Kamisama Hajimemashita [Kiss] 2 Ep 2 [ Izumo Ahoy ]

This episode Nanami must go…to Izumo!!!!!! I admit to you right now the Izumo arc started off very bland in the manga so I don’t expect it to be much more grandiouse in the anime, especially since the focus of this episode is on ~who is going to Izumo~ with Nanami, and either Tomoe gets it and we call predictable or Mizuki goes and it’s less fun that way. Guess which one it was!

A problem with this episode and sometimes the anime in general is just how. . .forgetful some of the build up stuff can be. There are also two character’s who. . .I can’t remember from the manga. I don’t remember them even a little bit, so they could be filler characters, or not. Either way they’re boring and just add weight to the ‘characters made for hijinks idea’. What’s appealing about that at all? I guess to introduce gods to Nanami earlier?

Well, Tomoe doesn’t even really want to go and we are introduced to Kirihito, a young man Nanami runs into. This guy is very important so seeing him makes me feel two things: Hooray the plot is advancing and: Fuck you. No really, it’s this mother fucker who steadily makes me feel sick about the later manga. Maybe I just need to re-read it to feel better? I do not know how the anime will handle it but that would need at least a Season 3 to get to.

As usual the animation in Kamisama is stunning. It’s very visually appealing even when there is just. . .a lackluster feeling. The delay of maintenance and the subject itself just made it all seem. . .average. Kirihito has a very transparent role as his seiyuu is….also of someone else recently introduced. Doesn’t really fit his Kirihito persona as much, though.

Don’t get me wrong, the anime has some decent things but overall it felt like padding. It was dull to watch and that’s with an important new character, most of it was talking, very pissed off gods trying to get Nanami not to go to Izumo- the works. The characters I don’t recognize are Kirihito’s familiars? Wow either I blanked out really badly or they’re new. Either way, it makes something very transparent for Kirihito that was a little more subtle in the manga: Kirihito is a body possessed by Akura-Oh.

Seriously? Uh? I mean, don’t get me wrong. In the manga we all figured it out, none of us were shocked, but it left this mystery of who he was and. Wow. Way to uhm…ruin that I guess? Now Kirihito is a very obvious villain with henchmen who runs into Nanami (and does his creepy stuff) much sooner. Before he was a sickly guy who was shrouded in mystery, whether he was Akura-Oh never seemed to be questioned but it was so much more: why, how, what’s his motivation?

Welp, now his motivation is basically to take the world back. The fuck? I’m literally marvelling at what this anime can fuck up in a new season of renewed hope. Reading the manga you get an entirely different atmosphere, but I guess I’ll try to take it as it is. Tomoe’s old partner Akura-Oh is likely headed to Izumo as well, and he’s got a very ..Akura-Oh personality, barely hiding it underneath the guise. (Seriously how does one not be mad about the subtle and interesting changes of having to possess a frail human to..this? Really???)

It’s hard to hate the anime completely when it tends to shove in at least one beautiful moment per episode, like this one where near the end as Nanami has arrived at Izumo she gets lost in the spirit world and has to be led through the mist by Mikage, who always has really beautiful words for her and encourages her. Still, the pacing on this was so poor that it just felt a little uncomfortable to watch. Seriously, way to ruin the mood and tell us everything about something that’s supposed to be more mysterious. . .

All in all, my thoughts are as disjointed as the episode proper. Mizuki went with Nanami, the mysterious Akura-Oh has shown himself, and Nanami is gaining strength as the land god. How was the presentation? Well, a little of a mess. I’m trying not to lose my shit here, but please chill out a little anime. You got a second season, I’m sure you can get another.

Oki