is a Japanese

manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is ...

series written and illustrated by

Adachitoka is the collective pen name used by female manga artists and . The former draws the foreground and characters, while the latter draws the backgrounds. The duo started out as an assistant to Motohiro Kato, before being put in charge of illustra ...

. It began serialization in

Kodansha is a Japanese privately-held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines ''Nakayoshi'', '' Afternoon'', '' Evening'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' ...

's ''

Monthly Shōnen Magazine is a monthly shōnen manga magazine published in Japan by Kodansha. It was launched in 1964 under the name . In 1969 it was retitled as and its publication frequency increased from quarterly to monthly. After suspension in 1974 it started pu ...

'' in December 2010. The series has been collected into twenty-five ''

tankōbon is the Japanese term for a book that is not part of an anthology or corpus. In modern Japanese, the term is most often used in reference to individual volumes of a manga series: most series first appear as individual chapters in a weekly or ...

'' volumes as of June 2022. A 12-episode

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

television series adaptation by Bones aired from January to March 2014. A 13-episode second season, titled ''Noragami Aragoto'', was broadcast from October 2015 to December 2015.

Plot

Hiyori Iki was a normal middle school student until she was involved in a bus accident while trying to protect a stranger. This incident causes her soul to frequently slip out of her body, and she becomes aware of the existence of two parallel worlds: the Near Shore, where regular humans and creatures reside, and the Far Shore, where phantoms (demonic beasts) and human souls linger. Through her soul, she meets the strange, nameless

god In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...

without a shrine, Yato. Yato is determined to make a name for himself out there by accepting any wishes for 5 yen coins , including Hiyori's to fix her body. Along with Yato's Regalia — a weapon from a spirit (dead human’s soul), and named by the god in question — Yukine/Yuki, the trio go through many adventures struggling with their friendship, identity, and pasts.

Media

Manga

''Noragami'' is written and illustrated by

. The series premiered in

's ''

'' January 2011 issue, released on December 6, 2010, and has been compiled into twenty-five ''

'' volumes between July 15, 2011 and June 16, 2022. The ninth volume was released simultaneously with a limited edition, bundled with a drama CD. Volumes 10 and 11 were released simultaneously with limited editions, each containing an

episode on DVD. Extra chapters of the series have been published in the spin-off publication, ''Monthly Shōnen Magazine +'' since 2011. In November 15, 2013, the first seven chapters were compiled into one volume under the title . Several other chapters were bundled as add-on content to volume 20, released on February 15, 2019. Both the main series and spin-off series have been licensed in North America by Kodansha USA, under the title ''Noragami: Stray God'' and ''Noragami: Stray Stories'' respectively. The first volume of ''Noragami: Stray God'' was released on September 2, 2014, with twenty-four volumes released as of July 5, 2022. The first volume of ''Noragami: Stray Stories'' was released in December 2015. The second volume of ''Stray Stories'', which comes with the special edition of volume 20, has not yet been released in English, and there are currently no announcements of a planned future release.

Anime

The ''Noragami'' television series adaptation is produced by Bones and directed by Kotaro Tamura with character designs by

Toshihiro Kawamoto is a Japanese animator. He is co-founder and director of the anime studio Bones. He was character designer and animation director of '' Cowboy Bebop''. Biography Early period Upon graduating from high school, Kawamoto was first employed in the ...

. Prior to the series' television premiere, its first episode was screened at 2013's

Anime Festival Asia C3AFA, also known as Anime Festival Asia (AFA), is a series of anime conventions held in the Southeast Asian region, with a core annual convention held in Singapore. The main convention is traditionally held over a weekend in late November to ea ...

on November 10, 2013. The anime began airing in Japan on January 5, 2014, on

Tokyo MX JOMX-DTV, branded as Tokyo MX (officially stylized as TOKYO MX), is an independent television station in Tokyo, Japan, owned by the . It is the only television station that exclusively serves the city. It competes with Nippon TV, TV Asahi, NH ...

and later on MBS, BS11 and TVA, running for 12 episodes. Besides the television series, two additional episodes were released on DVDs bundled with limited editions of the 10th and 11th manga volumes, published February 17 and July 17, 2014. The opening theme song is , performed by Hello Sleepwalkers. The ending theme song is with composition by

Supercell A supercell is a thunderstorm characterized by the presence of a mesocyclone: a deep, persistently rotating updraft. Due to this, these storms are sometimes referred to as rotating thunderstorms. Of the four classifications of thunderstorms ( ...

and performed by Tia.

Funimation Crunchyroll, LLC, previously known as Funimation from 1994 to 2022, is an American entertainment company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony as a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex that specializes ...

licensed the anime for streaming in North America. Following Sony's acquisition of Crunchyroll, the series was moved to Crunchyroll.

Madman Entertainment Madman Entertainment Pty. Ltd., also known as Madman Films, is an Australian distribution and rights management company headquartered in East Melbourne, Victoria, specialising in feature films, documentaries and television series across theatr ...

licensed the anime for distribution in Australia and New Zealand. A second season, , aired for 13 episodes from October 2, 2015 to December 25, 2015. The opening theme song is by

The Oral Cigarettes , stylized as THE ORAL CIGARETTES is a four-member Japanese alternative rock band from Nara Prefecture, formed in July 2010. The band signed to A-Sketch in 2012 and have currently released five studio albums, two independent albums, one demo albu ...

, and the ending theme song is by Tia.

Game

mobile game A mobile game, or smartphone game, is a video game that is typically played on a mobile phone. The term also refers to all games that are played on any portable device, including from mobile phone ( feature phone or smartphone), tablet, PDA to ...

titled ''Noragami ~Kami to Enishi~'' (lit. "Noragami ~Gods and Fate~") was released by developer Sakura Soft for Android devices in October 2015. An iOS release became available on November 16, 2015.

Reception

Noragami was the 14th top selling manga series in Japan during the first half of 2014.

Notes

References

External links

* * * * * {{Bones (studio) 2014 anime television series debuts 2015 anime television series debuts Action anime and manga Anime series based on manga Bones (studio) Crunchyroll anime Kodansha manga Shinto in fiction Shinto kami in anime and manga Shōnen manga Supernatural anime and manga Tokyo MX original programming Urban fantasy anime and manga Yōkai in anime and manga