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| 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 11, 12 | |
| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Buy | 8 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
 Ggultra2764
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[series:2002#1552] |
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(Buy-/ Rent+) Katanagatari was a series that got a good deal of hype back in 2010 that I never found myself getting into at the time. Notable in that each episode aired one time a month on Japanese pay-per-view channels throughout the year and each one aired at 50 minutes a piece, the series focused on skilled martial artist Shichika and a military adviser named Togame seeking out the whereabouts of 12 legendary swords called the Deviant Blades created by a recluse swordsman named Kiki Shikizaki, as each episode of the series focuses on our pair trying to seek out one of the 12 weapons. Shichika and Togame aren't alone in this task as two other parties are trying to lay claim to the Deviant Blades in the form of a clan of ninjas called the Maniwa Ninja Corps and a princess named Hitei who is rival to Togame. Katanagatari is different from typical feudal era titles in the fact that there is quite a bit of creativity put into the journey faced by Shichika and Togame. While the "collect them all" storyline with the Deviant Blades may seem like typical fare, a number of the weapons are not swords in the typical sense as some of them take on unique forms and many of them even have unique abilities that complicate the mission of our main pair in trying to collect them, especially as Shichika is not allowed to inflict any kind of damage to the Deviant Blades as he tries defeating their wielders. Some of these confrontations involve typical battles where Shichika tries to defeat their wielders, while others require him to get more creative under Togame's guidance to defeat them if conventional tactics aren't doable. The series balances out its focus on the quest to gather the swords by offering solid exploration of a number of its major characters. Our lead pair and many of the Deviant Blade wielders get a good deal of focus in Katanagatari's unique run time as many of the latter group are focused on to explore their backgrounds, mentalities and why they wield the Deviant Blades they have possession of. The unique pairing of Shichika and Togame lend a mixture of both comical and serious developments in their relationship and offer a fun foil to one another with Shichika being naive to the ways of the outside world in spite of his immense skill in martial arts and Togame trying to put on a regal facade in spite of her lowly status with the shogunate and her ability to develop tactics when confronting Deviant Blade wielders. Their chemistry is a genuine one as Shichika learns to develop a sense of self through his understanding of the outside world through Togame and our female lead grows to admire Shichika in spite of her original intentions to utilize his skills as a tool to gather the Deviant Blades for her personal gain. The series does drop hints of the two having a past connection to one another through Togame's rather tragic back story that are eluded to as the series progresses and helps add some engaging drama to the pairing's developing bond in later episodes. Praises aside, I do have some issues with Katanagatari that hurt its quality to an extent. For anyone familiar with series creator Nisio Isin, you may remember his work with the Monogatari franchise. Much like that series, Katanagatari often likes to indulge in dragged out conversations between characters that cover ongoing elements of the show's plot and characters. Unlike the Monogatari franchise where this presentation approach worked because of the series being more character-driven, the heavy focus on conversations don't work as effectively at points for Katanagatari since the series is more plot-driven and causes the pacing of the series to often drag. The series also has its bumps with characterization. While offering solid character depth with major players of the plot, there are some that don't get as much depth such as a number of members within the Maniwa Ninja Corps and Hitei's assistant Emonzaemon. And speaking of the former, their effectiveness as a threat in the hunt for the Deviant Blades diminishes quite a bit as the series progresses since the majority of their members get killed off rather easily in later episodes through Shichika and a few other characters. Visually, Katanagatari is a bit of a mixed bag. While having beautiful background and scenic shots, character designs are a bit on the simple side sporting minimal details and facial designs looking rather out of the ordinary compared to more conventional designs. The series doesn't show off fluid movement often. But when it does, it creates some engaging action scenes that sport great choreography thanks to the unique abilities shown of the Deviant Blades and other fighters throughout the series, that include use of weapons, exotic abilities and hand-to-hand combat. While some elements of its premise are a bit flawed and I do find the show's praise to be somewhat overhyped, Katanagatari is still a unique offering for a recent series offering fresh approaches with the character chemistry between Shichika and Togame, its "collect them all" premise and its feudal era action. Anyone looking for something different compared to many recent titles should give this title a shot. Last updated Wednesday, May 20 2015. Created Wednesday, May 20 2015. | ||||||||
| Buy | 7 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 8 |
 Dreamer
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[series:2002#2279] |
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This was a surpising hit for me. Aside from the artwork (read below), the plot was excellent and nearly epic. It held my attention from beginning to end. Art, Animation & Character Designs The style of artwork was unusually different. Althought the backgrounds and scenic scenes were well done and rich with color and depth, it's the character designs that are a bit off the beaten track so to speak. It uses solid color schemes and pretty plain lines, as opposed to cell shading (as the traditional artwork). However, it doesn't take away from the series. It just takes a bit getting use to. Otherwise, everything else was great, including the animation.... which was smooth and fluid. Music The opening scene's riveting chant-like music of the first episode was almost enough to convince me that I was in for an excellent series. It almost sent shivers down my spine.... how dramatic it was with the accompanying animation sequence. Then the OP started, which wasn't too bad, but worked well. Just wasn't my flavor. A nice welcome change nevertheless. The rest of the soundtrack had some good pieces with various chants, traditional asian flavored drum beats and other stringed instruments. Pretty nice all around. One thing interesting about this series is the use of a different ED for each episode ending. They ranged from light lullabies to rock pieces with female vocals to new age. All sounded pretty darn good! Series and Episode Story The first thing I noticed with this series was the artwork. As mentioned above, it's a bit out of the ordinary. Taking that aside, nearly everything else was excellent. I would almost say it was epic. We're introduced to a handful of interesting characters and with the introduction, we get some really cool fight scenes, which were themselves really well done. What really caught my interest, and one of the strong points to this series is the continued relationship development between our main characters "Yasuri" and "Togame". And as the episodes progress, we get to learn more about the plot and eventually learn about the "Deviant Blades" and how they fit in and play into their history. This makes for a more interesting storytelling. It's by the end of the series that we fully learn about these blades but through a bitter sweet confrontation.... which totally had me shocked and bummed out. Bitter sweet indeed. Overall this series was excellent through and through. One thing to note is that each episode is nearly twice the length of a normal episode. Each was running about 45 minutes. Last updated Tuesday, January 18 2011. Created Tuesday, January 18 2011. | ||||||||
| Unevaluated |
 Silence
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[series:2002#2939] | ||||||
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All episodes watched. Hmm... I am left feeling rather ambivalent after one whole year of following this show. Up till episode four, it is a stunningly well done and original show that captured my full attention and hopes. But from then on, things aren't as amazing. Episode 11 gave me another surge of expectations, and while episode 12 is by no means cheesy, it is a rather unconventional and strange way to end. I did not really get it. Perhaps I should rewatch to do this series justice. Last updated Monday, December 13 2010. Created Saturday, April 10 2010. | ||||||||
| Watch |
 Stretch
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[series:2002#628] | ||||||
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(All episodes watched): I wasn't all that eager to commit myself to a sword-&-samurai series, but I gave Katanagatari a look. The unconventional, stylized character designs were a major turn-off at first; they seemed like something you'd see on Cartoon Network here in the US, and implied that the sophistication of this show would be on a similar level. But it slowly became clear that that was not the case. By the end, episode one of Katanagatari had actually gotten me fairly intrigued. It seemed to do a good job of introducing what was feeling like an interesting and unusual story. Namely, there are twelve very dangerous and valuable swords going around, and the female "strategian" Togame has concluded that the best person to help her recover them would be Shichika, who has no concept of wealth and little interest in swords, since he employs a martial art that makes him more dangerous with his bare hands than with a blade. I didn't feel confused by unnecessary details (as is often the case with new series), on the contrary this episode did a good job of both making clear exactly what's going on and also giving the impression of originality and wit that would be well worth watching. The sense of humor--and the sense of weirdness--were definite pluses. The overly self-confident Togame (her ploy to convince Shichika to help her was good), and the naive but awesome martial artist seem like a good mix of personalities. In short, I was pleasantly surprised by the degree of quality which was evident from this show which I had neither heard much about nor had high hopes for. If it could maintain the same degree of quality for twelve episodes, Katanagatari looked like a winner. Katanagatari didn't seem laugh-out-loud funny, but it was generally laugh-quietly funny, at least early on, which is better than most shows. The way the show flits between humor and danger effortlessly is impressive. In the first half or so this seemed to be a fun show which came up with a novel situation for each episode. Episode four was definitely my favorite--if I was guaranteed that an episode as good as that one lay somewhere within any twelve episode series, I'd gladly watch it in its entirety. Afterwards, however, the quality seemed to go steadily downhill; it seemed as if each episode was made by a different team, since quality varied considerably and one as good as number four turned out to be the exception rather than the rule. Later episodes tended to be confusing and disappointing. Several times I got the impression that interesting, colorful characters were sacrificed pointlessly to build up two-dimensional ones. Also, Shichika's naive attitude towards violence had seemed an interesting trait early on, but seemed to be largely forgotten later. Swords do some pretty crazy things in anime, like having minds of their own, moving faster than bullets, or knocking people off their feet without ever touching them. So, the bizarre blades of Katanagatari didn't seem all that odd and I shrugged them off. I guess I just took the absurdity for granted, and assumed there would never be any explanation (like 'time travel') for the bizarre swords. That turned out to be a mistake, because for once there really was a semi-rational explanation behind the swords. But I wasn't looking for it and didn't catch it when it came. We viewers not being given the right hints and there not being much foreshadowing didn’t help. It turns out that there was a fairly sophisticated explanation to the Deviant Blades and the plot as a whole--but the show hadn't been holding my interest firmly enough for me to care anymore by the time it was revealed. Episode twelve seemed like a mess to me; I'll never understand how Princess Hitei wound up in the position that she did. Katanagatari as a whole isn't 'retarded', like that particular twist seemed to be, it just isn't suited to the average viewer who is prepared to devote an average amount of attention and has an average attention span. Like I said, I have found that the amount of effort which I am prepared to devote to making sense of a show is directly proportional to the amount of enjoyment I get out of it. Episode four was spectacular, but otherwise the quality seemed to fall off after that and I lost a good deal of interest. I began to doubt that I was getting my time’s worth out of this show, and didn't really care about the longterm plot. So I didn't take notes, or rewatch episodes. But I think a really good show should make sense to most people without them having to do more than give it one solid watch. It should grab their attention and firmly hold it right to the end. It should make them want to do whatever it takes to make sense of the plot. Katanagatari just didn't do that for me. My favorite line: "Letting a girl sleep outdoors in the desert would be a total waste of her fashion" --Togame Last updated Sunday, January 02 2011. Created Friday, January 29 2010. | ||||||||
| Unevaluated |
 Jan-Chan
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[series:2002#967] | ||||||
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First episode watched Shichika YASURI - A twenty-year-old martial arts expert in unarmed combat. Having spent his entire life living on a isolated island in the company of his father and sister, he is completely clueless about the outside world. He is all to willing to admit that he not a great thinker, but he has no doubts in his martial arts abilities as a 'swordsman' who does not use a blade. Togame - A white-haired young lady from the Shogun's court who introduces herself as a 'master strategist'. She has set her goals on collecting a dozen supernatural and evil swords crafted by the master swordmaker Shikizaki during the violent ↗Sengoku period of Japanese history. She enlisted the help of a master-swordsman to get one of the swords, but he liked the weapon so much that he ran away with it. She then hired a gang of ninjas to steal some of the swords, but they realized how valuable the blades were, so they stole them and kept them. So now she turns to Yasuri for help. He is someone who does not use weapons and places little value on money, but she hopes to enlist his assistance by making him fall in love with her. But for as 'smart' as Togame is, she is an absolute klutz when it comes to swordplay and martial arts. UMMMMM.... What can one say about a series in which each of the combatants insists on giving all of their 'final killing moves' outrageous names, which they have to explain and scream out before using? And the ninja that Shichika confronts (in the first episode) is a cartoonish black-eyed ego-maniacal villain with an evil cackle that just rattles with hubris. The animation is simple but fluid. The music is almost non-existent. The characters are moderately interesting. It seems that this series is being played with a high comedy and adventure element. I will probably watch this series for a bit before making a final assessment. Last updated Thursday, January 28 2010. Created Wednesday, January 27 2010. | ||||||||
Other Sites
| Name | URL |
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| Offical Japanese Series Web Site | http://www.katanagatari.com/ |
