Overall I think Noragami is a very overrated series. I really didn't enjoy the first season and didn't realize what all the hype was about. It had a lot of problems - I felt the writing was poor, characters did stupid things that made no sense a lot of the time and the constant abuse of Yato is overused for comedic value but at a certain point it runs dry, and most of all - Yukine.
Yukine is one of the most annoying and whiny characters I have ever witnessed. If nothing else, I applaud this season for reducing this fact to a minimum.
The story of Noragami Aragoto has the same initial premise as the first season but this time is divided into 2 major arcs. The first arc focuses on the character of Bishamon, the strongest god of war who also has a deep hatred for Yato as he slaughtered her entire clan once before. By doing this though he saved her life, as requested by Kazuma, the only survivor of the clan. Everything begins when one of Bishamon's regalia is suddenly killed. No one however knows who killed the regalia and panic ensues. Also coincidentally before his death he befriends Yukine and when Yukine hears the news he turns into Emo Kid once more and goes to seek vengeance for his friend.
The last season also gave a lot of hints that Kazuma knew Yato and their past is now unraveled.
The second arc starts off by Yato receiving a shrine from Hiyori. In the Noragami universe gods who have shrines get special perks sorta say. Yato moves into the Heavenly Neighborhood or whatever other lame name you can think off and is now a proper god, being friends with everyone! After 1 episode of sunshine and rainbows Yato gets captured by Nora and a person she calls "father", who knew Yato for a long time as well as seen in the flashbacks of them holding hands. So this is where the series went downhill for me. This arc just felt so unnecessarily rushed (I've heard so from people who read the manga as well so it isn't just me). So much content is just bundled together in this single arc and sadly, 7 episodes isn't nearly enough time to cover it well.
Produced by Studio Bones, all I can say is how fluid and nice it is. To be honest, the fight scenes can be lackluster sometimes but I really enjoy the character designs. I may be giving it too much credit because I just find it better than most of the animation this season though. Shame pretty colors can't save a show :^)
Noragami Aragoto like the first season has a variety of music throughout the series and I'd like to say how much I like it like most people do but I really don't think it's anything that special. Sure it's better than the norm nowadays but it's not setting out to break any records. That being said, the opening theme is one of my favorites from this season.
I'll be honest, for the most part I don't like the characters in this series. Let's briefly go over the main characters of the first season: Yato is a god that will obey your every request (( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)) for 5 yen but there's a twist to it - He has a dark past. This was revealed a bit in the end of the last season and now plays a big role in the plot. Hiyori is annoying at times but is generally okay and then there is Emo Kid. So now in this season we get more development for Bishamon and suprisingly, Kazuma. Bishamon has too much trust in all of her regalias and you could say that is her downfall. She is shown to be very stubborn when dealing with Yato, seemingly ignoring the fact that he saved her life.
Right off the bat I wanna say that I feel like they handled the development of Suzuha alright but it may of been better to give him more screen time first since he is the plot device in this situation. The main antagonist of this season is also one of Bishamon's regalia by the name of Kugaha. He really isn't interesting much like the villain of the first season but hey at least he has a goal. We are then introduced to Ebisu who is one of the seven gods of luck, the god of fishing. He could of been a cool character if the series didn't decide to rush it so badly. Needless to say, he doesn't get nearly as much character development as needed for us to actually care about him. We also don't know a single thing about Nora or father, yay.
Norgami Aragoto is a pretty enjoyable series really. As I said in the beginning, they made Yukine a lot more likable which I'm very happy about. The enjoyment does go down after the 2nd arc tags along but it was never to the point where I was forcing myself to watch.
It's somewhat of an improvement from the first season and is an enjoyable series with cool fights and quirky characters (that get on my nerves sometimes but that's besides the point). It still struggles with the issues it had in the past like the plot and the character development in a lot of instances. The 1st arc is the pinnacle of the season (and I'd argue the series but I'm just a dirty hater of the first season), however the 2nd is inferior by a longshot due to how rushed it is. So all in all, while I enjoyed it more than the first season and you'll probably do too, Noragami Aragoto really isn't anything special.
Originally uploaded on October 30th, 2015.
