If you stick around authors long enough you tend to notice they have flaws that tend to circulate throughout their work. Nasu writes great side characters, but his protagonists tend to come across as more plain by comparison. Urubochi has provocative twists in stories, but isn't very good at building relationships between characters. In Katanagatari's author, Nisio Isin's case it is that he loves to write larger than life plots, ... and lacks the writing ability to conclude them properly.
Katanagatari tries to be this time-traveling epic conspiracy. However, when the plot is revealed, it left me wondering "Isn't there a much easier solution?" There a number of more efficient ways of resolving the plot, rather than hedging bets on a two-hundred year plot. Not even the author has faith in his plot line as it is defeated by something as simple as a line of succession. Hitei, who carried out her ancestor's plot gleefully points out, "it was a failure from the beginning". Digibro said in a post "I felt like the show was giving me permission to hate it, which is permission that I don’t want to be granted." I couldn't agree more.
Katanagatari falsely advertises its content through its premise. A girl recruits a guy to fight twelve other guys and retrieve their swords. You would think their would be a lot of quality action. You would be wrong. Most of the action that happens in the story gets condensed down 5 minutes of an hour long episode. Often times the action isn't even very good. In episode 3, Shichika fights a woman named Meisai who uses a sword that is actually a collection of swords. Meisai lures Shichika into a forest with the intention of ambushing him. How does Shichika get out of this predicament? By running out of the forest, forcing Miss-I-Thought-This-Plan-Out-For-Five-Minutes to suicidally charge at him and be killed. In another instance, the show builds up the Maniwa Corps, to be a dangerous group, only to have every member die so some other character can look more threatening. Several scenes are wasted building up the leader, Housou, to be this terrifying enemy. He even arms himself with this tainted blade that is supposed to be the most dangerous of the swords. Shichika kills him in two minutes with barely any effort. The show should be renamed Jobber: The Anime.
Its not as if the anime has no redeeming qualities. Shichika and Togame's romance is the highlight of the show. They talk on length about their pasts and the events in life that defined them. While many shows are action with token romance scenes, Katanagatari is romance with token action scenes.
However, the finale throws romance out the window and distributes larger helpings of the same bad action and plot it gave from the beginning. If you ignore the flashy visuals and bombastic music score, you'll realize how shallow the finale feels. I feel if the author had shrunk the scale of the story and tried not be edgy, it would have been a lot more memorable.
Needs A Little Less Conversation, A Little More Action
If you stick around authors long enough you tend to notice they have flaws that tend to circulate throughout their work. Nasu writes great side characters, but his protagonists tend to come across as more plain by comparison. Urubochi has provocative twists in stories, but isn't very good at building relationships between characters. In Katanagatari's author, Nisio Isin's case it is that he loves to write larger than life plots, ... and lacks the writing ability to conclude them properly.
Katanagatari tries to be this time-traveling epic conspiracy. However, when the plot is revealed, it left me wondering "Isn't there a much easier solution?" There a number of more efficient ways of resolving the plot, rather than hedging bets on a two-hundred year plot. Not even the author has faith in his plot line as it is defeated by something as simple as a line of succession. Hitei, who carried out her ancestor's plot gleefully points out, "it was a failure from the beginning". Digibro said in a post "I felt like the show was giving me permission to hate it, which is permission that I don’t want to be granted." I couldn't agree more.
Katanagatari falsely advertises its content through its premise. A girl recruits a guy to fight twelve other guys and retrieve their swords. You would think their would be a lot of quality action. You would be wrong. Most of the action that happens in the story gets condensed down 5 minutes of an hour long episode. Often times the action isn't even very good. In episode 3, Shichika fights a woman named Meisai who uses a sword that is actually a collection of swords. Meisai lures Shichika into a forest with the intention of ambushing him. How does Shichika get out of this predicament? By running out of the forest, forcing Miss-I-Thought-This-Plan-Out-For-Five-Minutes to suicidally charge at him and be killed. In another instance, the show builds up the Maniwa Corps, to be a dangerous group, only to have every member die so some other character can look more threatening. Several scenes are wasted building up the leader, Housou, to be this terrifying enemy. He even arms himself with this tainted blade that is supposed to be the most dangerous of the swords. Shichika kills him in two minutes with barely any effort. The show should be renamed Jobber: The Anime.
Its not as if the anime has no redeeming qualities. Shichika and Togame's romance is the highlight of the show. They talk on length about their pasts and the events in life that defined them. While many shows are action with token romance scenes, Katanagatari is romance with token action scenes.
However, the finale throws romance out the window and distributes larger helpings of the same bad action and plot it gave from the beginning. If you ignore the flashy visuals and bombastic music score, you'll realize how shallow the finale feels. I feel if the author had shrunk the scale of the story and tried not be edgy, it would have been a lot more memorable.