Review of Katanagatari

So I thought it might be fun to review this one. There's lots of people claiming this show to be a masterpiece, and while I disagree on that notion, I still think it was a very good show. Even if it didn't really impress me that much until the final episode. Actual review starts here: minor spoilers might be included. --Presentation (Visuals & Sound). Katanagatari has a very unique style to it, However I wouldn't go out of my way to call it too far from most peoples comfort zone. The character designs are different mostly from other anime regarding the eyes and body proportions and the backgrounds are hand painted/drawn. Nottoo unconventional, and it looks quite nice.

Regarding the music in the show, I liked all the openings and ending songs, and the background music mostly fit as well with the exception of the few hip hop/rap songs they used, which I was not a fan of, even though they did usually fit the theme.
The animation is fluid, the backgrounds are nice and the music was mostly very good.
I have no real complaints here.

--Story.
With the word story being in the title you would expect this to be the highlight of the show, but no I thought it left room for improvement (but still was above average).
Basically a dude and a girl get together and set foe a quest to find all 12 deviant blades, while another faction that wants the blades is also on a hunt for them.
The goal is simple, avoid getting killed and collect blades.

I do have some complaints about the story.
For one, the entire plot is basically a glorified fetch quest, like when an NPC in a video game tells you to go collect X amount of bear asses or something.
And the reasoning behind the whole quest wasn't much better than what mos video games offer either.
The other part I thought could be improved was the romance, in episode one it just kind of happens and then they hint at development, while not really doing anything and about episode ten they hold hands.
The actual development was so slow I thought they were way past that point at the time.
Having more of a focus on the relationship of the two main characters would have added a lot more emotional impact for the final episode.

The whole story is episodic, as expected and while that's not a bad thing it does tend to make the show a bit predictable.
The story is also told mostly through dialogue and that could turn some viewers off.
I myself am not a fan of this type of storytelling, but they managed to pull it off pretty well.

--Characters.
There's basically three types of characters in this show, the main duo, the people who wield the deviant blades and the ninja faction.
The ninja faction is fairly quirky but pretty pointless regarding the story, as they are mostly an annoyance to the main cast and don't affect the plot for the most part.

The blade wielding masters are a bit more interesting, they all have their own reason for fighting and risking their lives.
And while they usually only get a single episode of development, they are about as interesting as
the main cast.

And now about Shichika and Togame.
Shichika is a person who is also considered a blade an Togame is a strategician.
For the largest part of the show their relationship boils down to the guy who fights and the girl who thinks, but towards the end of the series there's at lest a little bit of further development.
I kind of dislike how they both got a good backstory, but the implications of those were pretty much ignored.
The characters were still definitely a big part of this show's appeal.

--summary.
The way Katanagatari keeps itself interesting is with jokes, rapid introduction of new characters, the unique art style and some fight scenes.
Surprisingly it never felt like it had to stretch itself too thin, despite the simplistic plot.
The execution matters, and Katanagari was nicely done.
I could say that this is a show worth checking out for pretty much anyone.
While I didn't see it as a masterpiece it was still fun all the way through.