The main character of Noragami is a girl caught in a limbo between the afterlife and the physical world, a state that reflects the show itself. Noragami is an anime that is caught between true greatness and forgettability.
The setup is nothing you haven't seen before: through a few bizarre circumstances, a high school girl gets involved in the lives of an immortal demon hunter and his compatriots, and over time they learn to trust and understand each other, despite their own personal demons, and didn't we just watch Kyoukai no Kanata? The twist here is that these demon hunters are actually gods, and their weapons forged from the souls of regretful spirits.
Noragami's style is undeniable. Gods fight phantoms while leaping from skyscraper to skyscraper while their enemies roll their eyes eerily and speak in distorted, disjointed childlike muttering. Yato, Hiyori's accidental god-friend, is especially theatrical, finishing off his enemies with a flourish of his sword and a triumphant recitation: "You who would desecrate this land of the rising sun, etc." is heard nearly every episode, sometimes multiple times in one.
Unfortunately, the plot is where the show falters. The story is set up into roughly three arcs: an introductory arc where all the pieces and elements are put into place, a crisis arc where a big threat shows up and tears the team apart, and the "boss" arc where the team comes together for a final, earth-shaking clash. It is with the last two arcs that I take issue.
Bishamon, the antagonist in the second arc, has undeniable stage presence. She is a busty lady who rides a lion, wields a whip and a pair of pistols, and has a grudge against Yato. But I know nothing about her, or her past, because the show didn't have time to dwell on her. The same goes for Nora, the mysterious girl who obviously has a history with Yato and appears every so often to make mysterious pronouncements. Noragami accelerates the relationships between Hiyori, Yato and Yukine (the spirit of Yato's sword) to a blistering pace, at the cost of all else. The final conflict seems especially rushed, with very little setup and no explanation until it's all over.
The relationships between the three main characters is where this show shines. Yato is a prickly, vain layabout whose lifestyle choices fail to endear him to his companions quite as much as they do to his audience. Much of the show is spent with the trio at odds because of Yato's attitude, and while this would seem like a cheap attempt to create drama, it becomes integral to the plot during the second arc. It is not spoiling too much to say that gods and their weapons are affected by each others' thoughts, and that Yukine is a sullen adolescent, but I will say no more.
In the end, what could have brought this show on par with similar "urban fairy-tale" anime like Durarara! or Kyoukai no Kanata would be a 24-episode runtime instead of a mere 12. More time could have fleshed out the supporting cast and generated a bit more intrigue without sacrificing the relationships at the core of the show. Given that the manga is still running, one wishes for a second season to realize Noragami's full potential. Unfortunately, I'm all out of 5-yen pieces.
