Review of Katanagatari

You could pretty much summarize the whole plot of Katanagatari (sword story in English) by it's title. Because, it really is story about two people traveling around japan, collecting twelve magical swords. However, when you actually sit down and watch it, you will probably get more out of it than you had expected. Story: As I said before, it has a pretty simplistic story. The story follows the 2 main characters as they set out on a journey all around Japan to collect twelve swords. the main focus of each episode is a new sword for the two to collect. When they are not fightingto collect another sword, the characters are probably spending their time talking to each other. This might sound boring, but the dialogue is well written and even really funny at times. Depending on your taste, the fact that the episodes are 45 minutes long, and that a lot of that time is spent on conversations between the characters might be a turn off.

Art: The art of Katanagatari is well... interesting to say the least. Its very colorful and eye catchy, this is mainly in part to keep the viewers attention while the characters talk themselves to death. However, corners are not cut when it comes to things like attention to detail and backgrounds. Some of the backgrounds in the show were even pretty darn beautiful. The fight scenes were also done very well, and the animation was fluid during them.

Sound: While I don't specifically remember any "standout songs" in the OST, the music does fit the shows theme and era very well. It sets the mood of the show and does it's job when needed. The OP's and ED's were also very good. the voice acting was pretty average.

Characters: Because the show has a big focus on dialogue, the characters that are talking have to be interesting, or else the show would just be boring. Luckily, the characters in Katanagatari are pretty darn interesting to say the least. The two main leads of the show are really neat characters. At 1st they seem like generic anime archetypes, however, they definitely have their own personalities quirks that set them apart from the crowd. Also, they go through quite a lot of character development throughout the show ( Sad that this is a bit of a rarity these days). Most of the side characters are not given enough screen time to fully flesh them out, however they each have their own unique personalities and motives.

Enjoyment: My own personal enjoyment of this show is really high, between the witty dialogue and interesting characters, I found that there are almost never a boring moment in the show. However, I can definitely understand why some people would not enjoy this show as much as I did. If you are going into this just wanting a dumb action show (absolutely nothing wrong with that),you are probably going to be disappointed. Also, the sheer amount of time spend on talking, witty dialogue or not, could turn you away. However, if you are looking for something just a little bit different from the norm, then I think that this show has a lot to offer.