#at this point all I can do is pray this is not what adachitoka actually has planned

[jade-kyo]

sorry if this dumb, but I genuinely don't understand. What is wrong with the direction Noragami is taking ?

Not dumb at all and I’m very willing to break it down- this got pretty long and I just kinda typed it all out as I thought of it so I hope it’s not too incoherent and rambling but yeah. I have a lot of feelings, most of which are not good. If anyone else has any further points on why this is Not Great™️ feel free to add on.

First off there are so many issues with Hiyori being a shinki. God’s greatest secret? How is she supposed to interact with anyone except the gods and the very few shinki who know the secret and survived. It’s waaaay too risky to reveal it to her and just hope that she survives it. if she interacts with any other shinki it runs the risk of them becoming curious about their own lives and names because they knew her while she was alive and know her living name.

And then thematically it just makes no sense. The entire point of the hospital arc was to show us she needs to live! She’s only sixteen. She has her whole life ahead of her and her throwing it away to be on the far shore is a complete spit in the face to everything this manga has said beforehand. It’s also a spit in the face to Yukine’s arc who spent all this time grieving the life he never got to live because he died so young. Now our main character, who desperately wanted to live, to return to her family, to live her dream of becoming a doctor, is gonna have all that taken from her? When the whole fucking point was how much the shinki wanted to live? It turns the entire story, which up until now was about hope and overcoming the past, into a tragedy. A full on tragedy with basically no hope or silver lining or anything.

Not a single character (except trashdad) wanted this for Hiyori. They all warned her about it. They all desperately wanted her to live her full happy life on the near shore because death is a tragedy. Yes shinki like Yukine, Kazuma, and Nana may come to accept it and find their peace with it and find a life they can love on the far shore but that doesn’t negate the tragedy of death. That they were all taken too soon. That Yukine never got to see his sister again or even grow up, that Kazuma never got to get married or run his family’s business, Nana couldn’t protect her home or grow up or save her father. Their lives were stolen from them.

Death is always a tragedy. It’s unfair and cruel. No matter how one may come to terms with it. That’s been the whole fucking point of the manga since day one.

“When someone dies you can never see them again” it’s right there in Sakura’s quote.

There’s literally no way to spin this into even a bittersweet ending much less a happy ending. Not without going against literally everything this manga has stood for up until now. So the only other option is to go full blown everything is cruel and unfair and there is no hope and Yato really does just bring calamity to everyone he loves and trashdad was right all along. There is no light at the end of the tunnel, no silver lining. Just- NOTHING! Seriously this fucks over Yato’s entire character. It literally proves Father right. Everyone Yato loves dies. He really does just spread calamity to all.

You really expect them to be happy together when every time Yato looks at “Shiro” he’ll have to remember how he failed to save Hiyori, failed to protect her, how this innocent little girl who had her entire life ahead of her was murdered by his father simply because they loved each other? Because he couldn’t cut ties with her, couldn’t let her go. Like it’s horrible. Just absolutely horrible. There’s no hope here.

Because death is a tragedy no matter what.

[noragami-ru-manga]

Calamity bears human face

These are my thoughts on the first half of 87-2. Spoilers ahead!

I really, really liked the second part of chapter 87. Adachitoka still refuse us Yukine’s entire past, but maybe that’s for the best. If what we’ve been shown so far causes this many emotions in the fandom, I’m scared to think what would have been if they revealed everything at once. But… this post isn’t about Yuknie. Not because I don’t like his character, but because I really want to discuss the first 10 pages of the new chapter.

As I expected, we got some of Father’s flashbacks this time. Except they were about the part of his life that had Yato in it, probably several years (?) after Sakura’s death.

Yato not wanting to kill people isn’t that strange, since he started “slacking off” because of Sakura’s influence, and we know that by this point Hiiro would take initiative whenever Yato wouldn’t put his heart in performing Father’s jobs, as shown in chapter 47. Interestingly enough, when Yato suggested that Father should kill people himself, the former answered that he “was killing gods, at least” – implying that he didn’t kill humans with his own hands.  Father’s words about killing gods do sound sinister but as we’ve already seen and will see later in the chapter, not all gods are warriors like Bishamon, Takemikazuchi and Yato himself, so I wouldn’t be too intimidated by this phrase.

His line about the uselessness of killing gods without killing people though … The idea is obvious and logical, so I don’t see the point in developing it further, but even now I think that Father did not choose the most efficient way to do it. Even if Yato stayed under Father’s total control, one god of calamity doesn’t seem to be that big of a threat on a global scale, contrary to whatever Nora has to say later in the chapter.

The thing that caught my attention on these pages is Father’s words about shrines. Yato already revealed before that someone would always tell him he didn’t need a shrine, that someone being Father. Up to this point I simply thought that this was needed to cultivate Yato’s fear of being forgotten – if he doesn’t have a shrine, it’s all the more easier for him to disappear without any chances to reincarnate. The idea that Father actually thinks that shrines are useless somehow never crossed my mind, although now that I see it on paper it makes total sense.

And since Yato raised the question, I’ll take it from here. He said he didn’t understand why did needed to destroy humans if life would be boring without them. I’ve always asked this question in regard to any character whose end goal is total annihilation – what’s the point? Sure, Father isn’t aspiring to be an evil overlord as to ask him a question “who are you going to rule over if there’s no one left”. But his goal, apparently, is killing all gods and also all humans so that old gods can’t reincarnate while new ones can’t appear. But what exactly is he going to do if he succeeds? Die while feeling the satisfaction of revenge accomplished? It’s just so hard to understand someone whose views  are so different than your own.

I wish I could say that the small local kami that attacked Yato proves that Father’s words about shrines are wrong, but what happens next actually corroborates his statement. Partially.

One the one hand, the villagers’ prayer was heard, and the local kami attacked Yato for destroying the village. But Father just crushed her. So in the end, the kami wasn’t able to so anything about these humans’ problem, so yeah, their wish wasn’t granted.

This scene also demonstrates that yes, Father can actually kill gods. The more important thing about it though is that Yato sees it. We have already seen just how much Yato used to fear death for the majority of the series. However, knowing that Father has the ability to kill Yato by forgetting him is one thing; but witnessing him kill a kami just like Yato really drives it home. And it’s all the scarier how Father simply intercepted Yato’s weapon – he just summoned Chiki, who moments earlier was in the boy’s hands. Just look at Yato’s face, you can see the terror.

And Father didn’t really have the need to kill that kami. What could they have done with a chopstick anyway?  Maybe he god mad at this kami actually answering people’s prayer, disproving his point. Or maybe he just hates the gods so much he couldn’t stand even seeing one of them, so he just had to kill them.

(BTW, does anyone know what’s with the blindfold? I’ve tried looking it up but never found anything).

Nora and Hiyori’s dialogue is my favorite part the chapter, there are just so many things to unpack here. First, “Father would praise the god called Yato”. Is it just me, or is Nora jealous? We saw in Yato’s memories that Father actually praised both his children. Then again, we also saw that he punished Nora when he wanted Yato to behave. Considering that Yato grew increasingly reluctant to kill humans, and Nora had to take the lead and finish Yato’s work, this kind of jealousy is unsurprising. Nora was Father’s right hand girl and supported him all the way, but between the two of them Yato would receive more attention.

“But at some point, Yato started mourning the deaths of other people”.  Yeah, we know at what point – Nora must be referring to the time when Sakura was still alive. I’ll just throw in a couple of pics from chapter 47 to remind you why Yato started mourning people.

“When calamity strikes, people always become more devout”. This must be one of the most powerful quotes in the entire manga, because it encapsulates one of the foundations of the Noragami universe. Gods exist to grant human wishes, but who would have more reasons to pray – someone who has it all, or someone who’s in trouble? Remember the main reason why people start seeing the Far shore and things that relate to it.

Of course humans would turn to gods if they can’t solve their problems themselves; that’s the reason they exist. I’ve already mentioned it in the post about memory and memories – the idea of a being that isn’t bound by human constraints, is immortal and can help out when there’s nothing else left takes shape of a person, and that’s how a god is born. Although there’s another reason, too – people hope that if calamity is sentient, you can bargain with it. That’s how people started worshiping Tenjin – not to ask for something they don’t have, but to beg him not to take something they already possess.

It may be that, by sending Yato to obliterate villages, Father was hoping not just for thinning out people, but for a somewhat different reaction from them.

“That boy loved people”. This line is just so heartwarming. And Hiyori already said it before. She saw Yato’s past and how even back then he tried to help humans – like making snow shoes for people in need. She understood him and accepted him.

I don’t really have anything to add to Father wanting “to do something” though. I’ve already said before that Father is done with being the game master and wants to be an actual player. Apparently, he is waiting for Yukine to discover GGS completely before summoning him as a weapon.

The line about natural disasters having human faces caught my attention before the chapter was even translated.  When people die because of natural disasters, it’s horrible, but there’s nothing you can do about it. We can say that “we need to build sturdier houses/dams/etc.”, “we need to take better precaution measures”, and we try, but you can’t possibly predict everything. But in a world where the sun, the moon, the lightning, etc. are personified as gods, a.k.a “have faces”, not only there’s a way for someone to direct their wrath at those faces, but there’s the question of why these sentient elements of nature do these things that hurt humans.

Let’s look at some of the examples of gods harming Nakatsukuni, the world of humans.

Chapter 7 – Bishamon cuts down a grove to get to Yato

Chapter 8 – Kofuku’s vent releases a horde of ayakashi, which results in rising crime rates in Tokyo

Chapter 60 – Bishamon causes a local hurricane to locate Father

Chapter 66 – Takemikazuchi transforms into lightning to fight Yato

The gods harmed the world of humans, but it wasn’t for fun. Bishamon was guided by her thirst for revenge both times. Kofuku was helping her friend. Takemikazuchi became angry because his guide was hurt. All of them felt very human emotions. Except, since they are gods and their power surpasses that of an average human, the result of their outburst is a dead grove, rising crime rates, a damaged school. They aren’t actually trying to purposefully hurt humans but for those who suffer from these actions that’s hardly a consolation. And like I said, it’s one thing when you don’t really have anyone to blame, because the wind that destroyed your house doesn’t hear you, and another, when that wind has a face.

I think that when Father sent Yato to destroy villages, he hoped that the calamities would make people turn away from the gods. After all, people don’t always become more devout during trying times, sometimes they turn away from religion, which is what happened with Father himself. There’s a phrase going around the Internet – it was allegedly written on the wall of a Nazi concentration camp by a Jewish inmate: “If there is a God, He will have to beg for my forgiveness”. I don’t know how true this story is, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s real.

And even with all this in mind, I still don’t understand Father’s logic. Suppose he doesn’t destroy all of humanity, but does manage to kill all gods. I don’t think it would change that much. Amaterasu, for example, is depicted as the sun incarnate, but… if she’s killed forever, will the Sun go out, too? I understand that I’m going off the rails and into the cosmogenic myth territory here, but I can’t help it. If there are no gods left, but the forces of nature continue to destroy human lives, then Father’s actions hardly change anything. (Look at me, trying to find a reasonable explanation for an unhealthily long revenge plan). Also, don’t forget that gods of other religions canonically exist in Noragami – what is Father going to do about them, I wonder?

As for “someone” being killed by the Heavens, I’ve recently made an assumption that the pock-marked girl’s death could have been a payment of sorts to bring Father back from the dead. I made this assumption knowing that Father’s words in chapter 60 imply that gods were more involved than that. What Nora said here about Father hating attributing gods’ actions to natural disasters makes it obvious that the girl died because of one of such catastrophes. I’ve looked some more at that page from chapter 60, and I still don’t see any visible damage on the girl. However, Adachitoka emphasize a skeleton lying in a field near a dead tree. Also, I’ve turned the page upside down to get a better look, and now this skull haunts me.

Was it a drought, a famine that killed her? Or the smallpox? If these are her remains, why didn’t Father bury them? Who then helped him return from Yomi? We know it was a soul summoning, after all. So many questions that are yet to be answered.

However, even if we didn’t get all the answers yet, these ten pages did reveal a lot.

-          Nora knows Father’s backstory, but not all of it. Apparently, it’s a thing so painful that Father can’t tell everything even to his most devoted supporter.

-          Sakura’s influence on Yato was even stronger than I thought.  It’s possible that Father changed his course of actions and started giving Yato jobs that involved punishing criminals soon after the scene we saw in this chapter.

-          Father, apparently, thinks of himself as some kind warrior of justice while ignoring the fact that he does as much harm as the gods, and that he is a calamity with a human face.

 P.S. that page with the human faces of nature absolutely rocks.

[hellanoragami-blog]

Chapter 82 Thoughts

Time to crack this egg!! Feels like it’s been so long, with last month’s chapter having released so early. But that’s alright! More time to think about it. I didn’t write this in one sitting, so I hope I didn’t miss anything. If I did, let me know!

The chapter starts out on a slightly confusing note, with Yukine talking to who I can only assume is Hiyori. He informs her that he wants to meet his family and friends, that it looks fun. She’s trying to discourage him from crossing a line where he shouldn’t go, by telling him that Yato was crying after he named him. She does her best to hint gently that his past might not be what he wants to see--that he’d be better off not knowing. He assures her that it’s fine, and directly after, jumps over the barrier.

The only thing I can guess is that this conversation didn’t actually happen. Maybe it was a thought process, or dream of Hiyori’s. Yukine’s dialogue here seems pretty innocent; almost childish. I suspect that it’s set up this way because of how Hiyori sees him. Because of his size, she initially thought him to be a quite a few years younger than herself. And I think that, even after learning that he was much closer to her in age than she thought, a part of her still believes Yukine to be young and in need of guidance.

This dream sequence is broken by her crashing into her door--she was most likely sleep walking. Her mother wakes Masaomi up to come help, who carries her back to bed. He checks her condition, and while doing so, inform her that he’s seeing the black ones coming closer. So much so, they are on the property. He suspects that their grandmother doesn’t have much time left.

There was some speculation that it could be for Hiyori, but I don’t think so. Hiyori’s grandmother was reading a rental catalog for home medical equipment, so I think her and Hiyori’s mother were discussing the need for one. It’s hinted then, that their grandmother’s health has deteriorated at least to a point where she’d need to go on bed rest.

Anyway, Hiyori then admits that even Yato said that there wasn’t much they could do about it.

Masaomi, confused, asks her who Yato is.

This of course, is a shocker to her. How could he forget, when he remembers everything else from the far shore, as she does? She gets worked up, but Masaomi has her lay back down. She has a fever, and has been sleeping all day. This is worrying, mostly because we know her cord is damaged, and her spiritual injuries are impacting her physical health. She tries to leave her body, but this proves to be unsuccessful.

It may seem worrying, but it actually looks like her injury is healing, at least. There’s less blood than there was originally, so perhaps she’ll be fine? At least, physically. I’m holding out hope. Although, I’m not sure if she’ll be able to leave her body again. I’m still wondering what Father meant when he said that he wanted Yato to experience unlivable despair. Like, why would it be if she’s going to live? Assuming that she eventually heals and is alright.

Hiyori recalls the face that she saw while fighting Father, and she comes to the conclusion that what she saw were his true features. No doubt, it was probably startling to her. I wonder if Father caused this to happen or not, for his true self to be revealed? It did give him the perfect opportunity to attack her while she was distracted.

But like Hiyori, once Masaomi is given details and reminders--by sneaking a peek through Hiyori’s diary in typical, insufferable sibling fashion--he recalls Yato. This leads me to hope that maybe Hiyori won’t actually ever forget Yato, completely. As long as she has something to remember him by, like documented events or people, she’ll be able to recall him. Masaomi acknowledges Hiyori’s prolonged interest in the guy, which leaves her absolutely mortified.

I want to make clear that I do think Hiyori will forget Yato and Yukine again, though. I don’t know how it will happen, but there are similarities in the textures Adachitoka has used to signify this occurrence. We saw it first in chapter 30, where Hiyori forgot them while spending time with ‘Fujisaki’ at Capypa Land:

And now, in this chapter:

In this situation, Hiyori is overwhelmed by everything she feels that she has to deal with. The longer she stays in her body, the further she gets from the far shore.

The scene shifts to Yato, with him wondering the specifics of how he’s going to defeat Father. He’s practicing his aim on an ayakashi, who looks none too pleased to be a part of it. It starts to chase him, and he seeks protection in the shrine where I suppose he left Kazuma when he went to visit Bishamon. Overhead, he sees Take flying by--and I think this gives him an idea!

We get a short, one-sided exchange between Kazuma and Bishamon, where we can see her shedding a tear as Kazuma leaves. I’m sure that she heard him some way or another--maybe she understands that he became a stray? In some cases, people who are comatose can still hear things around them. It’s not usually the case, but it does occur. She could also just be fading in and out of consciousness. Either way, Kazuma reports that she is healing well, so that gives me some hope that she’ll wake up soon.

Come on, Adachitoka! Give us some good news!

Yato informs him that they’ll be training on a person, instead of an ayakashi--and that person is none other than Take!

...Who is going around, warning the other deities of which regalia has fallen victim to the secret. He wants to get it dealt with, but he can’t find Yato anywhere. It doesn’t matter, though--it’s likely that all of heaven knows about Yukine, at this point. They’ll want to deal with him before it spreads. But Take doesn’t want to do it himself. As he’s complaining about this, he’s suddenly struck by an arrow.

Yato’s arrow, as we soon find out. Because we see Yato ‘cleverly’ disguised using a traffic cone with a face drawn on it. (The audience is not fooled.) While engaged in combat, we get to see that Kazuma actually has a decent array of skills--and they just seem to keep growing. He’s innovative, and works with what abilities he’s been assigned to make them even better. This is something that even Yukine hasn’t been seen doing, so Yato looks to have at least a fighting chance in defeating the sorcerer.

We are brought back to Yukine, who’s staring pensively at the gifts he received from Yato and Hiyori for his birthday. He’s pretty sure that he hit the nail on the head, because of how Nora reacted to his question. He resolves that if Yato is indeed going to target his Father, then he should wait for Yato to show up with him. But first, he’s still set on peeking in on his family. He thinks, as long as he has the charms that Yato and Hiyori made him, he won’t give in to the sorcerer.

Which, of course we know that it could go either way. It just depends on Yukine. However, seeing as his prime motivator is his past, I don’t think his resistance will be as strong as he thinks. Confidence is good, but it doesn’t guarantee a positive outcome. (See: The Heaven Arc)

Yukine heads to the park, where--by either mysterious or intentional purposes--he sees Father out jogging.

Now, as for what I think? Whether he went out to catch Father (perhaps Nora tipped him off where he could find him? Nora’s involvement is still a huge question mark at this point) or simply saw him out there by chance, I think he has an idea formulating. Father’s good at getting information.

So what do I speculate will happen? 1. Hiyori will forget Yato, soon. Or, at least to an extent. I think she’ll be okay, physically.

2. Yato will probably continue training with Kazuma a little more; I don’t see it being long now that he’ll confront Father.

3. Someone will arrive at Kofuku’s (Take?) to dispose of Yukine, but he will already be long gone. Possibly, Yato will be found and told, but even if he were, he still wouldn’t find him. Either way, I think Heaven will try to interfere.

4. There is a possibility that Father will tell Yukine that he would see all about his past, if he allows him to name him. That he’d be more than happy to tell him everything in exchange for giving him a name. Hey--he has to stick with him anyway to wait for Yato to show, right? So it works out. Father can be pretty persuasive, so I think we just might end up seeing Yukine agree to the terms and conditions. (Because who reads those, anyway?) And maybe, the name concealment business will come into play, as well.

I hope we get to see where Nora’s true feelings reside, in the near future. I’d like to think that, even if she is still following Father’s orders, she’s grown some fondness for Yukine, at the very least. I can’t wait to see if she has or not. I also hope that we get to learn more about Father, and what lead up to who he is now and what he believes in.

Also, I’m still praying that Bishamon makes a full recovery, soon.