Ah, shoujo romance manga and anime. The genre does seem to love pairing up energetic but down-on-their-luck schoolgirls with supernatural, spirit bishounen. Kamisama Hajimemashita is certainly one of these! A light-hearted comedy about a 17 year old girl made homeless after her father skips town to flee the debt collectors who are after him because of his gambling problem… ok no it is light-hearted, trust me.
Ok so anyway, after she’s in the park at night and a strange man takes her by surprise by kissing her on and the forehead oh god damn it.
Kamisama Hajimemashita is a fun romantic comedy about a girl becoming a goddess and dealing with her pretty familiar.
The setup for Kamisama Hajimemashita is not an unfamiliar one (Hayate no Gotoku!, for a start): teenager forced into homelessness due to their parents (or in this case, just her father) having such debts that they’re forced to run from collectors, with their home being seized. Such is the case with Nanami here. After not too long from being given the boot out of her home, she encounters a strange man in the park at night. Well, less ‘encounters’ and more ‘hears his cries for help after he climbed a tree to escape a small dog barking at him’. They have a brief chat after she shoos the puppy, she tells him what’s up with her, he gets all sympathetic, gives her a kiss on the forehead, and says she can move into his place, since he won’t be living there anymore and it can’t be left empty for too long, and gives her the address. He walks off, she finds the house and shock! It turns out to be a shrine! A pretty rundown one at that. She gets spooked when some crazy shit starts happening around, ends up inside the shrine building, and meets another strange man! With ears and a tail! He thought she was Mikage – the man she met earlier – and it turns out that when Mikage kissed her forehead, he transferred his status as the local earth deity onto her!
The (very attractive) man with the ears and tail – Tomoe – doesn’t take kindly to her, she doesn’t take kindly to him, he buggers off to the spirit world, and after some shenanigans with Nanami nearly dying there, she becomes his new master after giving him a kiss, allowing her to order him about (and, as a result, save her life).
A lot of stuff happened in the first episode, basically.
After that though, the series is more or less episodic, revolving around Nanami coming to terms with her new position, understanding and making use of her powers to fulfil her responsibilities as a deity, meeting other deities, meeting other spirit bishounen, and becoming closer to Tomoe. Hijinks ensue.
On an episode-to-episode basis, Kamisama Hajimemashita is somewhat uneven. While the majority of the episodes are pretty good, there are some that are underwhelming. These usually suffer from pacing issues (either rushing things too much or trying to draw events out because there simply wasn’t enough material to fit a full episode naturally) more than anything else, but the humour falls flat more often in these ones as well. Fortunately, these episodes are very much in the minority, with the rest being a ton of fun.
While the series can largely be described as episodic, there is definitely a clear sense of progression – Nanami starts off clueless and somewhat useless, constantly at odds with Tomoe as a result, but by the end she has grown to become far more competent. Admittedly, still very much an amateur at best as a deity, but not only has she come to accept her position and responsibilities, she’s no longer requiring Tomoe to help her with every little thing and neither is she trying to move forwards without her familiar at all. She becomes confident and capable. This is interwoven with the development of her and Tomoe’s relationship, as it is fundamental to both Nanami’s and Tomoe’s respective roles.
She is his master, he is her familiar, and as such is bound to follow her commands – should she command him in the first place. As it is, Nanami is reluctant to as the two of them don’t get along particularly well at first. A large aspect of the overarching narrative is Nanami discovering the incidents making up Tomoe’s past, understanding his fear of abandonment, and coming to terms with how these factors have gone on to make up his current personality. Of course it’s not quite as simple as all that – she’s still just a 17 year old human, whereas he’s a centuries old spiritual being, and the differences between the two of them naturally cause a fair amount of friction. But they both work on it over time, becoming closer and friendlier.
The state of their relationship often neatly ties with Nanami’s growth as a deity: when she doesn’t believe she can do anything without Tomoe’s help, she becomes a bit clingier and he a bit more aloof, standoffish and disliking of her; when she believes she is strong enough to do things herself Tomoe is more often left by the wayside and trying to reach out to her (to the extent his distrust allows); when she feels she has essentially no power at all, weak and worthless compared to all the other deities and more of a burden to Tomoe than anything, typically their relationship is strained and they’re distant to each other; and the knowledge that the two of them are stronger together than the sum of their parts is often heralded by them being closer in general.
Without the supporting cast this would all be not nearly as entertaining. Varied, distinct and charismatic, the secondary characters all get their moments in the limelight, often contributing to the humour when the situation between Nanami and Tomoe demands seriousness from the two of them. Mizuki the snake familiar, previously the lonely attendant of a shrine that had lost its deity and now the second familiar of Nanami’s, is the buttmonkey of the group, the one who suffers most of the physical humour from the rest of the group and the one who most frequently incites Tomoe’s jealousy due to being attractive, into Nanami, but also outgoing and relaxed. He provides a nice counterpoint to Tomoe’s seriousness and negative attitude. Don’t let his silliness fool you though: he still gets a few poignant moments with Nanami, and he is the main contributor to one of the more interesting episode subplots in the series (it’s a take on the typical ‘girl unknowingly meets a deity, helps them, gets rewarded’ story except that it’s from Mizuki’s perspective, and the reward is booze).
Kurama, a crow tengu, started out as a bad guy out to become a deity by eating Nanami’s heart, but after ~shenanigans~ he becomes friends with her/rival in the eye of Tomoe. He’s also an incredibly popular idol who’s all gothic and shit, and most of his dialog is backed by some pretty sexy music. He’s brilliant. He’s also a counterpoint to Tomoe, being incredibly modern and relevant, compared to how entrenched Tomoe is in the past and in traditions.
While Mikage only appears early on, and a few times here and there later, his personality and motives (seemingly care free, but later trying to manipulate things to aid Nanami’s growth) is pretty well established and defined. More importantly than his actual appearances is the impact he had on Tomoe when he left him. It speaks volumes about the depth of their relationship that it not only sent Tomoe into a depression, but that also it took a lot of work on Nanami’s part to have Tomoe even consider her a potentially worthy replacement.
Romantically, Kamisama Hajimemashita follows a rather standard approach of ‘girl and guy at odds with each other, she falls for him as she spends time with/learns more about him, eventually getting him to fall for her by earning his respect’, but it’s executed well. Nanami and Tomoe, as a couple, have a real sense of progression over the course of the series. It’s not a progression you haven’t seen before – as detailed earlier, they start out distant, but grow closer and have your typical ups-and-downs – but by virtue of their well flesh-out, charming and endearing personalities it becomes easy to get invested in them, leading to plenty of delightfully heart-warming scenes. But what makes it a refreshing and engaging romance to watch is that Nanami is independent and headstrong, and as a result never acts like she needs Tomoe. Well, she does technically need him, but only as a result of her being completely out of her element and needing him to tell what the hell she has to do, and how; she never needs him to fill some empty void in her heart or any other ‘woman is weak without her man’ crap. Nanami instead falls for him gradually, and while Tomoe’s slow to reciprocate it’s as a result of his backstory. This lack of one-sidedness in the relationship means that, at the end, there’s a sense of mutual satisfaction, and that they are both choosing to be with the other instead of having no other choice, or feeling compelled. And that’s a satisfying watch for me.
The concept may not be particularly original, but Kamisama Hajimemashita delivers a great romantic-comedy that’s both funny and heart-warming. Memorable and endearing characters, a great sense of humour and stories that can be pretty engaging, this series is some pretty good fun! It’s not without its flaws – there’s cheap animation and some weak episodes here and there – but by and large Kamisama Hajimemashita is well worth checking out.
8/10
[…] divine powers are not exactly under-represented in anime and manga – I reviewed one such series, Kamisama Hajimemashita, a while back – and as a result it’s rather difficult for them to bring something genuinely […]
[…] Kamisama Hajimemashita was very good! I enjoyed it a great deal back when it aired, uneven as it was, and was very pleasantly surprised when a sequel was announced. It was probably the show that sold me on shoujo romance as a genre, and Nanami has endured as one of my favourite heroines amongst them. To cut to the chase, Kamisama Hajimemashita◎ (yes that is the official title, and no I have no idea how it’s pronounced) is basically more of the same, introducing a couple of new elements but for the most part just picking up from where the first season left off without missing a beat. […]