[Animu] Noragami

This show is awesome. I loved the song that played when Yato got the sword and defeated that demon.

Their spending a lot of time world building, but it looks like plot is about to start... Than again, I could have said the same for episode 4... I like the world building, but my waning patient is driving me crazy. Each episode keeps raising my expectations... Making it harder to wait for the next.

Brilliant episode. Yukine's acts did seem annoying at first, but in hindsight, and trying to imagine as realistically as possible, any sane person would flip out at the prospect of not belonging anywhere or having anyone by your side ever, especially a young mind. I know I would have lost my shit in Yukine's position even harder. I can relate to the guy now.

Music and scene juxtaposition was beautifully done, Yato shows us he's not all talk, and Hiyori being Hiyori as always, even though she really was one of the enablers of Yukine's spoiled attitude (at least she sees the gravity of the situation now and is trying to help fix it).

I'd pray for a 2nd season, but this type of anime, a serious undertone outside of a school setting and lacking "moe" appeal, don't seem to get second seasons often. Considering the open ended ending they sound like they have plenty of material to go off of (I wonder if it's to draw the viewer to the manga...). ~sigh~

In what way did Yukine play a "scenery" role? He was plenty active, attempting to bridge Yato and Hiyori during her memory lost, whose emotional disposition further added to Yato's. Before that, taking up the role of bettering himself through interactions with Hiyori and other cast members. But I may be looking through bias eyes, so I'll ask, what more should he do, taking in account his age (maturity and sense of independence) that would also have to fit within the budget (episode limitation) of the series. Yukine's past wouldn't be an option as it would require a bit of time to actually explore.

What forced romance? There are romantic feelings on Hiyori's part, but it's comparable to infatuation, a crush, nothing that, alone, is ever acted on. As for Yato, how he feels towards her hasn't been confirmed as anymore than a bond of trust and friendship. It also doesn't take into account the emotional range of a god, let alone, for a human, within the world of this series.

A desire to not let go of a friend, I see in Yato, something that "can" develop into romantic feelings, but I didn't see any "forced romance" or any romance at all pulling the story along.

The final arch was an event brought about by his past. They didn't drag all his past out, but I prefer this well composed end to a crammed out end trying to encompass all of Yato's relevant history. His association with each god, his "revelation" (turning point) as a god of calamity, his relationship to Nora (and her past), his ascension to godhood, his death, his human life.

That's the problem, he's had a massive character overhaul and entered a stage called "final boss prep" with no real final boss(this final boss had "your princess is in another castle all over it"). Ordinarily, conflicts between flawed main characters bridge the gap leading to the finale only having closure nearing the end to maximize the viewer's exposure to said conflicts. Although watching Yukine being a douchebag was frustrating for me I understood that he was in a growth stage so there was that expectation of him acting proper and when he did it felt like he lost much of his allure in the series, of course they could have had something planned later on. They could go to his past and I would be interested in seeing that. They can do something for Yukine like expand on his Regalia or spirit related duties but the series was capped at 12 episode.

Probably forced romance is a poor wording on my part, when I realized that it was going to be baddie X+ transparent baddie Y+damsel in distress= abrupt ending.

The final arch was some guy named Rabou geeking hard about a murderous Yato that was hinted at but never fully explained. Like Bishamonten's shtick with Yato, Kazuma's debt to Yato and how he used Nora to kill a Regalia and so on so forth.

The lack of direction was pointed at the fact that they ditched the goal of Hiyori getting her body back after the first few episodes to understandably make room for Yukine's arc, but then brought it up for that lackluster ending.