Katana Maidens is a challenging series to review. Not because of any particular depth of theme, any difficult concepts, or complex character dynamics (though there are some of all of these, believe it or not). No, Katana Maidens is a tough review because it is essentially two shows in one. Originally airing as a single 24-episode chunk (with a recap episode at the halfway point), the series is divided into two cours. Though in this case they’re probably better thought of as seasons despite airing back to back.
What they share is a setting and the same core cast, though the series has so many characters that even using the term “core cast” seems a little incorrect. Regardless, both seasons revolve around sword-wielding middle- and highschool girls known as Toji. Their magic swords (otakana) enable them to defeat adama, which are big scary demon monsters, and gives them a sort of ghostly aura that prevents them from actually dying when being harmed while it’s active. You may notice that there are three pieces of terminology in that last sentence, and that is because the experience of watching Katana Maidens, especially its first season, is often a bit like being shot with a machine gun loaded with proper nouns.
Our protagonists: Hiyori on the left, Kanami on the right
Some of this is down to a simple bad translation--indeed, Crunchyroll’s official subs are stiff at the best of times. Though I must temper that with the fact that they’re occasionally unintentionally hilarious; if you don’t get at least a small chuckle out of the overuse of the term “evil god”, you need to lighten up a little.
The first cour, in general, has a huge problem. Art in general is evaluated on a lot of different levels, but one of the most basic is simple technical skill--what is often referred to as quality. There is a palpable dearth of craft in the first cour. The visuals especially are without exaggeration, atrocious. Even things as basic as line thickness are constantly screwed up, often making characters look like one of their eyes is larger than the other. The fight scenes, somewhat infamously, are almost entirely done with 3D CGI models, and not very good ones. While the “frame-skipping” that is often present in these is not noticeable here, they fail in just about every other way. Leaving you often with the feeling that you’re watching a series of video game scenes from a particularly middling RPG play out, rather than watching an anime.
this is, no joke, one of the best fight scenes in the first season
Writing-wise, it does not fare much better. Katana Maidens tosses so much jargon and so many character names at you that it can be legitimately hard to keep track of, even if you watch the series in a single sitting. Character arcs in the first cour are extremely underdeveloped. Protagonist Kanami, in the midst of an exhibition tournament in the first episode, has her opponent--co-protagonist Hiyori Juujou suddenly abandon the arena to attempt to assassinate the nearby head of the plot-important Sword Institute, Yukari Origami (yes, that is really her name), and instead of doing anything rational at all, Kanami actually helps Hiyori escape, and joins her in becoming a fugitive. We finally get a flimsy explanation for this a few episodes later (she is possessed by a demon, which turns out to be the series’ overall big bad) but it feels slight, and the entire thing has the impression of being written as it went along.
Sayaka
Similar problems repeat throughout the first cour--a Rei expy named Sayaka turns face after almost no provocation at all, a gloating, minor villain dies of what appears to be anemia after winning a sword fight and the show retroactively gives her a sad backstory. This kind of thing.
This is to say nothing of the pacing. Episodes of Katana Maidens are uniformly about 22 minutes long, but all of them feel like either 5 minutes, or 5 hours, with very little room in between. This even extends as far as where the OP is inserted, since in later episodes of the first cour it often seems to cut in at the most inappropriate moment possible.
To add to all of that, the finale of the first cour is extremely lackluster, and feels over too quickly. Were the first cour all there was to Katana Maidens it would easily be a bottom-rung action series. Speaking personally I’d score such a thing at a 20 or 30 at the most.
And yet, here is where the myth of objective quality in the arts breaks down. You might expect, given all the above, that I hate Katana Maidens, or that I think it’s bad, at the very least. None of that, however, is true. Why? Because almost all of the complaints outlined above are alleviated to at least some degree--and sometimes massively--in the second cour. I can speak for no one else, but I respect the hell out of that.
Even though the upgrade is ultimately only from “terrible” to “decent”, the visuals get the most immediately-notable overhaul. They’re much more consistent in the second cour, and while the fight scenes still lean on CGI models to varying degrees, they’re still a marked improvement over the first season. Some of the fights even look pretty good. If they were more consistent I’d mark this as an outright strength, but still, it’s important to qualify our terms here.
What really improves is the writing. Characters who were cardboard cutouts in the first cour gain interesting motivations and strong arcs in the second. Yukari, the demon that was possessing her (now split into three people), her two former bodyguards, main cast members Sayaka and Kaoru, and even Yomi, also one of Yukari’s bodyguards and a charismaless edge villain in the first cour, all have reasonably interesting arcs here, and all are resolved well. This is to say nothing of our protagonists Kanami and Hiyori, who also go through significant development.
Something else present in the second cour? Actual themes. While the idea of inheritence from one’s parents being important is floated in the first cour--Kanami even communes with the spirit of her dead mother in her dreams--it’s not until the second where the show really commits. But interestingly, in something that shows like this often don’t do, Katana Maidens doesn’t really throw its weight behind any one character’s viewpoint. Almost all of the characters listed above have some kind of struggle with their pasts, and the series actually handles them all in fairly respectful, interesting ways.
Not to say that it ever loses the cheese, but with the core of the script being stronger overall, that's more of a strength than a weakness. More anime could stand to include incredible dialogue like this.
As for the second cour’s finale, it's a bit too long, but strong overall. Its outlook puts it firmly in the same camp as more consistent peers like Symphogear, and anime-of-the-decade contender Revue Starlight, even fellow Class of ‘18 alum RELEASE THE SPYCE (to which it is a bit closer in quality).
Katana Maidens’ finale is a sprawling, freewheeling thing, involving cyclical symbolism and very literally letting go of the ghosts of your past. Two things that might seemingly contradict each other, but this is again just how the show works. Katana Maidens thrives on these kinds of paradoxes, and in a way, the show itself is one.
The hard fact of the matter is that 12 episodes that top out at “tolerable” in terms of quality, in order to watch 12 that range from decent to great, is not going to be a value proposition that many people go for. It’s understandable, even. But to dismiss the show entirely based on that would be a mistake. Katana Maidens has bright spots throughout and a very strong finish, despite its peculiar nature.
This is a series that shot for the moon and missed by a mile, but I cannot deny that critical semi-”objective” evaluations of craft only go so far. Katana Maidens has heart, something many technically “better” shows sorely lack, and it’s not hard to see how it became pretty popular in its home country. Indeed, the series has expanded to include a popular mobile game and a series of parody shorts called Mini Toji. But wherever and whenever Kanami, Hiyori, and all the rest show up from now on, it’ll be well fought for.