Up until episode 4 Katanagatari was pathetic,
To begin with the ART
Oh god the art, others who have watched this anime will claim that in spite of all the downsides including the dumb story, the pathetic characters and substandard mediocre villains, viewers will claim the artwork is amazing.
In one of my favorite arcs in Naruto, the developers used a similar animating style with a very powerful effect.
Art work of this type has one point it really shows the explosive intensity of the conflict to great effect as in Naruto. Katanagatari FAIL.
Limping along to the characters, the guy who has lived on an island his entire life, has a penchance for maple leave styled haircuts and skirts who is at the same time the comedic relief and the Warrior , the other is the other character that happens to be female that isn't interesting.
The final stinging point of Katanagatari is the plot line.
The story heads in one direction, but it's like looking down a very long highway that you can see the end too, it might meander a bit , but eventually it will go right to the expected destination and still suck.
Then I watched the fourth episode, and all of a sudden you realize how deep and dangerous this world is, it is plagued with decay, frustration, sadness and death, and all of a sudden what was simple straightforward and seemingly designed for children became virulent hateful and murderous.
All of a sudden the character I believed to be the comic relief shit character I started to realize is a prisoner of his own mind... there is depth, and it has built up behind a horrible horrible wall and when the truth smashes it's way out I want to be there to see it.
There are few animes that force me to wait for the episode in some state of anticipation, but I'm really looking forward to the next episode.
