Noragami Review — C

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A poor god does odd jobs to earn some cash together with his worthless sword and his human friend. A combination of the “helping random people” genre and a shinto-based shounen fighting series.

It wasn’t bad. I normally like these types of shows with gods and demons and whatnot. Norgami has a pretty neat setting, a good sense of humor, and for the most part an interesting story. It was never anything great, but solid.

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Unfortunately, there’s one part that makes me drop a full letter grade. It’s the arc involving Yukine (the sword). The whole thing is just obnoxious. First of all, Yato (the god) revives this middle school boy from the dead to fight demons for him. He forces the boy to live the life of a homeless, penniless part-time laborer. Kind of a dick move. And then the boy starts robbing stuff. He steals a skateboard. Later he steals the box of donations for the orphans. While moping how nobody understands him. And through all this nobody yells at him. Even though apparently his actions are literally killing Yato. Everything about this arc pissed me off immensely.

  • Storytelling – C – Yukkine’s arc was awful… the rest was OK.
  • Voice – C – Nothing really stands out. Maybe the completely out of place panty shots in the middle of the most serious scenes.
  • Characters – B – But lowered to F during Yukine’s arc.
  • Attention Grab – C – Consistently mildly amusing.
  • Production – C – I’m not a good judge of animation, but it was pretty common for something to seem off…
  • Overall – C

Recommendations – Kamichi, Gintama, FMA Brotherhood (none of these series is much like Noragami, but they each take one of Noragami’s components and execute it infinitely better)

7 thoughts on “Noragami Review — C

  1. Yukine wasn’t likeable during that arc, but it was still a bit easy to sympathize with the dude even though he was being a bit of a prick. I mean, a teenager who can’t sin? He can’t even think of fappable stuff without slowly killing his God-buddy. How long do you think Yato would last if you were his regalia.

    The antagonists, and as a result, the last arc weren’t really compelling I’ll admit. Still a good show.

    1. Yeah, that was what made it so weird with Yukine. Half of the things they got mad about were pretty reasonable. Being attracted to Hiyori. Wanting a skateboard. Wanting to sleep with a roof over his head. And then he’d go and steal the donations for the children lol. And all the other characters treated these actions as if they were equivalent. Ok then…

  2. Yeah, the problem with Yukine’s arc wasn’t Yukine himself, but everybody else. I mean all this damage he was unknowingly doing to Yato and no one bothers to even tell him until its too late. And then everybody turns on him like it was completely his fault, when it was only partially his fault. Definitely annoyed me.

  3. Yeah, Noragami was an ok show that missed every opportunity it had to really take off and shine. The stuff with Yukine was indeed on the insufferable side, with everyone being a dick to the point where it was tough to want to empathize with them. Especially since he just suddenly became a saint afterward. And the less said about that tacked-on and lifeless ending the better (especially that godawful amnesia plot point). If they had given the plot actual teeth, and carried through with the idea that Yato or Yukine might “fall”, then I think this would have been a much stronger show. I generally don’t like such things, but if you set yourself up to be an angst-ridden show about teenagers then at least follow through on it.

    1. Great way of putting it. The angst on both Yukine and Yato’s side had no follow-through. And yeah, that amnesia thing was retarded. Of course she’s going to get her memory back. It never felt like a non-reset ending was even possible.

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