First season God Yato had a bad time. He did not have his own temple, nor any admirers. In addition, he left (or rather left) his sacred tool. Yato was willing to do anything to get people's attention and respect - even to look for missing cats. Thanks to this search, he meets Hiyori, an ordinary girl who tries to save him from the... bus, but as a result she gets injured. Yato saves Hiyori, but now her soul is not as firmly attached to the body as most people, and she becomes closer to the spirit world.
For the first time, I glimpsed the annotation, postponed watching this series. I thought it was just another vanilla mystique like xxxHolic or Monster Stories — things in themselves aren’t bad, but more for girls. And only recently, noticing in the list of genres “fighter”, grabbed his head – and after all, an interesting thing I miss. And the “homeless god” did not deceive expectations.
However, still, the main advantage of the series are not cool fighting scenes and a fascinating plot - although all this is available. The Homeless God is powerful, first and foremost, as a drama. Perhaps I can hardly remember the anime series that caused such an emotional response, such empathy and sympathy for the characters - only "Wolf Rain", "Hergo Proxy" and "Elf Song" are remembered. All these 12 episodes I enjoyed, feared, hoped with Yato, Hiyori and Yukine. The homeless god and his friends turned out to be really alive and real, with complex and contradictory characters. This is all the more surprising that before the viewer, in fact, fictional creatures in absolutely incredible situations - a boy god who lived for many centuries; a teenager who died and resurrected as a sacred tool; a schoolgirl who became half a ghost and even more exotic creatures. However, they are perfectly plausible. Moreover, in their strange problems, we can easily recognize our own. Let sins and spiritual contradictions do not eat us physically as supernatural beings, but the pain of misunderstanding, the painful search for our place in life, loneliness, angry discontent with our fate – all this is familiar and people.
But rather serious.
Homeless God is also a great comedy. The cheerful adventurer-loser Yato makes a great comic pair with constantly over-the-year serious Yukine. Add fun short episodes from Hiyori’s school life. And the goddess of failure Kofuku and her stern companion-sacred tool Daikoku – this strange couple should be seen!
At times, the “homeless god” can catch up with horror. Some encounters with ghosts are arranged very atmospheric, so that it cuts through the skin of frost. This is the very “mystical Japan” that I so often look for and rarely find in anime in the genres of proud fantasy, mysticism and horror. However, the “dark side” of national mythology is not too elaborate, and ghosts “sin” monotony. After all, this series is primarily about gods, sacred tools, their relationships and strange life.
The first season is divided into two arches - in the first Yato acquires a new sacred tool - Yukine, and is engaged in a difficult business - the education of a new "colleague". In the second Yato encounters a very unpleasant “guest from the past.” In the first story there are more emotions, in the second - action, but, in general, they are quite equivalent. And I highly recommend watching the bonus series-OVA - if in the series you lacked humor and fan service, then you will get it with abundance. But this is not a stupid parody, but separate, very funny stories from the lives of the characters that allow them to see sometimes from an unexpected side.
Result: The first season is great. Homeless God is battle and friendship, humor and philosophy, mysticism and plausibility. In short, most of what I love about anime. 9 out of 10
Original