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.
Having already spent a season on Nanami learning how to be a deity (and her growing feelings towards Tomoe), there’s a much stronger focus this time around on Tomoe’s feelings towards her. In particular, he’s forced to not only acknowledge that they exist, but that his past has a major bearing on them. Given that the first season didn’t delve into this hugely, and really only focusing on how it affects Nanami when it did, this was a very welcome addition. Finally getting his perspective on this weird relationship to a fuller extent really gave him a lot more depth, with some meaningful justifications given for why he’s as much of a jerk and is as dishonest to himself as he often is. His feelings towards Mikage are also addressed in one particularly great episode, which did a marvellous job of showing his growth, indicating where he’s going, and revealing a lot more complexity to him than before.
While I would argue that Tomoe gets the majority of the development in this season, Nanami is far from neglected. She’s obviously still learning, but compared to the first season she shows a lot more confidence and competence in her status as a deity. But where Nanami really shined are the episodes where we saw her as a child. They are positively heartbreaking, and are very overt and powerful reminders of the strong emotional grounding this franchise has. Her personality and attitude is given a solid foundation beyond the throwaway gag her past was introduced as. It’s rather tragic, and the way she’s able to hold herself so strongly now makes her all the more impressive and admirable.
Kamisama Hajimemashita◎ does have some fairly major problems, it has to be said. The episodes are pretty disjointed, and not as a result of any episodic-ness. They simply don’t work together to drive an overarching narrative, explore a unifying theme, or deliver a single idea. A lot of them are simply ‘there’, utterly forgettable, or at best just furthering “Nanami’s a deity in training!” which we’ve already had an entire season of!
This is exacerbated by, ironically, an attempt to actually have an overarching narrative with a bad guy who was Tomoe’s old friend. It drives a couple of arcs, but is otherwise totally insignificant. The major implications of this character are only ever lightly touched upon, it doesn’t develop into anything within this series, and feels like a waste of time as a result. Nothing comes from it beyond putting a name to an individual we already kind of knew was there in Tomoe’s past. And yet it’s frequently a major diversion, offering nothing more than a distraction from the more interesting material.
And then there’s Mamoru, a celestial monkey boy hatched from a weird egg who a) is an extremely annoying and unwelcome presence, and b) contributes fuck all. He’s introduced in the first episode, with the implication that this is a Big Deal, but goes on to have a negligible presence for the rest of the series – and the few times he does reappear and does something, there was certainly no need for it be him. An unequivocally negative and confusing addition to the series, as far as I’m concerned.
I think it’s pretty obvious that this was adapting manga content that was intended to be developed and handled over a much longer period of time than could be fit into a 12 episode series. There’s a lot of blatant starting points that don’t see conclusion or closure within this season, and who knows, maybe they’ll work better if we get a third season. But as is, nothing is expanded meaningfully and less still resolved. It’s still a fun, charming series, and the best bits are truly excellent, so if you enjoyed the first season you’ll almost certainly like Kamisama Hajimemashita◎ as well, because it’s basically more of the same even though it’s not as good. It’s just unfortunate that they got saddled with an awkward section of the manga to adapt next, and were unable to figure out a way to make it work.
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