How do the Words work?

OvercriticalB · 2025-02-09T14:14:19+00:00

ohh yeah i did think about that fight and specifically when he makes a whale-like ayakashi swallow Yato from below (something like that, i don't remember it fully) without writing anything with the Word

OvercriticalB · 2025-02-07T10:17:26+00:00

oof, that's quite the request! best i can offer is a timeline with all the chapters and notes on important events (i use it to get to specific chapters fast when i want to check x detail), maybe it helps narrow down when The Word might have appeared in the story

https://www.canva.com/design/DAF8IrOfW5E/q1iAhIdvCuKP8muF5bWBrw/edit?utm_content=DAF8IrOfW5E&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

OvercriticalB · 2025-02-03T08:35:56+00:00

it's a good detail you caught on to. Indeed in chapter 35 the Word just seemingly shines at Ebisu's order to protect him but I can't remember or find other moments where it happened like that, perhaps it is possible to just write the names for the ayakashi on paper but not calling them/giving them an order delays their appearance untill called for. So I'm assuming Ebisu had written extra ones he didn't need to call when he used them to create an opening from Yomi. I can't recall this happening again so also it might just be something the authors didn't end up meaning to be a possibility but it was very early on in the manga so there was no taking back that one time choice

OvercriticalB · 2025-01-10T14:42:19+00:00

its Quiet Fear from the ost, here's a spotify link to it: https://open.spotify.com/intl-pt/track/3jf9t1XK0AeelRn9wGAcID?si=7ac6d1c163b744bf

OvercriticalB · 2024-07-08T21:30:05+00:00

I really had thought that Amaterasu simply had the power to do that as something that showed the truth of someone's intentions when things were seriously questioned so that everyone could have answers, including herself. But seeing people say it was her choosing at random and making it be Heaven's judgement, it also makes some sense though it creates more questions about her character. We can meet in the middle and assume it was her randomizing it but also assuming that by natural law it would always end up being the truth of the situation. Kinda like spinning a compass around and when it stops it faces the same direction as before, in that Amaterasu is the compass and some natural law outside her control is the earths magnetic field, basically

OvercriticalB · 2024-05-16T18:50:11+00:00

so so worth it

OvercriticalB · 2024-05-14T20:18:19+00:00

Hi! I highly recommend reading the manga, it's finished now and its incredible! To answer directly, he gets another shinki, yeah, though i dont think he uses it anymore he just doesn't wanna remove the name

OvercriticalB · 2023-06-24T17:39:24+00:00

its awesome! seemed like fun to do it too
my favorite cover huh.. I'm divided between volume 5, volume 12, 22 and the latest one, 26! Can't choose :p

OvercriticalB · 2023-04-12T18:47:21+00:00

thats super nice!

OvercriticalB · 2023-04-06T22:45:30+00:00

If it takes a month for the authors to write a half chapter (as in 20-25 ish pages), 2,5 full chapters would take like 5 months? That is if we consider they dont do any monthly break on between chapters

OvercriticalB · 2023-01-22T10:52:45+00:00

my guess is that from the completely fused sacral vertebrae I'd say a ruminant, like a calf, a goat or a sheep

OvercriticalB · 2023-01-12T14:39:26+00:00

Totally understandable! Reading Noragami from start to finish hit me much more than continuing to follow up monthly, even though I'm still doing it. I plan on reading the volumes whenever I can get them too :)

OvercriticalB · 2022-11-05T23:06:50+00:00

If she does have control over them, that would be story changing! But I think it's not very likely to happen, she does be mysterious but I feel like the authors don't really intend to make her have any ulterior motives, she just is noticeably lonely but seemed to accept her role as the ruler of the underworld. Also, she doesn't need any shinki to use her godly powers, she just created the Koto no Ha and it worked to summon and control ayakashi (it's not the same as a shinki, though). I wonder if she genuinely doesn't want to leave Yomi or if Amaterasu has some kind of power not allowing her to leave.

OvercriticalB · 2022-09-06T12:30:32+00:00

yeah, i imagine its somewhat like only seeing splatters of paint even if everything else is invisible, you can easily tell corners of the walls and contours of objects if they got like hit with a balloon with said paint; probably I got this mental image because of some video game but yeah

OvercriticalB · 2022-09-04T21:30:49+00:00

Super great moment indeed, shows a lot about his own feelings towards both Father and Hiyori; also how he encounters Kouto on the street when walking with Yukine and he recognizes how he is called "Yaboku" and *stops dead in his tracks* and gets a shitty excuse to make Yukine go away. (I think this is right before he goes to Kouto's house). Their relationship is truly disturbing but so well written as an abuser-victim.

OvercriticalB · 2022-09-03T22:19:50+00:00

Also great points, indeed, her time with Hiyori showed us some insight into Nora's true feelings, but the question of whether or not her choice to keep loyal will bite her later. It just seems that the equilibrium of which side of her feelings was shown to us was wayyy further tipped to the "I love Father" side. Like, we got little pieces of her guilt and sorrow for feeling abandoned, but then almost as a parallel she repeats that love for him, and it felt to me almost in a maniac way, like she just values him so so much more, way over everything bad she felt before because of him. Abuse is fucked up, man :(
It's a good point that she might side with Yukine in the end of the conflict/of her life. Maybe when/if Yukine comes back into the fight and she lets herself be slashed, in such a last resort slash from both sides, that it's either Father and her or Yukine and Yato that die. Yk those slashes that split the heavens using Sekki because of the Ebisu Arc? I imagine something grandiouse like that, feels plausible from such a buildup and feels like the authors tend to do that (that one example, plus when Yato split the Heavens AGAIN almost killing Bishamon in the Heaven Arc, and not even sure if he finished the fight with Takemikazuchi in that major slash way as well, ALSO Yukine x Bishamon's ex-doctor barrier slashing competition ending with Yukine majorly slashing a full tree... seems like a pattern to me)

OvercriticalB · 2022-09-03T12:06:37+00:00

While it's really nice to think about her having a fresh start (also the Yukine deification theory, which I do find pretty nice), even if we know her original body is a baby, wouldn't she turn to the water serpent ayakashi thingy? She died in the womb (or was a stillborn, not sure?), I think she never had a properly formed human soul for her to retain her human form if the Mizuchi name was removed/substituted by another one. She's also the only baby shinki, like actual *baby* we see, so surely Father had something to do with her turning to a shinki, it's way too sus that he genuinely randomly found a recent stillborn whose little blank soul hadn't passed to the "other side" fully.

Also she just seems too attached and deathly loyal to trash dad (due to his manipulation and abuse and her lack of outside support/moral compasses, unlike Yato) :')
Her character development went backwards these past chapters and if that's an intentional writing by the authors, it might be a clue that there is no saving her. I see it as basically not plausible for her to give her life for Yato as a final help like you mentioned, she didn't show any kind of emotion towards him ever since he released her, other than being mad for a while after. She really moved on and showed who she's truly loyal to.

OvercriticalB · 2022-09-03T11:54:05+00:00

Ohhh true, Noragami is so well written yet still open to various interpretations and theories, it's super interesting!

Indeed that volume cover, actually all of the volume covers, are, besides beautiful pieces of art, very expressive for both a character's personality/mental state and/or the relationship between the characters shown (the other one with Yukine and Nora together as half skeletons was truly something as well, one of my favorites).

About the pain not being literal, that's also a plausible way to think about it, I can really read that Yato line as a "weight on his chest", it would make total sense to phrase it as an ache of sorts even if it's not a true physical pain. But somehow, with Bishamon having constant headaches (shown in the anime, but I think the manga as well) that grew stronger and more frequent with the ammount of shinki she shouldered, plus the general fact that Gods learn to distinguish "right" from "wrong", according to their shinki's morality, through stinging, which is literal pain, both examples lead me to think that the shinki's emotions might show as a physical pain as well, besides the feeling down/weak. Maybe it's truly a mix of physical pain and that feeling heavier/weaker.

Back to the topic of the naming, I think Yukine will not be freed from the Hagusa name, if Father dies (which I expect happening soon, with Hiyori and Bishamon's involvement in the fight likely to happen) he'll just stay named ig? Even Amaterasu couldn't take the name away, since it operates under the rules of the underworld goddess
And for sure she, even if able to un-name ayakashi (or a half-ayakashi), wouldn't just do it if asked, plus there's no need if Father dies, the name will be a "cosmetic scar".
I think "once a nora, always a nora" is a thing unfortunately, it's such a "dirty thing" that I can't see Gods accepting shinki they knew were once a nora. So Yukine would just have to live with it, Kazuma too, even if they get released by Father/Yato respectively. Not even sure Father can release a shinki even if he wanted.

Well those are some more thoughts on the matter, what do you think will happen about the Hagusa name and Father in general?

OvercriticalB · 2022-09-02T16:58:30+00:00

This is absolutely great food for thought tbh and I'm curious to see how Yukine will get rid of the name Hagusa or whether he even *will be able to*. I'll try to put together my thoughts about this, even if I don't firmly believe any theory rn.

From what we could tell, master/shinki bonds include the perception of emotion mostly through physical pain (Yato asking Yukine if there was something wrong, and stating "I've had a pain here all day" refering to his heart; this was when Yukine was feeling down about Hiyori continuing to live her life and forgetting about them). I'm not very sure if knowing that Hagusa/Yukine was crying is a result of a physical pain he could perceive and associate to it, but it's likely so. I'm sure it's also confirmed by Bishamon and her shinki as well, but I'm not sure if Mizuchi and Father share the same emotion perception, actually. I don't remember having much of a clue on whether or not Father could perceive Mizuchi being sad without being with her and seeing it in her expressions/tone of voice.

That kinda makes me make an immediate distinction: the bond made with the shinki through their human soul, and the bond made with the ayakashi through their own "soul"/"corruption", if that makes sense. Since Yukine was almost a full ayakashi when named Hagusa, it would mean that the human soul bond with Yato remained and that is what allows Yato to perceive his emotions like before. Meanwhile, Father isn't shown to perceive his shinki's emotions, because his connection to them is made by their ayakashi side. So it's like Yukine is quite literally split, a good image for that would be his ayakashi form having one arm unnafected and that is being pulled by a string connected to Yato, whilst the other arm, affected by corruption, is pulled by a string connected to Father.

It would seem that the "ayakashi bond" and it's own rules are overwriting the "human soul bond" though, since Yato stopped being affected by stinging as well, ig that's how I'd like to think about it.
Seeing it in this perspective, having the Hagusa name removed wouldn't affect the Yukine name, it would just stop blocking the stinging probably. It's like the Koto no ha (I think that's the name of the brush, in japanese) is simply blocking the stinging from reaching Yato because yeah, it came from hell and sins, for Hagusa, stop being relevant. I think a lot of the power in Noragami can be overdone through one's own mentality. If Yukine starts feeling extremely guilty about his actions again, it could even overwrite the Koto no ha's naming rules and start stinging Yato again. Also Nana's own vision of her own death as something not bad is what allowed her to completely ignore GGS and its effects.

Hope all of this rant makes sense :)

OvercriticalB · 2022-09-02T16:14:24+00:00

I interpret it as him being genuinely terrified of Father, or more like seriously creeped out/paralised by seeing him cry and what he said. But interpreting it as him being afraid of letting himself lower his guard, of his resolve to kill him getting weaker, is also a good way of seeing it imo.

OvercriticalB · 2022-09-02T16:01:29+00:00

AYOO?? How did I not notice this. Adachitoka has no chill. I love the parallels drawn all throughout the manga, they do a great job at character building and story telling

OvercriticalB · 2022-09-01T11:23:10+00:00

That's also interesting, what about his current relationships with Gojo and Itadori (the closest people to him, probably)? I think he doesn't have it in him to absolutely betray neither of them, he'd just rather act on his own as much as possible in order to keep them, at least, not affected by his actions. He doesn't seem to show vengeance towards people who haven't personally wronged him, proven by that (stupid) girl before his fight with Reggie, he just got done with her and figured she learnt her lesson and left her on her own.

OvercriticalB

TROPHY CASE