Kannagi (Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens)

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Japanese: かんなぎ

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Information

Type: TV

Episodes: 13

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Oct 4, 2008 to Dec 27, 2008

Premiered: Fall 2008

Broadcast: Saturdays at 22:30 (JST)

Producers: Aniplex, Sony Music Entertainment, Ichijinsha

Licensors: Bandai Entertainment

Studios: A-1 Pictures

Source: Manga

Genres: Comedy, Supernatural

Themes: School, Visual Arts

Demographic: Shounen

Duration: 23 min. per ep.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 7.28¹ (scored by 69,138 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #2867²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #1383

Members: 169,759

Favorites: 387

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Synopsis

When he was a child and out catching bugs, Jin Mikuriya fatefully encountered a deity, which became the inspiration for his newest piece of art: The Tree Spirit. Trying to think of a way to bring the wooden statue to school, Jin believes that the rest of the day will be spent admiring his work. But before he can even lift it, the sculpture begins to absorb the earth around it and explodes into a cute girl!

The girl, Nagi, who introduces herself as a guardian of the earth, proclaims that Jin must help her get rid of the "impurities" that plague the land. But alas, due to Nagi's tree being cut down and her powers completely drained, she finds herself cleansing the impurities with only a magical wand! With their lives now intertwined, Jin and Nagi find ways to learn more about one another through the endless amounts of daily antics.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Kannagi
Sequel:	Kannagi: Moshimo Kannagi ga Attara...

Tachiki, Fumihiko
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Iwakami, Atsuhiro

Producer

Ochikoshi, Tomonori

Producer

Shimizu, Akira

Producer

Yamamoto, Yutaka

Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

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Opening Theme

"motto☆Hade ni ne! (motto☆派手にね！)" by Haruka Tomatsu

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Ending Theme

	1: "Musuhi no Toki (産巣日の時)" by Haruka Tomatsu (eps 1-9, 11-12)
	2: "Theme of Shiligeya（しりげやのテーマ）" by Shilige Team (eps 10)
	3: "motto☆Hade ni ne! (motto☆派手にね！)" by Haruka Tomatsu (eps 13)

Reviews

Feb 3, 2024

Rian_Rahmat

Recommended

Kannagi is one of the anime that I often re-watch when new anime stock runs out.
In my opinion, the only thing I like about this anime is Nagi, nothing else, such as the storyline, characters and story background.

The weakness of this anime is the uncertain storyline, for the opening of the story I quite liked it, it tells about life at school, comedy, and so on.

But not in the future, this anime has no clear direction and purpose, what does this anime actually want to convey?
Suddenly quarreling for trivial reasons, or running away from home for other trivial reasons.

But even so, I still quite like ...

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Nov 14, 2019

vitriolcocktail

Mixed Feelings

Kannagi is a very deceptive show. It starts out making you think it's going to have a big focus on the plot but quickly turns into a slice of life comedy with some strange harem vibes.

(Some spoilers)

The premise is fairly straightforward. High schooler Jin makes a wood sculpture that turns into Nagi, a goddess in the flesh. She moves in with him and they set out to figure out her purpose in this world.

Once the basic premise is laid out, this anime takes a U-turn and instead focuses more on the character interactions and comedic situations. Don't get me wrong, I like well written ... comedy and this anime has some well written comedy.

What I dislike is that this anime shifts gear so often, it's like the writers didn't know what they wanted to go for. Every episode has a different direction. You might watch one episode which has no plot progression and just focuses on silly comedic situations, and then the next episode will have a huge focus on character development, romance and plot progression. It's just totally bizarre, almost fever dream-esque.

The comedy, as I mentioned, is pretty good if lacking in consistency a bit.

The romance annoyed me a lot. Jin has a childhood friend (Tsugumi) who constantly fawns over him and wishes he would notice her, but he never does. In fact he seems to almost ignore her most of the time. I am very tired of this worn out trope and I wish they would either have her confess to him or quit her moping already. All it did was serve as a distraction from the real love plot, which is between Jin and Nagi. Although to be honest that love plot is also kind of strange since she's supposed to be a goddess. But whatever. All in all, if you want a serious love plot then this isn't it. Nothing gets resolved and by the end you'll just be shaking your head in disbelief.

Side note: what the hell is up with Zange-chan? Why is everyone okay with her just possessing some random girl? That's kind of fucked up, man. You could write entire paragraphs about the morality of having a goddess possess an unwilling human being. In this show it's all fun and games though, apparently, even after the characters discover what Zange-chan is doing.

The plot doesn't really get resolved in this anime, the climax of the show seems to be Nagi throwing a tantrum and leaving Jin for a few days. He eventually goes and finds her and they make up and he vows to help her figure out her purpose.

I should mention i did not read the manga. Maybe the manga fleshes out the plot more but from what you see in the show, the plot doesn't really go anywhere. By episode 2 or 3, everything you need to know about the plot will have been revealed. You could basically cut out all the episodes between episode 3 and 14 and you wouldn't be missing any information.

The art in this anime is very interesting. The animation is more fleshed out than your average anime which I think is definitely worthy of praise. Anime these days just doesn't have this level of effort in the animation, most of the time.

Despite these shortcomings I still got some enjoyment out of this show. Although if we're being honest, it was mostly the comedy that I enjoyed. The romance plot and storyline are both dead ends. I give it a strong 6 out of 10.

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Dec 19, 2016

Singan

Not Recommended

Kannagi is a little deceptive kind of series: it may look like fantasy at first, yet soon it ends up a harem/moe comedy with insignificant fantasy elements, and well, it isn't nearly as good as some people make it out to be.

STORY & CHARACTERS
First, the major part of the "plot" is taken up by endless dialogues about nothing at the pace of a crippled snail. Perhaps, fans of K-On! and similar series may enjoy that, but I personally consider it to be nothing more than a boring waste of time.
Second, the "story" is essentially a generic harem with your cookie-cutter boy-protagonist who allows a girl ... to live at his place, and how that girl and two other girls compete for his attention. That's the base, and the authors apparently try to add some other aspects to make the anime more entertaining, yet that eventually turns the "plot" into a total illogical mess:
- the series starts as fantasy, with the heroine taking on the duty to destroy some shadow creatures because it's supposed to be a purpose of a goddess - to protect the land from the negative energy those creatures are made of;
- then this mission suddenly gets abandoned, and she starts rivaling another goddess for popularity, making the show a parody on pop-idols;
- then this plotline also gets abandoned with no conclusion, and the anime shows several comedy fillers;
- and then out of nowhere it becomes a serious drama.
None of those parts are logically connected, and nothing gets solved by the end, as the show has an open ending and no sequel whatsoever. Overall, it looks like those who wrote this "story" tried to appeal to different groups of viewers but totally failed to tie various elements together and make a proper conclusion.
Third, the only outstanding character here is Nagi - the female lead who somewhat reminds me of Holo from Spice & Wolf: she's cute, very likeable and lots of fun to follow. The other characters aren't nearly as interesting and memorable since they are only some shallow anime stereotypes that never develop into anything.
All in all, my experience with this "story" & characters may be described as boredom with occasional sparks of entertainment when Nagi comes into play with her tricks & shenanigans. Basically, she's the main attraction of the show and the only aspect I truly enjoyed about it.

ANIMATION & SOUND
The animation utilizes fitting colour palette and shows nice fluency of motion. In general, it's good but not really something to brag about. As for the sound department, the voice-acting is quite remarkable, especially when it comes to Nagi who sometimes uses archaic Japanese words in her speech: not only it sounds rather amusing, but it also might be interesting to those who study the language. Sadly, the musical score doesn't match the voice-acting: it's bland and absolutely forgettable except for the ending song.

OVERALL
The series might be enjoyable if you're ok with the extremely slow pace and the numerous plot issues it has (in other words: if you don't care whether the anime you watch is exciting and has a logical and conclusive plot). As for me, I personally like the comedy fillers: for example, the episode where Nagi locks herself up in the cupboard is very funny indeed. However, the rest of the show is pretty boring and nonsensical.

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Model Town of Kannagi Destroyed by Tsunami

Mangaka Takenashi Eri updated her official website and announced that the coast area of Shichigahama, the model town of Kannagi, was completely destroyed by the 10 m...read more

Mar 22, 2011 7:28 AM by dtshyk | Discuss (33 comments)

Kannagi Licensed by Bandai and Streamed Online

Kannagi and its DVD Special was licensed by Bandai Entertainment in North America. Episode 1 and 2 are now streamed on the official website and the new episodes will...read more

Jul 16, 2009 4:44 PM by dtshyk | Discuss (18 comments)

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Poll: Kannagi Episode 13 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) DeadIEnd - Dec 27, 2008	222 replies	by __FK__ »» Feb 21, 12:36 PM
SEASON 2 WHERE?!!!?!? KhoaVN - Sep 24, 2023	1 replies	by TheChainsawMan »» Sep 24, 2023 8:55 AM
...I could eat three bowls of rice formosan - Feb 12, 2009	2 replies	by KhoaVN »» Sep 24, 2023 7:43 AM
Poll: Kannagi Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) dtshyk - Oct 4, 2008	159 replies	by KhoaVN »» Sep 24, 2023 7:38 AM
Poll: Kannagi Episode 10 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) sniW - Dec 6, 2008	176 replies	by 3miL »» Mar 18, 2023 12:29 AM

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