YMMV / Noragami

• Alas, Poor Scrappy: Even among Yukine's haters (and there were a lot of them), many found his "purification" to be excessively cruel. He gained a lot of fans for simply accepting it rather than turning into an ayakashi.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Yato. Due to the ambiguous nature of his backstory and the fact that he considers himself Above Good and Evil, there's plenty of theories to go around. Is he really a Nice Guy who you don't want to push too far? Are his actions because he's atoning for his Dark and Troubled Past, much like Himura Kenshin? Is he really a Blood Knight or Ax-Crazy who is only kept in check by Hiyori?
  • Just how much of a positive influence is Hiyori on Yato and Yukine? The most well-accepted theory is that she's just a friend they've come to care a great deal for, but some take it to an extreme and say that she's the only thing keeping Yato from going full God of Calamity. On the other hand, some say that she is actually a negative influence, considering that Yato has shown his Superpowered Evil Side more and more the longer they've known her. This trope also applies In-Universe, as Tenjin notes that even though Yato and Yukine care for Hiyori a lot, when gods get close to one human and neglect others, chaos follows.
  • Is Kugaha an irredeemable villain who's only in it for himself, or did he truly believe he was doing what was right for Bishamon? The series suggests the first heavily, but the final confrontation, in which he delivers his Motive Rant, brings up some moral ambiguity to his character. Also In-Universe; Bishamon is willing to forgive him and feels sorry for him, while Yato hates him and considers him pure evil. Tenjin is also not too fond of him, but is willing to recognize his usefulness to Yato's father's plans and takes him prisoner rather than killing him outright. Unfortunately for Kugaha, his "usefulness" involves Mind Rape. That he never once blighted Bishamon suggests that at least he believed that everything he was doing was for her benefit.
• Ass Pull: The Underworld Arc has the misfortune of ending with both a Deus ex Machina and a Diabolus ex Machina. On the one hand, Yato can be magically transported out of the Underworld by a spell that's never been mentioned before, the only catch being that it has to be performed by a human; lucky that there just happens to be a human present... On the other hand, Ebisu has finally braved everything the Underworld had to throw at him and came out on top, complete with Yato seemingly and awesomely making a Heroic Sacrifice for him, only to be unceremoniously Impaled with Extreme Prejudice by the other gods who have judged him guilty of being the Sorcerer.
• Broken Base: Hiyori's increasing uselessness with every arc is...divisive to say the least. While no one really is in favor of it, a lot of fans are okay with it, saying that it's a logical consequence of an ordinary human getting involved with gods in an increasingly fighting-oriented series and that Hiyori fills her role as The Heart and the Team Mom quite well. Others are not, believing she has been reduced to nothing but a plot device who can only stand on the sidelines, cheer Yato on, and occasionally get captured; these fans would prefer she take a level in badass and tend to like Bishamon more than Hiyori. Interestingly, Kaoru Kamiya, the character who filled the same role to Kenshin, the character Yato is an Expy of, as Hiyori does to Yato, also got this exact same treatment back in The '90s. The divisive reaction is somewhat mitigated during Chapter 62, in which Hiyori BEATS the shit out of Father. Sure he was holding back and warns Hiyori about her parents, but Hiyori doesn't care about his cruel jokes anymore.
• Die for Our Ship: Hiyori is shipped quite a few different ways, including with Yato, Yukine, Kazuma, and even Kofuku, but all the ships are fairly civil with each other. So when Hiyori's Sacred First Kiss was taken, you'd think the losing ships would gracefully concede, right? Wrong. The problem was that out of all the candidates, the one who ended up kissing her was Ordinary High-School Student Kouta Fujisaki. As soon as the chapter in which it happened was published, nearly all other Hiyori ships started calling for his head. Fujisaki being revealed to be Yato's Father and doing it all to mess with Yato has made it worse; now he's even more hated.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Yato gets frequently referred to as "Slav God", due to his taste in fashion.
  • Yato's father has been lovingly dubbed "Trash Dad".
  • Nana ended up with the nickname "Sprinkles" due to Google Translate not knowing how to parse "hafuru-mono".
• Growing the Beard: For the anime, the general consensus among critics and fans is that Season 2 has done this for Noragami through introducing more complex plots, characterization and adapting one of the major manga story arcs.
• Ho Yay: There's definitely some between Yato and Yukine, and almost always instigated by Yato.
  • In Episode 5, Yato's comments about Yukine are really suggestive even in the context of the scene.
    Yato: That's why I fell for him at first sight! (proceeds to glomp Yukine and rub up against him, cat-style)
  • Later in the manga, Hiyori refers to Yukine as Yato's "one and only", multiple times.
  • Yato evades a serious question from Kazuma by acting like a fool.
    Kazuma: Your father...just who is he?
    Yato: ...What would you do if I told you? Go introduce yourself? If it's to ask for his blessing in marriage, I'm already gonna be Hiyori's husband!
  • On the girls' side of things, Kofuku is veeeery interested in her "Hiyorin", even groping her several times.
• Harsher in Hindsight: According to this post on tumblr, a lot of Yato's more goofy characterization and the treatment he's received by those around him veers darkly into this territory as it realistically reflects the impact abuse can have on an individual.
• Hype Backlash: As Noragami's fandom have continually grown, it is becoming more common to find others who think it's overrated and don't want anything to do with the series. While it's not as big as the cases of Naruto, Sword Art Online, and Hetalia: Axis Powers, there is still quite a bit of this.
• Memetic Mutation: It's a running gag within the fandom to use 5 yen in any sentence when talking about the series.
• Moral Event Horizon: Yato's dad takes a swan dive off it in Chapter 50 through causing the patients of the hospital Hiyori's dad works in to go into a homicidal rage. Hiyori's mother gets bludgeoned by one of the patients and to top things off, "Father" does everything in his power to try make Yato kill Hiyori in a nightmarish Sadistic Choice.
• Narm:
  • The Gratuitous English-filled song in Episode 2 of the anime reeks of this.
  • Episode 8, Yukine has finally reached the Despair Event Horizon when he realizes he can never have friends in the real world. The animation has him screaming his lungs out, but there's no actual sound, leading to the scene looking more comical than depressing.
  • The frequent use of comic relief in the Father arc, even immediately following such serious moments as Hiyori nearly crossing the Despair Event Horizon, turning into an ayakashi, and forcing Yato to kill her, has many fans laughing for the wrong reasons.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Yukine. He was a total jerk that was killing Yato. After his punishment he improved, so did the fandom reaction to him. When he had a Disney Death that lead to his evolution into a Blessed Vessel in Chapter 19, the fandom was horrified.
• The Scrappy: While Kugaha was introduced as a Manipulative Bastard, he got a hold of the Villain Ball in record time, resulting in the fandom unilaterally hating him for being Too Dumb to Live, although messing with sympathetic characters like Bishamon and Yukine didn't help. It's very telling that when he made a surprise return in the Underworld arc, the fan reaction was a near-consensus "oh my god, why hasn't someone killed him yet?!"
• Signature Scene: The scene where Yato and the gang are falling off a skyscraper while Yato's client tells his overly long backstory tends to be the most remembered.

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