Noragami Vol 21
Rating: 5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review!
Yato is a homeless god. He doesn't even have a shrine, let alone any worshippers! So, to achieve his ambitious goals, he's set up a service to help those in need (for a small fee of course). He hopes that one day he'll be able to build the temple he feels he deserves, but for now he can't be picky about the jobs that he chooses to accept. From finding lost kittens to overcoming school bullies, Yato is divinely intervening all over the place!
While Yukine is busy harbouring the stray who promptly disappears, Hyori is getting used to regular life without he and Yato. Speaking of Yato, he's gone off with Kazuma to train and hunt Ayakashi although it soon becomes clear that the two of them really need to work on getting more in sync with each other. Yukine needs to hunt down the stray but while doing so he ends up encountering Yato's father whom we all know and hate, and as soon as he said that there's a way out of Yomi my first thought was, 'here we go. What could possibly go wrong with this knowledge?'.
Yato's father provides plenty of interesting information in this volume. There's a glimpse of how he came to be and some ominous notes when he mentions the stray's death which kind of has me curious, because there's clearly some history there. However, there's quite a development when it comes to Yukine as he starts to wonder how he died and it definitely provides a sense of impending doom when paired with everything we learn this volume.
This volume largely spends its time building up for the next showdown and adding in a few little plot twists with Yukine and then with Hiyori and her lifeline, while also having Yato and Kazuma preparing for the next step. The Gods are all plotting together to help Yukine and go after the Crafter although the mention of 'God hunting' is ominous and had me on edge. Much as I love and feel for Yukine, I'm back in the 'wanting to shake him' place.
Volume 21 is another solid volume, moving the plot along and keeping the readers interest through to the end. While serving to continue to set up and move the characters where they need to be for coming volumes and events, it also provides more intrigue and ends on a super ominous note that leaves you desperate for the next volume!
Noragami Vol 20
Rating: 5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review!
Now that Yato has promised Hiyori to confront his father, he must find a shinki powerful enough to take the crafter down, while Bishamon, who knows what the crafter looks like, discovers her life is in grave danger.
The last volume ended on a rather ominous cliffhanger, and I'm sure you'll all agree that it's been torture waiting to see what's going to happen next in this series?! Yato has told the Heavens what he knows and now he has a deadline in which to kill his father but in order to do so he's going to have to find a Shinki to help him. His first port of call being to ask Nana for help but her new guardian isn't thrilled with the idea.
For me, this is a series that gets better and better, it started out quite simple but then brought in more and more plot threads, deepening the plot more with each volume. This volume however? It's perhaps the most twisty one yet?! It had my heart fully stopping at one point when Yato realised Bishamon was in danger, and then with the way the chapter played out. I was screeching pretty much the entire time I was reading this volume, with a brief little interlude with Ebisu that was the only time I was chill reading this. Kazuma is the main source of all of my screeching and wow...his character is going a little bit dark side in this volume and we've seen him go from being a certain way, the Kazuma that we're used to...to the Kazuma in this volume. He also had a conversation with Hiyori that had her finally coming to terms with her feelings for Yato and I was pretty much...well...my soul had left my body at this point.
While we have the angst with Yato and Kazuma, I oddly found myself feeling quite sorry for the Stray, something that I never thought would happen. We got some insight in to her and more background on her life with Yato and his father, and what things wrere like for them. I'm kind of uneasy about Yukine befriending her but intrigued to see where this is going to go.
There are some amazing twists to this volume in the lead up to the showdown that's inevitably coming our way between Yato and his father, and things get angsty on the romance front. The romance has always kind of been a very subtle thing, but feelings are named in acknowledged in this volume and I feel like after all the building up of the characters, the relationships and the plot...we're hitting the climax of the story.
The art continues to be wonderfully drawn, and the plot continues to move forward at a wonderful pace giving us action, intrigue and humour!
