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Jan 7, 2015
'It is often, that by misunderstanding the particular, it is easy to alter ones perception of the universal' - Not only do I believe that this quote illustrates the meaning of this anime, but also the community's interoperation of this anime as a whole
I want to start out this review simply with my, (maybe over biased) interpretation of this anime : incredibly underrated. After reading a lot of reviews, not only on this site but elsewhere in the regions of the internet, I've come to the conciliation that many people have done this anime a huge injustice. Not only to future viewers, but to animes
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similar to this one as well. It is often easy to blind ourselves with negatives when first giving a new fresh anime, unique or unlike the others. a new interpretation or a new artsy way to story tell. As stated in an essay I read not too long ago by Laura Bohanna, 'one can easily misinterpret the universal by misunderstanding the particular'. And in this case, by under-appreciating the particular points that set this anime apart, people have misunderstood the universal meaning and interpreted it as simply 'a sh*ty anime with too many plot holes".
I watched mekakucity actors as it was airing, being a fan of the popular vocaloid MVs and (what I could find of) the translated manga. Already a fan, I was incredibly excited for this anime, not knowing how this would be interpreted. Since the MVs were done in an artsy style, I expected similarly from the anime. And thats exactly what It got. For me, the MV';s weren't exactly linear and easy to understand completely. I often found myself looking at comments, translations and the manga to help clear and flesh out the complex story. So having the anime work more on aesthetics in creating a dream like atmosphere I felt like it was bang on in relation to the popular vocaloid MVs.
For one thing, the atmosphere was done incredibly well. The music was different than the original songs, altered slightly sometimes where there were acoustic version at others - but it still felt the same. I felt like I was re-watching the original songs, in a nicely dreamlike artsy interpretation, and felt an air of nostalgia with the anime.
I didn't treat this anime as a typical show - I treated it as experimental. Which made me quite surprised to see the shaft animation, and delighted I must say. To see all the reviews, I couldn't help but think that many people missed the point of the show: To provide an atmospheric dream like artistic view to typical slice of life shorelines. The slice of life genre is interesting in this point of view, and though I'm not usually one for watching the genre I can understand and appreciate the differences and how its a unique genre set apart from the rest. I find a lot of slice of life genres allow for inconsistencies (not big ones, but simple holes that the watcher allows because of the genre), because, unlike a lot of other genres, it allows characters to possess a story before and after the window of time you are watching. A snipit so to speak of a time you are allowed to see. And because of this flexible genre, it allowed mekakucity actors to use devices and pieces to wield a powerful atmosphere. The pieces, such as the flipping plot, the music, scenery, art style etc. all were used to create this. And if it missed one point it would hardly be fleshed out and the anime we see today.
Focusing on the story, I'de have to admit that it did have holes. Places where it didn't explain and flesh out certain ideas present in the manga and original story. That being said, it is often difficult to create an anime adaptation for stories that are complex such as this one, and packing it into 12 episodes no less. Having the background and already knowing the story did in fact help on this lagging aspect. And allowed me to view the anime from an artistic view. But I can still see where the other people are coming from. If you were to go into this anime expecting a fleshed out story, characters you could easily relate too, shounen fights action adventure etc. Then this was not what was presented, and you would feel that it failed this interpretation. And maybe because I wasn't expecting that view, and the artistic view instead I enjoyed it a lot more than other people might have. As well as looking just through my lens, It is important to view it through others. As an artsy anime, I give it a 9 out of 10 - but for a typical shounen it would probably fail my expectations.
It is curious to see the conflicting views for this anime, but I still stand by my point. I believe that many people have misunderstood the particular and by that underrated the universal aspects of this anime. There are certain aspects that set this anime apart, the animation, artsy aspect, non linear storytelling. But I think what really did it for me was the entire entertaining atmosphere of these elements to create an artistic view to normal storytelling and anime.
though most of you wont agree with me, I felt the need to write this review in a sort of tribute. I really enjoyed this anime, and really hope that a lot ore people will too.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Mar 25, 2014
Its really honestly a shame that this anime isn't more popular than it is. I find more and more its harder to get into action animes when you've watched so many that let your hopes down in the last two episodes. Nowadays, anime seem to either wow me to tears or bore me with uninteresting characters set in a plot that's way too cool for the likes of cardboard characters. Or your get anime that is just plain worthy of throwing to the depth of the internet where you could care less whether someone actually gives any shit about. Forgettable. Noragami for me wasn't any
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of those. Not even worthy of putting into the wow me to tears section. What this anime did for me was made me think - and that's why this anime, in my opinion, is definitely one of the best Ive ever seen this season.
To be totally frank, I'm not usually one for the typical shounen, and tend to like the dark more gritty animes. I usually watch these sort of shounen ones when I just can't find anything worthy of my tastes. But oh boy, was I glad to have picked up Noragami. This anime really sets in the terrifying mind set of being forgotten by all the people around you, and what one must to do be remembered and to feel wanted by those people. I found each time Yato struggled to maintain himself, through being remembered and worshiped, my heart would go out to him and I felt the pain of being lost and old and forgotten.
-I'm not going to rewrite a synopsis, so if you really want to know all the nitty gritty details, read it at the top-
The story revolves around God names Yato, his regalia and a half phantom, Hyori. I learned to love each and every character in this series - each having good character and executing realistic choices int he plot of this anime. The blend of Japanese folklore was very visually interesting, and I always seem to enjoy those types of anime with underlying subtexts and messages.
I tend to dislike when Main characters are treated badly by the rest of the cast, just because they seem to give off a weak or annoying sort of aura ( even if us viewers know how bad ass they really can be) So i was very cautious with Noragami. It seemed like everyone thought Yato, the protagonist, was your typical bum and purposefully exclude him for only that reason, even if he was a god. But that soon turned around, in about the second episode. Sure, they still liked to tease the protagonist about his habits and how poor and helpless he was - but there was still a sort of underlying respect that each character had for him, and they grew to cherish Yato. Hyori for example, explains her dislike and annoyance in yato, yet still respects him and wants to be with him. Hyori is a typical female lead, who can actually hold her own and has a decent personality. I have a thing with helpless female leads that pisses me off to no end, so seeing a female character, strong and willing like Hyori, is a breath of fresh air.
The art is stellar. I tend to be quite nitpicky with art and Noragami was outstanding. The character designs were realistic, clothing appropriate and animations amazing. The colours used for the fight scenes and phantom deaths made you want to stare at the sequence for hours, analyzing the design of the star that seemed to explode out whenever Yato killed a phantom. The phantoms themselves were drawn organically lovely - but still gave a sort of creep atmosphere. The blights and eyes were done marvelous, showing the disgusting of infection. The blue hue all over yato gave him a godly aura, yet he still looked human from the blend of his modern clothing. I could go on but I wont. Just that the art of this anime seemed to never cut loops and always keep me interested.
The OST is absolutely amazing, bringing in traditional Japanese music with a sort of modern rap and hip hop themes. The opening fits extremely well, though it changes three times throughout the series. I didn't mind it at all, and actually enjoyed seeing the variety. The ending was cute, not that memorable but I did actually watch the ending, which I never do so that's saying something. The music during the fight scenes was intense, and got you into the mood of traditional style, not unlike the Yato god himself. The music for the phantoms was down right creepy, and suited the atmosphere to a T. And finally the music played for yato's silliness... was down right hilarious. The funky off tones of the beat made me giggle every time even if the situation wasn't that funny.
Yato in particular is a very interesting character to follow. Development wise, he didn't really change much outwardly form what originally saw. I would almost call it a sort of backwards character development, because we got to see how he developed into the Yato god he is now. Throughout the anime I found myself gaining respect for the god, seeing his struggle and triumphs. He mirrored it through Yukine, his regalia. Yukine had the most character development in this anime. We see him rise, to fall, to slowly rise back again. His personality was bitchy, yes, but with good reason. Characters who lash out for no reason, and all the cast seem to be okay with it is just plain bad writing, but Noragami gives Yukine a damn good reason for it and has the characters react to it positively, because of particular a reason as well. Forget about a hollow anime, this one actually bothered to give good, concrete reasons for a melt down, which I find animes recently have been lacking severely. The interaction between Yato's extravagant character and Yukine's major attitude was very interesting to see. Both grew closer together throughout the anime making me yearn for more scenes of Yato and Yukine interacting.
This anime gives a perfects blend of action, comedy, supernatural and mystery that will have you itching for more every episode. The anime is well spaced, even though it diverges slightly at the end from the manga (if you bothered to read it) - but still keeps it fresh and fulfilling. I would recommend this anime to anybody, and hope you enjoy it as much as I did - this anime will always have a special place in my heart.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Mar 25, 2014
I find when I see this anime on forums alike It usually has a Hate or Love sorta aspect to it. Personally, I absolutely loved this anime, though it is definitely not for the faint of heart.
This story revolves around a war photographer, who gets caught up in a mystery revolving around a young girl. I don't usually like to give synopsis's within my reviews, so if you want the nitty gritty details you can go find those yourselves. Personally, I enjoy watching older characters more than younger ones, but that definitely depends on the anime. Saiga, the protagonist is a vetran war photographer who
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inherits the ability to... explode anything he takes a picture of. When I explain this to people most just stop listening when I mention that bit. But the anime still maintains its serious edge with absolutely stellar fight scenes and very serious adult undertones. The story overall was nice and unique, not over top and even, just maybe, realistic. Maybe the peep show bit with the harem or nudity was pushing it a little, but if you get past all the echi, and heavy severe sexual themes, you get an amazing mix of action and plot that will most likely satisfy your urge of badass anime.
For characters, I didn't have a problem with any particular one. Maybe slight things pissed me off here and there, but overall no one went onto my bad side. The protagonist, Saiga, and Kagura, the two main characters had nice character development throughout the story. Each one had unique views and pasts. One thing I noticed though, having watched this anime multiple times is that almost every character presented here had a terrible past - I can name at least 3 characters that had a form of human trafficking or violent assault in their past. It wasn't bad though, since the story was pretty much chalk full of that sort of topic and It just added to the dark undertone of each character. Each one had a reason for they're actions, and the antagonist especially. It was a constant struggle from dislike to sympathy with the main antagonist. I found it visually and mentally interesting trying to piece together each and every story.
I thoroughly enjoyed the music. I personally love when Anime decide to go out of they're comfort zone with something different. Whether it works or not I always seem to have a sort of respect for those kinds of productions. In the case for Speed Grapher, they used an American song, Girls on Film by Duran Duran. It fit it quite nicely, with a retro theme but still giving it nice dark undertones.
Art wise I was impressed. It wasn't one of those stellar animations, but it never seemed to bug me. I tend to be hyper sensitive with art and animation - but this anime never seemed to let me down in that department.
After hearing all the good things I have to say about this anime, there is just one tiny little thing that gets me every time I re watch this anime. For how ever many people I speak to, I like to associate Siaga and Kagura as a sort of fatherly love/desire relationship. Yet at the very end of the series, it contradicted they're relationship and hints in the 2-3 last episodes of something more than protector or friend. I really REALLY do not see those two as any more than that. It's up to your discretion but I personally don't like to entertain the thought of a 40 year old man with a 16-18 year old high school student.
Other than that I absolutely loved this anime and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good story, but can handle the gore, violence, dark undertones and sexual themes.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Mar 25, 2014
-I'm going to skip the synopsis as you can go ahead and read that on your own - I'm strictly writing a review as to my reaction when watching Tokyo Ravens-
To be honest, when I first began watching this show I felt as though I was lacking originality, in both character and story. The originality wasn't so bad like 'I've seen it a million times' sort of deal, but It was interesting enough to make me want to watch the next episode. The characters seemed overdone and over the top, opening with the feisty chick friend of the male protagonist picking on him and his
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cool and calm best friend. Even if it started out quite cliche, I still kept watching it, mostly for lack of other anime to watch.
It was worth it because this show had a lot more depth than meets the eye and gets better as it moves along.
For people who enjoy magic fantasy action anime, you will probably like this as it has a nice mix of all of those genres with interesting plot twists.
Though most characters remain stagnant throughout the anime, at least half of them have some sort of basic development, be it mind set, or physical ability. What bothered me the most about this anime's characters though is how most characters pick on the main protagonist. The anime already outlines him as 'dumb' and 'having a major lack of talent' so much so you wonder why he's even the main character . His interactions with other characters tend to end or start out with them calling him 'baka-tora', and describing how pathetic he really is. Even though he proves himself more than once to the gang, they still proceed to stick with that nick name. As usual, he is a typical shounen character that tries his best, despite his obvious lack in talent. The anime later drops these undertones though, making it A LOT more enjoyable.
The music I found to be quite nice, the opening and ending were okay, not bad but not my favorite anime openings. The music during the anime is very nice, giving it a nice sorta mystic aura, adding a lot more epicness to the show. Without the music, I swear the scenes would feel a lot less intense.
The story itself is a nice mix of magic and action, though it might not be the most original story ever written. Its enjoyable enough to keep watching. It may not be one of your favorite animes, but if you watched all the anime there is and happen to come across Tokyo Raven's, its pretty good, and you'll like it better towards the end so i recommend not judging it until you get at least half way.
Even though I wouldn't consider it my favorite show, I did enjoy watching it. Its not one of my most memorable animes, but you definitely wont be wasting time.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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