...

Rating: 8.5/10 | Story Rating: 8/10 | Art Rating: 8/10

It's finally time for the first manga review on my blog and we are starting off strong. Ready.......... Noragami! ꒰ঌ(˶ˆᗜˆ˵)໒꒱ (this emoticon is literally Kofuku). I gotta say, I had big expectations from this manga. I had a friend give pretty high praise in starting this one plus I have always heard its name growing up whether it be the anime or the manga. With that being said, I did end up really enjoying my time throughout the manga with my only gripe being a not so satisfactory final arc.

Before talking about anything else, I want to immediately talk about my favorite part of this manga: each and every one of the characters. While there were like 20+ characters introduced, each with their own varying levels of importance within the plot depending on the arc, Noragami was able to make each and every one of them full of depth and complexity without superficially trying to make the reader care about their personalities and back stories. I always value strong character motivations and development, and almost all of the characters within this story had extremely well written motivations that were packed into their reactions to the events within the story in a way that actually made sense. Even while there were characters that made "unlikable," decisions, it always made sense within the context of their character and the rules of the universe.

Yato was a goated main character. Funny man with sad past. End of paragraph. (b ᵔ▽ᵔ)b

A big contributor to the enjoyment of these characters as well as the story as a whole was the beautiful and distinct art style. We are not even in the rating section yet but it definitely gets a minimum 8/10. I always value distinct character design that can flawlessly depict a character's personlity, which Noragami does with ease. The only reason I wouldn't rate it higher in the art department is solely because some fight scenes can be crowded at times, with slashes and movement creating visual clutter.

Plot time. I liked it. Every arc within the first 3/4ths of the manga managed to stay completely compelling, building off of the strong in universe rules of the relationships between gods and their shinki. The part of the story that had the most impact on me was definitely the Ebisu arc, with many of the future plot lines being established within this arc and with many more questions about Yato's past being brought up as well. My only issue with the story itself was the final arc (눈_눈). While the ideas and plot points within the final arc were setup in a way that foreshadowed a powerful and intense ending, the execution felt very sloppy and rushed at times with many of the new ideas introduced concluding almost as fast as they were introduced.

If you were considering reading Noragami like I was I would definitely say to give it a chance. It has an extremely compelling introduction, strong and interesting ideas and rules set for its universe, and beautiful and distince artwork. I know most people will end up loving many of the varied and well fleshed out characters throughout the manga's runtime.