Anime: Noragami Aragoto

Its sorta hard to predict how any anime by Studio Bones is going to turn out. Sometimes they could end up being rather passable, or even incredibly memorable and well written (i.e Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, Darker than Black). On the other hand, they could end up being complete and utter failures (i.e Zetsuen no Tempest). Noragami fits nicely between the two; a mediator amidst the good and the bad.

Let it be known that I found the first season to be somewhat of a mediocrity. As far as urban fantasy goes, it didn’t do much to stand out from its peers and felt a tad bit too similar to other shows of the same genre. Sure, I mean there were some interesting concepts and some witty character interactions here and there, but it never felt like the show executed them as effectively as I would have hoped. The series, after all, is what would happen if you decided to mesh both ‘Bleach’ and ‘Soul Eater’ together. For most of its runtime, it was mainly filler, and the story arc it dealt with deviated way too much from its source material as it got closer to the end. Not to mention, it was rushed beyond belief. With 12 episodes, and only a fraction of it having anything to do with fleshing out the world and its characters, it barely felt like Noragami even amounted to much. With Aragoto however, Bones finally catches up to its source material and adds more substance that, honestly, should have existed in the first season beforehand.

Viewers should be aware that this is a direct sequel, and newcomers stumbling across this with little to no knowledge of that will be confused and lost. The highlight of the story this time around, is that there is less focus on the various “side jobs” the main heroes must pursue, and more of an overarching storyline. This, thankfully, removes a lot of the filler elements that the first season toyed around with. I mean sure fellas, its nice and all to watch Yato and co goof around while pulling off comedic chibi faces every now and then, but it becomes bothersome when that is literally 80% of the show.

The show is split into two arcs, which are aptly named the “Bishamon arc,” and the “Ebisu arc” respectively. Both are quite different in their own right with the first one being a rather emotional insight into Bishamon’s character and her conflict with Yato, and the second one introducing a location known as “The Underworld” into the mix. Both arcs exhibit higher stakes compared to the first season, which I highly appreciate. At least now, people die this season, and there’s this feeling that not everybody, not even the main cast, is safe. However, problems soon arise when you try to dig deeper into the show on a less superficial level. For one, there were many moments where the writers seemed to have just pulled out random explanations from their asses to justify a certain event happening on screen that would otherwise seem implausible. Without spoiling anything, there’s this one scene where a character is dragged into the underworld and is suddenly brought back up into the real world through some half-assed plot contrivance. There were also multiple other moments like that which grinded my critical mind, but that situation was particularly distracting.

The biggest issue I have with Aragoto, was that it doesn’t seem to be any different from other shonen titles I’ve been willingly exposed to. The story is rather predictable, and you can tell how the events are going to coincide from the very first episode or so. It is also lacking tremendously when it comes to worldbuilding. The human world is still given higher priority over the lands that the deities originate from, which wouldn’t have posed a problem if the human world were any bit interesting. Though it’s not nearly as prevalent as the first season, I just felt like there wasn’t enough screentime or insight into some of the mystical locales. Much like other shonen titles, there’s a lot of infodumping and monologuing that often takes me out of the mood it’s trying to set up. Nothing is conveyed with any degree of subtlety, and the characters often stop dead in their tracks to explain to viewers in a highly explanatory fashion, as if they have no respect for our intelligence. Like jeez, we get it, we know… The same goes for the monologues. Though monologuing can be a useful storytelling technique (‘March comes like a Lion’ is a recent example of a great anime that takes advantage of it to build up its main character and let audiences in on his mentality on a more personal level), oftentimes it’s highly abused by a vast number of titles. It should be used to get us to relate on a deeper level to their thoughts, not to convey information that us audience members have clearly just witnessed happen on screen. To give an example, a character would get attacked, and immediately another character would think to himself aloud, “holy shit, that guy just got attacked!” Its lazy and insulting to the viewer’s intelligence. And the problem with this, is that it’s used commonly in most anime. And it completely bugs me. Show don’t tell, guys!

The cast thankfully have a lot more development this time around. Yato’s and Bishamon’s backstories are explored in much greater depth than ever before, leading to both actually developing as characters. In fact, a lot of the characters from the first season have their backgrounds and personalities expanded upon. Yato is basically just himself for most of the time, so if you like Hiyoshi Kamiya channelling his inner Koyomi Araragi, then you’ll find much solace here. But we do get greater insight into his relationship with other characters, therefore allowing us to see him grow from this egotistical doofus into a loyal friend who would do anything for his companions. The bond between him, Yukine, and Hiyori feels more palpable this time around as audiences will further bear witness to their interactions. Yukine in particular, grows from a whiny, spineless git into a headstrong, self-assured spirit weapon who’s more devoted to his master than ever. Hiyori is just bloody useless though. She barely does anything in the sequel, apart from yelling Yato’s name here and there. I wouldn’t be surprised if she becomes the next Orihime or Lucy or Sakura in the next season. Her arc, which is basically a romantic subplot, is just too sappy for my tastes and adds very little to the overall plot. Seriously, why do most shows these days, not just anime, feel the desire to shoehorn in love triangles? Some characters also feel like they’ve gotten shafted. Kofuku and her regalia for example, still feel shallow in contrast to our main heroes and exist solely for comic relief. The show also tries to introduce more and more characters as the episodes fly by, most of which get little to no screentime. There’s this one fella that befriends Yukine in an earlier episode, but then gets axed brutally like around two episodes later. His death is prolonged in a very dramatic manner, as if the writers expect us to care on an emotional level for him. Sorry, but it had barely any effect on me. I mean, I barely even knew the fella. He’s like a stranger to me. But so far, characterization is a massive improvement from the first series and hopefully, the third season will improve on it. But that’s not saying much, because the first season barely had any characterization.

Animation is pretty much on par for Bones standards. The backgrounds are very rich and detailed, with a lot of emphasis to making them look absolutely gorgeous. The Underworld for example, is given a much-needed feeling of helplessness, isolation and dread to complement its grim atmosphere. Animation quality is usually very good as expected of Bones, but the first episode does have some glaring off model shots. For instance, there were numerous creepy shots of with practically no faces. This would annoy a lot of the viewers on their first go, and probably creep out others. It could act as an effective way to give people goosebumps, if it weren’t for the fact that it’s a noticeable animation error. Fight scenes are erratic and exhilarating, with a lot of fluid movements and supernatural abilities on display to keep viewers enthralled. There are also some tense sequences which should keep you on the edge of your seats. So fans of battle shonen are going to be invested at the very least.

The music is done by Taki Iwasaki who has incorporated a lot of eastern and middle eastern tunes to the mix. A lot of the tracks are reused from the first season, but I didn’t mind it for most of those tracks were incredibly pleasing to the ears. Sadly though, the new tracks themselves feel completely different from Iwasaki’s usual stuff and are, unfortunately, quite forgettable.

Overall, Noragami Aragoto, despite being a much-needed improvement to the first season in terms of pacing, character development and overall sense of progression, is still a rather average shonen experience. Fans of the first season are in for a treat (especially those who felt that it was lacking in terms of substance), but for folks who hated or didn’t find it as good as people made it out to be, will not feel all that different. If you have not watched the first season then I urge you to do so if you’re interested in checking out Aragoto as you’ll be completely confused if you hadn’t done so.

Noragami 19/20 very good

Art & Animation: 8/10 Not a beyond the boundary or Clannad level ultimate but very good, the style is cool-ish fitting for the main character the combat is good, for art’s sake some things got simplified but that is the price they paid, it can feel lower quality for casual viewers, I personally loved it felt “different” but I can’t help it felt also cheap some parts. I love symbolism and this one had a lot especially the opening. Art made up for quality for me but it’s a hit or miss thing. The camera angle and work ware grate. Some parts of the animation and effects ware amazingly good. Eyes ware amazing and very expressive, and add to the characters personality a lot. Art wise the best thing was for me was the opening. I also liked how character moved, and interacted based on personality, especially Kofuku.

Story 6/10: Welcome to the anime world Soul Reaver. There are 2 realms ours (reality) and the spirits realm. The place where fantasy comes alive, and ghosts, spirits, and human souls go and some become godly weapons. (Where did I saw this? Soul eater) So god’s born from wishes. Our main character wants to make a career as god, to do so he needs to do any quest humans give to him for “five” to build a shrine “What five you might ask” Yen. Yes not a good god from economics, or making up rules but its comedy so why not. He kills evil spirits daily basics with his weapon made from a “soul” (at least now I know how death scythes are made they wait being a god’s tool after they are created) if you like this anime definitely watch “soul eater”. It is daily life, where the main character has to restore a girl natural state she meets and so the viewer is introduced trough her to the world, than bigger troubles com and things get more serious (I liked the first season more). For me it was kickass monster say anime and very fun one.

Character: 10/10 personally I loved the characters most in this anime, Yato (typical shounen) heroic, ambitious, strong, hard worker, and direct, flavored with arrogance and cold realistic world viewer, but alos like to make joke out of things and acts immature. The damsel in distress Iki Hiyori (Dere-dere) who could kick some ass and wanted to be useful, also found of cat-things, when she got a tail like “thing” she immediately started joking in the bathroom with nekomimi from soap in short: “cute”. Hiyori was character that represented my favorite things in female character: playful and mature, kind, caring and strong willed, loyal, loved cats.
Finally we got the god weapon “Regalia” Yukine the borderline fool who would rather freeze necked than wear anything not cool (com on), he was very troublesome but despite turned out to be likeable he was loyal honest. Its starts of as dozen shounen cliche set that works played out well, flavored with good extras as personalities. Ebisu Kofuku was borderline main/side character but her top level cuteness worth remembering she was my personal favorite. They ware likeable and fun to watch and interact.

Value: 7/10
Not much to add here it’s something I saw and loved a hundred times. Classic shounen its fun and it works, nothing new was needed little new was added. Was it fun? Yes. Is Bleach, Naruto, Soul and other cliche shounen, fun just for the action aspect? Yes. Good animes in general are fun. This one brought some unique relatable humor, mixing it with classical humor. As to add it introduced an interesting world. To me this anime is definitely a keeper. 7/10

Enjoyment: 10/10 I can recommend this to anyone who loves magic fantasy and shounen. Its style is classic Japanese mythology like Chihiro, or Inuyosha (regarding monster build) If you like that “mythology” you gonna like this. It is daily life. It has “cool” man/god hero who kicks ass do as classic cliche advisee looked down and disrespected, the battles are simple but fun. I sure enjoyed it. Mode was great. Never the lass the characters are likeable so if you root for them you will have fun. Jokes made me laugh loud. The opening sets a fun cool mood, and the anime keeps it, so its entertainment to watch, with grate humor.

Sound/Music: 9/10 personally I loved it and found it worries fitting especially the first opening and the combat theme, sounds otherwise ware okay. The opening has great weight for me in wallowing in general this issue and this had the one ware I never missed to listen, also added to my mp3 player.
I loved in the battle them that it had a unique Japanese vibe that fit this style and spirituality it was direct hit, also had its epic mode fitting for the power player style the main character fight.

Perhaps the Bones took the comments in the last review to heart or something but the second season of Noragami is an improvement by leaps and bounds. Yes, you still have the same cast and setting but it is just much more focused and thus leaves a much stronger impression. Now that all the character explications have been taken care of in the first season, this season is roughly divided into two arcs exploring other gods, namely Bishamon and Ebisu, both gods of fortune. Bishamon has a nasty past with Yato and it's all fully explained here. The second arc focuses more on the reincarnation and the "life cycle", if you will, of the gods. All in all, it's an action packed season that has all the coolness of the first season while dropping the whiny aspects of Yukine. If you've watched the first season of this you really shouldn't skip out on this one, even if (like me) the first season left a bitter aftertaste.

Animation:
It might just be me but I felt this season was a bit more consistently drawn than the last season. Other than that, you can expect a very similar style to the previous season with crazy Ayakashis and lots of effects. Most of the important characters are easily recognizable though there are way too many supportive shinki in the show. There are a lot of additional new characters in the show as well, including a shinki with a striking resemblance to Jiraiya from Naruto. Expressions still aren't the best but, given the low bar set by the previous season, they're not bad.

The battles will definitely be one of the selling points of the season with lots of action and tension. Expect heavy bleeding and some amputations (though shinki are already technically dead...). While Yato's annoyingly long final move prep sequence does get repetitive, he doesn't spam it as much as in the previous season. Luckily, you get some variety here as other gods also show more of their cards this season.

Sound:
The show starts off with a fittingly fast-paced rock OP; it isn't particularly melodic but fits the chaotic and action-heavy nature of the show. The ED is more of a cool down piece with a light melody. The BGM includes many familiar tunes from the previous season, maintaining the vocodized sound of battles and mystery moments.

Miyuki Sawashiro gets a much expanded role this season so expect to hear her deep presence more often. That said, Maaya Uchida still gives a great performance as Hiyori and earns my pick of VA of the show. The rest is a bit mixed but not bad.

Story:
This is probably the strongest improvement from the first season. There is now a clear and distinct purpose throughout the episodes, and the overall tonality has shifted for the better to a more somber and serious tonality. As mentioned above, there are two main arcs each with its own rising action and climax. To be honest, the first of the two arcs is stronger in my opinion; though a tad predictable it was a fun watch. The second arc has a more nefarious undertone, and you don't really get a good feel for what's happening until it's basically over. Expect a few cliff hangers and a fair amount of plot twists along the way.

Unlike the previous season, Bones manages to execute this season well. There's a good balance of action, tension, and character development- oh and a touch of humor occasionally. Overall, the story was entertaining and satisfying.

Character:
You learn quite a bit more about a lot of the characters this season. Unfortunately, Hiyori feels like more of a supporting character here but at least, thankfully, Yukine has calmed down. A good amount of character development takes place for Yato and many of the other gods and their Shiki (yes Yukine included). Bishamon's past for one is pretty interesting- straight-faced Ebisu, not so much. There still are way too many supporting characters but I guess Japan needs to churn out more figurines somehow. Yes, I'm still bitter that Hiyori hasn't gotten any real development after two seasons.

Value:
This was a surprise for me as I was expecting more of the same from last season. The second season is a strong step in the right direction for the franchise and an entertaining watch for followers of the series. Given the nature of the conclusion, I wouldn't say that a third season is out of the question. Regardless, this was a solid season with good plot progression and more grounded characters.