OP Sequence

OP: 「神様はじめました」 (Kamisama Hajimemashita) by ハナエ (Hanae)
Watch the OP!: Streaming ▼

「奈々生、神様になる」 (Nanami, Kami-sama ni Naru)
“Nanami Becomes a God”

Who knew that saving a person from a barking dog could earn you a house – or in this case, a shrine where a handsome and sadistic youkai resides?

Kamisama Hajimemashita kicks off with a fast paced introductory episode where we find Momozono Nanami (Mimori Suzuko) recently evicted from her apartment due to her father’s debts (he is a gambler). Strolling around town with nowhere to go, she runs into Mikage (Ishida Akira) – a man seeking shelter from a barking dog. By saving this mysterious man, Nanami not only earns herself a kiss on her forehead but also a new home; however, little does she know that this “home” is actually a shrine where a handsome and sadistic fox spirit called Tomoe (Tachibana Shinnosuke) lives.

It turns out that the earlier kiss was a way for Mikage to transfer his landlord god powers to Nanami, so she is now stuck with various duties in her new home. Making matters worse, Tomoe refuses to acknowledge Nanami and departs on a journey to find Mikage who abandoned the shrine twenty years ago. Nanami learns how much work Tomoe has done by himself all these years and realizes that she’s not fit to be a landlord god. Nanami decides to find him, so her two youkai attendants Onikiri and Kotetsu take her to the Ayakashi World where they find Tomoe surrounded by sake and fine women.

Upset by the sight in front of her, Nanami runs away, only to be chased by evil youkai who want to feast on her flesh to gain strength. Onikiri and Kotetsu tell her about some of the powers she has been given as a landlord god, and they also reveal that she can seal a contract with Tomoe to make him obey her. However, the latter power requires a kiss! Nanami uses one of her abilities – wards – to summon Tomoe, but too bad he is completely useless.

The sadistic Tomoe decides to take a seat in a tree to watch as a spectator while poor Nanami climbs up the same tree to save herself from the monster chasing her. It turns out to be a poor choice of location because she pulls him down for a kiss! With a strong familiar like Tomoe, Nanami has many adventures ahead and hopefully, some of them will involve romance!

Wow, this season sure is a blast for all the shoujo lovers out there! As a huge fan of Suzuki Julietta’s manga Kamisama Hajimemashita, I absolutely wanted this anime adaptation to receive some love on Random Curiosity. This show definitely has an interesting start. Unlike most shoujo series out there, this one throws us directly into the story; we don’t have separate moments for character introductions – everything is woven into the main plot. This is something positive to me because Kamisama Hajimemashita is a comedy before anything else, and by getting to know our characters through the hilarious events throughout the episode, everything becomes more fun and enjoyable. There were many moments where I found myself laughing out loudly at some scenes, namely Tomoe’s “misfortune”.

The strongest point of this series is its characters. To have a sadistic male lead is very popular nowadays in shoujo, but I guess that only shows how well received that concept is. I definitely think sadistic males are enjoyable, and I love to see how they slowly loosen up to the girl of their interest. I’m glad that girl is Nanami in this case because she is such a sweet and nice girl. While sealing the contract like she did might’ve been a bit cunning, her intentions were good and I know she is too kind-hearted to abuse Tomoe’s obedience. These two characters are a great combination, but let’s not forget that we have many others left that haven’t been introduced. Without revealing any spoilers, I can say that those are Mizuki (Okamoto Nobuhiko), Kurama Shinjirou (Kishio Daisuke), and Otohiko (Takahashi Hiroki). I’m definitely looking forward to their portrayals!

Something else worth mentioning is that Akitarou Daichi is directing this show. Two of his most well known romance titles are Fruits Basket and Bokura ga Ita, so he definitely knows how to make good romance and comedy shows. Having those two titles on his résumé makes Kamisama Hajimemashita quite trustworthy and I hope to see if this will develop into a memorable and fun show like the others. The first episode played out very well; let’s see if next week’s does the same!

Having said that, I hope you check this show out. Kamisama Hajimemashita was unquestionably enjoyable to me.

Full-length shots: 04, 09, 23, 29

Eyecatch: A-part, B-part

 

ED Sequence

ED: 「神様お願い」 (Kamisama Onegai) by ハナエ (Hanae)
Watch the ED!: Streaming ▼

Preview

28 Comments

  1. Curse my poor Japanese! I hope that some sub-group (or crunchyroll) will take up this series. It definitely seems like a good one!

    I don’t mind an asshat male lead as long as the series has a female lead who can match him (if not…the relationship will tend to become too abusive for my liking), and I’m glad to see that Kamisama seems to have a good heroine.

    Kaitune
  2. Hi Steroman, are you going continue to blog this show? The manga is really good, and the 1st ep is not bad, expect some part of “sparkle-sparkle” feels a little forced, but overall it is solid start.
    I’d like to see the eps of this anime blog from you in the future….^_^

    zleihsh
  3. I haven’t watched this yet – but as far as I see in the manga, it is mostly straightforward, so I think this show can survive without being blogged 🙂 It’s more of a feel-good series so I hope it give me as much smile as the manga did.

    acolyte
  4. Time for me to fangirl myself to death! I was so psyched when I heard that this was getting an anime. I love the manga to bits and pieces! It was pretty great seeing everyone animated and I think everyone’s voices fit nicely. I’m a bit worried since we are already seeing Kurama in the preview though. I really hope they don’t leave out Himemiko!

    Amutofan123
  5. SO glad to at least see an episode one blog entry on this show!
    I also very much enjoyed the episode. Just hoping a fansub group picks it up. D= I’ve read the manga, but I would like to be able to know word for word what they’re saying while watching nonetheless.

    Sekaya

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