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Review

by Rebecca Silverman,

Kamisama Kiss: Season 2

BD + DVD Combo Pack

Synopsis:
Kamisama Kiss: Season 2 DVD
It's time for the annual gathering of the gods in Izumo, and as the land god of Mikage Shrine, Nanami may be eligible to go – provided she can pass the test set up for her by Otohiko. Not that Tomoe is sure that he wants her to attend. His past as a wild fox yokai has given him an uneasy relationship with the other gods, making it difficult for him to go with her, and he certainly doesn't want to let Mizuki be the one to accompany the woman he can't quite admit he loves. But his past is likely to come back to haunt him no matter what: Akura-O, a demonic entity he used to pal around with, is back, inhabiting the body of a deceased student named Kirihito. Akura-O wants his real body back, for which he will have to find a way into the Underworld. Nanami just may be his ticket down there…and if she isn't, there might be an answer for him on Mount Kurama, home of our favorite pop singing tengu sensation…
Review:

There is something delightful about Kamisama Kiss, no matter what form it takes. For fans of Julietta Suzuki's original manga, the anime is less like watching a new adaptation of the story and more like simply seeing the manga move and speak – this is one of the more faithful page-to-screen stories in recent memory. This second season of the shoujo delight adapts the Izumo and Mount Kurama arcs, ending with Tomoe and Mizuki learning about Nanami's past, and it nicely sets up what the third season would cover if it exists, Tomoe's past and the continuation of Himemiko's romance with Kotaro. That said, if there isn't a third season, viewers could fairly easily pick up the original manga at volume twelve and continue the story.

One of the attractions of Kamisama Kiss is its use of Shinto mythology, and both of the story arcs in this set do a nice job with it. Many of the characters Nanami meets in Izumo are actual Shinto deities, with the most interesting being Izanami, goddess of the underworld. Izanami was originally one of the founding goddesses of the Shinto pantheon (and the Japanese people according to the Kojiki). Her story shares a lot of similarities with two Greek myths, the stories of Persephone and Eurydice, both of whom were trapped in the underworld. When Izanami died giving birth to the god of fire, her husband Izanagi went to fetch her, but she had already eaten the food of the underworld and therefore had to stay. (She also now looked like a rotting corpse, which disgusted Izanagi.) This comes up when Nanami accidentally finds herself in the underworld, and as a nice visual nod to the original myth, Izanami is wearing a heavy veil and hidden behind a hanging screen, turned away from the viewers. Later myths about tengu, a type of yokai associated with crows, are explored in a way that also acknowledges the basic mythology, in this case drawing on the traditional hierarchy of tengu society and the stories about them having a thing for human women, as was much more creepily handled in the manga Black Bird. The Chinese Zodiac is also touched on briefly, and the outcome of all of this is that the story feels believably rooted in a world where gods and demons are real and Nanami is able to interact with them. While Kamisama Kiss is a fantasy story, it feels much more centered than it otherwise might, and this helps to build on the emotional arcs of the characters.

Most important to the story (and arguably to a lot of us) is the budding romance between Nanami and Tomoe. We learned in season one that in the past he was involved with a human woman named Yukiji and when that ended badly he vowed never to love another human again. His resolve has been sorely tried by Nanami, and in this season he is forced to really think about his own feelings for her…something virtually everyone else (except Nanami) has figured out. Even when he does come to accept it, he can't bring himself to act on it, making him a character who is by turns adorable and irritating, even as his jealousy makes for some of the best comedic moments in the show. This has an importance to the story beyond the romantic subplot, however – in the past, he left his partnership with Akura-O once he fell for Yukiji, something that now causes him turmoil. Akura-O could not understand how a human could become so important to a yokai either, setting the two characters up for parallel storylines as the plot progresses. Akura-O is now inhabiting the body of a young man named Kirihito, who perished in a hiking accident. On his way to the afterlife, Kirihito stumbles upon Akura-O and offers the trapped yokai his frozen body if he will use it to apologize to his mother, with whom he had a silly fight before he died. Akura-O takes him up on the offer with no intention of fulfilling his promise, but once he meets the woman, he finds himself compelled to comfort her. As he continues to live in Kirihito's home and body, he continually makes decisions that put his “mother's” feelings and well-being first, without truly understanding why he's doing it. Unbeknownst to him, Akura-O is learning to care for a human, discovering what it was that drew Tomoe away from him five hundred years ago. Paired with two other story elements, Tomoe's grudging acceptance of his love for Nanami and the tengu Jiro's similar infatuation with her, it creates a theme of interconnectivity between humans and yokai which will continue to drive the story going forward.

Nanami herself is continually evolving as a heroine, although she does still end up needing Tomoe to rescue her from most situations. She takes her role as a land goddess seriously and refuses to let Mizuki and Tomoe do for her what she can do herself – or at least insists upon going with them if she's not able to fulfill a duty alone. While this does land her in trouble more oft than not, she's also clearly getting better at handling situations, as we see during the tengu storyline, where it is Nanami more than anyone else who helps the dictatorial Jiro to see his mistakes. Through his interactions with her, he is able to see that he is feared, not respected, a realization that leads to the resolution of a years-long conflict, as well as a beautiful piece of wordless storytelling when he finds himself faced with sobbing, terrified children.

The art and animation is generally lovely, with some spectacularly animated dancing in the opening theme. Yes, Tomoe is totally out of character doing it, but when it looks that good, it almost doesn't matter. There are clear visual distinctions between the different realms and lands Nanami visits, with the most striking being her trip to her own past, which is muted and cloudy, like an old watercolor improperly preserved. New monkey character Mamoru is absolutely adorable, and by an amazing trick of slight of hand, the anime avoids ever showing his bare behind when he's in human form, clad only in an apron.

Both sub and dub tracks are very strong, with a few stand-out voices in each. I found myself preferring Sean O'Connor's Kurama to Daisuke Kishio's, largely because of his delivery, while the slightly lighter voice of Junichi Suwabe worked better for Akura-O in my ears than Brandon Potter's. Other than that the two casts are very similar, with inflection making for most of the differences; for example, J. Michael Tatum's Tomoe has a more indolent sound than Shinnosuke Tachibana's. You can hear some of the voice actors' feelings on the characters in the two commentary tracks included as extras, including Jerry Jewell and Brandon Potter geeking out over Lucy Christan's narration (it deserves it). Other extras are the basic trailers and clean opening and closing themes.

Kamisama Kiss' second season is just as enjoyable as its first, if not a bit more as it delves deeper into the world of the gods and the characters' feelings. While it is clear that the story goes on after the show's end, it does not feel inconclusive or cut off, and overall watching is a delightful experience. This is the kind of show that could put you in a good story rut, unable to find anything to quite match up with it once it's finished.

Grade:
Overall (dub) : A-
Overall (sub) : A
Story : A
Animation : B+
Art : B+
Music : B

+ Story integrates mythology smoothly as it builds on Nanami's increasing comfort as a goddess and Tomoe's conflicted feelings. Can be very funny at times, strong voices in both casts.
Some of the dub lines veer a little too much on the slang side, and I'm not thrilled with referring to Otohiko as “he/she guy.” Music doesn't always quite fit the scene.

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Production Info:
Director: Akitarō Daichi
Script:
Akitarō Daichi
Michiko Yokote
Storyboard:
Hiroaki Akagi
Akitarō Daichi
Masaya Fujimori
Yasuyuki Honda
Mashu Itō
Tomoko Iwasaki
Hajime Kamegaki
Harume Kosaka
Yūta Murano
Akira Nishimori
Kazuhiro Sasaki
Kiyoko Sayama
Yasuichiro Yamamoto
Yoshitomo Yonetani
Episode Director:
Hiroaki Akagi
Naoki Hishikawa
Yasuyuki Honda
Mashu Itō
Tomoko Iwasaki
Toshiaki Kanbara
Yoshitaka Koyama
Shūhei Matsushita
Masahiro Mukai
Yūta Murano
Chika Nagaoka
Yūsuke Onoda
Kaoru Yabana
Yasuichiro Yamamoto
Unit Director: Akitarō Daichi
Music: Toshio Masuda
Original creator: Julietta Suzuki
Character Design: Junko Yamanaka
Art Director: Takashi Aoi
Chief Animation Director: Junko Yamanaka
Animation Director:
Yoshitsugu Hatano
Mayumi Hidaka
Toshiomi Iizumi
Yumiko Ishii
Shingo Ishikawa
Tomomi Kamiya
Tomoyuki Kanno
Akio Kawamura
Yumiko Kinoshita
Erina Kojima
Kanae Komatsu
Takahiro Mizuno
Hideyuki Motohashi
Yuki Nishioka
Hiroyuki Notake
Erina Oshima
Miwa Oshima
Madoka Ozawa
Daisuke Saitō
Keiko Sasaki
Toshiko Sasaki
Ryousuke Sekiguchi
Kazuko Shibata
Hideaki Shimada
Kazue Tamari
Keiko Watanabe
Junko Yamanaka
Kōnosuke Yoshihara
Yayoi Yoshikawa
Sound Director: Kazuya Tanaka
Director of Photography: Akemi Sasaki
Executive producer:
Shiro Ishihara
Sadakazu Kikuchi
Producer:
Shinsaku Hatta
Ikumi Hayashi
Ryōichi Ishihara
Masayo Kudō
Mai Kurachi
Hideyuki Nanba
Masakatsu Oomuro
Gorō Shinjuku
Ryo Tomoda
Kenji Yamaguchi
Licensed by: FUNimation Entertainment

Full encyclopedia details about
Kamisama Kiss (TV)
Kamisama Kiss 2 (TV 2)

Release information about
Kamisama Kiss - The Complete Second Season (BD+DVD)

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