Noragami: Stray God

Noragami is officially over, so it's time to leave my review. I consider that Noragami is a manga with a story that captivates you from the beginning, the protagonists are very attractive and interesting characters, the way the story is told is also quite good, you will hardly get lost while reading. Overall, if you're new to manga, Noragami is a great place to start. On the other hand, the art in Noragami is gorgeous, it has incredible character and background design, the lines are fabulous, and you can really appreciate each panel. Honestly, Noragami is a manga that you can read several times and still get excitedas if it were the first time. Noragami is amazing and I recommend it to anyone, you definitely won't regret it.

ending was ass. Started this in middle school and now I'm in college and I loved this series until the last maybe five or four chapters. It really felt like lost potential. Noragami was sooo much fun, art was beautiful, and the story was so different. Problems were complex and made you wonder how everything was going to get solved. Now I'm thinking the author themselves didn't know how to solve them. Characters were all interesting, full of personality, and lovable. But character development dissipated into the air like gas with the brainless solution to all the problems they were facing at the end andjapan really needs to ban the [minor spoiler--------!!!] amnesia/forgetting everything trope. It's a cheap cop out. I see people trying to justify the ending and yeah, maybe it wasn't horrible, but I had high expectations because the story was that good. Now if you don't care about how stories end, this series is for you.

Noragami is certainly great and I, most definitely recommend this series. However, that being said, the series does have flaws. So what did Noragami do right? What did it do wrong? Story- 7/10 Noragami certainly has a interesting premise, and a fresh take on Shintoism in general. And the Noragami story can be split into (in my opinion), three distinct sections. Lets look at each section separately. (1st part) 10/10 The story starts out with our main character, Yato, who is a carefree, playful, god who, contradictory to his great power, lacks maturity. Comedic at times with a simple storyline, it is quite enjoyable. It creates astrong base and rules that are expanded upon for the rest of the series. (2nd part) 9/10 Then, the story starts diving into deeper, more complex issues while retaining some comedy. Using the strong base it created, it further expands into the Noragami Shintoism universe, and is also quite enjoyable like the first part. Furthermore the author creates bigger goals that can be pursued throughout the series (like a main antagonist and romance -///-). (3rd part) 5/10 The final few volumes were certainly a disappointing compared to the rest of the series. The story progresses too fast as too much is forced into the story. The storyline starts to become a mess, as it becomes hard to understand until it falls into chaos. Many questions are left unanswered, and the rules set in the first part are (sometimes) ignored for cheap plot. It tries to become everything and it loses the "Noragami" feeling it had in the first two parts. Even the characters lose the special magic they had. Art- 9/10 Beautiful and satisfying. Clean crisp lines and well crafted panels with interesting angles and shading. The fight scenes and character designs are crafted very well. One of my favorite art styles, and it looks especially gorgeous in physical volumes. That being said, like the story, it starts to slack in the final part of the manga. The angles and panels look rushed, lack depth, and doesn't have the same care it had at the start of the series. I believe this is partially due to the manga publisher, as it is evident they overworked and pushed the mangaka, forcing them to cut quality for speed and quantity. Otherwise it was great. Personally, I really enjoyed the unique angles and the flow the manga had, which paired well with the well crafted character design. Characters- 10/10 The characters are the strongest suit in this series. Each character has depth like no other series. I also enjoyed that some character's personality ties back to their shinto root which I greatly appreciated. The depth for characters are created over the whole extent of the manga, being built upon by the story. I have never felt so much hatred towards characters I loved and vise versa. I really really loved each and every character, but- (I think you know where this is going)... The characters were lacking in the end. The characters didn't have time to mature, and the readers also didn't have time the understand the motives. The characters just didn't seem like themselves by the end. For these reasons stated above I give Noragami a 9/10. Would certainly recommend, its always pretty easy reading the first few chapters to see whether you enjoy it or not. But yea- Thank you Noragami, it was a great journey, and I hope you (the reader) embarks on the same Noragami journey that I started years ago. P.S. The anime for Noragami isn't true to the Manga and its kinda ass... would certainly recommend the manga over the anime. Bye!

Open your eyes. After so many years together with this amazing series it's over, and it pains me to even admit it because as many people previously said and will continue to say, it grew with me. But as a parting gift, let's leave a review. This manga was so profound and thought provoking, genuinely. There's one thing that made me so attached to Noragami all these years and it's Yato. Yato knows who he is, but who is he really? He's a god yes but should he fit in those strict standards of being a deity? He's always been an outsider, always seen as an outsiderand always treated as one. This manga is him accepting himself, accepting his reality. As the story enrolls we go through many moments where Yato has to face the harsh truth, he's not like the others, he will never be. So he challenges himself and he wins even though he may suffer casualties, one of them being Hiyori. Hiyori is also portrayed as an outsider, not as bad as Yato but she's still different. She likes boxing, she's outspoken, but she knows who she is and she embraces it, her loved ones as well, except her family who actually don't know about her hobby but they do love her genuinely no matter what and that's why she never ceases to stand proud. She knows people will always be there for her but what about Yato? What support does Yato have? Nora? But she's got so many other people up her sleeves besides him. Yato's just one of her pawns. Hiyori? But she has people who love her, he can't ask for support and put her in more danger. Yukine? What can he do? He's in the same position. But then he's given a hand how could he even fathom the idea of rejecting it? So he grabs it. He loses himself again, he forgets who he is, who he was trying to be. He goes back to his old self because it's easier, there's no pain in even fighting what people said about him. He'll just be what they say, why fight? Days pass, Yato's still in this unconscious state, bliss. No pain, no thinking. Suddenly, he's reminded of who he really is and then he finally accepts it. He's Yato, he's not like any other god and he can't change his story but he can change what will happen next in the future. It's the story of accepting your roots but not letting them define you, it's the story of being in harmony within yourself. It's learning with the character that it may be wrong for someone else but it doesn't mean that it should define your own point of view, your own person. Noragami is the journey within one's self harmony, it's one's self discovery and it's beautiful.