Kannazuki no Miko (Destiny of Shrine Maiden)

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Priestesses of the Godless Month, October's Shrine Maiden

Japanese: 神無月の巫女

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Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 2

Chapters: 14

Status: Finished

Published: Mar 26, 2004 to Apr 26, 2005

Genres: Drama, Fantasy, Girls Love, Romance, Supernatural, Erotica

Theme: Mecha

Demographic: Shounen

Serialization: Shounen Ace

Authors: Kaishaku (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 6.77¹ (scored by 2,303 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: N/A²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #4739

Members: 5,172

Favorites: 85

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6.77

Ranked N/APopularity #4739Members 5,172

MangaShounen AceKaishaku (Story & Art)

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Volumes: /2

Chapters: /14

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Synopsis

On the moon, there is an old shrine that has fallen into ruin. On the birthday of Himeko Kurusugawa and Chikane Himemiya, there is a sudden eclipse, and a voice calls the eight necks of Orochi to rise and destroy the Solar Priestess and the Lunar Priestess. The two girls soon find themselves under attack by the Orochi, but Himeko's close friend Souma has resisted the call of the Orochi and has sworn to protect her, no matter what.

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Background

Kannazuki no Miko was published digitally in English by VIZ Media under the VIZ Select imprint from January 26, 2016 to February 23, 2016. The series was previously published by TokyoPop as Destiny of Shrine Maiden on May 6 and July 7, 2008 respectively.

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Characters

Himemiya, Chikane

Main

Kurusugawa, Himeko

Main

Oogami, Souma

Main

Nekoko

Supporting

Sister Miyako

Supporting

Tsubasa

Supporting

Yukihito

Supporting

Kisaragi, Otoha

Supporting

Izumi

Supporting

Oogami, Kazuki

Supporting

Reviews

Oct 24, 2008

bubble

Mixed Feelings

Story:
Kannazuki no Miko starts off as a silly and mostly lighthearted romp with giant robots, mysticism, girls in love (with each other) and pretty art. Even having heard (but forgotten) certain spoilers about the direction the story ends up taking, I thought I was going to like it a lot.

Unfortunately for me, the story takes a dark turn which I most decidedly did not enjoy. In particular it was the way in which the offending character continued to be self-righteous and another character rationalized the first one's actions which bothered me. Keep in mind though that I'm a feminist and I have a tendency to ...

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Nov 27, 2010

OMGITSGARRY

Not Recommended

I bought this with every intention of really liking it, however, I could not find one thing I liked. In fact, if I had not gotten both volumes, I would have most likely dropped this title after the first clichéd chapter.

Story: The plot is heavily cliched for the first half of the book, then speeds up dramatically in the second part to where nothing makes sense and you are left wondering what is going on. It's just a series of unexplained plot points. There is no real flow to the story and it leaves the reader cold. We are told a ...

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Apr 25, 2025

spearmints_lain

Not Recommended

Spoiler

Deplorable and morally reprehensible on a myriad of levels, contrived and cliched to boot. Nothing valued is in this manga. Major spoilers ahead, because the level of depravity at hand is impossible to explain when excluding one particular egregious spoiler. The one spoiler that takes a potentially mediocre-to-decent manga, and takes a giant shit all over it. The one giant shit of a spoiler at the center of the galaxy which the rest of this dumpster fire orbits around.

The groundwork of the plot needs to be laid out first to give proper context to said spoiler. Its hard to give an exact summary because of ... all the identity issues this manga has, which we will get into later.
The gist is, its an old-school shoujo romance with badass giant robots, and the fate of the world at stake. Kurusugawa Himeko is at the center of a love triangle, with a yuri lover and a male lover fighting over who gets her. Himeko is also a sacrificial deity. A "sun deity", in particular. Which is contrast to the yuri love interest's "moon deity" status. The sun and moon deities are complimentary opposites/blood sacrifices necessary to enact the world reincarnation ritual. The sacrifices get to choose how the world is cosmically governed after the Earth's rebirth.

The two primary choices here are as follows:
A) A select few Gods will continue to inherit the Earth, and their power will have a much deeper stronghold this next reincarnation.
B) Humanity will inherit the Earth and self-govern without the rulership of Gods.
C (Technically)) Stop any sacrifice from happening all together.
One final crucial detail to note, is that Himeko gets to decide between A and B. The moon deity/yuri love interest represents B, while the male love interest represents A.
Fascinating philosophical dilemma, is it not? So much potential there. And so much at stake! Plus its yuri! And there's badass giant robots! I can't wait to see what thoughtful meaningful message the writers had meticulously planned ou---WRONG.

The spoiler not only negates any meaning that could have possibly been had here, it CORRUPTS it. How so? The sacrificial method. A "blood" sacrifice. Now, a blood sacrifice is harmless on its own. The Yakuza do it all the time, and its pretty badass when they do it. So then what's the problem? The type of blood. Virginal blood, of a high school aged gir--500 year old infinitely reincarnated legal demon loli. Very typical of Japan. Plus, might be passionate pure intimacy between two doting girls. But no.
The moon deity rapes Himeko. The sacrificial blood, is not only virginal blood, but is harvested through a sexual assault. And the "why" behind the assault, is the most disgusting reason. The "why" is to "protect Himeko from becoming a blood sacrifice, because she (moon goddess) loves Himeko so much". Which is glorifying rape as an act of grace. And she isn't played off as a villain either. You are meant to root for the yuri couple. So this manga is ENDORSING this point of view. That rape is an act of grace, and a necessary evil.

Not only that, but at the very climax of the story, Himeko has a choice between the two lovers. Again, keep in mind that the two lovers are also indicative of the aforementioned philosophical choices A and B (see paragraph number three). Now, because of the fact of the rape, any choice to be had is negated by the fact that A (the male lover) is the only good option. Because he never harms Himeko, and genuinely cares about her well-being. What a waste, since an unbiased choice would make the climax much more impactful. But oh well. Is what it is. OR SO YOU'D THINK.

Himeko chooses to ally with her RAPIST. Why? Because yuri is the purest form of love or whatever. Then moon goddess proceeds to molest her AGAIN, then attempts to MURDER her. Then even taunts and mocks her over the situation. All "haha I raped you and did attempted murder on you, fucking xD." And yet after ALL that, Himeko STILL decides she's madly in love with moon goddess and goes through with the sacrifice with her, killing the boy who actually loved and cared for her in the process. And its portrayed as this intimate triumphant moment. When in actuality, its a deplorable glorification of a trifecta of the worst sins one can possibly commit (rape, murder, genocide).

We haven't even gotten to how uninspired and all over the place it is. All this review has been so far is JUST the moral bankruptcy. But there's EVEN MORE wrong with it, albeit far more minor. Let's start with its lack of inspiration. Tropes, tropes, tropes galore. The damsel in distress (Himeko/sun goddess), cheesy bullshit love triangles, chosen one bullshit, indestructible Mary Sue bullshit, an entirely unexplained bullshit magic system, power of love/friendship is magic bullshit.
Especially when there's a lack of chemistry between any of the characters to begin with. Not one relationship in this manga that isn't forced. Positive connections, enemies, they're all forced. Soulless husks of characters too. All feeling like plastic dolls who solely exist to drive the plot forward.
Speaking of "plot", this is where the identity issues come into play. This manga has too many concepts, and not nearly enough time to develop any of them because of such a short run time. Leading to a disorganized absolute mess. Is it a shounen mecha war story? A cheesy campy shoujo love story? A hyperviolence tragedy with ecchi elements aimed at young adults? Who the hell knows? Certainly not the authors.
Plus again, back to the blood sacrifice thing. Allegedly, the rape was necessary so that Himeko can no longer be marked for sacrifice. But apparently, that's a crock of shit since she got sacrificed anyway! So that was for fucking nothing except shock value, and getting passed off as deeper than it is. I could list off more plot holes, but that would easily double the length of this review.

Credit where credit is due, the mechs themselves are pretty dope. Dope designs. There are some really cool shots in this manga. Unfortunately the mechs aren't put to good use, as the action scenes are super cramped and confusing. Hard to tell who's who, even if the mech designs are all very distinct from one another. There's also a lot of whiplash between the cheesy shoujo bits and the epic mech bits. Oh, and the space aerial shots are pretty dope too. And its not yuri bait, as there are girls who do in fact kiss at least once. Those are the only positive things I can think to say about this hot piece of garbage.

TL;DR, I cannot recommend this manga to anyone, UNLESS you really adore either mecha or yuri, especially the combination together, and want to see those themes explored regardless of the quality.

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Kannazuki no Miko
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