Story (7/10) Good
The story for ....Sword Story should I say. Starts off really promising with each episode being basically an hour long you would assume that this anime would get a lot accomplish with a minimum of 49 minutes on the clock when each episode starts. Katanagatari story like i said starts off with potential a and by the end I felt it was a good story, nothing more. Because in my opinion it's barely breaking good and by good I also mean satisfying because for me they go hand and hand which I will talk about more in the enjoyment section. As far as the ending route the anime decided to talk which you can tell what route the anime is taking by the end of episode 11. And the route it took it probably the only reason I felt this anime's story section made it to a 7 which is considered good but I can't bare to say it's anything more than a 7.
Art and Animation (8/10) Very Good
From the get go when you look at the art style you might say it's... different. I didn't like it at first but that only lasted for about 30 minutes into episode 1 and then I got used to it and realized it isn't bad it's just different. As far as animation it's probably the reason this section made it to an 8. The animation was very good everything moved nicely especially during fight scenes (what little good fight scenes we got that is..).
Sound (8/10) Very Good
Katanagatari sound is very good and maybe I'm being generous in this section but it is what it is. The sound and voice actors I thought all sounded and matched each character and the bgm used matched the time Katangatari is set it which I assume is years after or during the time of the Shogunate, so a lot of samurai like and japanese bgm which is fitting to say the least.
Characters (7/10) Good
The characters in Katangatari I thought was fine. Shichika our MC is quite ignorant from the start of the anime not really care for the world around him as he master's his the technique handed down to him from is father as a follows Togame the main female roll on their quest to collect the swords. He says he does it because he's fallen for her which happens so sudden it's not really believable in my opinion. I really want to know if it had anything to do with Togame's eye because it seems that every time she made a demand towards Shichika her eye would change into that purple cross state as if he was mind controlling him some how, if they explained it then I guess I missed it because this anime is quite dialogue heavy and if you see what my enjoyment rating was I wouldn't be surprised if such information flew over my head because I'm not going to lie I was dozing off a bit here and there during these hour like dialogue heavy episode but I digress. Anyway the other characters like Shichika's sister was an interesting character but it felt by the half way point of the series she was used as a plot device to enhanced the character development of the MC so it is what it is, don't know if I should look at that as a bad thing or good thing. Shichika's character development during the series definitely was a rollercoaster to say the least. He's definitely went thru about 4 phases his IDC phase during the start of the anime, his happy ignorant phase during majority of the anime and then his "battousai" phase during the final episode, the at the end of the final episode the I guess IDC phase but more knowledgeable phase than the beginning.
Enjoyment (5/10) Mediocre
I was not watching this anime when it first came out so coming in here realizing that each episode are basically an hour long each this anime can be considered a 36 episode anime more or less. With that being said this anime is rather fucking dialogue heavy and that's not really a con. But it is subjective at the end of the day if the dialogue you are consuming is interesting to you or not because that's what will keep your going at the end of the day. With 12 episode this is basically how majority of the episodes' formula went. Shichika and Togame enter a new area with a new character that holds one of the "swords" that they are collecting. They talk with said character and stay withing their region should I said basically talking with each other and the character they want to take the sword from for basically majority of the hour long episode. The episodes may or may not go off and show what's going on with other characters like Emonzaemon, Nanami and Houou. Not to sound like an ass but it is my opinion and I indeed found the formula rather repetitive because it became predictable and kind of boring when every episode basically (imo) hypes up the conflict between Shichika and who ever owns the sword they he and Togame are trying to get. I understand they every conflict doesn't have to end in a climatic way or but when EVERY SINGLE CONCLUSION to EVERY SINGLE CONFLICT on EVERY SINGLE EPISODE felt anti-climatic to me there's an issue. Please I don't want to sit there and list every single anti-climatic ending this anime decided to throw at me because trust me I can but I've written enough for this section. All I'll say is the last fight between Shichika and Emonzaemon barely was satisfying to me but I'll take it over every other fight leading up to that point. (There was even one fight that they decided to show during the fucking preview at the end of one episode and during that next episode we don't even get to see it, we just here about how epic it was WTF *the Hakuhei vs Shichika fight if you are confused or can't remember which fight I'm talking about* that's probably even worse than an anticlimactic fight is one that is hyped up and never even shown instead we get a side story which was entertaining I guess but at the end of the day just setup for an upcoming plot device death in the next episode)
Overall (7/10) Good
This anime is a good anime nothing more nothing less. It's good I really have nothing else to say about it. I was satisfied on the semi-dark route it took at the end of anime but other than that I didn't this it did anything that blew my mind or made me think it was anything higher than a 7. Did it have the potential? Fuck yeah a lot especially during the halfway point with that certain death they I thought it was going to pick up from that point but then it goes back into it's repetitive formula oh well. I think the things that held it back from being anything more than a 7 to me is it's repetitiveness and anticlimactic endings. Although the end of the overall ending of satisfying the overall anime I felt was anticlimactic as far as what I hear from people who actually where hyping up this anime. It's good that's all I can give it.
