Kamisama Kiss 2

Julietta Suzuki – Viz – 2011 – 8+ volumes

All right.  This is really awesome.  It’s adorable and romantic and dramatic without being too heavy or emotional.  I’ve got some of the same problems here as I do in Yurara (the main character has more personality, but for as heavily as the story leans on her plights and perspectives, she’s still not quite clicking for me), but I like all the supernatural themes at play here, I love the crisis towards the middle of the book, I liked the new character, and I think Tomoe is a wonderful wildcard.

The first part of the book is about an idol enrolling in Nanami’s former school.  This idol has black feathery wings and is named Tengu-something-something, which was all I needed to know to figure out he was a demon that was likely after Nanami’s kami powers.  Tomoe keeps a steady watch over her, despite the fact she disobeys him by going to school in the first place, then taking off the scarf that covers her kami powers.  But watching cold Tomoe dote on Nanami is really cute, especially since neither seem particularly fond of one another yet.  And I love the way the Tengu is dealt with.  He’s kind of a goofy, flashy guy, and while he seems to have it in for Nanami in a more sinister and less overt way than usual, I still liked watching him get dispatched by Tomoe.

No, I’m sorry, the new character’s name is Kurama, as in Kurama Tengu.  Close enough.

The second story deals with a real kamisama swooping in to take over Nanami’s shrine, which means stripping her of her kami powers, the ability to see spirits, her job as kami, and her house and purpose in life.  She’s left with Tomoe, who was turned into an infant by the kamisama, and the two of them try to figure out what to do from there, how to get the powers back… it could be a fairly standard story where the pair wins the power back by being sneaky, or by a sheer force of wills.  Instead, it is strangely sad, and focused more on the fact that Nanami literally has nothing in the world outside Tomoe and his shrine.  She does want to get her powers back and help Tomoe, but she has no means to do so, and that’s pretty much the beginning and end of it.  How can she fight a god?  She just can’t.  And I loved the hopelessness in the story.  It’s not overly dark or hopeless, but still.  It’s not something you often see.

I’m enjoying this quite a bit.  I like the stories, and I like their slightly offbeat execution.  And while Nanami is still taking some time to settle with me, I do like watching her work her way through the various problems here.  I also love watching the budding relationship between Tomoe and Nanami, if only because both are equally cold and devoid of affection.  I also liked that Kurama stuck around.  He is entertaining, but he also clearly has ulterior motives.  I want to see what he’s getting at, and I can’t wait to read more about Nanami’s difficulties in finding her new life and working things out with Tomoe.  It’s not overtly amazing, but I can see it’s taking its time to settle in and really tell a good story with good characters.  I like what I’ve seen so far.

This was a review copy provided by Viz.