Kannagi ~Crazy Shrine Maidens~ (Ep 1)

Posted by Chiisuki On October - 6 - 2008 View Comments

Kannagi is the new magical, comedy series from A-1 Pictures Inc and is directed by the one and only Yutaka Yamamoto, or the director KyoAni infamously fired off Lucky Star. Yamamato is known for creating the dance sequence at the end of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya amongst other projects. The one thing you realise from the outset of this series is A-1 Pictures have pulled out all the stops with the animation quality, because colour me shocked my jaw dropped when I saw the opening sequence for this series, Yamamoto has created another masterpiece dance sequence that I’m sure I will be seeing at anime events later in the year.

The story centres on the very likeable protagonist Jin Mikuriya an art student who happens to have one of his art projects possessed by the spirit of a goddess Nagi. We learn later in the episode that this is due to the sculpture being carved from the sacred Kannagi tree. Jin after much confusion over the whole situation decides to take Nagi in and let her live with him as she has no where else to go at this time. Nagi entrusts Jin with the task of helping her to destroy the impurities that are gathering in this town, strangely in the form of black bugs.

The character designs, animation production and general flow of this series is superb, the comical moments work incredibly well with a well written script and dialogue between characters being sharp and engaging, especially if we bear in mind the whole of this first episode almost exclusively revolves around the dialogue between Jin and Nagi after she appears and centres on how a Goddess would live in the mortal realm. Personally I found Nagi extremely like able she has just the right mix of cheeky charm and moe cuteness to keep me interested, Jin although the typical soft hearted male protagonist appears like he will be taken for a real ride by Nagi, is very sweet and I do love the band aid he has across his nose it gives him a naive charm. Haruka Tomatsu does a great job as the seiyuu of Nagi also performing the OP â€œmottoâ˜†Hade ni ne!â€ and ED â€œMusuhi no Toki” songs, I’m not usually a fan of seiyuu OP songs but this is really catchy and yes I must have sat through the OP animation well over 10 times now. The ED credits as opposed to the OP are very subtle and beautiful to watch.

This is one of several ‘gems’ this season and I really can’t wait for the next episode. There were so many humorous moments and little details that make this series a playful treat, I did especially love her t shirt with ‘shameless’ written across it. I am hoping they manage to keep the cheeky banter up and the animation quality because if they do, I don’t think I’m going ahead of myself in saying we have this season’s Lucky Star. Of course this is all based on how well the story progress’s but as a first episode I am extremely impressed and this series is a really nice surprise. Either way I think this series is a definite keeper at least for myself this season.