want

(this isn’t a great meta, but it’s some ramblings i put together; the students are back and I’m drained but I loved this chapter and so wanted to talk about it!)

So the title of chapter 78 of Noragami is fittingly called “Want.” And in this chapter we see the three main ships this story is aiming for (Yatori, Kazubisha, Yukinora) all receiving focus. What everyone in this series wants is intimate connection with people, but this chapter highlights that there is no connection without pain, without breaking rules, and without risk.

Yukinora

Like Nora said last chapter, all she’s ever wanted is to be wanted. To have a family, but Father doesn’t love her–he uses her–and Yato doesn’t trust her.

She says it’s silly of them to behave like the living, but that’s what she does want. She wants to return to pretending to be an ordinary living family with Father and Yato, complete with cooking for each other and playing house with Yato. This want has driven her to extreme lengths to try to get it back, and it isn’t solely because of Father’s manipulation. It’s because she really, truly wants this as well.

When Nora tries to leave, Yukine tells her not to head into a situation that would be risky (talking to Ebisu). He puts on a bit of an overly enthusiastic act, but instead of annoying Nora, she seems to understand that he truly does care, and she give the first genuine smile we’ve seen from her in the series and agrees to eat with him, i.e. connects with him.

Nora and Yukine are both shinkis, and they’re both dead and want to be alive. Yukine’s developed so much from his starting place though: he is content with being dead, so long as he has people he loves around. He wants to show Nora the same kind of love and acceptance that Yato and Hiyori showed him, as it is what Nora’s been craving but has never had. But Yukine’s taking a risk in talking to Nora because she hasn’t exactly been trustworthy in the past, and it isn’t even entirely up to her since Father’s always been controlling her.

As for whether this is a trick or not, I don’t know (I think Father’s up to something but I don’t know if Nora is in on it; it’s more interesting to me if she isn’t) but I don’t think Nora’s smile here is faked, and I don’t think her misery is faked either. This is what she wants; it’s been obvious in her arc since the beginning. When Father will inevitably ask her to betray Yukine (even if he’s thrown her away, I’d bet anything he’ll do that at some point), she’ll have to choose between someone who gives her what she really wants, and the family of three she’s been desperately trying to get back. If she really wants to connect with Yukine, she’ll have to let go of trying to get back the past (with Father and Yato). Notice how the three acorns (family of three, as a friend pointed out to me last night) are behind her right now while she and Yukine (in a yin/yang design, no less) face the light.

In other words while Yukine is currently having the most positive development, he’s not out of the woods and obviously neither is Nora. Loving Nora and wanting to help her is good, but it comes with risks that he may not fully comprehend just yet.

Kazubisha

Kazuma is currently behaving pretty much just like Nora used to. It’s not a coincidence that he’s asking Yato to become a nora this chapter, something he previously stated he’d never do.

Kazuma’s always been a foil to Nora. Right now, he’s lashing out at Hiyori because he doesn’t want to feel alone. For him, he wants Hiyori to feel how he feels–being in love with someone whom he can’t believe loves him back–for Nora throughout… most of the story so far she’s been trying to get Yato to return and does so for the same reason she gets so many names: because she also doesn’t want to feel alone.

~~Kazuma, you loser. I love you. Get help.~~

He talks about pretending to be a family, and how the pretending isn’t enough. He wants everything, really, with Bisha, because he loves her. He wants a full committed relationship, a family they cannot have because she’s a goddess and he’s dead. The question for Kazuma is if he’s willing to take what he can have with Bisha, who does respect and care about him despite Kazuma not fully realizing it. Because to do that he’d have to get over himself.

The problem for Kazuma is that he idolizes Bishamon too much, refusing to truly see her and how she sees him because she’s a goddess and he feels extremely unworthy (hence the glasses: they’re symbolic. That’s why he takes them off when he starts to confess to Yato).

Yato and Kazuma are both currently paralleling each other too, in that they’re avoiding their love interests ostensibly to protect them, but also because neither of them feel worthy of them.

Yatori

Well, we finally had acknowledgement that Hiyori has feelings for Yato.

(it’s yin/yang toooo it even looks like the shape)^^

Kazuma seems to believe forcing Hiyori to face her feelings will sow the same sense of unworthiness and guilt in Hiyori, but I’m not sure it will work out that way. We’ll see. But currently Yato is the one being an edgelord and unable to face her, because Father is clearly going to go after her again in his quest to retain Yato. But avoiding her is only hurting her.

Either way, whether he’s with her or not, Hiyori gets hurt. The question is whether he’d rather be hurt with her, or hurt her by leaving her alone.

And Hiyori herself stays in denial because it’s easier for her that way, but now she can’t stay in denial anymore. (She’s risking her life and her family to find Yato.) Thanks for that, Kazuma, I guess? (Not.)

That’s where Kazuma is almost certainly wrong, and again this goes back to his idolization and his principles. Yato does care for Hiyori, and Bisha cares for him (okay he’s a shinki but a shinki is a dead human). Hiyori is able to see that (she tells him Bisha would want him home with her), but Kazuma cannot currently.

Daikoku/Kofuku

The opening of this chapter is super interesting in light of Kazuma’s statement and further proves that he’s really, really wrong, and his issues have to do with himself and his own self-hatred and not with some fact.

We know that a shinki and a goddess (of poverty, no less, who causes misfortunes wherever she goes) have the relationship of a married couple. It’s no coincidence that the chapter opens with them being domestic.

But we also know Kofuku and Daikoku’s relationship hasn’t come without pain. They can’t have kids because of what they are, and their attempt to adopt a child shinki hurt them both deeply. But they love each other and stay together, and Kofuku wants him to care for her if she reincarnates. In this way we know that Kazuma’s declarations are flat-out wrong.

What’s holding Kazuma back from a relationship with Bisha is himself. Same as it’s Yato for being with Hiyori. Yukinora seems to be doing the best currently, but we all know the shoe named Father is going to drop eventually since he was spying on them last chapter. It’s not what they are or what the people they love are, but rather their fears about themselves, and the chains those fears lash around them (cough, Father for Nora, cough). It’s fear keeping them from pursuing what they want and/or seeing what they truly want.

What do you see as the main themes of Noragami? And which characters do you think have (unjustifiably) not yet had an arc?

Hey! I think the importance and challenge of human connection, and the struggle to cope with and recover from abuse stand out as the main themes for me. I need to reread haha, but that’s what I’ll go with for now. Noragami has a very melancholy/lonely feel to it in some ways, but I think it’s surprisingly realistic in that way despite, you know, being a manga about mythological characters.

But what makes the characters grow and develop is their connections to others–Kazuma and Bishamon’s connection, Bishamon’s connections with her other shinkis, and in tragic contrast the lack of connection someone like Suzuha had in how he kept being forgotten left him open for attack, for example. And then there’s Yato, Yukine, and Hiyori’s connections and how the three of them really do grow and develop, and how for it helps them recover from their personal issues as well.

I think it also points to the dangers of having relationships that are about usefulness/utilitarianism in how shinkis are literally to be used, but characters like Bishamon and Yato care deeply about their shinkis as people, not about their use. This of course contrasts with Father, who only uses Mizuchi and may have just thrown her away as a result (temporarily most likely). But for Nora, the only way she can experience love and the connection she desperately, desperately craves (whereas Father on the other hand does not seem to crave this, preferring ideology over people, which is why I have hope for Nora and not for him) is through that idea of being used, because Father has only ever used her, so of course she tells herself it’s love, a genuine connection, because how else would she survive? But connection is about more than just what someone can do for you–it’s about seeing them as a person.

So, I stayed up all night reading Noragami, all sorts of things to talk about, but I’ll start with gut reactions: Nora you’re a heartbreaker, in all kinds of ways! First it’s “Oh NO, what did she do this time?!” then it’s “Oh NO, what did they do to /her/ this time?!” which becomes “Nora STOP you’re digging yourself deeper” and the Yukine’s Coat scene is “Nora? Did you maybe, just maybe, let someone in right there?” Yukine will be a smart boy here and understand her, right? No cruel bait/switch?

AHHH YESSSS AWESOME

I do think Father’s plotting something–he wants Yukine as his shinki and will probably get him at some point because drama, and it looks like he’s observing Nora and Yukine on that last page.

However, I don’t know that I think Nora is in on it–the mark on her arm does seem like a legitimate concern for Father that could motivate him to throw her away (and without Nora he might be in need of a good shinki). But Nora’s telling Yukine “I hate you” (which isn’t true) was clearly her lashing out emotionally, while literally and symbolically stripping herself and revealing who she is because everything she said is exactly what we all know about her character: she just wants to be wanted. I can’t think of what she would have to gain by insulting him and revealing that she was lying when she said she loved him, if her goal was to manipulate him into being kind to her in this moment.

Even if she does have some kind of messy intent it’s probably to try to get Father to take her back, but I genuinely lean towards thinking Nora is being legitimate here, but probably being played by Father (it’s not like he cares about her) who will probably swoop in to get Yukine eventually and be like “aww good girl Mizuchi you didn’t think I really threw you away, did you?” like the shitstain he is. But I have a lot of hope for Nora, because Yukine is giving her the care she craves.

So I just kinda dropped Noragami like years ago for no reason that I can remember, but I remember enough of what I read to remember I loved both Yukine and Nora (Nora did give me mixed feels tho). They felt Not So Different – both people who were used to clawing for survival, Nora by manipulating anything and anyone she could, Yukine by stealing anything not nailed down (wasn’t that Yukine’s vice?) Nora’s mixed feels were that I wanted to love her BUT she was just SO untrustworthy, it was hard.

Yep! They’re both children trying to make it despite the fact that they’re already dead. Nora is super untrustworthy, but in the latest chapter I really, really don’t think she’s lying in what she says to Yukine about what she wants (though I do think Father is playing them both). The only part I didn’t believe was when she told Yukine she hates him, which is clearly not true because she just ran to him for help. But she also has nothing to gain from telling him she hates him and admitting to him that she was lying when she kissed him earlier and told him she loved him, so that’s why I’m not thinking she’s in on whatever Father is scheming.

I haven’t really been paying attention to Nora until now, but the recent developments in the manga made me realize that she’s actually a really complex character. Do you have any thoughts on what her arc/redemption might look like from now on?

Nora is my fave. I love her.

So, yeah. Nora is really a very typical archetype of a character used in many types of stories–but the character is almost always male.
Kylo Ren, Loki, Shigaraki Tomura, the Zoldyck siblings, etc. An abused
child who just wants to be loved and needs someone to show her love, and
lashes out at others in a desperate attempt to get it because she
doesn’t understand love because no one has ever shown it to her. She
views love as being used and using others, as being useful, and would do
anything for that. I mean, that’s our introduction to her: begging Yato to use her.

Whether or not Fujisaki is plotting something with
her (probably is because he’s the literal worst), Yukine showing her kindness in response to her lashing out
is, well, paralleling other love stories in the series, and
gives her something to think about at the very least. Hopefully,
anyways. Will it be so easy for her to go back to him if/when he does offer, if someone else is giving her what she really wants regardless of her being useful?

Like, Nora tells us here what she really wants, and I don’t think she’s lying about this; the stripping is a not so subtle symbol of her baring not just her body:

She wants to be wanted. She wants to be loved by someone. And despite being a nora no one has ever given her that. Fujisaki came the closest in terms of long-term reliability but in the end once she became a risk he was like “nah bye.”

Anyways. I do think her relationship with Yukine regardless of where it goes is of clearly important. I mean, again, their first meeting was this:

Nora’s been comparing herself to Yukine since the beginning, always insisting she was more worthwhile, but that was never the point.

Nora may possess resolve and experience Yukine doesn’t have, but Yukine possesses strength in another sense that Nora doesn’t have, and she knows this and has for awhile.

She knows, to some extent, that she can trust him, and while she calls him a fool for it it might also be something she should conisder learning from. Yukine has the opportunity to be like Sakura and later Hiyori were to Yato: show Nora she’s capable of change.

The whole discourse on Nora sounds like good victim/bad
victim and it’s really about policing abuse survivor’s responses to
abuse. Not that Nora’s response is okay because it isn’t–she’s done bad things–but it’s
certainly not unrealistic and it doesn’t make her less worthy of saving
than Yato was. She’s forever stuck as a child mentally, but like,
characters stuck like that can change as we’ve seen with Yukine. And if
people are going to hold her accountable for her actions then that
implies they think she can fully understand her actions enough to be
held accountable–and if that’s true, she can also change. Whether or not she does change, she absolutely can.

A lot of thoughts on Hiiro/Nora

echodrops:

AKA: Please stop hating.

People started a really cool discussion of Hiiro after my last Noragami post, so I wanted to share some of the stuff I’ve been thinking about her. (For anyone wondering where the post about Yukine is, I’m working on that too!) This post is a continuation of my previous Noragami rambling, so reading that first will probably make a lot of things here make more sense.

Spoilers to 61, watch out. And please mind the trigger warnings in the tags.

It’s very long again, sorry. XD

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