Manga, Anime: KamiChu! began running as a manga at about the same time the anime launched. The manga was illustrated by Hanahalu Naruko, and ran in Media Works' Dengeki Comic Daioh! from June of 2005 to January of 2007, and has two collected volumes total. It has yet to be licensed Stateside.
KamiChu! was animated by Brains-Base (famous for their work on Baccano!) and directed by Koji Masunari (famous for his work on R.O.D -The TV- and the Read or Die OAV). It ran on Japanese TV from June 28th to September 27th, 2005. Only twelve episodes of the total sixteen aired on TV, and the other four were DVD-only. Geneon licensed it Stateside before it went defunct, and its fourth and final volume was released on December 19th, 2006.
Story: KamiChu kicks off with Yurie, a middle schooler, telling her friend Mitsue over lunch that she became a god last night.
Quite a kicker, huh? The rest of the series focuses on how Yurie balances godhood and school.
This is another one of those series where I'm torn.
On the one hand, this is cute done right, like Pino in Ergo Proxy. On the other, the cute is not enough to carry the story (or lack thereof). Each episode is a problem-of-the-week, and it's not that difficult to figure out how each episode is going to turn out.
Another problem that this series has is that Yurie skirts the line that divides special character from Mary Sue far too closely for comfort. And beyond basic character traits, none of the cast, even Yurie, gets any further development, which really hinders this series in the long run.
For a while, the cute overpowered my dislikes. But as I got into the home stretch, I found myself saying, "Yeah, it's cute. And?"
Art: The animation for this was done by Brains-Base, and they show their attention to detail in a different way than they did in Baccano!. KamiChu takes place in an actual town in Japan, and in comparisons done between the background art and actual photos of the town, you can see the detail and the similarity. The detail also shows in the girls' movements, which are a key factor in the all-around cuteness of the series.
Okama, a famous character designer, also did designs for the world of the gods, which we visit occasionally throughout the series, and for the gods themselves. They're absolutely astounding in their creativity (there's a LaserDisc god, for those of you who remember them).
The only thing I have against the art for this series is that the style that they use for blushes gets on your nerves after a while, because people do NOT blush like that.
Music: Neither the OP, ED, nor the background music for this series really stood out to me at any point in time. Average.
Seiyuu: No talent that I recognize, but overall, a good job.
Length: I don't think that they needed to add the four episodes that came on DVDs; twelve was about long enough for this series, unfortunately.
Overall: A cute show with beautiful art, but that isn't enough to save it from blending into the crowd.
Story: 7
Art: 9
Music: 8
Seiyuu: 8
Length: 7
Overall: 39/50; 78% (C)
