*STORY -- 5 -- MEDIOCRE*
Again, it is difficult to explain the score without specifics, but the best way I can describe this show's plot is that it is both far too predictable, and far too unpredictable. The show's structure is essentially as follows: each episode takes place a month apart and features the two protagonists, Yasuri Shichika and Togame, locating one of the twelve legendary swords and obtaining it in one way or another. Having a show running on a formula such as this runs the risk of killing the show's unpredictability, since the plot is literally formulaic. You KNOW that the protagonists are going to succeed and take the sword that episode. This makes some of the more drawn-out segments that rely on suspense fall somewhat flat, since you already know the outcome.
Perhaps in an effort to counter this predictability, the show throws many moments that seemingly come completely out of nowhere, but rather than feeling excitingly unexpected, these moments often feel cheap or underdeveloped. There is often a lack of proper build-up to many of the show's twists or turns, making the viewer feel cheated or downright confused. There are the occasional moments where this unexpectedness works extremely well, particularly in episode 4, although that episode in particular highlights an issue regarding the anime's characters which I cannot explain without spoiling it (basically, it highlights how uninteresting the two protagonists are). Unfortunately, these better moments are few and far between. The last few episodes in particular, while praised as some of the best in anime by some, feel particularly prone to random new plot threads that the show expects its audience to accept. "AHA SURPRISE! THIS WAS ACTUALLY THE PLAN ALL ALONG!" is not a good plot device, nor is having one of the characters go around performing unexplainably overpowered deeds and him simply explaining it by saying "It is not necessary for you to understand what just happened."
The show is definitely inconsistent in its quality. Certain episodes are actually quite excellent and well-paced. Others are downright awful and are entirely exposition where the protagonist goes on some mind-bending LSD adventure in an effort to get him to understand something of great importance -- a common trope in anime. The quality of the episode seems very much related to the characters featured, so I will touch on that later.
The anime's focus seems to be on its dialogue, which is mostly a good call, since the interactions between characters are the show's strongest moments. However, it often feels that the show's writers know that the dialogue is good, and decide to take it too far. As a result, many of the dialogue scenes drag horribly with seemingly no reason but to fill time or show off. The pacing definitely could have used a bit of work.
Although the dialogue is generally excellently written, the actual writing of the show is surprisingly poor. If that's confusing, let me try to explain by saying that the show has a tendency to tell rather than show, which is not a good writing strategy. Sometimes a character may be telling something rather well, but that doesn't negate the fact that they shouldn't be telling it in the first place.
Of course, the show's unpredictability and copious amounts of dialogue can be used as examples of why Katanagatari is unique and therefore deserves praise. Although aspects are certainly unique, it still feels very much like a typical anime at most times. Even when the show manages to be unique, a show needs to be more than just that -- it actually has to be well executed. I simply cannot call Katanagatari's story well executed despite its attempts to be different.
*CHARACTER -- 6 -- FAIR*
The characters are what manage to save the show's content from disaster, although they are very far from being excellent. The protagonists in particular are a great target of criticism. Togame's character is overall extremely static. She hardly changes, aside from her feelings and attitude towards Shichika. This wouldn't be a huge issue on its own were her character not so stock and boring. She is the stereotypical high-tempered, jealous, easily embarrassed, pouty female trying to make a name for herself but unable to alone because she is essentially incompetent. She definitely improves in the competency department later on, making some successful strategies, but she is a far cry from being interesting or unique. Some of her backstory is better than her actual character, but suffers from the plot's problem of throwing sudden, unexpected globs of information at the audience and expecting you to care.
Shichika is the other protagonist and his "development" in particular bothers me. He displays the guise of having tremendous character development, changing from being a completely blank person -- literally a tool (sword, in this case) -- to a caring human being. He can best be described as a robot learning he has feelings. Unfortunately, it is not impressive character development to go from nothing to a human being. What IS impressive character development is to go from a human being to an INTERESTING human being, which Shichika never becomes. He essentially manages to become a normal stock character, which almost makes him less interesting than how he starts out as. At least when he is nothing but a tool, he has that unique aspect of having no idea about human emotions or the outside world, which is played off for humour decently well. He does display the odd quirky moment, and you can only wish there were more of such glimmers of personality.
What, then, manages to save this show? That would be some of its secondary characters -- namely, those who wield the swords the protagonists must obtain. These characters are certainly not all great (one character in an episode in Ezo in particular was simply terribly developed, or rather, wasn't at all), but a few of them bring you into their world and make you care about their fates. This is extremely effective and is one of the ways the show's predictability is somewhat mitigated. By knowing that these swordsmen are going to lose, the episode becomes something of a tragedy, as you realize this world they have developed and rely on the sword to maintain are going to be destroyed by the two protagonists. As such, episodes that feature the most interesting swordsmen are also the best episodes. Unfortunately, only a few of these swordsmen end up being this interesting, so the praise can only really apply to a few episodes.
The Maniwa Corps, a ninja corps that appears throughout the entire show, is a particularly strange presence. Without spoiling too much, their appearance in each episode eventually becomes something of a running gag that I personally found quite humorous. This could probably be a criticism, and in a way it is, because these characters are woefully underdeveloped, but in this case, that actually feels intentional and in a way that doesn't feel contrived or cheap. Still, they certainly could have done without them entirely for the most part, which probably isn't the best sort of characters to have.
Nanami, Shichika's sister, is probably the worst-written character in the entire show in my opinion, which is an incredible shame because she starts off as potentially one of the most interesting. She makes an appearance early on that completely steals the episode in a surprising way, which is one of the show's best moments, but the next time she is featured, her character is so poorly and suddenly developed and the episode's contents are so messily executed that I would probably consider said episode the worst in the series. They eventually explain what happens at the end of the episode, but by that point, the damage has already been done.
There are a massive host of other characters, namely a couple that appear in the latter stages of the journey, many of which are also underdeveloped. There are simply too many characters for this show to handle in its time frame, which is a shame, because all of the voice performances are generally excellent.
*ART -- 9 -- GREAT*
This show's art is by far its strongest aspect. The production in general is fantastic, with a unique art style that, while not personally my favourite, has moments of startling beauty and a sort of painting-like quality that makes many frames feel like classic Japanese art. Some of the character designs are a bit questionable, but overall, the art is superb. Unfortunately, there is one episode in the middle of the series where the art style completely changes, and while I can't comment on any possible artistic reasoning, all I can say is that the episode feels like it was produced on a budget. Whether this is true or not, I have no idea, but there is noticeably less movement and quality in the art, which is a shame, since this episode is particularly important plot-wise.
I don't want to give the best aspect of the show such a short piece of the review, but aside from that one episode mentioned, there isn't much to say aside from the art being excellent.
*SOUND -- 8 -- VERY GOOD*
The sound is not as stand-out as the art but still good. There is some good music, although nothing in particular really stands out. The sound effects are also fine, but again, nothing outstanding. As mentioned, the voice performances are fantastic, which gives a great boost to the sound's score. Because the rest of the sound is otherwise rather average, I can't give it higher than an 8, but it is still quite good nonetheless. I do have one huge nitpick regarding the sound design: there are on occasion songs placed into the background, and the lyrics often clash with the atmosphere of the scene or appear underneath dialogue. This gives this weird feeling where you hear voices but don't understand where they are coming from until you realize they are in the background music. A mostly minor complaint, but it practically ruined one or two scenes.
*ENJOYMENT -- 7 -- GOOD*
This was one of those shows that rarely gripped me, but also never got bad enough to make me stop watching. It was mildly entertaining throughout, with some fantastic moments sprinkled in with some maddeningly poor ones, but even those poor moments helped keep me watching if only out of outrage, so perhaps they were doing something right. This wasn't a show I ever felt like dropping, nor was it a show I couldn't wait to watch the next episode of.
*OVERALL -- 7 -- GOOD*
Considering how badly I bashed the story and many of the characters, even a 7 may sound surprisingly high, but the production values really go a long way in elevating the show's quality. Even the story and characters, while highly flawed, are serviceable enough to be enjoyable. Perhaps the best way to describe Katanagatari is as an aspiring epic crammed into far too short a time span. The anime simply tries to tackle far more than it can handle, from too much dialogue to too many characters to too many new subplots to too many unexpected twists. The show definitely could have benefitted from either being longer or trimming its excess fat. Being longer would perhaps give those poorly-developed, unexpected moments a great chance to become legitimately believable or well-built-up.
Despite these plentiful criticisms, Katanagatari is an above-average show. It is beautiful, has some excellent moments, and is generally entertaining. You could certainly do better, and it isn't the masterpiece some herald it to be, but you could also certainly do much worse.
