announcement was even made, I decided to re-write it since its writing quality wasn't good enough, in my opinion, to get my points across. Let's hope it's actually better now. Either way, I can imagine that Noragami won't fail to deliver the same quality with its second season, so if you really liked this show, you might as well give that a try. Serviceable it was indeed, but serviceable never hurt anyone.

Noragami Full Review Have you ever felt that you wanted an anime with relatable and well-written characters, coupled with an interesting story filled with action and comedy? Well, look no further, because Noragami is here. Story (9/10): Noragami’s story, I would have to say, be a rather unique one. I say so because the anime spends a lot of time in the beginning introducing you to the characters, and make you wonder, just where is the main story? When are they going to get on with it? However, that’s where this anime shines. The overarching story has been there the whole time – blended well with the characterdevelopments, which provides an even stronger impact when it reaches the climax. So, what is Noragami mainly about? I would say that it is the relationships between our characters, and what they did to solve them. Why did I give the story a 9 out of 10, then? This is because of how relatable these stories are, and of course the valuable lessons it has taught us – Appreciate what you have. Characters (10/10): I have one word for Noragami’s main cast and side cast: “Amazing”. This was perhaps one of the few anime where the cast support and play off each other so well, that makes it not only seem realistic, but also a joy to watch as well. Not forgetting, the characters by the end of the series have totally changed from what they used to be in the first episodes. Yato is a God who doesn’t have a shrine built for him, and so grants people wishes for 5 yen, in hopes that one day, he’ll finally get enough money to built a shrine for himself. In the anime, Yato is more like a fatherly figure to all of the other characters. Sure, he fools around, but he always does what’s best for the group, even though his reasons are not seen immediately. That’s just like how a father is, isn’t it. One who doesn’t always seem to be there with you but supporting you quietly. While Yato is like a fatherly figure, Hiyori is the motherly figure. I would say that she is the exact opposite to Yato. She looks at things mostly on the surface, but she is always there to support both Yato and Yukine, often reprimanding them for their actions. But why is this so? It’s because she cares for them, just like a mother would. Additionally, in the beginning of the anime, most people would think that Hiyori would be this damsel in distress; basically a useless character that needed saving by the guys. However, this is not the case, as we see she can capably handle herself in fights, and sometimes even be the one to help out both Yukine and Yato. I’ll be spending a little bit more time to talk about Yukine. I would say that Yukine is probably the most controversial character in the series. There has been a lot of hate towards him, but I’ll have to say that the hate is unjustified. Why? Yukine is a teenager. Merely a 13-year-old boy. Of course by that age he would know from right and wrong, but from 13 to 18 years of age, it is known as the rebellious age. You know what is right and wrong, but you still commit the wrongdoings anyway. Why? Because it is fun to disobey the rules. Rules are meant to be broken, right? Everyone, or almost everyone has been in this stage before (unless you’re under 13 of course). That is why Yukine was acting the way he was. However, the problem kicks in when his rebellious nature is coupled with the longing to belong somewhere. This is yet another trait of the teenagers. In school, just as Yato mentions, everyone wants to be popular right? Everyone wants to have the most friends. The point here is that Yukine is dead, and he cannot interact with them. Yet the living, which can have almost everything and anything that Yukine doesn’t, complain and do not appreciate it. Chasing after something he can never obtain… That is what made Yukine lose his mind. Art (9/10): The art looks really beautiful. You can notice this especially with the character designs (just look at Yato’s eyes) and during the fight scenes. The destruction of the phantoms after Yato’s killing blow looks amazing. I do have one little gripe though, they reuse the same animation when Yato does his final move every episode. Yes, I get that that’s because it's the same move, but it would be great if they could vary that up a bit. Sound (9/10): The soundtrack is great since it matches every scene perfectly, whether it being a scary scene, or action scene. I have to give credit to the phantom’s voices, for being so creepily fitting. Of course, our voice actors are amazing as well, being able to bring both the comedy and serious voices when they are required. The Opening and Ending are both really, really good; There’s no way you’d want to skip that. Enjoyment (9/10): The only problem I have with Noragami, is perhaps the wait every week. Just as something interesting was about to happen, the episode ends. In other words, I enjoyed it immensely. This is mainly because they know when to inject comedy, and when to make it serious. Overall (9/10): Noragami is a really amazing anime. It not only provides great characters, but awesome stories that are highly relatable. Coupled with beautiful art and soundtrack, this anime is a must watch.