Kannazuki no Miko - Review

Title: Kannazuki no Miko (Priestess of the Godless Month)
Genre: Drama, Romance, Supernatural, Mecha, Shoujo Ai
Score: 8/10


Summary:
For Kurusegawa Himeko, Himemiya Chikane is a vision of perfection, which she admires from afar. Smart, athletic and beautiful, Chikane turns heads wherever she goes. However, when tragedy strikes, and the ancient evil, Orochi threatens to end them, Himeko and Chikane find out that they’re the priestesses of the sun and moon, and must work together to seal Orochi once more.

Static-Subs is already present way back 2004?! O__O That’s really impressive its been what 8 yrs? Whoa..

Are you willing to be hated, to sacrifice your life, your existence to be erased just to save the person you love?


Story: 7/10 
The series started off with your typical normal girl got caught up with the supernatural and now bad guys are after her. Sure this series isn’t unique but what sets it apart from other shows is its very interesting plot about the relationship of the 3 protagonist of the story (Chikane, Himeko and Souma). It was well analyzed and the way Chikane’s actions was justified at the end was nicely played  out. That’s the problem with this series, the plot involving with the love triangle of Chikane, Himeko and Souma are a lot more interesting than watching the main plot unfold.

The thing that eat out a chunk of the score of the story is the presence of mecha in this series. It seems like it was accidentally placed there and instead of making the show exciting it just annoyed me. It doesn’t contribute much in the story so yes I’m wondering why it was even present in this series since they could use the other Orochi and just let them have superpowers which I think could have worked better. The thing why the mecha didn’t work in this series is the lack of explanation about it and their capabilities. The battle just felt forced with the mecha releasing cheesy named special attack and boom the enemy is defeated it really felt like the writer just shoved the outcome down my throat without explanations.

Don’t get me wrong I still love the story in this series with japanese folklore mixed in it and that’s another reason why I found this series intriguing. Yes they could have done better in the execution of the story but its fine I guess since the writers were able to drag me into that interesting love triangle. If you haven’t noticed the genre category then I think my statement about the love story of a boy and 2 girls might have mislead you into thinking that the 2 girls are after the guy. Nope the other girl and the guy is after the girl and like I said, its really fun to watch their story. I think if you don’t like yuri/shoujo ai then I think you should stay away from this series.

Characters: 8/10
Ah one of the things this series could boast is its main characters. I just love how Chikane justified her actions at the end and the way Himeko forgave her is also impressive since if I’m in Himeko’s shoes and my best friend did those things to me I’d definitely get mad. I also like the way the writers build up Chikane’s characters since at first she was depicted as the embodiment of perfection but in the end she has her limit. Its really fun to watch characters with flaws and good thing Chikane isn’t annoying or stupid at all though you might think she did some stupid decisions at first but as you get at the end with that hear wrenching climax that she did what she did for the person she loved (oh lol does that even make sense?). Souma is quite interesting to watch too since he’s willing to give up his life just to protect Himeko and even though he didn’t win at the end he accepted his defeat in a manly way and with that I have to commend his character.

If only this series had a good antagonist then I might have given it a higher score in the character department.
The bad guys here are your usual archetype and are forgettable. The conflict they provide is often times episodic and sometimes doesn’t make any sense. The only bad guy that provided an interesting problem was the nun (forgot her name) and thank to his actions things have gotten a lot interesting. The most worthy conflict I found in this series is probably Chikane against herself since her struggle for her feelings and her actions is really intriguing you’ll feel bad for her and you’ll even end up shouting at Himeko that she’s an idiot.     

Animation: 7/10
The overall animation of KnM is just average if I compare it to other series that was aired on the same year from the likes of Elfen Lied, My-HIME, Gundam SEED etc) but I have to admit there were some instances that the animation was fluid but if I’m not mistaken it was very rare. Mid-series where you’ll expect some budget cuts, the animation got a little wonky that sometimes the eyes of the characters are not proportional anymore. I love the way they used the lighting in this series to show the mood of the certain scene. I also have to commend the character design since the characters are nice to look at (specially Chikane, Himeko and Souma).

Sound: 9/10
I think this series hold back on its animation budget to blow it all on the soundtrack. I love both of the OP and ED song which was both sung by KOTOKO. The OP “Re-sublimity” gets you really pumped up for the episode and add that nicely directed OP sequence that gives us a glimpse of what is to come….I’m totally sold. The ED “Agony” is also catchy but even though the ED sequence is just a still illustration, it is also engaging with the switching from Chikane to Himeko which is in time with the music. Gosh that illustration is really lovely and it pushed a lot of good buttons on me and it made me REALLY, REALLY, HAPPY XD. The BGMs are successful in ripping out the right emotion out of you and that enhances the emotion you see visually…its really breathtaking.  

“Re-sublimity” gets you pumped up for the episode.

Hmmmmm…DAT DELICIOUS ILLUSTRATION!

Enjoyment: 8/10
If your interested in watching a really unique love story with a hint of yuri drama in it and could easily forgive the flaws of this series then I think you’ll enjoy this one like I do. Though if your looking for mecha action and dislike yuri then better look for another thing to watch instead since this series is not for you. When I browsed the manga I found out that it is more intense than the anime so I think regular anime watchers won’t cringe away from the Yuri present in here. Thank you Kannazuki no Miko that was a fun ride….the yuri loving person in me is really happy. Now, time to read the manga and decide which is better….

OVERALL: 8/10 (Preffered Watch)

until then…

~ja