Review of Katanagatari

Katanagatari is a story that follows Togame, a 'strategemist' on a journey to collect 12 deviant blades scattered across the land of Japan, and Yasuri Shichika, inheritor of the sword art Kyoto Ryu who accompanies her on the journey. Katanagatari is 12 episodes long and lasting about 45 minutes each so the episodes can be long winded, especially during the first few episodes. There is so much dialogue and information being presented in episodes 1 and 2, that it takes away from the enjoyment of truly appreciating the art and visuals of what Katanagatari possesses. Watching Katanagatari subbed, I was constantly reading so much thatI had to pause a few times because the conversations between the characters were so quick and continuous and rarely held room for a pause. Happily, this improved in the later episodes.

I praise Katanagatari for it's character development and it's overall plot. You gradually see and learn how Yasuri grows throughout each episode as he and Togame search for the 12 blades. Togame, however, is a harder character to fully comprehend. She is a 'strategemist' through and through so much so and to the point that it plays a heavy role in her personality which makes her far more difficult to read, even her dialogue. In my opinion, that's an enjoyable element of the series.

The minor characters like Hōō, Hitei Hime (major antagonist), Emonzaemon, and Namami all presented well thought out character designs that flowed the the plot in a direction that was unforseen yet very entertaining.

The art style is unique but uninspiring. The basic molds and character designs are nothing exceptional and they all follow somewhat of the same design. The garbs and fashions presented through the series was amazing, in my opinion, when they showed it. The clothing, the katanas, and the scenery were all well drawn as well.

There are 2 major flaws, in my opinion, one was the fighting scenes. They are often too quick and fails to display the beautiful visuals that you see throughout Katanagatari. Expect one fight, at the end of Episode 3 after the credits they give you a glimpse of the next episode. It shows Yasuri fighting Sabi Hakuhei for about 20 seconds and the visuals are extremely good and entertaining. But! As you begin to watch episode 4, you realize that the previewed fight is never shown. Every fight that comes after it is somewhat subpar. Majority of the fights are close range so you never truly see character movements. You see more so a scene of a punch and then a scene of a dodge, rarely do you see a full view of the fight so you can enjoy the movements, styles, techniques, shown at a wide eye-view angle. There were a few scenes that appeared this way but very very few. One being of Yasuri and Zanki Kiguchi.

The 2nd flaw is the progression of the plot. After 2-3 episodes it becomes the repetitive notion of; let's find where the katana is located, oh somebody has it?, let's fight them, quick fight and uninteresting battle, win the katana, and then venture out and find the other. This playwright does not add anything interesting and the only thing that may interest you is what can the katana do and how it looks.

Overall I would give this solid 7/10 for everything I mentioned above. This is my second playthrough of the series and initially rated it a 10 until I sat down with it examined all the elements I spoke on. FIN 10/14-21/23