katanagatari 1
Categories: episodic review, katanagatari
Tagged: katanagatari
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“I’ve fallen for you.”
(Twenty year old man meets a cute girl, other than his sister, for the first time ever. Of course he’s in love! He should be more horny than Tiger Woods at the champagne room.)
*speechless*
Please pick a meme:
A. I don’t care anymore. Just shoot me. No way there’s a ninjutsu for genderswapping. None. I won’t accept it. Even if this is just copying Naruto.
B. More! MORE! MORE!!!
C. OH GEASS NO!
D. Fap first; worry later.
E. All of the above.
This scene was awesome. Loved the o_o look on Nanami as Shichika brought Togame back in the water barrel. “Wait, I sent you out for water, you come back with a girl?” Little scenes and touches like this one is what Nishio Ishin brings to the table. He’s not going to weave major themes (a la Clannad) or embellish morality (Mushishi)… but he’s great at all the little things. Including, “Wait, I sent you out for water, you come back with a girl?”
(And in Nishio Ishin style, this episode was 90% dialogue. There’s more sitting around the dinner table and talking than Hidamari Sketch.)
That look just slayed me for whatever reason. Probably because Nanami so resembles Blue Sub No. 6‘s Mutio. This has to be the exact opposite look that David Stern has when he found out that Agent Zero was stashing guns in his locker.
Is it part of the art style that characters do not blink in Katanagatari? Watching this show felt like an hour-long staring contest. One interesting thing is that the style breaks away from the standard anime art direction in that the eyes are really simple. Most anime, the eyes are drawn with detail and reflection, but here they’re just monochrome donuts. Interestingly enough, this was one of Adam Carrolla’s rants about anime… about how detailed eyes were.
(I didn’t realize Katanagatari was an hour long show! Needless to say, I am looking forward to the next episode already. Now I’m just wondering what will finish first: this series or Bakemonogatari.)
What else slayed me? “People who work for money are no good. People who work for honor are no good. That only leaves one reason… love! Only people who work for love can be trusted. Yasuri Shichika… fall for me!”
(I spit out the Diet Dr. Pepper I was drinking. I like how Togame is so straightforward and straightforwardly manipulative. Reminds me of Senjogahara. Unlike Senjogahara, Togame is effective for reasons other than her effectiveness… she gets what she wants but seemingly in a roundabout way.)
The cross eye, puzzled, I am.
White Fox seems to be doing an average job, but the backgrounds aren’t up to Tears to Tiara‘s standards. The animation production isn’t blowing my socks off, but I’m also not crying as I did for Seitokai. Though I think Shaft should have done this show as well… okay, it lacks loli vampires, but I’m sure they could make an exception. If you told my 2008 self that I would be pimping multiple anime for Shaft, I would not have believed you. What a difference two years and one dreadful Endless Eight makes.
(Did they reunite the killer loli cast for Katanagatari? Is it weird having Rena voice the sane character?)
Oh disgusting. Thanks, but you can keep the sword.
Makes me nostalgic for Muramasa The Demon Blade! Well, at least I miss all the Momohime and Torahime hot bath scenes. Damn. Lucky. Apes.
(I wanted to kill Kisuke for insulting Momohime’s body in the bath. How dare he. Sure, Torahime is superior, but not by that much. And we haven’t even gotten to the Kitsune yet.)
(One possible ending to Muramasa is that Kisuke and Momohime become a team that searches for and collects demon blades. She’s the brains; he’s the brawn. Mmmmmm…)
Wait, how’d Shichika know the word “meido”? There’s no TV… internets… Engrish? How? I can only think of two ways:
1. His dad taught him well. Awesome swordless art and meido. That’s all a boy needs to survive.
2. Nanami has a secret meido outfit for special (spring cleaning) occasions.
The trip and fall… well… reminds me a little of Fuko-chan and of Koume. Clumsy strategist… 4tw?
The “KEKEKE IMMA GONNA TRAP HIM” laugh and run by Fake Togame… creepy as heck. But…
… I loved Shichika’s roundhouse and his basic, “I’m dumb as fuck!” admission. He blew away the perfect planning by Koumori with his dumbness. Though Cecily does this same “I’m dumb as fuck!” attack quite often in Sacred Blacksmith.
(The final battle was resolved by a trick… so predictable after watching 13/15th of Bakemonogatari.)
(Probably a good time to mention that reader YHK alerts us that, “Good god, you have to at least take a look at the latest TWGOK, chapter 84. Keima switches bodies with a high class musician girl, and while in her body he gets tempted by the “other team”… Otome games. I don’t know where this is
going, but I’m scared.” *too terrified to answer*)
I like how Togame is a self-titled “strategist.” If Togame is a strategist, then Sumeragi is the futuristic genderswapped reincarnation of Zhuge Liang. I think Nanami is the superior strategist… watching the two in action, it’s definitely like watching Marina (always useless version) and Sumeragi (00 S2 version).
(Let’s recount Togame’s strategy for this episode… she let a traitor and dangerous trap on the island… got herself captured… and really did nothing to help Shichika fight the ninja. Bravo. But I’m going to hold off one episode before I send in her app for the Uchida Useless All-Stars.)
And she’s the one who let the swords fall to even stronger and more dangerous/sinister owners. Still not clear why Togame wants the swords. Does she really want to help the shogun? Or seek revenge? But I liked the montage where all twelve swords are shown… I would have quit anime if they showed each of the twelve swords wielded by each of the twelves sisters from Sister Princess. Because, no matter what happens in my lifetime, no random anime moment could have topped the twelve sisters from Sister Princess wielding the twelve demon blades. It would be more discombobulating than seeing Azu-nyan and Yui in a Gainax TV series.
(Please rate the following in terms of how excited you were about them today: iPad, Obama’s State of the Union, Katagatari, Mass Effect 2, Greg Oden nude photos, Christina Hendricks leaked sex tape. What a day.)
Bossy tsundere is bossy tsundere. Just to clarify, the rules of Katana Club are:
1. Protect the swords.
2. Protect the shitty strategist.
3. Protect oneself.
4. Protect oneself.
5. There is no Katana Club.
(I’d love to enroll in a Katana of the Month Club. It would be awesome to get a wicked demon blade every month… it would be almost as awesome as Porno Magazine Day is for Billy Madison. But… sigh… I have to settle for being enrolled in a Jam of the Month Club. And it’s not even Akiko’s jam-mu! This month… organic apricot. Blah.)
Nanami’s awesome. Probably the most awesome sister since Mei Sunohara or Minato from Akasaka. I kept expecting her to tell Togame to, “Take my brother to the mainland… and make babies! Lotsa babies! Keep father’s martial arts style alive!”
(Just kidding. There’s no nude Greg Oden Christina Hendricks sex tape.)
15 Responses to “katanagatari 1”
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>I would have quit anime if they showed each of the twelve swords wielded by each of the twelves sisters from Sister Princess.
My katana’s name is the Ogre Blade Oni(i)chama. Hehe
Lots of people are self-titled- don’t trust any of them. The modern equivalent is the talking head economist on TV, or the IT professional who doesn’t do anything. Also, when I read “he let a traitor and dangerous trap on the island…”, does that mean what I think it means?
And here I had google up and running.
>The cross eye, puzzled, I am.
I think she just tried to Geass him!
Bakemonogatari’s walls of text were better
I was hoping Shichika would say something like “I’ll work for you if you agree to bear my children!†but I was expecting to much from his stupidity
On a side note: I’m pretty sure one of the swords looked like a pair of guns… how does that work? Gun gu?
Also, from the silhouettes some of the swords look like they were taken from Monster Hunter
You know, Togame is kinda easy. It seems as though she is already smitten with Shichika upon first meeting. Or is it because Shichika is so overwhelmingly manly that she can’t help but flutter when Shichika declared to her?
This might of been better off shaft as you said but this wasn’t so bad either. I was just surprised at the shear amount of upclose face shots. It felt like half the eps was close up of faces. But I’m quite glad that we get hour long anime series again! Hopefully this will encourage more series that have content appropriate to be hour long be hour long, like Darker than Black. I remember one of your old post commenting as such.
>I would have quit anime if they showed each of the twelve swords
The series is 12 episodes, and each one is about a sword. You might wanna quit…
Whoops, misread comment. Oh well.
I think the cross eye is supposed to represent her ambition. Also, I was waiting for her to summon her CHILD.
I wonder how many of the readers have played Muramasa on the Wii. Anyone who enjoys the high level of humor this blog displays most definitely would enjoy Muramasa, right? I have read a lot of forum posts saying they would wait for HD version on another console–those stuck-up-for-graphics bastards don’t deserve to play this gem. However this also means Vanillaware is not getting the money it deserves–horrible dilemma.
I definitely feel like playing Muramasa again after quitting MW2. Loved hearing Momohime’s dialect. Wished they expanded on Momohime’s “trip” to the redlight district to meet with her “lady friend”. The most messed-up ending: Momohime’s 3rd ending. Won’t spoil but was a little disgusted.
Things I Liked:
…
Nanami … is awesome.
Togame … has sexy legs, and a quirky fun personality
Shichika … is Gourry Gabriev sans the sword,
The Animation … was decent, character design is passable.
…
Things I didn’t like:
Generic evil ninja-doppelganger person … needed to die much quicker. like 30 seconds after he appeared.
50 foot tall sonic wall-o-text … really needed a bit of SHAFT uh, creativiness to break up the monotony.
…
Bakemonogatari, Medaka Box, Urooboe Uroboros and now Katanagatari. After reading/seeing these Nishio Ishin works, there’s a definite trait that he gives the female lead character. They all have this aloof-ness, logical facade covering/being supported by their underlying emotions. The lead male character seems always to be not so much a character, but more of a tool to reveal more about the female protagonist. Its not a bad technique, but these strong, awesome female characters need more than just a tool for a counterpart to really shine. Shichika, i’m looking at you, don’t be a tool.
Just finished watching,
Togame was pretty funny and sexy and Shichika is awesome,too bad his flashy move wasn’t a rider kick.
Also too bad that Nanami stayed on the island, or did she? She seemed worried at the last scene,and I get the feeling she follows the-even-stronger-than-her-brother-but-have-a-incurable-disease-trope and she will come to help them.
I didn’t liked the ninja either, he was really freaky.
I like how in this and in Bakemonogatari the lead characters just admit their love instead of spending years on it , maybe I watched too much drama and now I don’t like it.
I’ll keep watching this for sure and I’ll wait for my episode each month.I just hope white fox doesn’t pull a Shaft on us by releasing episode 2 in 6 months.
> Shichika … is Gourry Gabriev sans the sword
I think that’s a perceptive observation. Katanagatari really feels like a next-gen Slayers. Quirky, lots of sillyness, DFC heroine and brutish swordsman (in this case without a sword) of a body guard.