Review of Katanagatari

“People who work for money are no good. People who work for honor are also no good. That leaves only one reason. People who work for love can be trusted. Yasuri Shichika… fall for me!” - Togame Katanagatari is written by the well-known author Nisio Isin, original creator of the –monogatari series. This means that, if you were expecting a show with a ton of fighting, you might be disappointed. There is, however, at the very least one (pretty epic) fight throughout every episode. The runtime of each episode is 50 minutes, and I believe that this is beneficial to the series, since it allows forboth more dialogue and character building.

The story:

The premise of the story is quite simple. Because of events roughly 20 years before the story starts, Yasuri Shichika father, and his family, was exiled to a small, isolated island. After his father passes away, Shichika is now the seventh head of the Kyotoryu (bladeless) Sword Style. Enter Togame. She wants Shichika’s help in collecting the 12 Deviant Blades, the final masterpieces of the master swordsmith Shikizaki Kiki.

“Oh god,” you’re probably thinking. “That just sounds so bland! There’s no way I’ll like this.” But I’ll stop you right there. The power of the show isn’t in the story, like it is in some. The characters are what really bring out the goods in this series.

The characters:

Katanagatari features a wide array of characters, and somehow, most of them don’t fall into some trope or cliche. Each episode focuses on a wielder of one of the Deviant Blades, and even though we only get 50 minutes with each, they all seem fleshed out and realistic, almost to the same level as series like Cowboy Bebop and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood does it.

Yasuri Shichika is one of the most well-developed characters in any anime I have seen. In the beginning of the series, he might come off as someone that would fall into the airhead trope. He even states it himself, “I’m not very good at thinking.” The thing is Shichika has only ever had contact with three other human beings. You come to realise that there is more to him that just being stupid, and he only seems that way in the beginning because of his life devoid of social contact. Important to Shichika is the reason he fights, and this is where most of his development comes. But I honestly don’t want to say anything about it, since it would be venturing into possible spoiler territory.

What places this anime as my favorite is not only Shichika’s development, but also the dialogue between the characters. It wouldn’t be a Nisio Isin anime, if more than 50% of the screen time was talking, would it? The banter and dynamic going between Togame and Shichika throughout the whole series almost reminds me of something out of S&W.

Art/Animation/Sound

In my very biased opinion, this show features some of the best character design I have seen. Each character is unique and interesting. None of them are bland to look at.

Studio White Fox did an absolutely amazing job animating this anime. Yup, White Fox, the creators of series such as Steins;Gate, Hataraku Maou-Sama! and Akame ga Kill! All things I feel pretty safe assuming you’ve at least heard of.

Katanagatari has what is probably one of my favorite OSTs. It’s huge, and has everything from great battle music, to some kind of Vietnamese rap thing , and even to calming, tone setting melodies.

In Conclusion

I don’t really want to say too much about the show, since I believe that coming to some of the conclusions I have come to is part of the watching experience. So go watch it. Like, right now. Go. Do it. You know you want to.