Noragami ノラガミ
The Delivery God Yato heard your wish! It will cost you 5 yen though...
Noragami is a manga series created by Adachitoka, it was first published in 2010 and it is still ongoing; Noragami, as many other mangas had it's anime adaptation, this adaptation finished airing it's first season in March 2014. The anime adaptation takes some turns and it's a little bit different from the manga though, but both anime and manga are really good.
The story starts with a guy dressed in a jersey who grants the wish of a bullied girl in a japanese school, he kills, with help of his shinki Tomone, the ayakashi that continuously haunt the school. Ayakashi or Phantoms are born from the darkness in people's hearts, they feed on their greed and eventually they corrupt them and lead them to do terrible things and eventually kill themselves. Ayakashi can only be expelled and killed by gods.
Yato, he claims that he is a god...but god of what?
After killing the ayakashi, Tomone resigns to her job with Yato and leaves him without a weapon. Shinkis are the souls of dead humans that haven't been corrupted; they can serve the gods as a weapon once the gods give them a name.
Yato is left without a shinki and therefore without protection. Yato suddenly gets a job which is finding a cat named "My lord", Yato leaves his number in a lot of places so he can get a job, his dream is to have his own shrine, he needs money to construct one; but only people who really need his help can see the number, he usually charges 5 yen per job.
This is where our story starts.
Hiyori Iki is walking with her friends after school and suddenly she sees that a guy rushing to reach a cat is going to be hit by a bus, so she rushes to help him, pushes him and therefore she is the one that gets hit by the bus. Since then their fates are intertwined and this incident causes her to transform into a half phantom, this means that her soul can leave her body.
She is Hiyori
After the incident Hiyori learns that Yato is a god and since then her life changes.
Of course nobody wants to believe him.
As the story evolves Hiyori asks Yato to fix her condition, since it is affecting her life; Yato says she will help her but he keeps putting her wish off, Hiyori gets to know more about Yato and they have some adventures together, in one occasion Yato saves Hiyori from an ayakashi, and that's how he finds his new shinki, Yukine, a 14 year old boy who died at a young age making him miss his normal life.
Shinkis have various names, their vessel name and their human name; Sekki is his vessel name and Yukine is his human name.
Yukine acts like any other normal teenager, but shinkis and gods are connected and since gods can do whatever they please shinkis are the ones that let them know what is morally right and wrong; when shinkis act in a bad way they stab their owners which lead them to pain and that's how the gods get to know what is right and wrong, however stabbing their master is considered a huge offense and if the shinkis aren't punished they could continue to harm their masters and blight them...
In the story other traditional Japanese gods appear like:
Kofuku who is the goddess of poverty and is one of Yato's friends, here we can see her with her shinki Daikoku.
Bishamonten or Vaisravana who is one of the most powerful goddesses of war, she is a sworn enemy of Yato for something he did a long time ago...Here we can see her with her shinkis, Kazuma and Kuraha
Ok by now you should be wondering why the show isn't named Yatogami (gami is the romanji form of god) if the show is about Yato, Why would it be named Noragami? Who is Nora? Nora stands for "stray" so basically the show is called "Stray god" Interesting name, isn't it? In the show there are shinkis who serve various masters, this is seen as something dreadful, this shinkis are called strays; Yato owns one but he never uses her and refuses to acknowledge her...Why?
Something interesting about the show is that the voice actor of Yato is the same actor that gives his voice to Levi from Attack on Titan (insert me fangirling here) and Yukine has the same voice actor as Eren; though in Noragami he doesn't scream that much.
I really recommend watching Noragami. Just watch it, you won't regret it.
Adorable babu Yato.
Will you join the Yatoism and become one of Yato's followers?
