Noragami

Noragami is supernatural, action, comedy anime, based on a manga, written by Adachitoka.  It has been serialized in Monthly Shonan Magazine since late 2010.   It’s director, Kotaro Tamura, is a relatively new director, as Noragami is his first professional directing job.  This animation production studio is a little more well known.  Studio BONES is a studio that at it’s best is hard to top in terms of the quality of animation.  Some of BONES’s most well known works include Eureka Seven and Fullmetal Alchemist.

Norgami is a heavily character driven series.  The show spends a large part of the first 6 episodes introducing the audience to the main characters Yato, Hiyori and Yukine.  Yato is a “Yato-God” and a god of calamity.  His dark past is hinted at during the course of the anime’s run and his history eventually comes into play as the anime reaches it’s end.  However, for the majority of the anime, Yato is a goofy, relatively unknown god in the world whose dream is to someday own his own shine.  He is the source of much of the comedy in the series.  Yukine a spirit of the dead who eventually becomes Yato’s “Regalia”, a tool to be used in combat.  Yato finds Yukine, alone and scared, and after naming Yukine, Yato takes the boy under his wing and gives his “afterlife” a purpose.  Hiyori, the female spice of the anime, get’s involved with Yato when she one day attempts to rescue him from being hit by a bus.  The result is that Hiyori is separated from her mortal body.  Her spirit form appears to be a duplicate of her mortal form, except for a long pink tail.  Hiyori and Yato become fast friends and she asks Yato to help her find a way to restore herself to normal.

As this series progressed, I found myself wondering whether or not we were ever going to be introduced to a plot based conflict, or villain.  The series seemingly was satisfied offering the audience endless “odd jobs” for Yato to perform and comedy that is hit or miss.  Whether or not there would be conflict, I eventually got my answer.  The central conflict is resolved around episode nine.  Spoilers aside, this anime’s conflicts lie internally within it’s characters.  Each character in this series has some problem that eventually get addressed one way or  another.  The primary conflict lies within Yato and Yukine.  After being skeptical about this anime’s eventual conclusion, the resolution to their conflict was worth the wait.  I found it to be one of the most compelling single episodes of the Winter 2014 anime season.

Following the story climax, is three more episodes that also center around Yato and an acquaintance from his past.  While this portion of the anime certainly sports what is probably the most compelling animation and action in the series, it felt like an afterthought after the intense and gripping scenes of the prior arc’s conclusion.  It didn’t necessarily take anything away from the anime but it felt a little underwhelming.  Also, without spoiling anything, the anime clearly has been left wide open to have a sequel.  Considering that this anime is based on a relatively long running manga, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a sequel in the coming seasons.

As far as the animation and action goes, they are both above average.  Studio BONES again did a great job making sure that the animation was consistent through the series’s run and that the quality was quite high.  Those who like samurai style sword fighting will find themselves especially engrossed by this series’s approach to combat.  The majority of which is done through Yato, who uses his “regalia”, Yukine, whom he can transform at will into as sword named, “Sekki.”

All in all, Noragami was a very good show that is recommended to people who like action with a bit of comedy.  There is enough of to keep fans of both genre interested.  Keep in mind however that this show is a supernatural series, so those not a fan of spirits, gods, and phantoms, might not appreciate that aspect of the show.  I thought Noragami was one of the best shows of the Winter 2014 season.  A real treat to watch.

 [starrater]