Reviews

Katanagatari is an epic tale of a quest to recover the 12 deviant blades of Shikizaki Kiki, the legendary swordsmith, whose blades had been scattered across Japan. The quest is given to Togame a minor official for the Owari Shoganate, who has given herself a very long and meaningless job title, who calls herself a strategian and is according to her a very good one if not the best. Part of her strategy in recovering the swords is to enlist the help of the 6th head of the Kyotoryuu (swordless) sword style, and the man responsible for putting down the rebellion against the Shoganate, on and isolated island.

The problem is that he is dead. Instead she finds Yasuri Shichika, the 7th head, who is a bit slow and naive living with his emotionally stunted older yet highly dangerous older sister, Nanami. After convincing him to help her and him proving his skill in obtaining the first sword they head off to find the other 11.

During the quest they not only have to face the current owners of the swords who are less than willing to give them away but also enemies who have their own reasons to collect the swords which leads them all to their own destruction.

Katanagatari took me a little while to get into. The animation style took me a while to get used and at 50 minutes for each episode challenged my retention span as each episode has a lot of dialogue especially in the first half of the series but these are personal gripes. I'm glad I stuck with it as the story has a number of twists and unexpected events, especially in the second half of the series, as the characters of Togame and Shichika develop leading to a surprising conclusion.

At the centre of the series is Togame and Shichika who start of as chalk and cheese. Togame who a egoistic city girl who is not as clever or streetwise as she thinks she is and Shichika who is a country bumpkin and has no idea about the world giving him a charming innocence. As the series progresses we learn more about Togame and Shichika and watch their characters change. Togame becomes more modest and a little dependent on Shichika and Shichika becomes more knowledgeable about the world. As a result a deep bond and romance develops between them.

For the other characters some work and some don't. I'm not sure about the Maniwa Ninjas and I like some of the sword owners and some left me a bit cold. However, I really liked Nanami and the Princess Hitei especially with her catty arguments with Togame. Fortunately the weak characters don't stay in the series long and we see a lot of the good characters

The biggest strength of the show is the witty and clever script especially the dialogue between Togame and Shichika with Shichika questioning whether Togame actually has a strategy and Togame's catchphrase of "CHEERIO!!!". Put this together with the twists you have a very enjoyable show.

So I'm going strongly recommend you watch Katanagatari and aim a encouraging punch in your direction shouting "CHEERIO!!!".