Kamisama Kiss 3
Posted: July 14, 2011 Filed under: Kamisama Kiss 2 Comments »Julietta Suzuki – Viz – 2011 – 8+ volumes
I absolutely adored the first two volumes of this series, but it was so quiet and understated. The love was mostly for the characters and how well it was put together. I was hoping I would forget how much I liked it, so that I could save up a couple volumes and read them back to back. Mission successful, since volume 4 just arrived, and I fell in love all over again with this volume.
Again, this series is full of simple pleasures, but that’s what I love so much about it. It seems to be really good at taking fairly mundane stories, mostly about how Nanami is hung up on Tomoe. The first story covers jealousy, and how plain, human Nanami can’t hope to possibly compete with beautiful supernatural beings in Tomoe’s eyes, but he seems to prefer her anyway. The second story is about a new character, a white snake demon, that tries to steal Nanami away and keep her at his shrine, and how hard Tomoe tries to get her back. A third story is a silly one about Tomoe going to school disguised as Nanami, and how his aloof attitude affects her relationships with others (bonus points: as a Japanese deity, Tomoe has never seen the Latin alphabet and completely bombs Nanami’s English class). The last story is a little peek into Tomoe’s past, though we aren’t entirely privy to the circumstances.
The plots are simple, but varied enough and original that they never get boring or repetitive, and with Nanami as the deity at a shrine, honestly, they’re staying well away from well-trodden shoujo territory. But on the other hand, they aren’t so outlandish that this doesn’t fit comfortably in the genre. And it takes pleasure in the little moments. A small joke at the expense of very serious Tomoe. Kind words at just the right time. There is romance between Nanami and Tomoe, but it isn’t really the theme of the series just yet, and it’s brought up at just the right times that it stays tender and sweet.
And the new character, the white snake demon named Mizuki. He’s easy to like, funny and a little sad, and it looks like he’ll be a recurring character. On the other hand, the recurring character Kurama wasn’t in this volume, so maybe we won’t see much more of him. I’m not sure if I like the side characters or prefer the emphasis on Nanami and Tomoe, so it’s hard to say if I’m sad I won’t see very much of them. I do like it the way it is, though.
It’s understated, and not fantastic in any quantifiable way. It’s just a nice read, well-written, fun, and super-sweet. It’s great shoujo, and anyone looking for a good girls’ comic to read won’t be disappointed.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
I’m loving this series too. It’s got a great sense of humour and really fun character designs for all the ayakashi/yokai—I was happy to see the catfish girl appear again. I think Kurama did show up in this volume too, just in the one chapter where Tomoe takes Nanami’s place at school. I enjoy how the series handles school too—Nanami attends just often enough so it’s not completely forgotten or waved aside (as I thought it might be in v1), but it doesn’t take over or feel like a school-based story. I like the balance.
Yeah, I forgot to comment on the character designs. I do like that all of the yokai are based on animals, and keep their animal traits in their human form. The catfish girl is the best, but even the snake man, Tomoe, and Kurama are all sort of like that. Her art is just really well-suited to this type of story, too.
I was torn about the school element, only because part of me wonders why she’s so adamant about finishing since she’s a kami and might not be living in “reality” much longer. It makes me think of Inu-Yasha, but that made slightly more sense since Kagome was after a goal and was, in theory, going to return to reality afterwards. I do like that school isn’t forgotten in either series, though, and it makes for interesting stories in Kamisama Kiss, since everything that’s going on has to be at least partially rooted in reality and may affect Nanami “real” life. Volume 4 did a really good job of convincing me that school life is a necessary part of the series, though.