Review of Katanagatari
Nisio Isin dropped the ball. Either that or I have become stupider in the 2 years since I saw Monogatari, because I did not appreciate Katanagatari as much as I expected. The story is convoluted. 12 episodes for gathering 12 swords starts off the same but slowly becomes richer and more complicated. And It flows well with more threads, characters and world-building until it does not. At the end though not one thing gets proper closure. Changing history? Fixing history? Prophesy? Legacy? Rebellion? Long lines? 13th sword? Future swords? Ancestors? Fall of the Shogunate? Why does the princess act like a bitch despite not caring aboutwhat happens at all? Why doesn't it matter at the end?
Story aside, the characters feel off too. Togame's initial motivations are weak, convoluted, and not relatable at all. She treats her subordinates, feelings, and self as pawns, closes her heart and seemingly seeks revenge but not really. At the end it becomes clear (but not at all) that she could not allow herself to be happy and instead chose to hurt herself for no apparent reason. Shichika is interesting and I liked how he fell in love with the ambitious but contradictory nature of Togame. However, their development throughout the show (finding their lost humanity through each other's companionship motif) could not help but feel like a lackluster retelling of another kitchen sink philosophy. Likewise all lessons or moral dilemmas they encountered in the last episodes felt to me like they were presented in an arrogant, self-patronizing, endlessly cringy, precocious-high-school-student manner. It was pretentious and it was stupid.
The side-characters did not have much of an impact to me, they were just there to be there. In this case they were "side"-ish to the extreme. The Maniwani died like bugs and each had just one fake humanizing moment to invoke some sympathy and create the illusion that they matter at all. The sword owners could go one way or the other. Either just somewhat/very cool, cute (Ezo girl, armor guy, princess + her ninja, dojo, ep 2 guy), or underwritten where writing was attempted (sister and Meisei). It is a shame, really because the show takes its time to introduce badass characters with a potentially meaningful development, but ruins them by having things just happen without logic nor reason.
The show is at its best in those moments where nothing really matters. Because when it tries to be funny and cute, it is extremely funny and cute. Both Togame and Shichicka are very cute by themselves but when they act cute together something weird clicks and makes me want to cry. And I do not remember the last time I laughed as hard as when the the narrator said Cheerio is wrong.
Katanagatari is amazing when it is self-aware, quirky, and cute. However, I also dislike it for being convoluted, for having unfleshed out characters. and overall, for going nowhere. Maybe I am just stupid but establishing so many ambiguities as to let the viewer interpret the story themselves ruins many logical connections whose lack in turn make Katanagatari a lot less enjoyable. If I had to decide, I would not recommend it - I felt it was great 4 or 5 times but I felt even more disappointed afterwards.