Review of Katanagatari

As a fairly highly-scored anime in MAL, I had high expectations for this anime - much to my dismay. I'd say this anime is good at the least, but my disappointment makes me want to score this at 6, 5, or even 4. The story takes place during an old era of Japan when the use of the sword and killing techniques are still the norm. The anime is narrated like a monogatari - a tale, which is fitting of the time period and which gives off the allure of adventure and soul-searching. I find this aspect attractive as I do have an interest in Japanculture and this kind of storytelling is one that might be unique to the culture.

Now in a twist of fate, Togame seeks Shichika to help her collect the 12 Deviant Swords. Until their meeting, Shichika lived in a secluded island with his sister. He practices the style of Kyotouryuu - a swordless style of swordmanship. It's basically martial arts but meant to be used in a sword fight, so the person - Shichika - is the sword himself. As a sword, he had very little "human" feelings and had no desire whatsoever to leave, but hearing about Togame's backstory and their fateful connection made him "fall in love" with her and thus start the tale of katana-searching.

It was indeed very interesting at the start. The start of the journey, although superficial and somehow forced, is tolerable. It's one that I could just accept as a plot device.

The problem is the anime soon became bland. It promised action but I got nothing. The characters love saying and explaining their moves which take up most of the airing time and the fight ends with just a black screen without showing the move itself. Every character was made to appear very strong only to be defeated with a blink of an eye. Hell, the 12 Leaders of Maniwa Corps were shown as menacing shadows at the start of the anime, but they are apparently just disposable characters that could make someone else appear stronger. In a particular episode, I was looking forward to a duel with an interesting character who was introduced to have a "beautiful style" but he was just magically killed off without the duel itself being shown. More others were also not given justification, mostly because of the fact that they didn't even land a hit at all or just barely damaged Shichika. That's a crucial mistake, because with someone not even receiving a blow, that wouldn't be a fight at all. They totally gave up on producing quality action and fighting choreography by writing the face-offs that way.

I was also promised of Togame's intellect prowess and the ability to come up with schemes to defeat the enemy, but the first half of the anime did not show any of that. The schemes at the later episodes were also not as impressive as I thought they would be, given her pride of her thinking skills.

Shichika and Togame were also interesting characters at the start but there seems to be something lacking in their character development. Shichika got a more direct development - from a man who only thinks like a tool for killing to a man who is more like a person and could think for himself. That's good and all, but the pacing might have made it a little forced on the way. I liked Togame at episode 1 for her bluntness, her pride and poker face while saying that she's weak as a paper wall, and her idiocy despite saying that she's an intelligent strategian. But from episode 2 she was matched with bad writing and just came off as that typical anime girl who gets violent at every little thing despite being so useless herself. Moreover, the last episode didn't do justice to that little development that happened in the last 11 episodes. The resolution wasted all the other episodes.

Visual-wise, the anime is really great. Although cartoon-ish and a bit too colorful, the art style is fun and lovable. It's like a pastel version of Kill la Kill. It looked like the animation had potential too, so it's really sad that they didn't choreograph impressive fighting scenes.

The sounds are just OK, nothing really remarkable. They are fitting to the monogatari theme. At some point, I got tired of the monotone exchange of Shichika and Togame. Even "cheerio" got so annoying.

TLDR I expected too much and got hella disappointed. I think I would have enjoyed it if they just didn't tag the anime as action. But then, I would still get disappointed at the final episode because it revealed a weak writing.