Review of Noragami Aragoto

Noragami is one of those shows that you are rooting for even when it lets you down, and I think it's worth watching for the smirks alone. There are also some decent plot points in this season especially in the Bishamon arc, a greater threat is teased to setup season 3, and although the transcript of what happened at the climax of the show frankly sounds more interesting than it looked it was still a cut above the standard fare and kind of proved Noragami as a universe can raise the stakes for a big fight pretty effectively. For Noragami to really come into it'sown, I think we would have to see a season 3 at least, and unless that season was a 2-cour banger we're looking at 4+ tbh.

Still, the slice-of-life gags in Noragami holds up on their own with plenty of warm fuzzies and chuckles for us to enjoy. Also, they downplayed the slice-of-life stuff a fair bit in this season compared to season 1. But if the only reason you watched this show was to absorb the pure sunshine flavored sweetness that is narcoleptic Hiyori Iki and her cat-tailed "ooops my soul-slipped out teehee, let's go for a walk!" bouncing on power lines routine, or her gifting a mini-shrine to Yato who gets so stoked he finally has this pathetic tiny shrine that he won't stop texting her random messages and when Iki shows Kofuku she says "whoa there's hundreds of them! well, you are his first" - or watching the weird husband-wife routine between Kofuku and Daikoku - you'd be doing yourself a favor because they're really quite funny and heart warming. I usually can't make do with JUST that in my Anime though, which is why it was nice to see some conflicts that were much more entertaining than the relatively uninspired 1st season could offer.

That said, I don't think the production values were quite where they needed to be in either season to really make good on the conflicts introduced in terms of the final payoff. Still, they get there a few times or get close, and watching those scenes it's immediately clear that 3rd, 4th, 5th seasons etc. of Noragami would be absolute bangers if they just get "enough" added production value. A bit of sakuga, some tweaks to Yato's serious side, more than one slightly annoying background track for the action scenes, and some better art direction specifically during the big fights (they had some moments towards the end that were cool af just tbf). All that together, and the very sweet structure of Noragami with the main trio and adorable, interesting, and even some badass side characters could be a real powerhouse and push out non-stop interesting arcs IMHO. Unfortunately, that's not quite what it is yet and you really have to look past the subpar action to take in what the show does have going for it.

To be honest the abridged description of season 2 sounds much cooler than watching it unfold was. A traitor - tragedy in the house of Bishamon. Yato forced to raise his savage and sadistic Nora as a blade of Calamity once again - and his hopes to be reborn a kind god sadly threatened when a handsome teenage boy sneaks a kiss from his only true believer, as Yato himself rots in the underworld, powerless... Finally, heaven decrees the death of a kindred spirit, and unleashes divine ordinance! Can it be overcome by the blessed vessel!? ... sounds kinda epic, right? Unfortunately, I feel like the art direction and dialogue really undercut the tension that could have been there - especially in everything that came after the Bishamon arc. So while the overall structure of the show is actually amazing - something like a 9/10 that does the mythical/religious source material proud - the presentation leaves a lot to be desired, and more to be desired after the Bishamon arc which was pretty damn cool ngl.

The Bishamon arc this season really capitalized on the fantastic "rules" in Noragami, cashing in on a number of the setups in season 1 with respect to the relationships between gods and their regalia. We get to see several characters at their best and worst at the same time, with complex resolutions in some cases and a few gut punches that I didn't expect from this show after seing season 1. Bishamon's achilles heel is exposed for all other gods to see and mock, and Yato has his best line when he says "People decide what's right and wrong, but those things don't apply to gods. Do you know why? Because gods can do no wrong." - which is very similar in the Dub, where he says something like "Anything a god does is right." Which if you replace the term "gods" with "nature" is a really poignant character moment where we can see Yato's philosophy. The will of the heavens simply is what it is, and both the form of that will, and also how people judge that form, should be left to take shape by themselves - that is what right is, and only trying to control that process is wrong.

Now, here's my big complaint - I think that in both season 1 and season 2, the simplest and easiest thing they could have done to bump this show up like, 2 points on the scale is to fix that one goddamn song they keep playing during the action scenes! The track that plays during the action sequences has this vocal tick to it that sounds like a bum high on crack trying to annoy you in the subway - the sheer number of times that the song comes on and we hear this bummy "yaTON-yaya-TON-yaya-TON-yaya-ton-ahh!" while Yato (or Bishamon that one time) does an entire magical girl transformation sequence just to land the first and only strike of the fight... is just mind boggling and so fucking tedious. I'm reminded of Revolutionary Girl Utena, where they just cut in the same 2m scene set to the same music - and I mean the literal version of same, as in copy/pasted digitally identical same - every episode there was a tower duel. It was just so annoying to have to thumb drag the slider EVERY time in revolutionary girl Utena, and a big reason I dropped it 20 episodes in - and don't get me wrong because in both shows the art and animation of the scene itself are fine - but I'm just not going to watch the literal same thing for a minute and a half every episode much like OP/EDs, and in Noragami it's too short to skip! So although it sounds cool as fuck when Yato chants "This is the land of the rising sun... blah blah blah... REND!!!" - it's also pretty obvious this is an excuse not to animate or direct a fight scene. I would rather just have these wasted seconds cut out of the episode entirely, and the very few times we do see them just go right into the Yato one-hit these are the best fight moments in the show.

In summary... yaTON-yaya-TON-yaya-TON-yaya-TON-ahhhh!