Katanagatari

[Ryllharu]

I'm trying to find a relationship between either her emotions or her thoughts and the eye activating. As the miko said, her hair only becomes that after "something" happens, and I gather it's shock, which also resulted in her eye.

My initial thoughts are that it's probably got to do with how she "seald her heart", and maybe when that eye opens, it's revealing that she's temporarily opened it up or something.

In the first episode, her eye changed before her hair did. She blinked and it changed to the cross, it changed back when she realized her father was killed (it was normal when his head separating from his body was reflected in her eye). Then she screamed and her hair turned white. I do think it is a similar effect to what you said. It changes when she says something more significant, often relating to her quest and the power she hopes to achieve from it. We see it in the first episode when she says that, "I can already see it. It is within my grasp!"

In a way, she saw Shichika's father with the same eye she sees Shichika's power with. Perhaps she saw the power that was used to slay her father could be used to give her back the position she lost. I'd have to go back and try to see if there is a common vein with each of the scenes to be sure.

[Kraco]

It's an eye of ambition. Whenever she desires something or is talking about her plans or how good she is, or other such things.

[masamuneehs]

man, i dunno. i just couldn't get into episode 3. the ninja was lame (and got killed so pathetically), and the bad guy talked a little too much for my taste, mostly about run-of-the-mill anime "converted bad guy" backstory... it makes tons of sense not to fight her in the woods, but i felt a little robbed of action in this episode...

[shinta|hikari]

That is probably because the last part of the fight looked lazily executed and stupid. I mean, what the hell was with that aerial bleach-like sword flashing? Even the impact was not animated.

[Nadouku]

I was liking Meisai's style of fighting, but it ended too soon! I enjoyed her backstory, as well.

[David75]

[Mazui]​_Katanagatari​_-​_04​_[7F52B79D]​.mkv

Enjoy!

[Kraco]

I've never felt this trolled by an anime episode before. The ultimate sword fight I was looking forward to since last month wasn't shown at all. While I'm not necessarily sorry Shichika's sister got some screentime, it's hard to say if it was necessary in the bigger picture. I'd hope it was because I have faith in the author but I still can't deny the feeling I was disappointed we missed the actually important and interesting fight and instead got Nanami's no-effort fight against some random Maniwani dudes.

The only importance at all I could see for this fight would be Nanami becoming the ultimate opponent in the last episode. If she now decides to leave the island and happens to acquire one of the swords (would be no problem with her skills), Shichika would end up needing to fight her. Nanami shouldn't be resistant to the Shikizaki blade poison either, being a deviant Yasuri and thus able to use weapons.

The other option is, of course, that Nanami's fight had no relevance whatsoever and it was an evil artistic decision to deprive us of the ultimate Sabi Hakuhei fight.

Aside from being very disappointed due to missing Shichika's fight, I liked the beginning of the episode. It seems like the weird relationship between Shichika and Togame is steadily developing episode by episode.

[Ryllharu]

I expected something like this from the first episode. Shichika obviously feared Nanami when Togame showed up, and her level of insight far exceeded what we should have expected (and continue to witness) in Shichika. They both grew up largely isolated on that island, and yet Nanami is nothing at all like her brother. Her overwhelming abilities came as no surprise to me.

Several interesting things came out of it:
- Nanami is constantly suffering but her body will not allow her to die.
- Nanami knows Shichika's weakness in his moves, which surely will come up again.
- Someone attempted to end Nanami's suffering. Perhaps their mother? I can't help but wonder if Nanami defended herself even at that young age.
- Little Nanami was very cute.
- Kraco brought up a good point. Now that Nanami knows how to use a sword, will she become poisoned by the deviant blades? She doesn't really need them anyway, and she already brought her own deviant style to Kyotouryuu.
- I enjoyed that the butterfly guy used nearly every cliche that indicates someone is absolutely about to be killed when they go off like a hero.


Personally, I loved that they didn't show Shichika's fight at all. I fully expect them to show something later, but even if they don't, it is a nice touch. Belittling the most powerful swordsman's defeat to a summary over dango is the ultimate defeat. Someone of his legend and status becomes nothing more than a footnote. He is eclipsed by someone barely his superior (by their own admission), but that fight in turn was eclipsed by someone far greater. Nanami also lamented that she has never had to put any effort in to anything she does. Thus, her fights required almost no effort to win, and overshadow a battle that required the most effort Shichika and Togame ever had to put in, and still only won by something more ephemeral than luck.

In a way, we've experienced the same disappointment that Nanami has felt all her life.

[Lucifus]

Ditto; and to clarify my thoughts, great facking episode!

[Buffalobiian]

- I enjoyed that the butterfly guy used nearly every cliche that indicates someone is absolutely about to be killed when they go off like a hero.

Heh, yeah, I loved that.

Nanami's smile was creepy. I'm not sure if it's all meant to be a taunt, but even if she's not putting any effort into this, she's certainly enjoying it.

Biting nails bit... damn

Her comment about playing along with the sword hunt, her brother's weakness, and the futility of stances all suggest that she'll confront him sooner or later, as Kraco pointed out. For the sake of trivia, Bruce Lee also commented that stances of traditional martial arts and their set forms were too limiting.



That last bit of the episode was the biggest cock tease .

[animus]

I got trolled, HARD.

I was expecting her to be pretty strong in all honesty, but not this overpowered. If Shichika and her do fight (which might not even happen), how does he beat her? She already memorized everything about Kyoutoryuu.

[Nadouku]

If Togame ever gave you a hard time, just tickle her collarbone and make her submissive.

[Kraco]

I was expecting her to be pretty strong in all honesty, but not this overpowered. If Shichika and her do fight (which might not even happen), how does he beat her?

Either by luck, experience, and the sheer strength provided by his much bigger body or by stretching the fight beyond what Nanami's sick body can withstand. Or even more likely the combination of those.

Or maybe at the last possible moment Nanami won't want to kill her dear brother after all.

If Togame ever gave you a hard time, just tickle her collarbone and make her submissive.

The best part of that scene was how Shichika wouldn't stop.

[shinta|hikari]

Shichika's best strategy if he wants to defeat his sister is to prolong the fight. In the flashback, while Shichika was quite beaten up, they did reach the designated time limit, making the match a "draw". The problem is, if Nanami starts roaming around and fighting other Maniwani's, she will soon become too powerful for anyone to handle, which is precisely the reason her father did not train her or allow her exposure to fighting.

[Ryllharu]

The problem is, if Nanami starts roaming around and fighting other Maniwani's, she will soon become too powerful for anyone to handle, which is precisely the reason her father did not train her or allow her exposure to fighting.

My interpretation on those lines was very different.

Wasn't the reason he refused to allow her to be the successor because he said that it would be a waste on someone as talented as she was? He would be restricting her to a single style, when he knew quite well that she could learn anything else instantly.

He didn't train her because he would be holding her back, not because she would become too powerful.

[shinta|hikari]

I wasn't paying enough attention to be sure, so you may be right.

I wonder when they will actually show the animated fight that we were deprived of this episode. With the preview from episode 3 showing actual animated scenes of the fight, I think they will show it as a flashback in one of the future episodes.

[Buffalobiian]

My interpretation on those lines was very different.

Wasn't the reason he refused to allow her to be the successor because he said that it would be a waste on someone as talented as she was? He would be restricting her to a single style, when he knew quite well that she could learn anything else instantly.

He didn't train her because he would be holding her back, not because she would become too powerful.

That's indeed what he said, but I wonder how much truth there is to it.

Nanami said the Mantis fellow had the same eyes her father did when he looked at her. It could well be awe and other related responses, but it could also be fear.

[shinta|hikari]

The eye comment was the same reason I thought that the father was preventing Nanami from becoming a monster. The erratic eye movements looked frightened more than anything else. Still, Nanami may have just misunderstood her father's expression.

I sense a lot of self hatred emanating from Nanami. She seems to hate both her weaknesses and strengths, and this leads her to live a terrible existence. I usually dislike characters with godlike talent, but Nanami more than pays for it with her body condition.

I really like the idea of her turning villain somewhere down the line. Hard work and strategy versus sheer talent is a classic scenario in shounen shows, so Katanagatari may yet parody it, and hopefully add a new twist.

[Ryllharu]

The eye comment was the same reason I thought that the father was preventing Nanami from becoming a monster. The erratic eye movements looked frightened more than anything else. Still, Nanami may have just misunderstood her father's expression.

When they flashed back to him actually saying those lines to her, they quivered a bit, but it didn't sound like he was afraid of her. It looked more like he was frustrated. The ultimate style he had created wasn't worthy enough for his own daughter. She would surpass it immediately. The same frustration that comes from seeing what you worked decades upon being learned in an instant as if it were learning to pluck flower petals. Perhaps his eyes reflected the sensation of being in the presence of someone so overwhelmingly dominant. It had to injure his pride as the founder of their art.

If my speculation was right, it may also be he feared her for defending herself from whoever it was that attempted to end her pain.

Again, this is why I said my interpretation was different. It easily works both ways.

[fireheart]

So I heard that this trolling is actually in the light novels, anyone know if this is true?