Noragami is about connections. It's about the network of shiny threads spooling out of people's hearts, linking them together. When I think back on this series, it’ll be of Kofuku and Daikoku’s house: colourful, cluttered, Yato goofing off, Yukine scolding him, Hiyori laughing, Kazuma and Bisha showing up for some reason, all the pieces of that sprawling found family stuffed into one spot. It’ll also think of darker things, of past traumas and abusive relationships, of snowy nights and buried refrigerators. Not all connections are healthy, and Noragami has always been as enamoured with the toxic threads as it is with the twinklier ones.
It's a supernatural action-comedy urban fantasy thing that most people watched as an anime years ago and forgot about, but… To many of us, this series has meant so much for so long, and now it’s finally over. So, let’s talk about Noragami, with some spoilers.
I said this was about connections (read: relationships), and they are, I think, the essence of the manga.
In Noragami, bonds are literalised. We can see the ‘thread’ of someone’s tie to someone else, which is a real thing that can be cut. The cast of gods forge connections with 'shinki,' turning dead humans into magic tools that share their thoughts, and these relationships can be terminated with the swipe of a hand. Much of the manga is the interplay of gods and shinki, with their drama manifesting in physical ‘blight’ on the god’s bodies if they quarrel or the shinki suffer. Proof of emotional turmoil stains the skin; in extreme cases, gods straight-up die because of a poorly managed relationship.
Yato is a god, but not a particularly popular one (Noragami means ‘stray god’). He’s hated, barely known, and always at risk of disappearing. For gods as small as Yato, people’s wishes are lifelines that he has to constantly work for.
If no one loves you, do you even exist? Yato has a desperate yearning to be loved and remembered, in part because he’d literally fade away otherwise. This is why he cannot escape his abusive father, who has long been the only human keeping him in existence. He feels he must return to this evil, manipulative, despicable cunt because he does not trust himself to keep a connection elsewhere, and despite his tireless efforts to move forward as a god people actually like, everyone forgets him, and he always gets pulled back to the past.
And he's not the only one going through it. No one is without some serious baggage in this manga, aside from maybe Hiyori and a few others. They are all thrashing within their unique plights, craving what is denied to them, trying to better people (or 'beings,' I guess) and only sometimes succeeding. Their lives are a network of threads, good and bad, tugging them in different directions. The big moments come when someone finally works up the courage to sever a toxic relationship, like Yato does with Nora, or when Bishamon slaughters her corrupted shinki with her own hands. There are also supremely heartwarming moments, like when Hiyori makes Yato the shrine he’d always dreamt of. It’s just a tiny arts-and-crafts thingy, but it proves she cares about him, that she's intent on remembering him. It’s enough to bring him to tears.
Noragami has a fantastic cast. Like, the powers and fights are cool enough, but it’s when the cast interacts that this manga has its magic. It’s a big family.
Yato is the crown jewel, so entertaining and affecting. We meet him as a dorky, homeless, tracksuit-wearing loser doing odd jobs for five yen coins. We navigate his web of embarrassing exes, affairs, and enemies. Of course, this series has always been comedic in one breath and sad in another; it's cute and funny to watch Yato mess around with everyone else, but dreary as watch him wander around in the cold, dejected and lonely, a stray god that just wants what we all want. And then Hiyori offers that umbrella over his head...
Luckily for Yato, he's got Yukine too. Some people get frustrated with Yukine, but lil buddy is living as a perpetual teenager, and honestly we’re lucky he hasn’t been more of an ass over the years. His problems hit hard: he's a ghost trapped in a child's body, divorced from the world he wants to be a part of. He is forced to 'grow up’ in this impossible way, confronting that he cannot literally grow up in the normal sense. His bond with Yato is a long, bumpy road paved with no shortage of rebellious phases, but it's gratifying to watch them grow closer over time. I find something so pure about him, like a snowflake, and his backstory just dissolves my heart. How Noragami-esque that he is afforded a kind, loving place with Yato and Hiyori, different from the home he grew up in.
If I had to pick a favourite character, I think I'd start side-eyeing Bishamon and Kazuma. Bishamon is the real-life Japanese god of war or something like that, and though I initially rolled my eyes at the decision to make her this sexy scantily-clad lion-riding sword-slashing whip-whipping bombshell, damn, it's unfathomably badass now, and wow she sure did become an inspiring bitch. Her love story with Kazuma is a deliciously knotty one, reaching back to a wad of past trauma wherein which Kazuma secretly begged Yato to murder Bisha's shinki family, saving her life. Initially, Bisha refuses to confront the past, smothering it with the misguided hatred of Yato, and this clashes with Kazuma's earnest desire to repay him, forming much of the early drama in the series. Both their relationships with Yato are amusing, emotional, and dynamic, all at once. And they love each other so, so deeply, despite their mistakes.
Chuck Kofuku's ditzy ass into the favourite character pile, and Daikoku as an attachment. They're more than just funny characters, yearning to be parents above all else, but being impossibly bound by their immortality. I suppose it's fitting that they feel like the parents of the other characters, offering up their abode as this messy place for everyone who doesn't have a place to go. Kofuku's god of poverty gimmicks are hilarious and her willingness to stand up for those she cares about is formidable. Oh, and that moment when Daikoku stakes his life to save Yukine from the prison box thingy, despite Kofuku screaming at him not to? Among the most gripping I've read in manga.
Last character I'll mention (though I could go on) is Nora. Gods and shinki contain marital and sexual implications with ‘strays’ (shinki who belong to many gods) being condemned basically as dirty little whores. That's how we're introduced to Nora as she tempts Yato away from his new family, inviting back to a life of nastiness. But Nora too is a victim of Yato's father, serving him because she knows nothing else. The creepy exterior covers up a sad, insecure kid wallowing in abandonment issues, not so different from Yukine. Really, her character is the forever emissary between the types of relationships Noragami is interested in; as the manga goes on, we watch her move from the utilitarian shadow of trash dad to the healthier embrace of the main characters, often running back again to be used by her abuser. I'm relieved she seems to be recovering by the end, even if her resolution was not wholly satisfying.
But, uh, what resolution was satisfying? Time to bitch about the ending.
Since manga duo Adachitoka returned from illness, the series has felt a tad rushed, slipping towards an underwhelming ending. I know some people are coping, but jeez, something’s gone fundamentally wrong when fucking Fujisaki has more screentime than 90% of the cast in that last chapter.
The whole Yato and Hiyori conclusion is probably the main issue. We get great moments and blatant teases throughout the series (don’t for a second think I forgot the god of marriage tying their tag things together), but we succumb to this apparent shounen requirement to creep towards romance but never quite pull the trigger. Obviously the god x mortal issue is fraught, but with over a decade of beating around the bush, I think Adachitoka ought to have found a way through that bramble of thorns.
And the same can be said for much of the last few volumes. There was a lot of shit going on. Plot threads, characters (hello Amaterasu?) and world details, very few of which were resolved in a comprehensive way. Things were looking bleak, and honestly I can’t quite wrap my head around such a cheery, comedic finale that has Yato living on as an internet meme, which trivialises his dependence on trash dad as a lifeline and denies the god of fortune mantle he aspired to. I guess a bigger, more holistic problem would be that, conflicting with the manga’s consistent strengths, we get a final arc that scatters the main characters and bankrupts their interactions.
It's a bit sad things turned out this way, but I don't want to spend more time complaining. Let's just focus on the good. Noragami has a lot of good.
Noragami started in 2011, but the 2014 anime was how most people found it. It was that period of anime that feels so comfy now, headlined by shows like Tokyo Ghoul, Haikyuu, and Noragami, and they were all really popular, building huge fandoms, devouring Tumblr, not letting you venture a day online without hearing KURUTTE HEY KIDS... Things sure are different now. More than its contemporaries, though, Noragami feels like it's become a relic of the past.
Maybe because we never did get that season three, I dunno.
Some of us kept reading. It's been a really beautiful journey, starting as a kid to finishing as an adult, and I'm glad to have spent time with such an infectious bunch of characters that make you laugh your ass off one page and ball your eyes out the next, that urge you to cherish the people bringing you joy and cut out the shit tying you down.
It won't always be at the forefront of our minds. Still, I'd like to think, like Hiyori at the end, we'll look up someday and remember our time reading or watching things that mean or meant a lot to us, seeing our fates were intertwined after all.