The story is, or at least started off, cliché. An ancient evil (called the Orochi) revives and the fate of the world rests in the hands of two high school girls, Himeko and Chikane, who must become the Solar Priestess and the Lunar Priestess, respectively. Turns out, however, that one of the Orochi, Souma, is in love with Himeko and chooses to fight against the rest of the Orochi. Chikane, at the same time, decides to go yuri on Himeko.
In fact, the romance in KnM is pretty much a battle between het and yuri, as Himeko doesn’t know whether to choose Souma or Chikane. Chikane gets Himeko in the end, but either way, the romance was mushy at best, if not downright corny. Souma’s catchphrase seems to be “I’ll protect you!” and Chikane says to Himeko at one point, “Your smile….your smile is my sun.”
Needless to say, as a yuri, KnM offers a fair amount of fanservice, with plenty of shower scenes and girls stripping (though such scenes lessen towards the end of the series). There’s also a yuri rape scene. Of course, nothing is actually shown; it’s all left up to your creative imaginations.
The Orochi fight using mechas, and I actually didn’t mind the mecha action, though I did get tired of Souma using the same attack over and over again. The Orochi themselves are diverse and have dark pasts (and thus have a reason to be evil), but they’re all based on anime stereotypes—a catgirl, a pop idol, a mangaka, and a juvenile delinquent, to name a few. Though I liked some of them, I also found them to be unoriginal.
Which brings me to my next point. The characters are generic. There’s the main character’s best friend, who does nothing other than comfort said main character. There are three jealous girls who relentlessly bully the main character. There’s the caring older brother, who just happens to be a bishie. These types of characters can be found in just about any other common anime. Even the lead characters are uninspired. Chikane and Souma are over-idealized, perfect characters. Souma seemingly has no problem at all dispatching the other Orochi. It doesn’t matter that he’s second to the lowest ranked Orochi; he’s a good guy, so he can’t possibly lose. Himeko herself is a weak, even annoying, lead. She always needs protection; she never can do anything herself. And worse yet, she doesn’t have any character development. In the beginning she depends on Chikane for support, and in the end she still needs her.
The soundtrack is standard, never really standing out except for the overly dramatic opera music during battles (which annoyed me) and the theme that plays throughout the series (which I liked). The OP and ED are sung by Kotoko, which will please you Kotoko fans, but overall are decent but not particularly memorable.
Animation is perhaps the series’ strongest point. I loved the sharp, detailed character designs, and the girls certainly make for nice eye candy. The backgrounds are average, however.
In short…
Pros
-A nice epilogue.
-Decent mecha action.
-Impressive animation.
-Ayako Kawasumi voices Himemiya Chikane.
-If you like to laugh at corniness, here’s a classic exchange between Himeko and Chikane:
(Chikane starts crying)
Himeko: I’ll be your handkerchief.
Chikane: How nice. A handkerchief made of the sun.
Cons
-The final three episodes are difficult to get through, largely due to the two girls spewing soppy proclamations of love to each other.
-Annoying or overly-idealized main characters.
-Minimal to no character development.
-Clichéd story.
-Melodramatic romance.
-Average soundtrack.
Bottom Line
Well, if you’re a hardcore yuri fan, then you’ll want to add this to your list as soon as possible. Otherwise, I think that, if not for the soppy romance and weak leads, there’s some untapped potential here for quite an entertaining series.
