#noragami reread

[h0estar]

some of my favorite moments of yato & yukine during my reread. i read the scanlations occasionally bc it gives me sm nostalgia. anw, the two of them are so cute... they're just like family :(

yato referring to yukine as his "boy" or "kid" always gets me man. i take a shot every time he says it 🥹

[kurisus]

Noragami reread: Volume 1 & 2 thoughts

So it begins, my final reread before the end.

It really is so interesting how the first chapter has fuck all to do with the rest of the manga. Yato using the same call to Hanki as he would to name a shinki, Mutsumi creating something like an ayakashi that never comes up again, the fact that she herself never makes another appearance, and of course the most important question: why Yato was looting toilet paper if gods don't poop. I'm sure this is because it was a pilot of sorts and Adachitoka was still figuring stuff out, but it's interesting.

And on that note, remember when ayakashi were plot relevant? It's not really a complaint--I think there were more important things to cover--but they seem to gradually be phased out of the story and otherwise transformed. Same goes for borderlines and blight.

I forgot Yato told Hiyori "under normal circumstances, I'd love to have you as my shinki" IN CHAPTER GODDAMN TWO. No further comment.

Still get full body chills when Yato names Yukine, especially ever since we found out Yukine's past...it still devastates me to know he's been carrying that this whole time.

And when Yato first reverts Yukine, he offers him his jacket and tells him "you have nothing to be afraid of anymore." He's not being funny, he's genuinely trying to reassure him. It goes poorly, but he still cared. He always cared. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA [thrashing]

The last thing I wanna mention from this volume is that I thought Yukine lived quite far from Hiyori, but I guess it was roughly in the same city. It's so sad to think about these two separate stories that never converged until decades later.

Moving on to volume 2, it's really apparent with every reread that even though the ideas keep changing, the themes stay constant. There are so many lines of what could ostensibly be foreshadowing but really they're more reflections of the themes. To pick a random example, when Hiyori is talking about Yato's distaste of suicidal people, she says her father (a doctor) would never give up on a person's life. This can be tied to the situation happening at the time--Yato appears to be acting selfish by refusing to help--but it also has a double meaning showing how he, in the present, will become someone who would never give up on Hiyori's life. Yall mind if I cry.

Not much else from this volume, but I did have a few short Discord reactions to share from both:

See you tomorrow, or perhaps the following day (depending on if I do 2 at once again)!

[eerna]

POV you're Nora

[shysheeperz]

NORAGAMI CH 75 ASDFGHJKL!!!!

[yatogamiofficial]

I haven't seen a poll like this yet so

reblogs appreciated for a larger sample size

[petratherrock]

Hiyori killed the dad. That's the end. I love it sm. They all had a hand in ending him, especially Yato but I love that it was Hiyori that Yato used to end that bastard

[chibitorra]

Gah! I can't wait for the chapter to come out to share my thoughts on Noragami 108.2...

Of course, this may change depending on what actually happens, but I'll put it under the cut for spoilers.

So I've seen some people say that in the one image we have, Yato is saying something about giving his life to save Hiyori.

And sadly, that course of action seems to make the most sense.

It would grant her original wish for him to fix her, well this one is assuming she won't fall out of her body anymore.

She would keep her promise to not forget him, again assuming that is the case here

And it would be befitting of Yato's character development. This vagrant god who used to not be able to think about anyone but himself, now giving his life to save the one person he loved most. The ultimate sacrifice.

Now, that's not to say there's not still hope for a happy ending. I really think there is.

After all, Gods are born from powerful wishes of humans, are they not?

What if... Hiyori keeps his shrine (we know she's going to) and on a whim one day, when she really misses him, she leaves a 5 yen coin on it and wishes to see him again.

And then, there he is.

The very same Yato she loved so dearly, only this time, he actually is a God of Fortune, reborn.

I've made a post about this before, I think(I'm too lazy to find it rn.) But the title of this series always had me thinking. Within the context of this universe, a Stray is a Regalia that was named by more than 1 God.

So, what does that mean for a Stray God?

A God born from the wish of more than one human, I'd wager.

Of course, this is all speculation on my part... grasping desperately at any straws I can to find a happy ending because god DAMN it they deserve it.

Besides, didn't Yato promise to make her next birthday special since he missed her last one? (or something like that, my memory is fuzzy) It would be extra special if he was able to come back on her next birthday, like seeing him again is her birthday wish and that's the wish that brings him home.

[harleyquilt]

The huge void that I will feel when noragami ends is unreal

[trixibebe]

Damn the final pages of Noragami made me cry.

[jade-kyo]

One last time before it’s all over-

[zetsubou-shita]

noragami manga is so beautiful

[h0estar]

*aggressively sobs* that's my baby 🥹

[kurisus]

Noragami reread: Volume 25, 26 & 27 thoughts

The last of the reread thoughts. Until the next reread (I'll still use the same tag!), and see you with the release of the final chapter shortly. Until then, I'll be mostly off the grid.

Volume 25 is...absolutely brutal. It starts right off with Yuka clearly seeing Hiyori as similar to her mother (aka someone who smiled her way through problems), then we get a flashback of Yukine's father finding the letters and ripping them up in front of him. The most chilling part is that he said he knew all along what was in them, but Yukine isn't even listening. And then there's the page of sound effects followed by an unsettling silence. I just. ANOTHER TOP 10 MOST GUTTING MOMENTS OF NORAGAMI. (Maybe I will actually compile a list.)

Nora goes back to trash dad because even though she's figured out he's full of shit, she still craves the love of a parent--she wasn't ever alive long enough to have it, so that yearning will never go away. So when he calls for her with a fake apology, she's never heard that from him before and believes him, and gets swept up in the moment of working as they used to. But the illusion is broken, and that's why she eventually turns on him.

Yato's struggle to get Yukine back contrasts beautifully with trash dad's backstory--a story about how the world is mean, and cruel, and you have to fight to survive because everyone's just in it for themselves. Trash dad is projecting his anger onto Yukine because he never had a father figure to look up to, but Yukine does now--Yato.

Yukine realizes this in what is still probably the most beautiful scene in the manga (although him asking Yato about him being buried is tied). I cried so many tears over this, and I will continue to do so.

Trash dad in Yomi with Izanami is a super interesting scene because of how casual she is with him. She sits with him a while, seemingly never pressures him to dine with her, and willingly tells him all about shinki and ayakashi while asking him about his own past. At the end of this, he steals the brush from her and escapes. When we see Izanami in the current story where Yato and Ebisu encounter her, she's desperate for a friend and keeps pushing food on them. So my guess is that back then, she was a lot more hospitable (or maybe just because she knew humans aren't allowed to leave Yomi), but him stealing from her and escaping caused her to become even more lonely and distrustful.

Likewise, what Father says about the brush naming shinki is very interesting too. The law of Yomi supercedes the law of heaven as far as spirits are concerned, because she was the first person to try naming ayakashi. Since Hagusa and Mizuchi were both named as corrupted spirits, the names bestowed by the brush can't be removed by Amaterasu. Could Izanami remove them? Probably.

That makes me wonder if, in the final chapter, because the brush is destroyed they will lose those names. It doesn't really matter, though, because (a) Yukine already made the choice to become a stray. That won't change. Same with Mizuchi, even if she'd personally gone around and begged every god to release her. But (b) both of them were pushed into this choice by a master manipulator, one who is dead and won't be able to control them anymore. And (c) Yukine, at least, has found his forever master. Mizuchi is...a little lost in that regard, but I'm hoping the fan theory that Kofuku names her comes true.

Not a lot from volumes 26 and 27, but I didn't notice before that trash dad separated himself from Fujisaki so he woke up, but how did his lifeline to Father get cut? I assume they'll explain it in the last chapter--maybe Yato stopped by? He's unable to talk super well (probably because he's feeling some of the effects of decapitation) but he would still remember the name...but that also fades as he talks to the police.

Side note, I love that his birth date is omitted in his student ID. The month and date, not just the year. Adachitoka said NO celebrating Fujisaki's birthday for you.

Now that I'm not distressed and angry about the Hiyori shinki thing (because I know it was reversed), I want to comment that I wish she had said, like, a single word while she was a shinki. Wondering where she is, or who that girl's body is, or something. I do just wish this whole business hadn't happened in the first place, but it is what it is. Since it was undone, it's not a dealbreaker.

As for my other ending hangups--I think Yukine's father won't have his fate mentioned, or maybe just a quick mention that he's dead. There's a point in Yukine's Hagusa arc where he decides his father isn't worth his time, basically, and the official translation talks about forgiveness. But it's not really forgiveness, it's just accepting that getting revenge won't do anything now.

Still kind of wish Hiyori and Bishamon had had more to do in the final arc, still think it's a bit funny that the gods started slaughtering humans only for them to go back to normal like 10 minutes later, don't really care that much though. As long as the trio stays alive and trash dad stays dead, I'll take it.

Discord reactions:

[eerna]

he's so small he can't even fit into the panel.................. bgjsdkkkisnonlindjbkssj<nbkl<<fdkljfdyyyyfd

[songsofwaterandnight]

Back in my day a fraudulent twink would get on the screen and say something like "I lay thee waste and expel thy vast defilement" while killing demons with his delinquent upstanding son.

Nowadays he just goes through traumas 😔

[rabbits-of-negative-euphoria]

So I’m curious about your post about fiction that changed you! Noragami is one of my favorite shows so I’m interested in what about it affected you? (hope it was a positive change lol!)

It was! Like the song Suffering Servant, I think Noragami was really instrumental in turning my thoughts away from endless rationalizations of God’s existence and toward the Cross. There’s a reason it’s very popular among Christian anime fans (though that reputation developed after I had watched it, and I had actually put off watching it because—not yet knowing much about modern Japanese culture—I was afraid it would be wrong to watch a show starring the Shinto gods).

I think it would be very difficult for any Christian to watch Yukine sin ruthlessly while Yato takes the physical blight for each misdeed—willing to suffer even unto death to cleanse Yukine of the evil that will otherwise condemn him (and seemingly purely out of a love Yukine has not earned)—and not be utterly bowled over by a wave of gospel parallels, no matter how dry your wells of faith seem to be.

And there’s also the sanctification-esque dynamic wherein Yato sees Yukine floating along, claims him, gives him a name, and then not only makes him a formidable weapon, but hones Yukine into a better weapon over time by nurturing a relationship with him. (Obviously, Yato is also a deeply flawed individual, so this is sometimes a two-way street, but the effect is still so striking.)

At 17, I needed to forget the intricacies of doctrine that had me tied in existential knots and look instead to the Cross where all my doubts and despair had been forgiven, and Noragami was like a spoon stirring my brains around to be primely positioned for that eventual leap of faith.