A director Akitaro Daichi has directed “Fruits Basket” which was a classic manga of shojo manga magazine Hana to Yume. He directed other manga “Kamisama Kiss” from “Hana to Yume”again. So I was concerned about it.
A protagonist of this manga is a Japanese high school girl, Nanami Momozono. Nanami’s father disappears, so she is evicted from her house in payment for her daddy’s debts. At the beginning of the story, she is at a loss what to do. When Nanami is at a park, she helps a man (Mikage) who scares a dog. She talks him what happened to her, and Mikage says “I hand over my house to you.” Then he kisses on Nanami’s forehead and leaves. She only half believes but goes to the place where he told, there is a dilapidated shrine. There is a shinshi (messenger of God) named Tomoe, onibi warashi (will-o'-the-wisp yokai) named Onikiri and Kotetsu. She noticed that Mikage is the land god, and she is bestowed the responsibility of the land god. Then, Nanami starts the life with them and as the God.
I started “Kamisama Kiss” by anime first without original manga’s information, but I got involved and enjoyed with the story. Because of the opening, I felt like “Is this a warm fuzzy story anime?”, but Nanami is in the very unhappy situation and Vanilla Yamasaki’s comic chat like narration make the story less pathetic and go on lightly. Each character is hyper, but the story is typical shojo manga style at the same time… So I was happy and thought that this is the Hana to Yume manga style.
Nanami and Tomoe’s relationship changes from the God and shinshi to man and woman gradually. However, they are only aware of each other and don’t go on to the next step, so I couldn’t stop thinking how they are going to be! And Kurama… I thought he steps in between Nanami and Tomoe, and going to be Tomoe’s love rival. But his character has been changed like a comedian…lol The BGM of when he appears on anime is…a kind of penalty game?lol However, he is a good man. There is an episode which Nanami gets a cold and is absent from school, Tomoe changes himself into Nanami shape and goes to school instead of her. At school, Nanami (Tomoe) wiped out a yokai and is in a clutch situation but Kurama helps him. And, on the other episode, Kurama explains Tomoe and Mizuki (white snake, other Nanami’s shinshi) what goukon (a group blind date) is. Kurama’s seting is a popular idol, so he sings songs sometimes in anime. He takes over an ending theme in 10th episode. Blu-ray comes with a privilege CD; in that CD, Kurama, Tomoe, and Mizuki sing a song “Kamisama Help” by Checkers. But Tomoe sings songs in a low key, so Kurama sings in an octave higher than Tomoe. It’s perfect. You’re the man, Kurama!
Anyways, I like Tomoe. Firstly I thought he is cheeky but he isn’t, and he worries about Nanami because of trauma of Mikage left. Also he handles the job as a shinshi perfectly and has high ability to do domestic work. Tomoe does well in everything but about Nanami, he becomes clumsy… this typical Japanese shojo manga hero grabbed my heart. Plus, another good point about Tomoe is that Nanami is at a one-up position. He complains sometimes but cares about her all the time. He is just like a doggy (actually he is a fox, though), and this is one more good point. However, Tomoe was attracted to human but his feeling was unrequited in the past. When he met Mikage first, he has been on a rampage… About Tomoe’s past, it wasn’t told a lot in anime. So I’m waiting for that story. And in episode three, story of Numanohimemiko and Kotaro wasn’t described so much, so I wanted to know more about their relationship… And there are many other characters I want them to depict more in anime, so I’m looking forward to second season.
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/ Kurama Shinjirou / Mizuki / Momozono Nanami / Tomoe /
