Noragami - 08-12 + Final Thoughts

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Noragami was definitely one of the best anime of the Winter 2014 season, in my humble opinion.

Episodes 8 – 12 of Noragami deal with Yato’s growing blight due to Yukine’s misbehavior, as well as Nora’s increasing focus on Yato and the people around him.  Yato finally begins seriously working to find a cure for Hiyori’s condition, although his efforts end up being hindered considerably by Nora and an old partner of Yato’s, Rabo, another god of calamity.

When Yato’s blight becomes life-threatening, Yukine is punished for his wrongdoings by Daikoku, Tomone, and Kazuma and, with Hiyori and Yato’s support, the blight is cured.  Yukine’s angst disappears at this point, and just in time, because Nora and Rabo pose a real serious threat.  Rather than highlighting all the despicable things they do, suffice it to say they’re jerks and Yato eventually kills Rabo.  Nora seems to stop being a threat after that, at least for the time being.

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After that brief summary of what happened in the last few episodes of Noragami, I’d like to analyze the series a bit.  Noragami deals with a lot of important issues: things like bullying, self-doubt, and selfishness on the negative side, and self-confidence, selflessness, and loyalty on the positive side.  This series is really great, in my humble opinion.  Probably the best anime of the season.  At the very least, it’s now on my list of must-watch anime.

Of course, there are still plenty of unanswered questions by the time this series ended.  What exactly went down between Bishamon and Yato in the past to make her hate him so?  And what did Yato do for Kazuma that made him owe Yato a debt?  What will happen with Nora?  You could always read the manga to find out these answers, I’m sure, but I, for one, am hoping for a second season of this one.  Noragami has so many good things going for it as an anime that I really hope it gets another season so we can see more of Yato, Yukine, and Hiyori.

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(P.S.: It looks like catching up on currently-airing stuff is going to be tough for me. Rather than trying to catch up this season and do episodic reviews, I'll definitely do a few series reviews at the end of the season, and pick up episodic reviews once again for the mid-summer season.