Noragami Aragoto 07-12

If she’s Ebisu’s mother, does that make her a milf?

It’s been a while, but at least the last post was in a good spot to pick up from since it was the end of Bishamon’s arc. As for this arc, quite a lot has happened!

Cutting ties with Hiyori makes sense on one hand, since she’s in a lot of danger all the time, but at the same time, neither her or Yato seem to want to do that. This might be why Tenjin hasn’t pushed the issue on either of them since that confrontation. He did stop Mayu from calling out to Hiyori when she was forgetting about Yato, but it doesn’t seem like he’s going to bring up that issue for now either. …Which is fine, since Yato and Hiyori have had some adorable moments this season.

Yato’s reaction to getting his shrine was really cute and it’s nice that Hiyori was able to grant him his childhood dream. This just seems to solidify their desire to be together, and even if it isn’t quite a romantic relationship yet, the two seem to be going down that direction. Yato’s declaration of wanting to make Hiyori the happiest girl in the world certainly seemed like a proposal line (even if he didn’t quite realize what he said). Plus she was the only one who realized his true name thanks to the power of belief and knowing multiple readings of Japanese characters. Yay. Though of course, Yukine and Yato’s relationship is really important too, since his belief in Yato was what led him to taking out Kuguha.

Yukine has grown up a lot. I know I’ve said this before, but his growth is just so prominent this season. He’s so loyal to Yato, and time and again keeps thinking about how to improve himself for Yato’s sake or so Yato won’t have to rely on Nora anymore. Yukine might not have been able to do much before, but now thanks to Kazuma’s training, he can at least hold his own in drawing borderlines.

…Actually, his little training sessions with Kazuma were adorable. I always like watching the mentor/pupil relationship the two have (plus Yukine visiting Bishamon’s house as a neighbour was cute). Plus it’s nice to see that Yato and Bishamon’s feud is over and that they can be kind of friends again. …Or at least not battle every time they meet since they weren’t really friends in the first place. It’s also nice that Bishmon admitted that she knew Yato had helped her but hating him helped her move forward. Maybe that revelation wasn’t entirely necessary, since the arc seemed to resolve everything nicely on it’s own, but it did provide a good explanation as to why Bishamon would travel to Yomi to rescue Yato out of gratitude.

Gods have it pretty rough though. They seem really reliant on the memories of humans, which is bad news for them since humans seem to forget rather quickly if Hiyori is any example. It’s a mystery how Bishamon and the others established themselves so deeply in human history, but it was probably due to their strength (or at least in Bishamon’s case) or things like that. Or maybe luck. They also have what looks like pretentious and boring group meetings (with the higher ups being asshats if the quick conviction of Ebisu is anything to go by) too, which must also suck. So much for a god’s decisions being righteous. Apparently they’re subject to whatever the heaven thinks is righteous as well.

Yato seems to have the worst of it (minus the meetings), not having a guaranteed rebirth like Ebisu or Bishamon. With Yato doing vengeance side jobs though, it makes it less likely that he would disappear. Hiyori forgot about him kind of quickly, but maybe for the people who hire him to take care of unpunished murderers, they’re more likely to remember him or the parts he had in vengeance (though it probably also has a lot to do with his father figure).

Ebisu started off looking like an antagonist, but Noragami certainly turned that around with his intentions of trying to make the world a better place for humanity. I guess there were a few more times of moral grey area with him fighting Yato in front of Izanami (though that was to get away), but in the end, Bishamon and Yato wanted to defend him. And that makes him pretty sympathetic, if the main characters want to protect him. Why Ebisu needed nora never really seemed clear to me, but perhaps it had something to do with him desiring strong shinki. Like how he tried to buy Yukine from Yato after hearing that he became a hafuri. Ebisu’s character sits in a pretty grey area, since his methods are pretty shady, but his intentions are noble. It also probably says a lot how the other gods of fortune both disobey heaven to go see him, and how they seem to have faith in him even though he’s convicted (or at least even after it’s revealed that he has masks and nora, they don’t seem to feel betrayed and instead are concerned over heaven’s decision to hunt him down).

His feelings about the rebirth thing was interesting though, since they’ve shown the side for gods like Yato, who struggle to be remembered. In Ebisu’s case, his death and his new self inheriting his will seemed inevitable to him until Yato talked him about what he wanted to do himself. I guess in Ebisu’s case he’s gone through a lot of rebirths, but I wonder if this kind of thinking is prominent in heaven or not.

Maybe people would want to stay longer if she wasn’t crazy possessive . …Or at least if she wasn’t offering them rotten food.

As for Izanami, it’s kind of hard to feel sorry for her due to her obsessiveness and violence. But at the same time, it has to stuck being down there all alone. Especially since if mythology is true here, she died giving birth, her husband Izanagi went to Yomi to bring her back, he saw her rotting body by accident, went “oh hell no“, and then ditched/sealed her down there. Sure there was the part about her saying she was going to kill a bunch of people after he rejected her, but still. She seemed so happy too after she thought she would finally have some company.

Nothing says “childhood memories” like holding hands and running.

Nora was abandoned in Yomi it seems (she wasn’t with Yato when they came out), but displayed a totally new side to her though. While she did sacrifice Ebisu’s other shinki with no guilt, she did seem truly concerned with protecting Yato. Plus there was the flashback Yato had about how Nora has never stung him once and doesn’t seem bothered by anything. While she’s still an antagonist for the other things she’s had a hand in, it’s interesting to learn that her character isn’t only defined by the bad things she’s done.

This arc felt like it took forever in the manga with all of the scenes in Yomi, and the anime also seems to have spent a long time on it. But hey, they showed some new things regarding the characters, everyone is all above ground now and everything is fine (minus heaven trying to kill Ebisu). Overall it seems like good pacing though, since the wrap up of the arc should be a good spot to end on.

I was hoping they would reveal the true reason why Hiyori had that little side adventure with Fujisaki, but I guess they’re saving that for the last episode. It’s too good for them not to include it!!