Katanagatari

What. WHAT? What is this bullshit? What is this suprise NTR? Didn't Whitey get bullied enough? What the fuck is this shit? Everybody loses in the end. Why couldn't I have a happy ending?

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Seemed pretty happy to me, despite the demise of cheerio.

someone didn't pay any attention

>What is this suprise NTR?
Can't be NTR if she's dead.

>Everybody loses in the end.
Congrats, you discovered the point of the show.

it may hurt at first, but soon you'll realize the ending was one of the best things about katanagatari

Best girl one, cry me a river

I never bang a woman wearing a memento of her ex

Am I the only fucking one who didn't give a fuck about Togame's death and thought she had it coming?

I was hoping she'd find some way to redeem herself before the ending, but I have to agree.

How and why did she possibly think that offering her love to Shichika (and even his dad) would even work possibly? Was she so desperate because all her other plans failed that horribly and she had nothing else to do?

If her ex is dead and she's just there for you to bang, I guarantee you still would.

Read After Watching (minor light spoilers):

Seems like a lot of people are confused, so allow me to take a metaphorical stab at it. Katanagatari (or Story of the Sword), taken as a whole, is about the falsification and course-correction of history. So it only makes sense that the first question we should ask is what part of history was corrected and what part was falsified?

Let's start with what was falsified. The subject matter behind this story is China, not Japan. And Shichika is an anime-parallel of Jing Ke. Name sound familiar? If so, either you're a history buff or you've watched too many Jet Li movies. Jing Ke, as some of you may know, is the main character of the 2002 Jet Li movie, "Hero." And the history that is course-corrected is Jing Ke failed assassination of Ying Zheng, the King of Qin, and the man who would later become China's first Emperor, who ordered the eventual construction of the great wall of China to fend China off from foreign invaders. The legend goes, Jing Ke earned an audience with Zheng upon presenting him with a present - the 12 broken swords of his enemies. But in the end, Jing Ke failed because of two critical mistakes. First, he was paralyzed with fear for both himself and his loved ones at the sight of the King, and second, he was too slow in retrieving the poisoned dagger he hid in the scroll he presented to the King.

Now that the stage is set, let's move on to course-correction. While it's true that Emperor Zheng built the great wall, he was actually hated in China. The construction of the great wall cost the lives of millions, and Zheng was remembered as being a ruthless coward. And so peering into the future, Kiki Shikizaki (and his descendant Princess Hitei) attempted to course-correct Jing Ke's failed assassination by getting rid of his two weaknesses - his human heart, and his need of a weapon. And so he taught Ke's ancestor the Kyotouryuu and created the deviant blades as a condition precedent for Ke's meeting with Zheng.

Lastly, by killing Togame, the love of his life, Princess Hitei fulfilled his ancestor's goal in getting rid of Jing Ke's second weakness, and turning him into a perfected weapon, without residual attachment to the world. This allows him to overcome his fear, and even go as far as to wish for death. And so all the blood shed would not be in vain and millions of lives are saved from the clutches of China's first tyrant. Of course, this would mean that Zheng could no longer build the great wall to protect China from invaders, to which Shichika replies - we'll just have to trust the warriors of the future to tear them to pieces.

Ok, so who cares? Ending still sucks, I mean Hitei and Shichika? Well, that is until you look at the story in context of its theme - the falsification of history. History is written by the victor. The victor is undoubtedly Hitei, and most likely, she's also our narrator. It's not unthinkable that she eventually fell for Shichika after her mission came to an end. But does she really end up with him? It could just be that that was a lie too. Call it a narrator's wishful thinking. (2/2)

That's an interesting take on that. Thanks for that.

hey that's pretty cool good post I read it

Thanks for the read user, but at least give the guy who wrote the review some credit. myanimelist.net/reviews.php?id=171845

Interesting theory.

But the protagonist in "Hero" (Jet Li, 2002) is 無名, Wu Ming, literally "No name". Although the story that "Hero" is based off of is named Jing Ke.

Best girl won.

What? Too nonsense for you?

...

It's not ntr if she's dead.

It's a plan coming together.

I mean as much i liked Togame i didnt hate ending of this show and he seemed pretty happy in end. But i believe that even if Togame didnt die she would not have killed MC.

Would be cool if Hitei's VA also did the narration.

Has anyone translated the prequel voice dramas with loli Hitei yet?

Hmm, that's a pretty cool analysis.

Also, speaking of which, there was a Thunderbolt Fantasy thread from weeks ago where people were talking about influences of wuxia in Japan and someone made the comparison of Katanagatari being a darker interpretation of prominent wuxia stories like the Condor Hero Trilogy. Notable in how it's a harsher take on the dynamics between the main couple of Legend of Condor Hero. I thought that was pretty neat too.

She did.

And to think he's doing it for free when the people over at ANN are getting paid to write rubbish.

>And so all the blood shed would not be in vain and millions of lives are saved from the clutches of China's first tyrant. Of course, this would mean that Zheng could no longer build the great wall to protect China from invaders
Except the falsification plot was to prevent a single power from seizing control of Japan and forcing an era of peace onto the country which would result in its weakening. That's why it failed when someone else simply took up the reigns.

In the end, history wasn't falsified. That's the message with which it ends. The people who schemed and plotted, strove for their own reasons, were killed while those who merely fulfilled their role survived. Such is the reason for Hitei's personality shift in the epilogue, she's no longer playing the role of Shikizaki's heir.

And killing Togame might not have been in the plan at all. Hitei regretted that Emonzaemon overheard her true identity, forcing her to be killed in order for their roles to be maintained. Her existence itself was a sort of anomaly propagated by her father's scheme. Her death was merely part of history correcting itself.

>Everybody loses in the end
Sort of the point.