Review of Katanagatari

Story: + I can imagine it carries a lot of the detail over from the novels so the loyalty to the source material is a plus. + It's ballsy with some of the things it does but excels masterfully, the world feels fully thought and fleshed out. It's nice to see an expert in their field. + For the episodes runtime, they have pretty good fights. It's like a villain of the week but not (so I guess that could also be looked at as a con?). -Each episode is kind of long which means it can be slow at times but it's thorough as I mentioned. Art: +I have an affinity for hand-painted or watercolor backgrounds and this has just that.
+ There are some really nice structures that I found myself trying to recreate in Minecraft because they were so fitting and peaceful. So the art complements the fully thought out world I mentioned.
+ The characters designs are simplistic but I've learned to enjoy that aspect, it almost reminds me of the original "Hori-San to Miyamura-Kun" OVA.

Sound: Not much to say on this but if they want you to feel impacted or sad, they really nail it. I won't spoil what they do but they mix it in with the animation pretty good as well.

Character: + Togame in particular is pretty self aware with the way she writes her records as a way to address the reader, it's almost like the author was having a conversation with these characters, it's really interesting. I feel like saying anything else about the characters would be a spoiler.

Enjoyment: For this one, I wanted to talk about my personal experience and what I think worked and what I think didn't when it came to 'how' I watched it. The runtime made me want to just watch it every now and then, maybe once or twice a week, maybe every two weeks, but I would occupy myself with other shows and I felt conflicted about that. Every-time I'd think about watching Katanagatari, I'd be like "Not really in the mood." not because of the length, I was watching Invincible just fine. Not because of the enjoyment, I love this anime. I can't quite put my finger on it. Every-time I started a new episode, I would think "Why did I wait so long? I'm enjoying this." but then just not think about it so much afterwards. So, what made me tired of this anime?

I guess the best way to explain it is a JRPG. Whenever I complete a JRPG, I feel like I fulfilled something. I've grinded and built up my weapons and character to figure out how to beat a number of bosses and it's a job but you feel relief by the end because you just accomplished those goals. But whenever I start a new game, I want it to be refreshing so I don't normally go from one JRPG to another, it just makes me feel burned out. With this series, just one episode made it seem fulfilling, like I was kept at bay. That can be an advantage and I never even realized it until I started watching this anime.

I've seen shows while they were airing, shows that have been on hiatus, shows that air weekly and shows on demand where I go at my own pace but I can't recall ever wishing that I was there to see a show air. There's a certain lure that this anime has that makes the experience almost palpable and makes you wonder "Oh man! If that was this episode then the next must be CRAZY. Can't wait to tune it next time." but the next episode is right there, ready to go, so it doesn't have the same effect and I think that I unintentionally recreated that experience by choosing to put gaps in between episodes.

It's almost like waiting was to this anime's advantage, like it was worth it even though it's already finished. But that ending, I have to at least say SOMETHING about it even if I won't spoil it. It took a lot for me to process and digest the ending because it wasn't at all like I expected and was unlike any ending I've seen. It was up in the air whether that was a good or bad thing, it made me vulnerable and challenged what I thought of the rest of the series. It took some reading in other people's words to put it in full context but I think the more I looked at it, the more I appreciated how smart it actually was despite being initially jarring, I don't think it's an ending you just "get" right away.

Overall, I think it's safe to say that I give this a 9. I feel like I would be cheating it otherwise, even if I feel like I didn't think about it as much outside of watching it or was questioning the ending.

'The story of Katanagatari on this month and this evening ends here.'