Noragami Season 1 Series Survey: It Isn’t Simple Being a Divine being

Noragami is one of those anime that I instantly fell in love with. From the opening song to the vibrant colors, the decent action and interesting powers, the humor and the drama, everything just hit me right from episode 1. Possibly it is because we don’t start with the normal character introduction and then something weird happens but instead, we see a super dramatic world with a voice-over of a girl who is in desperate pain and the voices of those tormenting her. Just as things hit their worst and you think something truly horrible is about to happen, a single coin is flipped through the air and a confident voice declares that their wish has been heard.

There’s real drama and human emotion, but the show isn’t trying to drag you through the depths of despair. There is really an over-the-top comedy, just watch the episode with the character who attempts suicide by jumping off the roof and how Yato goes through the process of exchanging cards with the guy and discusses his life story during the plummet (to which even the side characters start wondering how tall the building must be) and you will get a good idea that this show isn’t trying to be deadly serious in its presentation. The show cuts from serious, to insane, to stupid, and back again in the space of one line of dialogue and yet somehow manages not to feel like a mishmash of ideas but rather like this is exactly what they were aiming for.
The issue with Bishamon is kind of dealt with (though it will be season 2 before the show adequately deals with that and I’ll review that later) and the show shifts to bringing in a character from Yato’s past for a fight scene that really just feels like they wanted to end the season with a dramatic clash of swords. Possibly this ending could have worked except that it wasn’t as interesting as the fight with Bishamon and it seemed to come more or less out of nowhere just to round out the season. They did build some ties in with earlier events, but mostly it just feels like filler which is more or less what it is given it has no bearing on season 2.

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