Rating:  

The fact that there are lesbians in Kannazuki no Miko shouldn’t be a big deal. This is the 21^st century after all, and I live in America, a >cough< enlightened country. And if sales of yaoi manga are any indication, anime fans are especially enlightened concerning homosexuality.

Unfortunately, the girl-on-girl love in Kannazuki no Miko is a big deal- but only because the unusual love triangle is the only thing the show has going for it.

The series opens in one of those fantastic, elite prep schools that doesn’t actually exist outside of anime. Himeko, one of a vast legion of orphaned anime characters, stays in the school dorms. She is the sort of girl we’re supposed to love: quiet, kind, timid, unbearably sweet. Except to a jaded old lady like me, it’s all too easy to see why her classmates feel contempt for her; she simply won’t stand up for herself. One of Himeko’s classmates doesn’t participate in tormenting her, however. Chikane is beautiful, kind abd good at everything, from archery to playing the piano. She’s the object of every girl-crush in the school, and is expected to marry Ohgami, her equally perfect male counterpart. But Ohgami actually likes Himeko…and so does Chikane.

The girls are secretly best friends (why this is kept secret is never really explained) and share a birthday. But their planned joint birthday party is interrupted when a hot chick in a mech attacks the school. Her targets appear to be Chikane and Himeko, but the girls are saved when Ohgami suddenly appears in his own mech and drives the attacker away.

It turns out that there is an evil god (or spirit, or something) named Orochi, who once attempted to destroy humanity and turn the Earth into a demon realm. He was defeated by a pair of priestesses, the Solar priestess and the Lunar priestess, and exiled to the moon. The girls, of course, are the reincarnations of these priestesses, and now that their powers are about to awaken Orochi has decided to get rid of them and make another bid at world domination. Ohgami is one of the Seven Necks, Orochi’s servants, but somehow he was placed on Earth and adopted by a human family. Because of his love for Himeko, he vows to resist Orochi and fight against him and his minions. Ohgami’s older brother is the fount of all this knowledge, and he also wants to begin training the girls in their priestess duties.

They agree of course, because otherwise there wouldn’t be a show. The rest of the first volume involved Himeko and Chikane putting on cool clothes and learning spells, fighting off the once-an-episode attacks from Orochi’s servants and engaging in encounters fraught with sexual tension.

Kannazuki no Miko takes elements common to all kinds of anime series and attempts to combine them into something unique- mecha, ancient evils, reincarnation, high school, yuri etc. It’s a laudable effort, but sadly, instead of being eccentrically cool, the result is boring and occasionally laughable.

The main problem with the show is that the characters are nothing more than bundles of stereotypes. Chikane is the perfect princess. Himeko is the blameless heroine. Ohgami is the determined pretty boy. Chikane and Ohgami are determined to protect Himeko; Himeko laments that she is too weak to protect them and vows to become stronger and so on…

In an attempt to be funny (I think), Orochi’s minions are a bunch of comedy-anime rejects: one is a muscle-headed jerk with a breast obsession, one is a reclusive manga artist, one is a pop idol (who apparently just released her first CD, despite living on the moon), yet another is a freaky-cute nurse/catgirl. Instead of being funny or whimsical, these guys just look stupid. It’s hard to respect the bad guy when his henchmen look like a bunch of high school outcasts who lack any air of menace. Likewise, the decision to use mecha as weapons is an interesting choice, but it doesn’t work out as well as the creator probably hoped. The giant robots are completely incongruous with the rest of the storyline. At least the mecha designs are different: one looks, absurdly, like a huge metal egg.

The character designs are pretty standard for modern shoujo- unbelievably slender, stacked girls and big-eyed boys. The girls also have insanely long hair (though, at least in Himeko’s case, there seems to be a reason for it). The animation is digital and very fluid; sadly, that’s not much of a compliment anymore thanks to digital animation techniques.

Both casts, in both Japanese and English, do a fine job; in both Himeko has the whispery-chirpy voice of a typical shoujo heroine, while Chikane speaks in richer tones (another stereotype- Chikane, taller, darker, stronger, will obviously be the dominant person in this budding relationship. Maybe yuri has more in common with yaoi than I thought). The opening and ending themes are more typical shoujo fare. The opening, Re-sublimity, is cheery and energetic, while agony, the ending theme, is a sad, slow love song. Geneon did a decent job with the release. The extras include the usual trailers and clean opening/ending animation.

There’s not a lot of yuri being released in the United States right now. This is shame, because there are many great yuri manga and anime series out there- stuff that is much better than Kannazuki no Miko. If you desperately want to see some yuri and this is all that is available to you, go for it. The love triangle between the girls and Ohgami is the only interesting thing about the series. But if you have access to any other type of yuri, I recommend you read or watch it instead.

Details

Publisher: Geneon
Director:
Stars: 2
Running Time: 100 minutes
MPAA Rating: N/R
MSRP: $29.98
Release Date: 4/25/06
Buy:

http://www.amazon.com/Kannazuki-No-Miko-Solar-Priestess/dp/B000CRR2OI/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1220907915&sr=8-3