Noragami: My Impressions About This Anime

I was browsing the Most Popular section of an anime website and found this anime with an intriguing name. I checked its genre and after reading Action, Adventure, Shounen, and Fantasy, okay, I'm in.

It's a pretty old anime. Noragami started its season 1 almost a decade ago, from January 2014 to March of the same year. There's a season 2 the following year, which I haven't watched yet. Season 2 is entitled Noragami Aragoto.

_{source: Noragami MyAnimeList}

Warning: From here, there might be spoilers.

Noragami is following the life of a nameless god, Yato (夜ト) and his companions. To fulfill his dream of being a popular god surrounded by many shrine maidens and a big temple, he's doing odd jobs - from cleaning the molds of a bathroom to slaying phantoms.

I almost give up watching when I saw the first scene. It was dark, creepy and just not my cup of tea. I was actually thinking to myself if this anime was worth my time because I didn't feel like watching horror. That scene ended fast with Yato slaying the Phantom in a school. Actually, the first scene showed the creepiness and disturbing Phantoms at school because of the uneasiness of the students with their exams.

The Phantoms were beings from the Far Shore, where the gods also exists. They were in the Near Shore, where the living were, and they're created from humans' sins, fears and well let's just say, the dark side. There's a scene where a phantom was feeding lies to a human, which would cause the human's suicide but it was saved thanks to our main character. It's the job of the gods to slay them and keep them in check so as not to cause the humans problems.

So yeah, back to Yato, our main character. He's awesome and he showed that in the first scene at school. His weapon is a sword which is actually his partner, a dead uncorrupted human he made contract with. By calling the name he assigned, his partner would become his sword and when he calls the personified name, his partner would revert back to being a person. For me, this was pretty cool and the gods know when to call them with their names. Just awesome I think.

Yato's weapon partner was a woman named Tomone but that woman got fed up with him so she wanted out. Yato was kind enough to release the woman from the contract - which bothered me a little bit because he didn't really pursue or woo the woman. So after the woman was released, Yato was defenseless because he had no weapon.

While he was taking a job to look for a cat with funny name, he crossed paths with another main character, Iki Hiyori. The next scene was Hiyori saving Yato from a car accident. Because of that car accident, Hiyori became half human and half phantom. She slept wherever and whenever and her soul would be wandering. She followed Yato and that's when the two became inseparable friends.

Wait, did I say friends? Are they lovers? No, but there seems to be an unspoken romance brewing in them. Could be my imagination. 😏

Later on, Yato found his strongest weapon partner, a teenager boy he named Yukine. Yato knew Yukine's age was the rebellious state but still, he made contract with him and trusted him to the point that he was taking suffering every time Yukine did something sinful. Even though Yato was in lot of pain from Yukine's sinful desires and acts, he still wouldn't give up on Yukine. The two rekindled their relationship after Yukine admitted his mistakes, with the help of other weapon partners from other gods.

While the anime was incredible and the characters lovable and funny, it's easy to forget the anime. I don't know why but I think it's because of the story. It's true that Yato takes odd jobs to become a popular god, but that's just it. Most of the episodes in the first season focused on Yukine's rebellious state and how Yato endured that to the point of him almost dying. After that trouble was resolved, another god appeared and wanted to clash swords with Yato.

I just wasn't sure where the anime was going but all the scenes were really amazing and well thought of.

Oh and about Hiyori, she wanted to be back to normal so she requested Yato for it but Yato also didn't know how to fix her. The anime didn't focus on this although this was an important thing. It seemed like it's become the adventures of Yato, the minor god of calamity who wanted to be the god of fortune, Hiyori, the half human, half phantom who wanders with Yato, and Yukine, the strong weapon brat who changed for the better.

If I were to describe Noragami in simple terms, that would be hard because I just couldn't find the right words to describe it. Noragami: The Anime About Gods? Noragami: The Daily Life Of The God Yato? Noragami: Making Yato A Big Shot God? It's so hard. 😆

It's not all negative, there were some good points in the anime too. The characters were well thought of, and I learned more about some of the gods of Japan. There are a lot so it's understandable not to know of them all.

The drawing style and the animation were normal for me, and that's a good thing. Loud ones aren't my type, so being normal is just perfect. The voice acting was good too, no complaints on that. The comedy made me entertained.

Watching this anime actually made me thought of the wishes and prayers that I offered to the gods. For every wish and prayer you offered, the gods would take action so if this was the real thing, I wondered how the gods would react to every wish and prayer of everyone. They would be so busy fulfilling everyone's wish, but we know that some wishes won't be granted.

Even when I mentioned this anime would be easy to forget, I still would be watching the next season. Maybe there will be progress on the main things? Who knows. Maybe watching the season 2 would make my mixed feelings of this anime go away.

I heard there should have been a season 3 but sales of the anime and manga didn't do well, so no season 3. There were also some issues with the main authors.

Would I recommend this anime to anyone? Sure, you can go ahead and see for yourself. I had fun watching this anime in just one night so maybe you would too?

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Thanks for reading!
See you around! じゃあ、またね！

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With love,

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_{All photos in this post are taken from Noragami Fandom unless stated otherwise.}