Katanagatari – First Episode Review

Episode Summary: Yasuri Shichika lives with his sister on an isolated island, and spends his days practicing the art of Kyotou-ryuu, an unusual swordless sword style that will probably die with him.  While out doing chores he happens to find a beautiful woman named Togame, who claims to be a strategist for the Shogunate and who attacks Shichika to test his martial arts skills. After failing to strike him (she trips and falls), Shichika takes her back to his home, where she tells him about her objective - she's been given the difficult mission to retrieve 12 swords, masterpieces made by a famous sword smith.  Both the ninjas tasked with keeping the swords safe and the swordsman ordered to retrieve the most powerful one were lured by the power and beauty of the swords, so Togame searched for someone who wouldn't be tempted by them - a swordsman who doesn't use swords.  Before Shichika can agree, the group is attacked by flying knives, and Shichika chases the culprit to the beach below.

Their opponent is one of the Maniwa ninjas who betrayed the Shogun, who followed Togame to the island disguised as a ferryman. He produces the fabled sword from his stomach and attacks, though the fight is cut short and the ninja decides on another tactic - he kidnaps Togame, binds her to a tree, and uses his ninjitsu to transform into her doppelganger.  Shichika's instincts override his vulnerability to the disguise, so the ninja then turns himself into a perfect copy of Shichika.  In actuality, it's too perfect; the swordsmen of Kyotou-ryuu aren't against using blades, they just physically can't. After the precious sword flies out of the ninja's hands, Shichika unleashes his ultimate move which pummels his opponent with seven deadly hits.  Shichika decides to follow Togame on her quest, and be the defender of her and the treasured blades.

Thoughts: This highly-anticipated TV anime series is adapted from a 12-volume series of books by Nisio Isin, who was also the writer behind last year's hit, Bakemonogatari.  For viewers who have seen and enjoyed Bakemonogatari, the fact that this show is extremely heavy on the dialog shouldn't come as much of a surprise.  The reason I decided to mention this aspect of the show first has to do with the likely perception, based on previews and the like, that this is an action series.  It's not.  However, describing what the show is is a bit more difficult for me to do.  The best that I can come up with is that it's a drama punctuated by frequent moments of humor and infrequent moments of action.  It does something that writers are constantly told not to do; it constantly "tells" when it should "show," but somehow this episode doesn't feel that much worse for it.

One obstacle I found to fully enjoying the opening episode was its length.  The show is being broadcast in a particularly atypical manner - each month, a single one-hour episode is shown.  This seems more in line with an OVA release schedule to me, for one thing, but the major consequence is that this episode has a tendency to drag.  I mentioned that the show is dialog-heavy, and again this isn't a bad thing, but whereas Bakemonogatari tended to use unusual framing and weird imagery to fill in the gaps, Katanagatari is presented in a much more conventional visual style, and the constant close-up pans of characters speaking and static environmental shots honestly start to feel boring until the action picks up in the second half.  I get the impression that the episodes will be constructed in a similar manner, being frontloaded with expository dialog, picking up steam as time passes and each situation is figured out, and because of this the hour-long format makes a bit more sense; having the first half-hour episode of a pair be comprised primarily of dialog might drive viewers away.  I still think, though, that a better solution would be to pace the action better throughout each episode, so that the blend of dialog and action felt more natural.

I mentioned the visuals, which are fairly nice but don't match the oomph of SHAFT's treatment of Bakemonogatari. The character designs do have a certain charming style to them; the characters are designed rather simply, though their clothing and hair seem to be coordinated in creative ways.  Especially nice to look at is Shichika's character design, which uses the five-pointed maple leaf as a color and shape motif.  The background artwork is at times more interesting than the character artwork because it seems more natural; the textures are very lifelike, calling to mind the feeling of rough-hewn wooden planks and jagged stones, as well as ancient pines. Also notable are the flashback scenes, which instead of using sepia-toned visuals seem to incorporate bright reds and purples instead (which might be due to there being lots of stuff on fire during the various flashbacks, but even so there's an obvious difference). There's some decent character animation as well, though the fluidity present in the fight scenes is clearly due to a conservation of frames during the conversation scenes.  This is a common technique, but this show really seems to broadcast it.  Even during slower scenes, there is a pleasant consistency to the characters, which can probably be attributed to its more  relaxed production schedule.

My fondness for the main characters so far really varies.  I'm not really feeling Togame, to be honest; though she's given a tragic back-story, it feels almost shoehorned in.  Most of the time she comes across as earnest-but-bumbling, and while that combination doesn't spell character doom, it does require skill on the part of the director to make the character not seem like an outright idiot.  I'm not quite sure that this director is up to par.  Shichika, as the naive country bumpkin, is more convincing, and the way that he lampshades certain aspects of the production (in one scene, he mentions how all these "city folk" talk too much) is often very funny.  He's also convincingly sincere and guileless; when he says that he's been convinced to help Togame, that he wants to help her, it's easy to believe his words in spite of the fact that the whole ordeal promises to be dangerous and a little bit ridiculous. I'm curious as to whether or not each episode's opponent will come across as a one-note villain, though.  The ninja opponent of this episode  just came across as an overconfident chump with an annoying laugh, easily dispatched by Shichika's hand-to-hand skills.  There was little or no sense of danger, and without that I doubt that subsequent episodes will remain compelling.

Instantly enthralling this is not, and as I said before, viewers who are dialog-phobic or who expect and would prefer lots of action should leave this title along.  It has its charms, though, and so far seems to make the best of its irregular release schedule.  Through the mouths of its characters its told me what it wants to do; now I can only hope that it has the ability to show me the heights to which the story can travel.

Pros:

• Though there's not a bombastic sense of style, the background artwork is nice and the character designs have a nice sense of unity and variety.
• Shichika is an appealing and earnest character.
• The battle animation is good.

Cons:

• The episode length and the amount of dialog could be a turnoff, especially to those with a thirst for constant action.
• Togame is a bit too bumbling for me to buy into her tragic back-story just yet.

Recommended? Yes, though my enthusiasm isn't overwhelming just yet.  There's potential here and I think the monthly releases could add an interesting dynamic.