Kamichama Karin

Just AWFUL! It's really sad how Koge Donbo's work in the anime always gets ripped apart like this! The anime avoids the serious parts. The character's relationships don't develop like they do in the manga. It's horrible. The only good thing about this anime is the music, that's it. The artwork gets really poor too! I noticed in one episode, Karin's eyes were so far apart! I just shook my head in disgust. I suggest for everyone out there to read the manga to see what I mean!

Kamichama is a magical girl anime starring a magical boy, Kazune. There are additional slice of life elements centred around the titular magical girl Karin, but she plays a surprisingly small role in the story despite claiming most of the screentime. Additionally, Himeka plays one half the part of a moe-crippled McGuffin, and a perfectly ordinary student council president Glasses Guy will fill the role of antagonist for the 24 episodes we have to wait until the real characters show up. Finally a boy named Mikorin will provide fanservice in his role as a heterochromatic pretty boy.

# How Does it Work?

Karin, an orphan, is struggling ... with loneliness and emptiness within her life. Enter fellow orphan Kazune, who along with his cousin Himeka introduces Karin to the fantastical world of being a magical girl. Despite the abuse Karin receives from him on account of her gender, the lure of a glamorous and meaningful life proves irresistible. Karin enters the conflict between Kazune and his arch-nemesis Glasses Guy as something akin to a chess piece within a larger conflict. That conflict is resolved with the intervention of characters introduced only within the final two episodes, victory abetted more or less by the power of friendship.

The animation art style excessively oversizes some cast member’s eyes as a kind of signature, to the point where I felt an uncanny valley-like effect at times. Voice work is average, although the male cast sound generally older than their implied middle-school age. Himeka stands out by employing a speaking style so slow that I feared she might suffocate if given too long a sentence.

The fight scenes possess extremely little choreography. There is no problem solving or thought exhibited, instead they appear to be merely endurance exercises punctuated by yelling at each other. Nothing materially occurs as a result of them until the final one. And then only with the sense that the writers felt like they were running out of time.

The slice of life elements work well. They concern Karin's struggle to get her needs for connection, acknowledgement, and validation met. These feel like what the show was made to do, the middle episodes which focus on Karin's life attending an exclusive private school representing the best of the show. They are a time of lightly absurdist comedy, romantic worries, and expressive reaction faces. What I liked best however was that even complete shock reaction faces (O_O) had smaller eyes than when drawn normally. It's perhaps unusual that the heart and soul of a magical girl show is found in the times when the eponymous character is trying to be a normal girl. But maybe that's the point of it all: One chooses the extraordinary in order to protect the ordinary because that's what matters most.

# Kazune as Emcee

Kazune is one half the driver of the plot (with the antagonist being the other). He acts as a patron towards Karin in exchange for enrolling her as a pawn on his side of the conflict. Representing an interesting take on the usual anime hero of his age, being a legit magical boy, more or less fine with wearing a dress, and having no objection even to implied homosexuality, he's kinda refreshing. However, aside from his desire to protect Himeka and to a lesser extent Karin, he hates girls and will explain why by method of insulting Karin throughout the series. By the end all I can really say in favour of him is that damn, he looks good in a dress.

Together he and Karin live with Himeka in a seemingly impractical 3-orphans-and-a-butler arrangement, tidally locked in a hidden conflict with the antagonist Glasses Guy. The plot of the first 24 episodes basically exists because Kazune and Glasses Guy refuse to talk about anything save fighting with each other (Karin suggests an entente, to be dismissed by both). They both seemed to be living in denial, using the fantastical situation as a refuge to avoid dealing with the grief and meaninglessness that awaited the orphans in the ordinary world. This situation remains static until the end where a new character is introduced to forcibly displace Kazune and Glasses Guy’s tired roles. After 26 episodes, I found this unsatisfying.

# Karin's Life vs Insignificance

Bereft of caring family and by the graveside of her only source of emotional support, Karin does not begin the series in a good state of mind. She responds with anger towards Kazune's constant disparagement, but lacks the confidence to disregard his opinions. I believe she comes to enjoy the attention from him because she simply has no other source of acceptance or acknowledgement within her life. Simply put, she is vulnerable, and despite appearances this is not a story about her gaining the strength to withstand this. It is a credit to Kamichama that she has such depth of character, even though the show sometimes cares little for her.

I do have to say it’s disappointing in a genre renowned for women being heroes for Karin to not rebut statements from Kazune that women need to be protected by men because they are incapable of doing so themselves. As a show notionally about a magical girl, why even introduce such statements to begin with? They have no place here.

There is a daydream sequence early in the series that is telling of Karin's desire for attention and significance. She grasps the glamour of being a magical girl because it is preferable to her experience in the real world. And this is the show's greatest fault: There is nothing for Karin but escapism. The ending doesn't provide any development for her, beyond the stultifying implication of her becoming the lead of a three-man harem.

# Romance and Frustration

Karin's relationships with women are an interesting facet of the series. However they are left unresolved, and any tension is handwaved away by the end. To the point of simply deleting and forgetting a character! These provided the most frustrating moments for me. Karin seems to be trying to escape the negative dynamic that she lives with, but avoids further developing relationships with people who care about her without also demanding from her. It's like she's inured to disregard of herself, and goes on to reject the unfamiliar. I wish the series dealt with the invalidating environment and emotional neglect that likely led her to act like this. I know it's a show about middle schoolers, aimed at grade schoolers, but there's a surprising depth of character here that the show neglects to explore.

Finally, there's a lot of titillation in the show. Kazune gets close and intimate in bed with another man, is publicly kissed by him, and gets the tired public bath treatment with Karin. She falls for both men and women, is the unwilling recipient of kisses from different men, is propositioned for a threesome, and then abducted via helicopter for an intended shotgun wedding. The show simply oozes desire and relationships, but it’s all swept under the rug by the end. And I'm not sure if any of it was ever intended to be more than fanservice.

# See Also

- Madoka for a more compelling take on Kamichama's methods and themes.
- Princess Tutu for a deeper exploration of love and sacrifice, with the contrast of an introverted main character.
- Sekai Seifuku for a more detailed and oddly more realistic story of orphan children struggling to build a home for themselves.
- Samurai Flamenco (perhaps tangentially) for being more concerned about rejecting the real world for the fantastical.

# Bonus: Moments I Loved

*Kazune emerges wearing a dress*
Karin: Kazune... kun? O_o
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Himeka: Kazune-chan. ^^
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Fried eel and ice cream.
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Almost every reaction face because even utter shock was drawn with smaller eyes than normal.
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And finally, when Himeka puts a pot on her head and marches off to war like a lone moe samurai.

SUMMARY
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Karin Hanazono, an orphaned junior high school girl, lived miserably with her mean aunt. Her cherished cat, Shii-chan, passed away on the same night she met a misogynistic youth, Kazune Kujyou. The following day, she acquainted with his cousin, Himeka Kujyou, and confronted the chauvinist about his rude attitude. The trio discovered Karin's ring (her mother's memento) held godly powers. The godly adventures Karin explored allowed her to face battles with the Karasuma twins, school and family life, uncover the mysteries about Professor Kazuto Kujyou and Suzuka Kujyou, and romance.

SCORECARD:
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Story: 5
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The plot was good, but not at all original and well-written (giving ... a point deduct for generic storytelling technique). The story pacing Koge-Donbo managed contained some major plotholes. For example, when Kirio wanted to destroy Karin's ring, we never knew what he really wanted to fulfill. The true answer about destroying rings came in the last minute, so I'll have to deduct 2 points for the story's sloppy pacing. The plot of the anime looked out-of-order. If you watched the first episode, we saw Karin already having three handsome boys who seemed ready to fight and demolish the seeds of chaos with upgraded godly powers. Those who were unfamiliar with the manga sequel, Kamichama Karin Chu, may find the opener confusing and unnecessary. The filler episodes had less to do with the plot (both anime and manga-wise), so the anime loses 2 more points. I gave the anime's story category a 5 due to its lack of originality, vagueness, and consistency.

Characters: 2
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All of the characters didn't have any single quality for me to favor them. I'll go directly to evaluate the star of the show. *drumroll*

Karin Hanazono: As far with her being the "shining star", she really was a dimwit. Aside from her appearing kawaii, she embodied as a stereotype towards women and girls. She never learned any of the mistakes she experienced during the previous battles as she was always impulsive on every battle she got herself involved with. She never even allowed herself to mentally and physically develop from her godly superpowers. She's ditzy, boy-crazy (in terms of fantasizing Kirika), and complaining quite often; and worst of all, being a doormat. Sad to say, I would rather have her be written out from the show. Judging on Karin's character traits, she really wasn't worthy to be considered a heroine.

Kazune Kujyou: Unbelievably my least or worst male lead in this show. I had more downs than ups when I dealt with him. At one point, he "cared" about Karin, and the next thing I saw was he basically treating Karin like shit. His demeaning, misogynistic remarks about Karin made me want to punch him in the face (much similar to how Karin reacted). This lad's negative attitude gave me the bad vibe that he's a two-faced asshole. He's also the one who was always solving Karin's problems whenever Karin was stupid enough to not solve her own issues; therefore, he should've been the real MC.

Himeka Kujyou: The secondary damsel-in-distress cute girl of this anime. I didn't find her much likable compared to Tomoyo Daidouji (both CCS and TRC). She actually looked & somewhat behaved like Tomoyo, but did Karin's makeover without respecting her consent. The major difference I speculated between Himeka and Tomoyo was Tomoyo had a stronger emotional intelligence. Himeka spent most of her role as Karin's sidekick or playmate, but not a useful one. It's also hard to tell whether Himeka's gestures towards Karin made her a true friend, or even a false one.

Michiru Nishikiori: A heterochromatic exchange student who's a year older than Karin & her year 1 classmates. He's supposed to be a supporting, comic relief character, but I found him overall annoying. When he transferred to school, I went WTF when he hugged Karin and kissed Kazune randomly (and I mean in public!). His pranks were very rude (I liked the crossdressing idea, but still), much similar to a typical delinquent in real life. The only positive trait I was able to get out from him was encouraging Karin and Kazuneto share their feelings they had for each other. The lone positive trait he had didn't consider him as remarkably likable.

The Karasuma Twins (Kirio and Kirika): The villains weren't much better than the heroes. Kirio is just your typical villain whose only role was to outsmart the heroes without a logical explanation. His plots for taking out the godly duo were childish too. Most of his attacks were random pop-outs. Instead of coming up with a diabolical plan, he and his reluctant twin sister continued to make failurific attempts to crush the heroes, only for them to get their asses kicked in the easy way. Kirika was a little better than her elder twin, but I could see her visibly weak as she seemed uncomfortable with his plans. I knew she had her reason for siding with her twin, but she could've bailed out sooner instead of betraying Karin. If she rebelled him more, then I would've seen some strength growing inside her.

My thoughts on the other characters: The other characters were basically bland appetizers. Yuuki Sakurai was supposed to play a somewhat major role in the manga; on the contrary, he was just Karin's schoolmate with a taste in violin and a crush with Miyon Yi. There were other characters who appeared out of the blue without any further explanations and actions upon their supposed roles. I also found Karin's pet name ironic because the word "Shii" (sounds cute? NOT!) literally means death (in both Chinese and Japanese. I expected Koge-Donbo sensei to come up with a better, creative name for the talking cat. I got the impression she always give her kitten characters with the "Nya-" on the front). The fangirls of Kazune were a bunch of irritating, obsessive bitches who were only here to bully Karin, nothing more. Overall, all of the characters I evaluated now had a bad amount of unlikability than I remembered back in middle school; and no, I had no sympathy for them all.

Enjoyment: 3
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The anime show only left me mostly irritated. I don't see much of it as a problem before, but now I found the whole thing childish and lame (e.g. Karin's incompetent attitude). There were a few heartfelt moments, but they did not melt my heart. I only got the impression of an unhealthy romance coming from the lead couple as their relationship seemed to fluctuate frequently. The filler episodes didn't seem to give out an energetic vibe compared to Cardcaptor Sakura and made me thought they had less relevance to the main plot.

Sound: 5
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Both the voice acting and the soundtrack were decent. All of the characters were voiced well except for Himeka. Himeka sounded so weak as talking seemed to make her lose a freakish amount of energy. I believed that whenever this little girl opened her mouth, she's ready to exhaust herself to death. Karin's voice grated me a lot considering the fact she's your typical tsundere, especially her constant screaming. The OP and ED songs were fairly rememberable, but I didn't find the opening song pleasant to listen. The theme song, Dark Heaven, is supposed to feel dark and mysterious, but it sounded more like your typical bad romance song. Both of the ending songs were pleasant to listen, especially the 2nd ED. The 2nd ED brought out good, relaxing vibes to cool you down on a bad day.

Art: 6
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The artwork was cute, but at its lowest point. The colors were rather commonplace, such as Karin's battle dress. Actually, most of the main shoujo leads' battle uniform and beam colors (excluding Sakura from CCS) were always pink, making the aesthetics less original. The animation had its errors, and were somewhat freaky to look at (link after the description). The buggy big eyes Koge-Donbo drew made the characters (mostly girls and little kids) appear like mutants or freak-eyed aliens. The fashion appearance was genericially lolita, so it didn't bump up the score.
https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/548153-derp

Overall: 4.2 (or 4)
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Kamichama Karin seemed interesting and cute based on the Greek mythology that should've been used to make the show outstanding back in my middle school years. Looking back at this show, the mythology concept was nothing more than a wasted potential. Instead, all I got was a set of Greek prince and princess with magic powers that only contained lasers. The characters I had discussed were far from lovable and made you have the nerve to jump into the screen and punch them in the face whenever they started some annoying shit. I would recommend this anime for those who dig for shoujo or anime beginners. I had also mentioned a bad amount of misogyny Kazune displayed; and for those who despise misogyny, please stay away from it at all costs!

Happy 4th of July to the US viewers and stay safe!