(There will be SPOILERS in my review)
[Story]: (8/10)
Yato is a minor deity who lacks even a single shrine. In order to build his own shrine and fain recognition as a god, he scrawls his cell number on the wall on the streets of downtown telling people he will help them in exchange for a 5 yen offering, becoming a self-styled "delivery god". Hiyori, the daughter of a respectable family, saves Yato from being killed by a bus. This caused her to become a "hanyou". Yato also finds a boy named Yukine who becomes his "Regalia. Yato, along with Hiyori and Yukine battle phantoms who bring harm to humans as Yato's dark hidden history is gradually revealed.
I didn't know what to expect when I started watching this show. I didn't read the synopsis nor did I do any research on this anime at all. So I had no idea about the main character being a god and et cetera, et cetera. I also had no idea that the show was going to be this freaking hilarious..I mean, there's no "Comedy" stamped on the show's tag. I'll get to Noragami's comedy later in my review but for now, I want to focus first on the story.
The show is divided into two arcs. The first arc focuses on Yukine and this arc is more of a character-driven story..It's mostly Yukine's character development, his struggles, and etc. that drives this arc. I'll talk more about what happened in Yukine's arc at the "Characters" category. The second arc focuses on Yato and this arc, like the first one, is also a character-driven story. This arc focuses on Yato's past and that past hunting him back to this day. I'll talk more about what happened in Yato's arc at the "Characters" category.
The first 4-5 episodes are one of the funniest episodes I have seen in a while and I haven't laughed this hard ever since watching the "Haruhi Suzumiya" anime show. Story introductions, character introductions and expositions are usually boring as f*ck so what the show did here is spice it up by adding a ton of funny moments. 95% of the time, Yato and his interactions with other characters are what makes the show extremely funny. For example, the faces that he makes, offering his service for only "5 yen" (which is about 4 cents USD), advertising on the wall of the bathroom stalls, the "Falling down from the building" scene, Yato and Hiyori arguing/Yato and Yukine arguing and the list goes on. 5% of the time, the characters make fun of Yato being a lazy bum god who doesn't even have his own shrine. Thanks for the laughs "Noragami", I needed it after having just watched a depressing anime. If you did not laugh at the first 4-5 episodes of Noragami then I recommend that you go get checked because living a life with a crappy sense of humour is bad for your health.
Noragami knows when to use the jokes and when not to use jokes. When the show gets all dark and serious then they will not use the jokes...for the most part, at least. There were some serious scenes where they inserted a joke or 2 but it's only a minor issue.
While the show has tons of great moments, the show also has flaws and there are at least......2 of them...I think. I'm kidding, I only found one flaw and it's the show's pacing. The show's pacing went a bit fast in the second half of the show. This could have been easily solved if the show had 16-19 episodes but unfortunately, most animes today suffer of only having 12/13 episodes which is clearly not enough and Noragami is no exception.
Last thing that I want to point which might disappoint some manga fans is the anime original route in episode 10-12. In other words, Yato's arc is a filler. Now that you know Yato's arc is a filler, what you're probably wondering right now is...Is Yato's arc a good filler or a bad filler that deserves to be skipped? Having only watched the anime version, I'm going to have to say that Noragami is one of those animes which contains a good filler arc. I mean, the arc is not better than Yukine's arc but the arc is watchable and it also developed Yato's character.
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[Art/Animation]: (9/10)
I have only watched few of Bone's (name of the studio who created Noragami) anime so I don't really know the studio's animation style. What I do know is that Bone's did an amazing job in animating Noragami. The visuals looks great, the character designs are well down, and the fighting scenes are fairly smooth but with some few choppiness.
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[Sound]: (9/10)
Noragami did a great job on the soundtrack department. The themes that they used in the battle scenes are well done. There was 1 battle theme that I heard which sounded like an Indian Ritual song..Even the singer sounds Indian. The soundtrack used for the "slice-of-life-ish" scene are pretty decent and they indicate whether a hilarious moment will come or not. Now the OP and ED theme song.
The OP theme song is "Goya no Machiawase" by Hello Sleepwalkers and the ED theme song is "Heart Realize" by Tia. I really don't get why some people are saying that Noragami has one of the best OP theme song. I mean, it sounds good but in my opinion, it's not the greatest OP theme song out there. The ED theme song, on the hand, is a lot better than the OP theme song. I just love supercell's songs.
I watched the show in English Dub so I'll be reviewing the English VA's. In my opinion, FUNimation did a great job with the cast and the voice actor themselves did a great job voicing the characters. None of them sound monotonic and you can hear the emotions on their voices when one of the drama moment comes up. This is most noticeable in Hiyori's English VA.
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[Characters]: (9.5/10) (SPOILERS)
Like I promised, I'm going to talk about Yukine and Yato's arc first before the rest of the characters. Yukine's arc is one of the most memorable arc in Noragami.
In this arc, Yukine became jealous once he saw the students in a school having fun, fooling around, talking to other students....you know, typical teenager stuff. They also have a family and a future that they can look forward too, something Yukine doesn't really have. This caused Yukine to have a mental breakdown (or something similar to that) and you know what happens if Yukine has a mental breakdown. Yato also suffers...physically. The moral lesson of this arc is you need to accept that you're dead and move on. Like Yukine says, it isn't fair that they're having fun and he's not. Life isn't fair bud. Any one of us could be dead by tomorrow. I'm probably going to face the same thing as Yukine when I die because I'm only 17 and I haven't experienced the adulthood yet but sooner and later, I'm going to have to accept the fact that I'm dead and move on. The lesson of this arc and how Yukine accepted it is the whole reason why I love this arc.
Yato's arc is different. Yato has a dark past that continually tries to haunt him even to this day. He's obviously changed and has moved on. One of the gods doesn't want him to change and wants him to stay the way he was over a hundred years ago. Look, the moral story of this arc is everyone changes over the years. A person cannot stay exactly the same. A person you knew 50-100 years ago might not be the same person 50-100 years later. Especially when that person has a dark past..In this case, Yato.
Last Main character that I want to talk about is Hiyori. Hiyori, who got hit by a bus in order to save Yato, is now a "hanyou". She now suffers from a problem where her spirit randomly leaves her original body. Thus, she payed Yato 5 yen in order to fix her problem *wink wink* For the most part....he can't. I'm going to make this short..I like her character. She's a strong independent female character who doesn't suck on the MC's dick nor does she ever need Yato's help. She's also one of the few female character in the anime industry who isn't overly-sexualized (i.e she doesn't have big boobs, she's not a loli, etc.). Thank.f*cking.Lord
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[Enjoyment]: (9/10)
My expectations weren't that high when I first watched the show so I completely enjoyed the anime from start to finish. This is also one of the few animes that I marathoned which is very rare considering that I'm busy at school and work. Everytime I get a free-time or lunch break, I immediately turned this show on.
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[VERDICT]
"Noragami" is one of the most amazing anime that I have ever watched. It contains a great character-driven story arcs, characters that are relatable and are also developed, great side-characters, great comedy and only contains few fanservice scenes that aren't really distracting. If you're looking for a dark and serious anime with a slice of funny moments then this is the anime for you.
[OVERALL]: (9/10)
Pros:
+Great Character-Driven stories
+Great Visuals and Animations
+Awesome Soundtrack
+Characters are great, relatable and are also developed
+First half of the show is extremely funny
+Dark and serious tone on the second half
+Fanservice scenes are not distracting
Cons:
-Pacing Issues on the second half
-Anime Original Route might disappoint some manga fans
