Review of Katanagatari

Instead of breaking this review up into the standard format of presenting my score for each of the show's ranking criteria, I will simply break it down into the good, the bad, and the ugly; all with the hopes of not revealing too much that would prevent any enjoyment you may find from the show. The good, Katanagatari works best in two functions--its characters as well and its ability to keep you interested. Most of the plot-relevant characters are presented in a way that you are able to get a good grasp of who they are as well as even going to the lengths of characterizingantagonists to the point of making them likable. The other factor I mentioned, its ability to keep you interested, may not belong in the good, and as such, we will leave that mention for the next section.

The bad, as I was saying, starts with its ability to keep you interested. Logically, this isn't a bad thing, however, the methods through which it is accomplished are less than appealing. One such method being that instead of there being a mystery that you await a character to uncover, the character mentions something that provokes mystery only for said character to be interrupted, and the mystery to not receive answers for many episodes to come. The bad does not stop here; it continues in another category which I praised; its characters. While I did say most of the plot-relevant characters have themselves established by the show, this is not true for many of the side characters, and more than a handful of main characters. Gimmicks is what these characters possess in the place of actual character, and I won't lie, this isn't a problem exclusive to this show, but I digress. It's shocking how a show can waste more than 5 min in their 45-50 min episodes to talk about what the MC's catchphrase, but doesn't have the time to understand the difference between a gimmick and characterization.

The ugly. I wish to start this section by mentioning that this show was not without it's enjoyments, however, said enjoyments were reduced significantly by what lies ahead. Action scenes in anime make up the greater extent of what most people would say are the best animated parts in a show, but Katanagatari wants nothing to do with such a concept, which is made clear by the random cut to Japanese characters in the middle of a strike, as well as the fact that almost every fight in this anime spends more time in dialogue than it does in actual action. The most obvious reason for this lies within another problem with this show; the length of each episode. As mentioned above, every episode of Katanagatari is approximately twice the length of your average anime episode, however, this by itself is not a problem. The problem, is the fact that each episode does not have to plot-material to fuel an episode for this long. The studio's solution was clearly the overuse of dialogue, which led to me having skip through more pointless bickering than I have ever done in any series that I can think of. Finally, I can't end this review without mentioning the ending, which may be the ugliest thing I have to mention in this review. Typically, the ending of any show gives greater meaning to the show's origins as well as its entirety. However, by trampling over everything that was setup during the story, like the pay-off that was promised, Katanagatari denies the viewer of this, and instead gives an ending that makes you question the purpose of the entire story. I realize the anime I'm about to mention was released at a later date than this one, but if you have watched Akame ga Kill, and its ending drove you to madness ... Well, I would avoid Katanagatari like the plague. If you have watched Akame ga Kill, and desire to watch more characters that you grow to love be shredded before your eyes, then watch Katanagatari without a care in the world.