Review of Noragami Aragoto

Hey hey hey, back with another review where the individual scores don't match up with overall. Hate on me if you want, whatever. So Aragoto is pretty solid. It's better than the first season in a lot of ways, and for that reason it should have gotten a 9. Notice though that I said SHOULD have. Sadly Aragoto also fails in a lot of places the first season doesn't. So let me explain to you what makes Aragoto different from the original. So let's get the negatives out of the way. The story in this one is kind of weak, especially in the first arc. I getwhy people like it, but I wasn't really feeling it. Bishamon gets kind of annoying and Kugaha is a stupid villain who I can't take seriously. A lot of the emotional moments in this section feel like cheese and I don't really get why they tried. The art is whatever. It's about as good as the first season so nothing too special. I really don't like the eheheheh song from the OST. Every time I hear it all I can think of is ayayaya from Jojo's bizarre adventure and I stop being able to take the scene seriously lol. Ebisu is kind of a strange character and the guy who has the hots for Hiyori is pretty weird too. There were sadly parts of the show where I got bored.

However, Aragoto is special in its own way. The second arc is pretty solid for the most part and carries a lot more emotional weight that works really well. The art still has that uniqueness to it that I would really like to see more of in the future. Kyouran Hey Kids is an absolute jam (even though the beginning reminds of the Cowboy Bebop OP) and even though the ED isn't as solid as in Noragami it's still good. I gotta say I love the characters here. Yato, Hiyori, and Yukine are all absolutely fantastic. A lot of side characters like Bishamon, Kazuma, and beloved waifu Kofuku do a great job as well (for the most part). What stands out the most about this series though is the emotional weight it carries. While some emotional moments are cheese (as I previously stated), pretty much any time that the main three interact is a guaranteed winner. The dynamic between our protagonists (especially between Yato and Hiyori, who are arguably the greatest anime ship of all time) is absolute gold and I almost EMPHASIS ON ALMOST cried in a few of these moments (I won't specify which so as to avoid spoilers). This made the series a very enjoyable experience overall.

So what's the takeaway? Well, while Aragoto is very different from Noragami, it's still special in it's own way. It explores more themes and expands the world a bit more, so if you watched the first season you should definitely watch the second one. Keeping it out of the top one hundred seems justified, and so does its average score. I get why it's in top 100 for most popular and I can't really complain. All I can say is watch it, you'll probably have a good time.

R.I.P. Noragami season 3 ;_;
-Kallocarina