Dec 18 2010 09:36 PM Wow, a really great ending to Katanagatari. I really did not expect
Togame to kick the bucket like that, but I guess that's really what made the episode all the more enjoyable. Shichika basically goes into "seed mode" after that and breaks all the swords he collected in the past year. In addition, I really loved the psychological mind gaming coming from Hitei. At first I really thought she was serious about being dead, but the end of the episode was a real big shocker when she's now the one traveling with Shichika. Good End Haruka On to the review, Katanagatari has an episode that comes out each month. There was really only one major flaw in this show and it's the repetitiveness. Each episode was basically find who has the sword, attempt to get the sword, fail at getting the sword, attempt again, fail again, think up a strategy that works, get the sword, end of episode. While there were some twists to each episode, the first 11 episode was primarily this formula with the exception of episode 4. This really bore me to no end after a while unfortunately and the small little gags in between didn't really improve the mood. Episode 12 however was definitely great in tying everything from the previous 11 episodes while expanding and concluding the whole Shikizaki plot for creating the swords. In addition, for better or for worse, the lack of a small recap potentially hurt the series since after 12 months, I surely don't remember some of the stuff that happened in the previous episodes. As much as people dislike recaps, for a series like this it wouldn't have hurt since it airs once a month.
The animation quality was very unique. White Fox, who also did Tears to Tiara earlier this year produced a level of animation that I never thought I would see in this day. While the animation and art varied from episode to episode, the changes in touch of Japanese mural art styles seemed very fitting for the show, almost as if watching the show itself was like scrolling across a long and real mural. White Fox will also be doing the animation for the upcoming Steins;Gate anime in Spring 2011.
Music was all right. Nothing exceptional considering it's coming from Minami Kuribayashi and ALI PROJECT. The endings weren't really memorable since it was a month between each episode and each ending only played once. As for seiyuus, Yukari Tamura as Togame was priceless as was Haruka Tomatsu as Hitei. Yoshimasa Hosoya was pretty average. He has only starred as Juu Juuzawa from Denpa Teki na Kanojo for a main role, and in both Denpa Teki na Kanojo and Katanagatari, the results are really near top tier seiyuu quality. Maybe he'll get better in the long run as he as new role in the upcoming Level E series in January.
Character development is surprisingly good in this series. Although 90% of the characters primarily show up for one episode and never appear after that, most of them come back in flashbacks throughout the series, which is nice since it shows that Shichika and Togame learned from their past experiences to some extent, even though they rehash the same episodic formula each episode. I really liked the buildup of how Shichika was actually sword created by Shikizaki nonetheless. It really put a spin on the story. Hitei, however had a rather weak development. She was suddenly known as the descendant of Shikizaki out of nowhere, and that annoyed me since we knew essentially nothing about her until this episode except the fact that she mildly despised Togame throughout the series.
Enjoyment? Well, I definitely cannot say I hate this show. However, I can't say the show was perfect either. It was definitely something new and unique compared to everything else around. Like I said before, the show has the main flaw of rehashing the same formula each episode. This bored me to no end for most episodes, especially when they were mainly one shot characters, i.e. every episode that didn't include Nanami except episode 12.
Overall, Katanagatari is not quite perfect, but it definitely had a purpose. Really sad to see no Togame "cheerio" in the final episode but definitely loved the Hitei ending. That was a mind rape right there and was quite the unexpected surprise. The pacing was overall good for each episode but again, cutting down the repetitiveness for the show may have made it perfect.
Preliminary Score: 8/10
Final Score: 9/10 
