Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens

Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens (かんなぎ) is a 13 episode super natural romance series based on the manga of the same name by Takenashi Eri.  The series originally aired in the Fall of 2008.

    The story follows Mikuriya Jin, a self sufficient high school student. Jin joined the schools art club to find purpose in his life. In doing, so a fellow classmate, Daitetsu, gives him a portion of the local shrines sacred tree to use for an art festival. Daitetsu knew that Jin always liked going to the shrine as a child and took this opportunity to give him something nice from the soon to be demolished holy site. Jin lives alone in his family home. His father works away from home and leaves his lone son’s safety to his childhood friend Tsugumi. One day as he struggles to bring the carving he made to school it ends up breaking and a young girl who resembles the carving is in its place. The girl, calling herself Nagi, claims to be the resident god of the shrine and chooses to live with Jin, who has summoned her through the carving. Jin is dumbfounded but tentatively agrees to help the mysterious girl out. Once Nagi finds out that Jin is sensitive to the supernatural she enlists his help in banishing the impurities of the land. Jin tentatively agrees but once her existence can no longer be kept secret he scrambles to fabricate a lie about her identity. The first person to find her at his house, is Tsugumi, who is instantly suspicious and jealous due to her feelings for her childhood friend. Jin and Nagi convince her that they are long lost siblings and that she has been kicked out of her far off, posh house to live with her half brother.  Soon fighting impurities brings Nagi to Jin and Tsugumi’s school where she pretends to be a new student. With this opportunity she begins to build her power by getting people to worship her, in order to better fight the impurities. When Nagi’s sister, Zenge shows up, it becomes a sibling rivalry to amass the most followers. Jin now has to maintain his story about Nagi’s identity, help her fight impurities and fend off the unwanted advances from Zenge while trying to keep his relationship with Tsugumi intact. In the end the stress pushes him to his limits and he demands to understand the true nature of Nagi, her sister and their purpose.

 

    With this description you could formulate a couple of ideas about how this series rolls. At once you have the pathetic and over played mysterious magic girl coming from some odd beginnings to live with the hapless high school kid scenario. Then you have the magical being fighting the good fight with the help of the normal high school student. You also have the love triangle harem thing going on between all three main female characters. None of these definitions really tap into what this show is all about. Sure you have the non-human girl who comes from mysterious origins to live with the socially inept high school student who just so happens to live alone. Said supernatural girl does enlist the inept student into helping her with her supernatural duties. Yes there is some level of competition between the 3 main female characters for Jin’s attention. The series doesn’t linger on these ideas or even make them the main focus of the show.

 

    The best way to describe this series would be to call it a slice of life high school comedy fish out of water tale. Nagi, whose consciousness has been asleep for a while, at least a few decades, is unaccustomed to modern conveniences. She is quickly drawn to TV and convenience store food. The first thing she sees on TV is a magical girl anime, which instantly grabs her attention and she tries to use it as her identity for fighting impurities, right down to fashioning a magical wand and posing while purifying. The funniest example of her lack of modern knowledge is in the first time she answers a phone. Jin tells her not to answer the phone while he takes a bath. During his bath the phone rings and he runs out, naked, for fear of the consequences of a mysterious girl answering it. He finds her in the hallway staring at the receiver in her hand as his childhood friend is saying hello. He quickly grabs it and apologizes for the wait. To underscore her lack of understanding she questions what a the word phone even means.

 

    While Nagi’s mission is to fight the bug shaped impurities, she relies on Jin to pick them up so she can banish them, the act of hunting them and banishing them is a very minor part of the series. In about half of the episodes there are no impurities at all. They don’t even turn the purifying of them into a big ordeal, it’s just something they do, like hey look there’s one get it and I’ll whack it with my magical wand. Where the whole fighting impurities really comes into play is as a focal point for Jin questioning Nagi’s existence and the truth in her being a god. He questions why she fights them and what the purpose of doing so is.

 

 

    The harem aspect of the series is minimal at best. There is little in the terms of a sexual relationship between Nagi and Jin.  Nagi shows no interest in Jin other than using him as her assistant and house keeper.  Jin shows little in the way of sexual interest in her, aside from the idea of being with a girl all by himself in his pubescent ways. There is one episode that deals with his problems in Nagi working at a cosplay café.  Aside from that, it’s barely sexual in nature. The relationship with Tsugumi is one sided. They are childhood friends and she harbors deep and hidden platonic feelings for him. Her jealousy is held in check in front of Jin but manifests it’s self blatantly otherwise. She never confesses her feelings for him and mostly believes the story of Nagi and him being siblings. Zenge on the other hand is actively trying to seduce Jin, much to his horror. He finds her personality frightening and tries to fend off her aggressive tactics. Zenge’s true motives are never really explained but it seems she is more interested in stealing him from her sister than actually wanted him for himself. I always feared that the show would degrade into a harem story but the relationships between all of the characters never amounts to much more than what it was in the beginning.

 

    The story is good, not great, but enjoyable. The characters are odd, especially the members of the art club, which are social misfits and otaku. The head of the club is a tsundere lesbian and another member is nick named Akiba for obvious reasons. There was one particular episode that was painful and unnecessary. They spent the entire thing singing at a karaoke box. The episode did nothing aside from showing the battle between Zenge and Tsugumi for Jin’s attention. The episode where Nagi works at a cosplay café could also have been left out, but it did serve its purpose to build upon Jin’s feelings of wanting to protect Nagi as well as confusing everyone about his feelings for her, thus causing more tension. The funniest event is when Tsugumi accidentally thinks out loud that Jin may harbor homosexual feelings for Daitetsu, which becomes a wildfire of gossip in the school and even escalates to a 4 way bisexual struggle with Jin at the center.

  

    With all of its down falls, odd character designs and penchant for fan service shots, this series is actually enjoyable. It’s not the best in the world and nothing to get overly excited about, but it is still enjoyable none the less. With 13 episodes in total it is something nice to kick back and watch over a quiet weekend if you are in the mood for a moderately funny semi emotional story of adolescent friendship, mixed with a bit of supernatural flair and a blatant lack of adult supervision. While nothing new in any sense of the world the familiar themes of the series will be very comforting for fans of such titles as, Tona-Gura or Aa Megami-sama.

UPDATE: This series was licensed by Bandai and is available in North America.

2008 Year in Review

    2008 brought a small amount of enjoyable anime, a large field of mediocre titles and plenty of horrible and uninspiring titles, at least in my own opinions. As with each year end here is a run down of some of the series that caught my attention, good or bad that began their run in 2008.

Best titles;

Out of half of the titles I selected for best of the year, half are either continuations of current running titles or revisits on old franchises. Yet nothing really grabbed me like series found in past years with the exception of Itazura Na Kiss. There was nothing to compete with the powerful titles in recent years like Ergo Proxy, Noein, Welcome to the NHK, Heroic Age or Denno Coil.

Zoku Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei – With the Zetsubo Sensei franchise the second series, Zoku, was welcomed whole heartedly as a way for us to enjoy more insane comedy and cut throat social satire. Too bad there won’t be much is anything beyond the 2 episode OAV set.

Code Geass R2 – This follow up to the 2006/2007 series is the best thing that Clamp has done since the X movie. While the ‘realism’ become pretty far fetched compared to the original series and it seemed the reinvent its self continuously the series ended this venerable title well. The end to this series and anime is probably one of the best and most satisfying endings I have ever seen.

Soul Eater – This spunky and hip supernatural shonen adventure series creates some memorable characters while also making fun of its genre.

Casshern Sins – This revisit to the decades old Casshern franchise is beautiful and haunting while also paying homage to the classical animation style of the original. This series is better then anything else in this title and it would be cool to see them revisit the original story in this manor.

Nodame Cantabile Paris – Is a short lead in to the 3^rd season of this fun and comfortable music based romantic comedy.

Macross Frontier – 25 years after the launch of the SDF-1 this brand new full season TV show captures the spirit of Macross, both the amazing battles and the annoying pop idol singing. The series leads up to a disappointing ending but is so strong up until then that it is still enjoyable.

Itazura Na Kiss – This fast paced anime of an old romantic manga is warm and enjoyable, if too short lived. This series calls back to the old romantic comedy stylings of Maison Ikkoku and Kimagure Orange Road. It is a familiar friend and a welcome change of pace to the current blend of romances. This title is my pick for best anime of the year.

Chi’s Sweet Home – This 2 min per episode short about the daily live of a stray kitten is endearing, funny and sweet. Made primarily for young children it is easily enjoyable for anyone who loves or lives with cats.

Worst Title;

There were plenty of horrible titles that I viewed in part through out this year, much of which was due to a lack of knowledge on many of the shows airing this year.

Persona – Game based horror super natural anime usually tend to be pretty crappy, this one was dry and uninventive to say the least. Where the game franchise is entertaining and enjoyable this ill thought anime was lifeless and throw away.

 

Yatterman – Not all classic series from your childhood need to be revisited, as this sloppy semi obscene super hero title originally from the 70’s proves. I’d rather watch a few episodes of the American dubbed Samurai Pizza Cats…and for some reason Takashi Mikee is making a live action of this…then again he also made Zebraman.

 

Bus Gamer – If you like pouty, hard ass loner bi-shonen you will love this pile of almost boy love from the mind that brought us Saiyuki.

 

Kamen no Maid Guy – If it wasn’t for the obnoxious and stupid ecchi this series might be entertaining, but when the plot line of an episode revolves around the main characters bust line I have to drawn the line between mildly entertaining crap and fucking garbage.

 

Amatsuki – This semi shonen-ai series about 2 kids from the future who get sucked into the past ala Ayakashi Ayashi, seemed entertaining in the least until I realized it was nothing new and followed annoying and blatant historical shonen tendencies.

 

Golgo 13 – Remaking a horrible title from the archives of anime greatness does not make for quality material, especially when it revels in everything that was wrong about the original. I can understand why Golgo 13 is in the pantheon of the original anime in America, and I’m pretty sure this was made with Americans in mind. Yet this proves that you can’t always turn crap into gold, unlike the remakes of Vampire Hunter D.

 

Hidamari Sketch 360 – While this title isn’t bad, it annoyed the piss out of me and was too dry for my tastes. While I love a great 4 character female high school student comedy slice of life series, this one is too plain and flighty to get me to watch it. In fact I didn’t even watch this second season but added it to this list since I watched half of the first season.

 

Yozakura Quartet – There will never be a shortage of horrible supernatural shonen titles with animal eared bimbo’s…unfortunately.

 

Hokuto no Ken Rao Gaiden: Ten no Haoh (Fist of the North Star) – This revisit of the ages old shonen adventure series proves that people still don’t have taste as we once again visit the land of disproportioned muscle bound maniacs.

 

Akane Iro ni Somaru Saka – This anime based off of a semi popular erotic dating game once again proves that the only people who can enjoy these titles are the lone otaku who play the games they are based on.

 

Tales of the Abyss - This anime based off of a semi popular fantasy rpg once again proves that the only people who can enjoy these titles are the lone otaku who play the games they are based on.

 

Linebarrels of Iron – Is a cheap and stereotype filled attempt to reignite the shonen mecha flare that died out when Evangelion ended.

 

Kemeko Deluxe – This zany cyborg/mecha comedy might be entertaining to some degree if it wasn’t a shameless harem anime.

 

Skip Beat – Is an oddly drawn and super deform abusing shojo series that was entertaining until it turned to shonen trappings and caved in under the weight of its nonsensical foolishness and bi-shonen sparkle.

 

Macademi Wasshoi – This looks like it might have been a series to capture the energy and insanity of the venerable Dragon Half anime only to instead be a sad and perverted harem series filled with your worst case eroge examples; loli-con and incest.

 

Ga Rei Zero – This horrible series has no redeeming qualities, the only way anyone can enjoy this title is if they are venomous Michael Bay fans.

 

Tytania – Is a dry and poorly drawn swashbuckler styled space opera.

 

Ok titles;

With the large amount of horrible titles both viewed and unviewed and the miniscule amount of great titles, there were still plenty of shows out there to take up my precious time.

 

Minami-ke – okawari – is the follow up to the original Minami-ke slice of life comedy. Where the first series was great, this series; by a different company; was only ok. The new production crew changed the style of the original series to be more episodic instead of sketch based.

 

Mission e – This anticipated follow up to the cool futuristic high school romance from last year, Code E was disappointing at best when it became a skin tight power suit super hero anime.

 

Blade of the Immortal – While this manga is one of my all time favorite titles, the anime did little more than make it move, plus with the advent of it being only 13 or so episodes long; while the manga is still running; is also depressing in the least. It’s good, but could have been better.

 

Toradora – This nice high school romantic comedy has memorable characters a new twist to an old idea but still isn’t anything to cancel dates over.

 

Hyakko – The newest in an increasingly long line of 4 cute funny high school girl’s slice of life comedies is fun and enjoyable. There have been better titles, but this is a fun ride and the characters are all entertaining.

 

Kannagi – While it bordered on harem, this funny slice of life, fish out of water type supernatural comedy series was nice and homey. The characters are agreeable and they kept from falling into many obvious genre traps.

 

Gundam 00 2 – Where the original series was entertaining, this second season reminds me that it is just a revamp of Gundam Wing. Every other episode was filled with hatred (from me) and unbearable emo anger (from the script). The only thing keeping me viewing it are the other episodes filled with destruction.

 

Stitch – This Japanese Stitch story was good enough, but not anywhere near as entertaining as its American counterpart…they tried to hard to clone the original.

 

To Aru Majutsu no index – I don’t like fantasy anime, I don’t like anime with magic users. This futuristic fantasy magic anime is actually entertaining and mildly original. It is mature and serious in much of its plot devices but is still held back by the genres trappings and oddly dressed characters.

Refused to even watch;

While this list is actually longer than what is physically presented here, these are the memorable ones.

Yes Precure 5 Go Go – While this is one of the most popular anime on TV in Japan, I refuse to watch any Maho Shojo titles.

 

Tower of Druaga – While this is one of two series that began the great experiment to bring anime to English audiences at roughly the same time as the Japanese I still hate fantasy anime.

 

Slayers Revolution – Slayers ranks as one of my top hates in the world of anime.

 

Strike witches – A year after the teaser clip came out for this weird maho shojo military series I still refuse to watch it. I have this thing against magical girls with animal ears, even if they carry anti aircraft weapons.

 

Clannad After Story – Didn’t we just have a remake of this series last year?

 

Jigoku Shojo Mitsuganae - I have been a hater of this supernatural revenge series since the original incarnation. It needs to end.

 

Ef – tale of melodies – Didn’t we just have a remake of this series last year?

One Outs – After being tricked into watching all of Overdrive I refuse to get anywhere near a shonen sports series.

 

Vampire Knight – I have never been a fan the tortured yet beautiful vampire titles.

 

Birdy the Mighty Decode – This is just a vehicle for selling wonderfully detailed panty clad garage kits right? I mean people can’t seriously enjoy a frivolous super hero story right?

Need to watch;

On top of all of these there are a number of titles that I have watched little of and want to watch more or have not watched at all but want to watch.

Titles I need to watch more of - True Tears, Shigofumi, Kure-nai, Real Drive, Library War’s, Maho Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto: Natsu no Sora, Kuroshitsuji, Kurozuka, Chaos Head, Michiko to Hatchin, and Shikabane Hime.

Titles I have yet to watch but want to; Telepathy Shojo Ran, Natsume Yujin Cho, Aria, Gag Manga Biyori 3 and Moryo no Hako.

In conclusion this year kind of sucked for anime. 2009 isn’t looking much better based on the first blush. There are a few bright spots, such as the third Minami-ke series and the new Full Metal Alchemist series. Yet in a world were more and more titles, thankfully most I don’t want to watch, becoming easily available to the English speaking audience in legal venues at close to the same time they are available for Japanese audiences the world of the fansubbers is changing. 2009 will be an interesting year for the fansub community and I will have to find a new venue for Naruto Shippuuden in order to maintain my weekly viewing with a small group of friends. People will still sub for the reason that not everyone agrees with how the American companies translate things and I guarantee that Full Metal Alchemist will be hard to sub quietly.

Nodame Cantabile Paris Chapter

Nodame Cantabile Paris Chapter (のだめカンタービレ 巴里編) is an 11 episode follow up to the 2007 series Nodame Cantabile based on the manga of the same name by Ninomiya Tomoko.  The series originally aired during the Fall of 2008.

    The review of the original series can be found here.

     The Paris Chapter begins a bit after the end of the original series, Chiaki has overcome his fear of flying, with Nodame’s help, and both find them selves in Paris. Nodame has enrolled in a music conservatory in the city and Chiaki is planning on entering competitions to try and win the favor of his dream teacher, Franz von Stresemann. The couple, while admittedly in a relationship, are not officially together, at least not in the normal sense. They have adjoining rooms in Chiaki’s family estate in Paris, which is also a boarding house for other music students, yet Chiaki is still cold with Nodame. As this short series progresses we see Nodame struggling with the level of abilities found at the conservatory and she falls into a funk about her abilities. Chiaki on the other hand surprisingly wins a conductor contest and is forced into a contract with the company the evil Stresemann works for. At the same time Nodame and Chiaki’s relationship builds slowly and while it’s not to where Nodame wants it, Chiaki is more personal with her.

     This series was too short, which would be a detriment if there wasn’t going to be another series premiering in the next few months. The reason for the 11 episode series is unknown and a bit confusing. The series didn’t cover much in the way of story progression. It all seemed like build up for the next series, which will hopefully be longer. I was pleased when this series was announced, because I had enjoyed the original. While there is already a live action drama version of the series, I find the anime more entertaining. (Don’t get me wrong the drama is pretty good and well done). One thing I did miss were the zany side characters, of which are lacking in Paris. The side characters in this season seemed to be different sides of the same coin and I got confused as to who was who with a few of them. Part of this could be from the characters being based in reality, with normal hair colors and styles, making it hard to tell some of the characters from similar ethnic backgrounds apart from each other.

 

    Aside from there feelings it was a fun series to watch, as with the original it was fun to spend time with these lovable characters even if they didn’t do much. The series main focus seemed to be on Chiaki and his growing presence in the world of orchestra conducting. In the end we see his first successful concert with a ragtag Parisian orchestra.  And we see Nodame regain her confidence and make her own small impact on the European classical scene. The comedy was low key like it was in the original and the romance was low key as well, with one memorable moment were Nodame turns serious about her feelings and begins punishing Chiaki in Street Fighter fashion. One thing that stood out in this series was Nodame’s otaku tendencies. This might be deliberate in the writing to show that she is clinging more strongly to her national identity in a foreign land. It is also used as a way for her to more easily interact with some of the fellow students.

 

    All in all this series is worth viewing if you are a fan of the franchise, but it should mostly be viewed as a segue way into the next series, which will hopefully be more complete. There is a possibility that this series can also be used as an introduction into the story, as there are few references to the original series. For the most part you only need to know who Chiaki and Nodame are. Stresemann shows up rarely and after the first 2 episodes or so no one else from the original appears. They only touch lightly on Chiaki’s past problems and even less so on the events of the original series. The art style remains consistent with that of the original but there seems to be a lack of the orchestral suites played in part or whole as we found in the original series. Where the original took a lot of time showing the concerts this one only had a few moments. The CG generated hand movements of the orchestra members is also more noticeable in this series compared to the original. This may be due to less spending on that aspect than before, but it is more noticeable when they use motion capture effects to accurately portray the real use of the instruments, which is still cool that they take the time and consideration to show that.