Noragami: Stray God Volume 1

“If God lived on earth, people would break his windows.” – Jewish proverb 

This supernatural manga first released in 2011 has proved to be popular rather quickly. It had an anime adaptation earlier in 2014 which is understandable as it is a pretty amusing read.

Noragami’s lead character is Yato, who as job titles go has a pretty simple one: he’s a god. The problem is that no-one worships him. For that matter, he doesn’t even have his own shine for anyone to worship at in the first place. In order to get around this, he has become an almighty odd-job man. If you ring him up he will carry out any job for 5 yen. Once he has earned enough money, he will use it to build his shrine.

Later on we meet Hiyori Iki, a schoolgirl who is also a big wrestling fan, despite her mother wanting her to take up more ladylike pursuits. One day Hiyori spots Yato chasing a missing cat across a busy road. He is nearly run over, but Hiyori pushes him out of the way and gets hit instead. The accident and her contact with Yato leads to Hiyori being stuck between the “Near Shore” of the land of the living, and the “Far Shore” of the land of the dead. As a result she can see despair-spreading monsters called “Ayakashi” in what in most humans is a blind spot. Hiyori also now constantly collapses, with her spirit leaving her body. Her spirit looks normal except she also has a cat tail that connects her spirit to her physical form. If the tail ever gets cut, Hiyori will die. Hiyori decides to become friends with Yato, while he continues towards his ambitious dream of being the most worshipped god of all.

This opening manga is rather short at three chapters, but already there are plenty of things to like. The art is good for starters. Both the characters and the background work well together. The quality of the work is evidenced by the relationship between the two creators – Adachitoka is actually two people: character artist Adachi and background artist Tokashiki.

The comedy in Noragami is also a plus. The two central characters are very amusing: Yato because of his ambitions and attitude; Hiyori because of her more violent side and her confusion about her new situation. The minor character are also funny. The main ones are the “shinki”, the divine weapons the gods use to tackle the Ayakashi. At the start of the book Yato has one called Tomone, but she quits at the end of the first chapter because she hates him. At the end of the volume he has a new shinki that he names Yukine and who is rather direct in his words. 

In terms of extras in this manga, there are a lot of translation notes. In fact there is one note that is an entire page long. Given how much this manga relates to Japanese folklore there needs to be plenty of explanation.

The opening volume of Noragami is fun, so given the reception it has had in the past, the rest of the series should also be entertaining.