Kamisama Kiss Review in few words (Mini Review)
A girl gets kicked out of her home, just to find herself becoming the land god. Kamisama Kiss tells you how that girl faces the challenges imposed on her because of that. In a way that mixes supernatural, comedy, romance & a few good shoujo elements in one lovely package. I recommend any shoujo fan to watch it. People who are into romance-comedy are likely to like it as well.
Reasons Why You May Like Kamisama Kiss
- The opening & ending songs, which are very lovely.
- The relationship between Nanami & Tomoe.
- The comedy in it, specially when it comes to the interactions between the characters (Nanami & Tomoe in particular), and the narration as well, which adds to the comedy of the show.
- High amount of enjoyment & a good pacing.
Things you may not like about Kamisama Kiss
- In many places in the anime, Nanami gets rescued by Tomoe many times. While this can be a very good thing in shoujo, some people may not like this.
- Kamisama Kiss is only 13 episodes long, which is typical in anime nowadays, but it would be much better if there was 24 episodes or so, which would allow for the relationship between Nanami & Tomoe to develop much more. Fortunately, there is the manga & the second season to make up for that.
Note:- I have always like Shoujo. and while this is one of the reasons I obviously liked Kamisama Kiss, I will try my best to have an unbiased review about it, and I hope I do well with that :)
The Story
In order to avoid spoiling too much of Kamisama Kiss while reviewing it for you, I will mostly talk about the characters you will see at the beginning of the anime. And only enough to give you a good idea about it.
The story starts with Nanami Momozono, who finds herself kicked out of her home after her father, who is a gambling addict, escape and she gets evicted of her home. Desperate, and with no place to go, she wanders around until she finds a man escaping from a dog. After she saves him from it. The guy, whose named turns out to be Mikage, turns out to be the land god, and as a token of his appreciation, he makes her god instead of him by kissing her forehead. Why he did that? We don’t know for real~
While Nanami doesn’t exactly understands what it means to be a god at first, there is one good side to becoming one, she has a place to go back to, which is the Mikage’s shrine. Where she meets Tomoe, the guy’s familiar.
Just like the case in many Shoujo, where the sweet girl meet the guy, and the guy tends not to be in a good term with her. That’s how Nanami’s relation with Tomoe starts out. He treats Nanami coldly at first, and since she hasn’t made a contract with him, she has no command over him, but he warms up to her at the end. And from there Nanami’s journey as the land god begins.
Along her journey as the land god, she lives in Mikage Shrine (Or Nanami Shrine now), along with Tomoe & the two keepers of the shrine, Onikiri and Kotetsu, where she a bit by bit learns the topes about being a god, and meets many other otherworldly creatures at a later time. We will also see how her relationship with Tomoe develop & turn into romance.
Characters
Various characters of Kamisama Kiss
Since Kamisama kiss has a strong supernatural aspect of it, this makes a good room for many types of characters, there are human characters, yokai (the Japanese for spirits or ghosts), other gods & familiars of the otherworld. All the characters are presented in a comedic & lighthearted way, which is the nature of the anime in general.
Nanami Momozono
As I said before, Nanami used to be a normal girl until Mikage makes her the new land god. Even after she becomes a god, she still looks & act like a normal girl. But she gets to posses some powers as the story goes on.
Even as a god, Nanami Keeps going to school, and she keeps interacting with her friends there as usual. No one in her school knows that she became a god. Plots where the protagonist hides a secret from everyone they know can be appealing to many people, so this is a little plus for Kamisama Kiss in my opinion.
One for the good things I quite about Nanami is her sense of fashion, every now and then, and during the opening as well, you see Nanami with various outfits & hairstyles, and that makes her a little bit similar to Hinamuri Amu from Shugo Chara (Another very good Shoujo manga/anime), while this is not exactly a new thing to the shoujo genre. It is something that’s always welcome.
Besides her looks, Nanami makes many good expressions, she looks cute even when she is angry, or when she smiles cheerfully. To me, she is like Honda Toohru from Fruit Basket, but with more of Benio’s character from “Haikara-san ga Tooru”.
Tomoe
Tomoe is a spirit fox & familiar of the land god, Mikage, but since Mikage is no longer the land god after giving the title to Nanami, the contract between him & Tomoe is broken, and Tomoe become a free spirit again until Nanami form a contract with him again at a later time.
At the beginning of the anime, Nanami finds Tomoe at Mikage’s shrine, where he is waiting for Miage’s return, which doesn’t seem to be happening at anytime soon.
Like you would expect from the male protagonist in shoujo, Tomoe is a very good looking, dresses nicely in a Kimono all the time. And that makes him so easy to fall in love with, in case you know what I mean :)
During the story, Tomoe acts like Nanami’s “butler”, he protects her from any danger she faces, makes her food & does the laundry, he cares for her pretty much, and shows some emotions toward her at times, but tend to act kind of tsundere to hide that :)
Mikage
The former land god & master of Tomoe. Mikage seems to have a phobia of of dogs, in the first episode, Nanami rescue him from one, and in return, he kiss her forehead, which transfer his land god mark to Nanami, making her the new land god. The real reason why he did that is still unknown.
Onikiri and Kotetsu
Onikiri and Kotetsu are the servants & keeper spirits in Mikage Shrine, they help Nanami from the moment she arrives at the shrine, even before Tomoe. Onikiri and Kotetsu wear masks all the time, and we don’t know how their real faces look like.
Other characters are Kurama Shinjirou, the crow spirit & the popular pop star. Mizuki, the snake shikigami, and Otohiko, the wind god. Nanami will meet those and a few other in her journey as the land god.
The Art
If you have read Kamisama Kiss manga, you will notice a huge improvement in the art of the anime, which is simple yet looks very beautiful, though it is not really the most beautiful art you could see, it is satisfactory and does the job well. The way Nanami is drawn is particularly beautiful.
Pacing & Enjoyment
The pacing of Kamisama Kiss is good, you are unlikely to get so bored while you watch the show, but it is far from being perfect. The high level of enjoyment greatly covers for the pacing. In my opinion, if you didn’t like the anime after watching 3-4 episodes, then you are unlikely to wholy like it if you managed to watch it to the end.
Extra Few Things
One thing that worth noting about Kamisama kiss is how good the opening & ending are, especially the ending song. I found myself listening to them in almost every episode when I watched the anime. Something I only do when I rally like the song of the opening/ending.
Quotes from the Kamisama Kiss
- “No matter how strong you are, you can’t go through life all by yourself” – Nanami
- “As long as I can protect you, I will be content” – Tomoe
- “If you’re content with just saying that you’re in love, you might as well confess to a wall” – Tomoe
- “When you train your thoughts to dissolve as they arise, they will cross your mind like a bird crosses the sky-without leaving a trace” – Julietta Suzuki, author of Kamisama Kiss
And Finally
Kamisama Kiss is a very charming & lighhearted anime, with a good amount of comedy & romance here & there. You will definitely like it if you are into Shoujo or Romance Comedy. Or anything to do with spirits & supernatural theme. As long you don’t mind lighthearted shows.
I hope you liked my Kamisama Kiss review, and I hope to see you soon with other anime reviews.
Review Sources & Credit
Some character informations in the review were taken from Kamisama Hajimemashita Wikia.
