Kamisama Hajimemashita, or Kamisama Kiss is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Julietta Suzuki and serialized by Hakusensha in the shoujo manga magazine called ‘Hana to Yume.’ An anime television series adaptation of Kamisama Kiss was produced by ‘TMS Entertainment’ and directed by Akitaro Daichi (Fruits Basket, Kaleido Star). It began airing on October 1, 2012. There are also two OVA episodes, which first aired on August 26, 2013, bundled with the 16th volume of the manga. One of the included episodes is based on the story from the 15th volume, while the other contains an all-new original story. The 17th issue ofHakusensha's Hana to Yume magazine announced on August 2014 that the manga series inspired a second anime season, which began airing on January 5, 2015.
Momozono Nanami is only 17 years old, but she has never felt lucky. She has quite an average academic progress and boys do not think that she is cute. She would love to fix her school problems and spare more time for the girls’ stuff, but she cannot do that, since her father is a big gambler, who always causes her daughter a ton of problems. Too bad, but her misfortune only continues: she is evicted from her apartment, because of her father’s debts.
However, Nanami does not curse her misfortune. One day, she saves a good-looking young man in a park from a huge phobia he has; he is afraid of dogs. After a small talk, the young man listens to Nanami’s problems and offers her to live at his place, which he abandoned 20 years ago. In addition to this, he also kisses her on the forehead to express his gratitude. It turns out that Nanami is invited to live in a God’s shrine and that the young man that kissed her actually passed her the mark of the area’s deity. The unfortunate girl is no longer unfortunate, but her life has not gotten any easier, too. She now should take care of her academic progress, as well as of her deity’s duties.
While Kamisama Kiss’ story-line does look generic, it still manages to show its uniqueness. The story-line does a great job explaining characters’ motives and their backstories, but the most important thing about it is, of course, the fact that it manages to keep the viewer interested. Kamikiss is a romantic comedy, however, sometimes it gets very dark and it also focuses on some philosophical topics. And after some time you will surely appreciate the fact that the creator of Kamikiss understands that watching a pure romantic comedy for two seasons is just boring and that she can also make you forget about the romance and to make you simply worry about the characters of Kamikiss. However, after 19 minutes of fear you hear the anime’s ending song and understand that it is all over.
The visuals are not great, but there is nothing to complain about. Backgrounds are often gorgeous and the anime also pays attention to many important details. Sound wise, it is quite difficult to say if this anime should be watched in English, or in Japanese; they both are good, so feel free to watch it in whatever language you wish. The anime has also a very calming OST; whenever you hear the anime’s ending, it just warms your heart.
Character wise, there are two main characters and also a big supporting characters cast. The first main character, she is voiced by Mimori Suzuko and Ballard Tia, is Nanami Momozono. She is a teenage girl, who is having quite a difficult life. She has quite an average academic progress and boys do not think that she is cute. She would love to fix her school problems and spare more time for the girls’ stuff, but she cannot do that, since her father is a big gambler, who always causes her daughter a ton of problems. Too bad, but her misfortune only continues: she is evicted from her apartment, because of her father’s debts. Thankfully, a young man listens to Nanami’s problems and offers her to live at his place, which he abandoned 20 years ago. In addition to this, he also kisses her on the forehead to express his gratitude. After some time, it turns out that Nanami is invited to live in a God’s shrine and that the young man that kissed her passed her the mark of the area’s deity, which changed her life a lot. The second main character is Tomoe, who is voiced by Tachibana Shinnosuke and Tatum John Michael. Tomoe is a fox yokai, who serves as the familiar of the land God Mikage. However, one day, Mikage leaves his shrine, leaving Tomoe alone. After 20 years, Mikage makes Nanami the new mistress of the shrine, and so it makes Tomoe her familiar now. At first, the fox youkai does not appreciate the fact that he now has a new master, who is just a schoolgirl and, of course, a human. However, because of something, he changes his opinion about Nanami and starts to care about her.
That being said, both main characters receive good character development. Though, you will only find out more about Tomoe in the second season; it is not that important. I guess you will surely appreciate the fact that both main characters change as the anime progresses. You will also like the fact that there is a huge supporting characters cast, which will not make you feel bored.
If you want to know my personal opinion on this anime, I would say that it is one of the best romance anime I have ever seen in my life. I am not a fan of that genre, and ‘ shoujo’ is definitely not my favorite genre. However, Kamikiss, somehow, won my interest. It manages to keep you interested, because it has a very misleading first episode, which will surely form a very wrong opinion on this anime. However, the more you watch it, the more you understand that this anime is not that simple. It tries to make you feel secure, but then it says ‘hey, you cannot feel relaxed yet, we have plenty of ways to make you worry about the characters.’
Overall, I cannot say that Kamisama Kiss is an absolute masterpiece. However, as a romance it did manage to keep me interested. I would not recommend this anime for someone, who does not like romance; just avoid this anime if you are not a fan of the genre. However, if you are a big sucker for a good romance anime, then you should definitively give this show a try; it will not disappoint you.