arjun01 - 2014-03-27 00:10:19

Plot: Hiyori Iki was a regular middle school student until she was hit by a bus while trying to save the life of a jersey-wearing person named Yato. This incident causes her to transform into a half-phantom. Soon after she learns that Yato is a god, her life is never the same.

Story: The story of Noragami flows very well. It starts out with Yato doing odd jobs so he can make money to build his own shrine. The odd jobs he does range from cleaning sinks to killing phantoms. Throughout the story the characters develop and you learn more about the other gods that are in this show.

Animation: Noragami was animated by studio Bones. They did a heck of a job with this series. The animation is gorgeous and flows very well throughout the series.

Sound: The music for Noragami is also very good. The highlights are during the battle scenes. The music really sets the mood of this show. Also, the intro is very good and well done. Finally the Japanese voice actors did a great job with their characters.

Characters: I would say the characters are the main focus of this show. Throughout the show the characters develop and you learn more about their past and why they do what they do. Not only does the main character develop in the series many of the side characters also have some good character development. Finally, the thing i like about the characters is there is no one bad character each one has their own reason for doing things and you come to enjoy watching what will happen next to these characters.

Enjoyment: I really enjoyed this anime. Overall, i enjoyed the characters, story, sound and animation. The show kept me interested in how the characters will achieve their overall goals. The only downside to this anime is its ending was a good ending for a season but if there is no season 2 the ending will seem incomplete. I would recommend this to anyone interested in action or fantasy anime regardless of the ending.

emmett80 - 2014-03-24 17:42:25

Thunder's Review no.1: Noragami

It seems that Noragami caught attention of many this winter season, witch is understandable based on the fact that it's produced by studio Bones, famous for their rather high production values. Additionally being an adaptation of rather famous manga certainly make it a high priority show for many. Is Noragami really worth attention it gets from the community? Well, it is definitely enjoyable show but it have its share of problems that keep it from being really good.

In world of Noragami gods exist and walk the earth in secret. Just as in human society some have it better than others. There are those who have legions of followers and many shrines dedicated to them and those lesser gods that have to run around as errand boys to require believers. Our main protagonist, war god Yato ranks among the latter. Day by day Yato bravely hunt hollows (monstrosities born of human suffering) and brush toilets clean for a low price of 5 yen per wish. One day he stumbles upon a girl named Iki Hiyori and saves her life. By doing so Yato grubbed her soul out of her body and she became a half hollow. And so our favorite war god try to help Hiyori get back to normal. Of course things get complicated on the way. Hiyori gets introduced to different gods and a whole different world alien to her.

The story have some interesting concepts, mostly surrounding Yatos past but many things are just introduced to us just to be left out in the dark later on. Noragami obviously suffers from the same problem as other manga adaptations, parts of the story are just being left out of the anime or simply didn't get there yet. The ending is not that great either and do a poor job on summarizing everything up and giving us a decent conclusion. Still, story have some value to it. It's interesting enough to keep you engage so you can enjoy the rest of what this show have to offer. It also include some good morals you can keep with you as you leave the show behind if you care for that sort of things. I know that I do to some degree.

As expected of studio Bones Noragami is beautifully animated. Movements are fluid, light effects flashy and backgrounds full of details. Of course fight scenes are parts when the animations are on their best. Even comedy parts of the show keep up the high quality of animation. Also I have to give a praise for character designs they are quite memorable, mostly thanks to colour contrasts. There are just few short moments when animation quality drops for a moment and they are not easily found.

Soundtrack in Noragami is different from what you will hear in other shows. It have original sound to it. There are few trucks that stand out witch of my favorite is Noratan, it appear to pump up atmosphere when something epic is about to happen. Just listen to it:

Opening is very good, both when it comes to song(performed by "Hello Sleepwalkers") and the animation. In fact when I watched opening first time I thought that it was animated by SHAFT and that it's saying something about its quality. Ending was all right (girls with umbrellas getting really popular nowadays).

The voice acting was also top quality featuring some of the best in the industry. Even Mr. Fukuyama known mainly for his role as Lelouch in Code Geass voiced one of the characters.

There is a lot of interesting characters present, sadly we don't get to know much of their past. Even when they are members of the main cast. Nonetheless most of the characters are charismatic and fun to watch. Everybody of the main cast goes through bigger or lesser development. It's rushed, it's forced but it's their. Hopefully we'll get second season that will explain backstory of the key characters more, or I would be forced to read manga. When I think about it, it doesn't sounds that bad.

Thanks to great production value, decent comedy, amazing fight scenes and overall coolness of the show I enjoyed it quite a lot. If we would just get good conclusion at the end it would be great.

Noragami turned out to be a decent show, definitely worth few hours of my cold winter evenings. When it's failed to give us story with good conclusion its high production values and overall coolness make it enjoyable to watch.

madie.deckow - 2014-03-24 03:16:29

Noragami is another tragic example of an anime adaptation made too soon. Which is an unfortunate facet of an industry that tends to see adaptations only as expensive commercials for the source material rather than products of their own. Thus the first nine episodes are based on the original manga and the last three were made entirely for this anime.

From the first episode, I surmised that this was going to be a series with relatively entertaining and interesting characters, but would also be largely aimless plot-wise. And guess what? I was right on the money. The cast is small, well-founded and work great off of each other, though development is scarce apart from one or two major exceptions. And for that reason, they get a pass but not a glowing commendation.

But as I said, the plot is largely kind of aimless the entire way through. Yato has the very long-term goal of becoming a popular and successful God with his own shrine and legions of believers but he never seems all that intent on making major strides toward that goal. He mostly just takes odd jobs for ridiculously low pay and gets mixed up in other people's problems along the way. It's all entertaining, but there's no main focus or plotline to be found. And by the time the anime-exclusive ending rolls around, many many things are just left unresolved.

Basically the anime-only ending exists solely because they didn't have time left in the show's 1-cour run to adapt another full arc, but this had the side effect of dropping almost all the build-up from previous episodes and never returning to it. If it hadn't been entertaining, I'd say it was almost a waste of time. I was really enjoying the show during its run, but in retrospect I see a lot of issues plaguing it.

The one saving grace is that it is based on a manga and not a light novel series. Manga scanlations are abundant whereas light novel translations are far more rare, so if you wanted to check out where the series goes past Episode 9, you can do so. That doesn't have much bearing on this anime specifically, but as a consumer, you should have the right to know that.

The production values are quite good. The visual style is soothing and fluid, but not so much that it disregards attention to detail, as so many other BONES shows tend to do. The music is surprisingly really good as well, the battle themes in particular wouldn't feel out of place in a Persona game. The OP and ED are both fantastic and the seiyuu all do great jobs.

Noragami is definitely a fun time to be had, but it is a shallow and somewhat incomplete one. I was going to give the show a 6, for being above average, but in the end decided to bump it up to 7 just for being wrapped in such a pretty package. Don't expect anything amazing, but do expect to be well entertained.

Rewatch Value: Maybe. (On a Yes/Maybe/No scale)

purdy.kyle - 2014-03-23 22:06:41

Impressive Anime with credible and loveable Characters an exciting and novel story and a Sh*tload of thrilling Cliffhanger in it's just 12 Episodes so far.

Can't wait for more. ★★★★★

bettie33 - 2014-03-09 20:27:51

Noragami, tumblr’s favourite anime of the 2014 winter season. Noragami created a fandom of it’s own after the very first episode, but was it good? Since this is my first review I’ll be explaining my rating “system”. I’ll be rating the anime by story, the animation, the soundtrack and characters.

The Story

Noragami is the story about the delivery god Yato ; he’s fast, affordable and reliable. At least that’s what he claims to be. Yato stumbled upon a middle school student known as Hiyori Iki, Hiyori can’t stay in her own body. At any given point in time she could fall asleep, and wake up in her spirit form. Hiyori and Yato quickly encounter creatures known as phantoms, spirit beasts that are out to make the common man’s life a lot harder. One of Yato’s tasks is to get rid of these creatures, to do that he needs a weapons. Yato quickly finds a “Shinki”, a servant to a god, serving as their weapon in combat. The shinki’s name is Yukine, a teenage boy who gets in serious trouble during the story.

There isn’t really any plot until a couple of episodes in, and from the 10^th episode on the anime completely ignores the story of the manga which is understandable since this is only a 12 episode anime but they could hav done a better job. What we got were 3 filler episodes which was to be expected but it didn't work out that well. The show lost it's unique feeling when they introduced a character withouth any substance at all, which supposed to be the main antagonist. The end was very dissapointing and open-ended, which I like to call a "read the manga" ending, which I strongly advice you to do. The story gets a 5.8/10

The animation

The animation is nice, but it’s nothing special either. The show doesn’t have a flashy look to it, but it isn’t needed either. The fight scenes are animated wonderfully and can be quite impressive, especially during the last couple of episodes. The animation gets a well deserved 7.5/10

The sound

Noragami has a great opening, and when I say great I mean it. The ending is decent too, although it’s nothing special. The rest of the music didn't really peak my interest during the actual anime. I decided to give the full OST a listen and it was better than I expected. The tracks each have their own original feeling, for this I give the soundtrack a 7/10.

The Characters

Noragami has a good amount of characters, although it keeps it to about 10 which is a good thing. Although most characters don’t get nearly enough development, they are likable and interesting, which is what made me stick with the anime. 6.7/10

Verdict

Noragami is, in general a good anime, it might not be groundbreaking but it is definitely interesting. It has simple, yet good animation, a decent OST and good characters. Should you watch it? Yes. It might not be the best thing to be released in recent years but it’s refreshing and definitely worth a try. The story lacks a sense of depth and the ending felt rushed and left me unsatisfied. If you have some extra time on your hands, it's definitely worth a try. Noragami gets a 6.7/10.

Since this is my very first review, feedback is appreciated.

bradtke.karen - 2014-02-08 22:08:20

Noragami - Exciting, Fun, a MUST watch! You want more? Watch the first episode and tell me what you thought? XD

martina.boehm - 2014-01-15 11:16:25

It's really interesting. The story is quite awesome. Animation seems fine and it's quite a clear new idea.

I am really hoping for the upcoming episodes~

zetta.cummerata - 2014-01-07 03:11:56

As new seasons start, we are treated much of the same stuff... From the fan service, to the bad Harems, to the plain stupid, we are usually bent over by Japan and (put the children and good christian folks away, HERE) heavily mutilated by their penetration of S***. However, we can easily come along a hidden gem in that pile of previously mentioned fecal matter, and I believe this might be it...

As of the first episode, we have a unique and fresh story based on a God trying to become more popular (fresher then the food served at McDonalds at least). Characters we have a small time God (who shows potential to be a swall, cool, and funny character), a girl (one not there for fan service, so that's at least original), and that's everything important (only one episode, sorry). Animation is done by Bones so it's pretty darn good (nothing crazy special like IG's Guilty Crown or SnK but good none the less). Music, the opening and ending are simple but solid, having the ending done by Supercell (known for, well, the Guilty Crown soundtrack) (again, good music).

At the end of the day, we have a show which has a great start, run by a production team which brought us FMA and Eureka 7, and could help fill the void since SnK finished last October...

tod66 - 2014-01-06 11:27:06

One of my most anticipated anime of the Winter season.Noragami
It has a really solid start so i wish it won't go downhill in the next few eps.

It has an interesting plot and i'd like to see how the story progress with a wish granting god

overall i really enjoyed this and happy to see that bones is back on track

abbott.juliet - 2014-01-06 08:23:52

Noragami is about a freelancing God-in-the-making who happens to be searching for a lost cat when his life is saved by a high school girl, Iki Hiyori. After waking up in the hospital, Hiyori cannot recall what transpired that led her to be hospitalized but is soon reminded after a (creepy) visit from Yato, who is described fervently by his former servant as a bum of a God who will get nowhere. After leaving her with his thanks, Yato disappears leaving an even more confused Hiyori wanting to see him once again. Anyways, some shit happens and she once again saves him (or the reverse? I guess they save each other), only this time it is from a "Phantom," a being explained as a phenomenon of lost souls who linger between the realm of the living and the realm of the dead. Anyways, the rest of the series seems like it will revolve around the balance between Yato's troubles as he struggles to build up his fame to be the 'greatest God' and Hiyori's (seemingly) long journey to return to her normal high school self.

Right off the bat we are introduced to Yato and Hiyori, which is nice because there are only two characters that are actually important. This makes the story a lot less confusing and leaves room for extrapolation on their identities which would then give the audience a deeper sense of attachment to the characters. I mention this because it feels like Noragami will introduce some abstract concepts about life and death among other themes. The characters are also interesting in the sense that it actually feels like they have emotion and struggles. There isn't any pointless humor or poor attempts at comedy, and I only counted one instance of fanservice (if you could even call it that). So all-in-all, it feels like a very serious anime with the potential for character and story depth.

The animation and sound quality is spectacular. I'm serious, it's very well done and shows that there was a great amount of effort put into the creation of the series.

I look forward to watching the rest as Winter Season goes on.