i will start out this review my being fully transparent: this is another rewatch rather than a first time watch, and this has already been my favorite anime that i've ever seen for a decade now. funnily enough, i don't like bakemonogatari (or any of it's related spin-offs), but nisin really outdid himself with this one.
"The ones who failed at revenge, the ones who failed at their goals, the ones who fell before achieving their aspirations, the ones who didn't succeed..."
i watched this for the first time in 2016, another time in 2020, and then now a third time in 2026. i loved it every single time, i could tell each time that it was something special. it might just be the fact that each episode is an hour long with never-ending dialogue, so i was bound to miss something, but i felt with each rewatch that i could better understand the underlying point.
what can i even say without spilling everything? katanagatari is fantastic. i won't lie, though, i couldn't fully appreciate it the first time around watching it. it's a historical anime that follows political conflict, but all my 16 year old mind could comprehend was "woaaaaah. cool sword fights". even just from that standpoint, it's still very entertaining, but it's difficult to understand and appreciate the final couple episodes if you cannot understand the deeper message and conflict going on. you'll be pretty confused with the ending just as i was when i was 16.
to put the main conflict as simply as possible: 12 swords were forged in order to cause so much in-fighting in Japan that they wouldn't be able to have country-shattering conflict with the west. these swords were forged by a man who had visions of Japan crumbling in the future, and he thought forging the swords was the only way to save it (some people speculate WW2 may have been what the author was referencing here). minor spoiler: i always adored that the swords were forged from visions of the future, it's why one of the 'swords' is a gun despite the time period being too old for guns.
my favorite episodes are definitely 12 > 2 > 11. i really feel the need to gush over the second swordsman (Ginkaku Uneri) from episode 2. on my first watch, i had a massive crush on him - lol.
SPOILER: GINKAKU UNERI
i found Ginkaku's cause to be incredibly noble - defending his hometown that's slowly fading away into obscurity, feeling like he needs to die to protect it in order to please his ancestors - even though he's the only person remaining. he even pleads for his town to be restored to it's former glory before he dies - though he knows it's futile. to be honest, i'm just some American chick without any family to honor, but even i felt moved by his reasoning. the way he speaks and conducts himself is very righteous. he even lets the two main characters go free after their first fight - he is not callous, he does not kill anyone who isn't a threat to him. he's also my favorite swordsman because, frankly, he's just handsome.
on that note, the designs in katanagatari are some of my favorites of any anime. everyone's designs are incredibly fitting to their character, and the style has a very traditional and handpainted feel. i love how the use of florals in all the designs seems to mirror the floral names of Kyotōryū (lily, dandelion, etc). i'm sure there's an even deeper meaning behind the designs than someone like me who can only look surface level can probe.
Togame's scheming eye is a cool little design choice, too. her eyes are red, but they make it clear early on that one of her eyes turn blue and bears a cross when she's 'scheming'.
SPOILER: TOGAME'S EYES
i always looked at the cross in togame's eye to be reminiscent of christ. i mean, hell, she gained the cross on her eye after witnessing her father sacrifice himself for her. his final words were ones of praise and love to her. it's ironic that she spends her entire life focused on revenge, when really her father would have absolutely urged her to follow a path of forgiveness. to live her life for herself, and to live it nobly. it wasn't until the second rewatch that i truly understood this for Togame - that her inability to drop her objectives and grudges led to her demise. on this third rewatch i felt that she truly got the message to change her ways in episode 10 with the holy man. i felt like the holyman was god himself coming down to her to say "either turn back now and dedicate your life to the man you love, or throw it away for pointless revenge". i really feel like if she could've let go, that her scheming eye would've gone away entirely. she quite literally 'bears the cross' of her father's death.
the series also has "ninjas", those who are motivated by the overarching political conflict for either power or money. purely selfish reasons. it might go without saying, but the 12 swords are incredibly valuable and lucrative.
SPOILER: THE NINJAS
funnily enough, i overlooked this on my first two watches: the ninjas also meet their demise because of their desire for revenge (and of course, their selfish motives as well). to me the clearest example of this is episode 4 where the 3 friends infiltrate shichika's island in order to kidnap his sister. they go in one by one to meet their demise - to avenge the one before them, but overall because they wish to avenge the ninja who died in the first episode. i truly think that first ninja dying set up a domino effect of revenge for their squad. it's even more obvious in episode 6 where kyoken sets out to kill the main characters purely for revenge and nothing else. there was no other motive for her, and her emotions got both her and one of her friends killed. when i think about it - EVERYBODY who dies in the entire series basically meets their demise either due to selfish ties to money/legacy or revenge.
lastly: even though it's not a romance anime, the chemistry between togame and shichika throughout the anime is one of my absolute favorites of any series. to see shichika slowly transform from a mindless weapon on a desolate island into a human capable of love and empathy, it seriously moved me - even at 16 when i hadn't experienced my first love yet. in addition to that, they honestly just didn't irritate me as most anime couples do (or whatever those two are, lol). i tend to really get annoyed with most romances in anime due to irritating miscommunications or the lack of build-up to the romance (for me, most feel much too sudden or forced). their romance is very, very slowly built up from essentially nothing (and underlying animosity).
SPOILER: THE FINALE
i both adored to death and was crushed by how it took dying for togame to fully realize her love for shichika. it was the first time she realized how incredibly selfish she was being, and how she had essentially wasted her life for nothing. it's debated whether she would have betrayed shichika later on or not, but personally i don't think she would have. i think she just needed some more time to let go of her revenge - but unfortunately, when you're nearing the end of the most important political conflict in the series, you don't have the luxury of time. she drops many hints throughout the series about finding the conflict to be a hassle, about not wanting to die without experiencing marriage and a family, and about not wanting her life to all be for naught. i felt that episode 10 (when she learned that her father's final words were of love) was the push she needed to finally begin to overlook who shichika really was to her (the descendant of the man who killed her father). i know it would've no doubt been hard to let that go, to feel like she's betraying her ancestors and her father who was decapitated infront of her, but i just personally believe that she would have done it eventually. perhaps thats the romantic in me speaking.
also...i won't lie, shichika forgiving princess hitei was pretty unsatisfying the first time around. i understand it now - "revenge is pointless" and he would've thrown off history yet again, probably - but still. you're already committing so much carnage in the 12th episode and you won't chop off the head of the lady who ordered your lover to die? better than me, that's for sure.
all in all, the anime is amazing. it's not something i recommend to a non-anime fan, but rather something i recommend to someone who wants a more niche anime to watch - something that's different and that will move you with each episode. personally, it is my favorite anime and it will likely stay that way.