Allow me to elaborate: Katanagatari is based in Japan's Edo era where Strategian Togame is tasked with obtaining the '12 Deviant Blades'. However she's too frail to collect them herself and she's already been betrayed by ninjas, so Togame seeks the help of Shichika - a highly trained martial artist - to be her sword.
What makes her think that she won't be betrayed again? Well, she to told him to fall in love with her. In all honesty, the show just went down hill from there. Togame drags Shichika around the globe tracking down the blades and killing all their previous owners. Meanwhile, they also want to avoid conflict with the Maniwa Corps (the ninjas who betrayed Togame), who also want to find all the swords. It's very much a 'monster-a-week' anime with 12 swords to collect in 12 episodes just with a few extra fights.
Right, so first I need to get some thing off my chest about these 'Deviant Blades', in a tragic attempt at originality the design for these 'blades' crossed a line. The blade that cannot break and the blade that can cut anything are useful swords to possess. A sword that's heavy enough to make craters is an acceptable concept for an anime. However. A sword that is a suit of armour, is not a sword. A sword that is a robot, is not a sword. A pair of twin pistols, are CLEARLY not a sword!! Probably the most infuriating thing in this anime is watching Togame desperately try justify their title as 'swords'. No. Just call it the '12 Devient Weapons'!
Now I want to talk about the animation of Katanagatari, which is not without positives! For a start, Togame and Shichika have pretty outfits and I love Togame's long white hair! But I'll never make the mistake of saying that the anime has good character design. Any ideas you might have had about cleverly designed characters goes right out of the window when you see the Maniwa Corps: they are each based off some animal. There's a Butterfly, a Bee and worst of all a penguin! And they don't just rock a look based off a creature; they've got a full Halloween costume sorted! Why can't ninjas ever wear practical clothing?
The art style itself varies a lot as a novel feature, Such as the parody of video game graphics and the thick lined art work. I like the idea, but I don't think it's worked very well! The standard animation style is nothing exceptionally striking either. The bodies are drawn in horrible proportions and the thick-lined eyes look almost satanic! I'd love to finish this paragraph with a nice comment, but I really can't think of one.
Which brings us nicely on to the animation. The animation is a vital part of fighting anime in my opinion. The people at WHITE FOX clearly disagree. Shichika prides himself on his self created combo moves, but we can't actually see what these combo moves look like. When he is fighting, Shichika is nothing but a blur of movement. Also, his moves all look the same, there's no novelty in any of it. A kick here, a punch there. Once you see him fight once, you've seen it all!
Ultimately, the hardest thing about this anime is the fact that every episode is 50 minutes long so you really have to devote to it. Especially for the first few episodes which are terribly wordy! It's not even worth the pain! The plot, the art, the animation, I think I've clearly pointed out the flaws in all of it! The only thing I can hope to gain from watching this anime is the knowledge that you guys won't have to repeat my mistake!
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