Noragami Anime Review
Written by: ClayDragon
Over the
course of viewing anime, we’ve been led to believe that, whenever a god appears
in one of these works, they will be powerful, noble beings, usually with a
strong moral code. Noragami takes a
somewhat different approach in that Yato, the main character and the titular
stray god, is a lazy, greedy, and selfish person who is determined to claw his
way to the top and become Japan’s most revered god. Sadly for him, he’s too
much of a goofball to actually succeed. A loveable goofball, sure, but a
goofball nonetheless.
Ladies and gentlemen, our hero. |
Yato is so
desperate to get his name out there that he takes any odd jobs he can get his
hands on, from painting to hunting lost pets. During his hunt for a missing
cat, he nearly gets run over by a lorry, but Hiyori Iki, a normal high-school
girl, takes the hit for him (despite gods being invisible to most humans). This
causes Hiyori’s soul to become separated from her body on occasion, and she
decides to stick with Yato until he can fix it.
The core
cast is rounded out by Yukine, the spirit of a dead boy who becomes Yato’s
shinki (a spirit that can transform into a weapon in order to help gods
exorcise demons). The three misfits thus have to stay together in order to
accomplish their respective goals, whilst also defeating any demons or villains
that they come across. Oh, and they need to stop themselves from beating each
other up. It’s that sort of friendship.
The main
cast of Noragami is easily its
strongest point. They’re all incredibly lovable and instantly endear themselves
to the audience. Well, except for Yukine, who enters an emo phase roughly a
third of the way through the season. Thankfully, he doesn’t stay this way, and
his experiences kickstart some major character development. Not just for him,
but for Yato and Hiyori too. Each character develops in their own way, and they
change so subtly throughout the series that, when you compare their actions at
the start and end of the show, the contrast can be quite surprising.
The
secondary characters are just as memorable. Kofuku – the god of poverty – is a
bubbly, energetic girl who is joined by Daikoku – her carer/minder/guardian
shinki who frequently has to keep her out of trouble. At the start of the show
they mostly show up to give out some exposition, but they become more relevant
to the plot as time goes on. Similarly, Bishamon (a god of war) initially shows
up as an antagonist, but as she and Yato interact with each other their
relationship goes from them physically attacking each other to them volleying
insults at each other.
To be
honest, the only characters that I didn’t really care for were the main
villains. Nora is a shinki who has some sort of dark history with Yato, and it
could be said that she serves as the main antagonist. But by the end of the
series, we still barely know anything about her, including her background and
motivations. Likewise, the ‘final boss’ of the series, Rabou, is a god of
calamity who is determined to fight Yato to the death, but not only is he
forgettable, his entire existence just screams ‘filler’. And since he’s the
only character in the series to be created for the anime, that’s exactly the
case.
The
animation is very good, and the faces in particular are well done, especially because
of how expressive they can be. The use of colour helps too, as each character
is represented by a different colour (blue for Yato, etc), and certain scenes,
like flashbacks, use this to its full extent. Even the opening animation uses
this style, being mostly monochrome apart from each character’s signature
colour. And on that note, the opening is awesome.
The music, the animation…both are brilliant.
Noragami has one more major thing going
for it – it is hilarious. The series
could easily have been your standard shonen show with a lot of action and a few
funny moments peppered in here and there, but there’s at least one moment in
every episode that caused me to laugh out loud. Some of the expressions alone
are funny, but the anime takes the relationships between the different
characters and mines them for every bit of humour available.
There are
also two OVAs, one that focuses on Hiyori’s first day in high school, and
another that shows all the gods and shinki getting together to admire the
cherry blossoms. Of course, this being the show it is, it doesn’t take long for
chaos to unfold, whether it’s caused by Yato possessing Hiyori’s body or Yato
getting drunk and snarking at Bishamon. The second OVA in particular is
memorable for causing one of my favourite reaction shots in all of anime:
When I first
watched Noragami, it was sub-only, as
there was no dub at the time. However, the dub has since been released, but I
haven’t actually watched it. As such, I can’t really recommend which version to
go for, so it comes down to your personal preference. At the time of writing
this review, a second season of Noragami
has been announced as part of the Fall 2015 anime season. Since (I assume) it
will follow the manga storyline, then it might negate my main grip with the
show – the lacklustre villains.
Overall, Noragami is good. Really, really good.
There are only 12 episodes (14 counting the OVAs), so it’s not a long series by
any definition. But it’s packed with emotion, and the characters and humour
make it one of the most entertaining anime shows that I’ve seen. As I’ve
previously stated, the only problem with it is the underwhelming villains, and
since there’s a good chance that that will be fixed in the next season, the
only flaw pretty much becomes a moot point.
Good Things: The likeable, entertaining main trio.
Memorable and
funny supporting cast.
Good animation
(especially the expressions).
Awesome opening.
It’s very, very funny.
Bad Things: Underdeveloped
villains.
Yukine’s emo
stage.
Final Verdict:
Amazing. |
Do you have a suggestion for an anime I should review? Let me know in the comments, or submit it to ask.fm/ClayDragon! Thanks to the anonymous ask.fm user who requested this review!
.....Wheee. |
ClayDragon is currently studying Physics at university, and is constantly bewildered by it. The main method of contacting him is his Gmail account at claydragon.on@gmail.com. He has an ask.fm account at ask.fm/ClayDragon. When not playing games or reading, he can be found with his head in his hands whilst trying in vain to understand quantum physics. This review cost five yen to make.
All those gifs bring back so many memories from when I watched the show. Can't stop laughing !!
ReplyDeleteI was having difficulty choosing exactly what gifs and images to use in the review, mainly because there were so many funny ones! I'll have to use the excess ones in some Top 10 entries.
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