Review of Katanagatari

Note: I wrote this review in 2014, but I don't feel like it would be right to go back and change any of my opinions after not having watched the show in so long. Let me tell you about a story, that's about swords. A sword story. A Katanagatari. This is spoiler-free. Sometimes I watch a series, and then immediately forget about it, being that so many anime use the same tropes and follow cookie-cutter cliches to a point where I think "Why do I even watch these?". Katanagatari is like a glass of orange juice in a world of only milk and water. I've never watched ashow that struck me with such a power sense of difference. It was appallingly refreshing.

Where do I even start...
I'll go with the superficial stuff first.

Visuals:
I absolutely loved the artstyle here. All the scenery and characters are so uniquely designed that I vividly remember what the enemy from episode one looked like. I never got over how beautiful the design for the main girl, Togame (right) was even until the end. They put so much care into each costume and setting that it made it feel like a real journey. Every passing episode was so memorable that it really feels like you carry that experience with you to the next episode.

Sound:
The soundtrack to this show is just mm. MMM MMM MMM. It's.. IT'S JUST SO GOOD. GO LISTEN TO IT. A lot of them were obviously intended as BGM, but a lot of them are just simply fantastic songs. I really can't describe it any other way than a perfect fit for the show.

Characters:
I already mentioned that the characters were visually unique, but even more so were their personalities. The MC, Yasuri Shichika, lived on a remote island with his older sister for the first 20 years of his life. Meaning that he had no contact with anyone other than her. This makes the journey across Japan a very strange experience for him, as most things in society he sees as unnecessary or "a hassle" as he often repeats in the first half of the show. By the latter half he was grown in knowledge and in personality as he becomes less of a simple-minded farm hand type, to what makes a hero. Togame starts out being a calculated, high-horse tactician // "strategian", my bad, to begin to show some emotions as Togame and Shichika walk together and they (as well as the viewer) learn more about each other.
However that's just the main two characters. The rest of the cast is so well written that they don't even feel like side-characters like they do in other shows. Each episode they may introduce two or three new characters, but they have so much personality that it doesn't take long for them to be a memorable part of the story. There are a few that don't last very long, but they are very few. Most of them present their own story and their own ambitions.
This is getting a little long... THERE'S A LOT OF THEM, BUT THEY'RE ALL PRETTY LOVABLE.

Story:
It might've been a little weird of me to save story for last, but I did it on purpose. Katanagatari is completely aware of what it tries to be, a story. Every almost every aspect of the show reflects this. "Spoon omg, I've been reading for like four minutes and I don't even know what this is about" Okay okay. So basically it's called "Sword Story" because Togame recruits Shichika to help her collect 12 swords made by a legendary swordsman named something with a lot of K's in it. "Woah wait a second, there's 12 episodes in the series!" Why yes there is, and you're right, each episode is about one particular sword, and its owner. "But how can it do so much in only 12 episodes?" ... Here's the thing. Each episode.. is actually TWO episodes. Each one is 49 minutes long including OP and ED. This really helped hit two things home in my perspective. Firstly, how much of a mold-breaker this show is on top of everything else. Secondly, it allowed them to write a fully fleshed out story for each episode, uninterrupted. Each episode is like a mini movie, with their own respective sub-plots. It took the immersion to an even greater level than it would've otherwise. A small decision, but it made a big difference IMO. So, the story-telling is one of, if not the strongest aspect of the show. That being said, it does contain at least one fight scene each episode. Honestly, this is where the show could do a little better, but from what I can tell, writing fight scenes isn't their strength, so they made them short and sweet and beautifully animated. This is another point that helps drive home the theme of a STORY. It was enough to notice, but it wasn't so much that it put me off.

Overall:
I lost sleep to keep watching this show more than one night. I was genuinely interested in the story and its characters all the way through. The interactions between Shichika and Togame are fun and full of heart and the atmosphere and characters were immersive. I would whole-heartedly recommend this show to anyone who wants a change of pace.

It was okay, I give it a 9/10.