Katanagatari is a Japanese light novel series written by Nisio Isin and illustrated by Take. The series is published by Kodansha under the Kodansha Box imprint. An anime adaptation by White Fox began airing on January 26, 2010, and consisted of 12 episodes. The story revolves around a "sword hunt" for 12 weapons that were created by a fictional swordsmith. A single episode of the series was aired each month. NIS America have licensed the series and released the first part on a Blu-ray/DVD combo set in July 2011. Part two was released on September 20, 2011. The anime series aired once more on Fuji TV's noitamina between April and November 2013 as the block's first rerun, with a new opening and a new ending song.
Plot and setting
Katanagatari is the story of Yasuri Shichika, a swordsman who fights without a sword, and Togame, an ambitious young strategist who seeks to collect 12 legendary swords for the shogunate. Shichika is the son of an exiled war hero and the seventh head of the Kyotouryuu school of fighting who lives on the isolated Fushou Island with his elder sister, Nanami. Togame seeks him out because his bare-handed fighting style means that he will not be corrupted by the power of the swords. Togame, who has been betrayed before, convinces Shichika to accompany her on a mission to locate the Deviant Blades. They embark on a journey together across Edo-era Japan to collect the Deviant Blades, all wielded by formidable opponents.
Katanagatari was released one volume a month throughout 2007. A spin-off novel, Maniwagatari, was released a year later. During their panel at Anime Boston on March 30, 2018, English light novel publisher Vertical announced that they had licensed the series and would release it as four 3-in-1 omnibus volumes starting in November 2018.
Anime
The anime is composed of a dozen 50-minute episodes and follows the two main characters while they are searching for the katanas, except for one episode that is centered on Nanami Yasuri. In each episode, Shichika and Togame collect a katana or a new one will be introduced. The length of the episodes is unusual since most anime have 24-minute episodes and run weekly instead of monthly. A new episode would be released every month, beginning on January 26, 2010 and finishing on December 11, 2010. For the first half of the series, the opening theme is Meiya Kadenrō by Minami Kuribayashi while the second half of the series is Katana to Saya by ALI PROJECT. However, the ending theme changes for each episode. For the noitamina rerun, the new opening theme song was Hakushukassai Utaawase by supercell, and Piko performed the new ending theme song Kotonoha.
No.
Title
Ending theme
Original air date
Kyotō Yasuri
An audiobook with 13 chapters released in the DVD/BD of the 12 episodes written by Nisio Isin. Its setting is during the rebellion twenty years before the events told in the anime. Each one contains a character from the series narrating the episode.
