Kamisama Kiss 2

Episode 3

By the third episode of Kamisama Kiss 2, it's clear the show has no intention of leisurely examining Nanami's life as the Mikage Shrine's resident god. Instead, the season has focused on Nanami's desire to demonstrate her capabilities in her newfound occupation. Nanami's hardly had the chance to catch her breath, let alone enjoy herself like the rest of the gods at the Divine Assembly, before she's tasked with proving herself yet again.

Enter Lord Okuninushi, master of the Grand Shrine and host to the Divine Assembly. He makes an early appearance during the festival to ask Nanami to guard the entrance to the Netherworld, while the usual guardian god parties at the Assembly. It hardly seems fair to charge a new god with this, but there's clearly more to the request than Okuninushi lets on. (His amusing over-acting is hint enough, but Nanami is either clueless or too focused on her goal of finding Mikage to care.) Sure enough, things go wrong almost immediately as Nanami tries to save someone she believes to be human (the scheming Kirihito) and dives into the Netherworld without thinking.

Meanwhile, Tomoe is still hurt about being left behind, and he drowns his anger and sorrows in sake at a spirit world brothel. The hostesses hint at some connection between the wicked Tomoe of old and the totally evil Akura-oh mentioned by Kirihito, no doubt foreshadowing a future storyline in which the two will cross paths.

As is usual with Kamisama Kiss, episode 3 provides a number of laughs amidst more serious fare. While it's difficult for a show to fully portray the horror of a mass murder moments before treating viewers to the image of an odd-faced yokai attendant in a sailor school uniform, this show somehow pulls it off. A villain is not quite so menacing when stuck alongside overly optimistic, maladroit Nanami, but the juxtaposition works. The series has always managed to walk that line between drama and comedy in an appealing way, never falling into over-dramatic territory.

Episode 3 isn't the most eventful episode, but the show is only occasionally about yokai trading blows anyway. As a character-driven series, Kamisama Kiss has certainly delivered this season, and episode 3 manages to examine Tomoe more in-depth as Nanami takes a few steps forward in her goal of becoming a better god. Still, it doesn't feel like either makes enough progress this time. Kirihito and Okuninushi clearly have their own schemes brewing, but we don't quite know the nature of their plans–or how they'll intersect. Kirihito and Akura-oh foreshadow some serious evil that will cross Nanami's path, but viewers are left unclear as to how much danger she's actually in. While Nanami and Tomoe's will-they-or-won't-they romance was largely resolved in the first season, it's almost non-existent here, for better and for worse. In a continuity-heavy series, viewers can't miss a single episode, but that doesn't mean each installment always delivers something memorable.

Rating: B-

Kamisama Kiss 2 is currently streaming on Funimation.

Amy is a YA fantasy author who has loved anime for two decades.