Review of Noragami Aragoto

Wow. What an epic rollercoaster ride. After finishing Noragami, I was so hooked that I just had to watch the second season ASAP. I’ve found the cute, quirky moments have gotten way less frequent in this feature as we figure out more about Yato’s past and the show has a dark and sombre feeling for the majority of the episodes, embedded with fast-paced, visually stunning battle scenes. The opening song is absolutely addictive also. Firstly, I would like to talk about how the group dynamics between Yato, Hiyori and Yukine have shifted in this season. Yato appears to be getting more reliant on Hiyori to helphim get over how much he hates his past and keep from becoming the person he used to be. I feel like Yato is more devoted to protecting Hiyori’s admiration and memories of him as a God, rather than the emotional development of their relationship being the focus. I say this, because for a vast majority of the show, Yato and Hiyori are apart and they need each other, because their bonds are tied to their identities (Yato’s as a God and Hiyori as a half-phantom). Hiyori feels conflict over building a relationship with a admiring stranger because her familial/romantic devotion to Yato and therefore Yukine seems to be coming through in this anime, though because of their separation, all we really see with their relationship dynamics is: Yato’s turmoil over involving Hiyori and Yukine in his dangerous past affairs and Hiyori’s desire to ensure that Yato stays alive and her God-Regalia-phantom family stays intact. So in summary, there is not a huge focus on the development of Yato-Hiyori relationship growth (romantic or otherwise), but the Yato-Yukine relationship really undergoes some major changes. Yukine shows his devotion towards being there for Yato and making sure that Hiyori can stay protected by aiming to improve his magic and keeping the group strong. I just missed the Yato-Yukine-Hiyori unity as a group and would love to see them fighting their demons together.

Don’t get me wrong though, some cute Hiyori-Yato scenes are definitely sprinkled in there..
Speaking of improving magic, I forgot to mention this in the last review, but Hiyori can sometimes feel like a useless character. When she knows that she will be encountering more evil phantoms/Gods if she stays with Yato, then why doesn’t she work on improving her fighting skills as a phantom? Her role in this season did not really win me over because she was most of the time either scared of Yato disappearing, was looking for Yato or was pretty much just standing and watching during the action scenes. It was like she was the cheerleading mom of the group and I was not impressed. Especially the scene in which she attempted to fight the phantom, ripped her skirt and then that suddenly meant that she could fight no longer. I mean REALLY.

Now, moving away from my dissatisfaction with the changes in the group dynamics compared to the first season, the plot of Noragami Aragoto really takes the cake. It is basically set up into two major complications; the first involving answers to why Bishamon hates Yato and the truth behind Yato’s seemingly dark actions of the past. I must say though that this plot complication wouldn’t even have existed if Kazuma (Bishamon’s Regalia) had been honest to her eons ago, which kind of irked me that he wasn’t able to be truthful to save all the drama that followed as a result. Putting the validity of the plot complication aside, I really preferred the first six episodes as it was back to the same old teamwork dynamics with Hiyori captured (she really needs to get more powerful) and Yato and Yukine coming to her rescue.

The second complication is where a whole secret door to the world of Noragami which you didn’t even know existed is unlocked. Here we are exposed to the colloquy of Gods where all the powerful and remembered Gods gather to discuss heavenly affairs and the plot complication of someone tampering with the phantoms of the underworld is raised. During this part of the show, Yato is also separated from Hiyori and Yukine which I absolutely hated and we are exposed to how absolutely vile Nora is.

In the final part of the show, it focuses on Yato’s allure of the dark past and how he struggles to choose justice as the quality which he will adopt as a God. The focus on the character of Ebisu really didn’t strike my fancy as well, because the secrets that I wanted answered about the ties of Yato to some briefly mentioned characters like ‘Father’ were taken up by screen time from him. He provided a pivotal role for Yato’s growth, but I would have appreciated more about Yato’s past.

The battle scenes were better than ever before and my eyes were glued to the screen. They were especially stunning as multiple Gods including Kofuku and Bishamon got involved and the fighting was so fluid and just plain old bad ass that it did not leave me wanting more.

In summary, I cannot dislike this anime because the things I used to love are still there and some improvements from the first season in some areas are also present, BUT a lot of things took an unwanted turn for me in this season. This is still highly recommended though, because it opens up the world of Noragami so much more…and I absolutely love the world now. I am invested. Oh, and there is a major plot-twist, cliff hanger at the end which is seriously urging me to read the manga. I am certainly hoping that Yato and Hiyori sort out their feelings in the manga…*sigh*