Kamichama Karin

Thirteen-year-old Karin Hanazono feels like her life can't get any worse, Her parents died when she was younger, leaving her with an aunt who doesn't hesitate to call her stupid and useless over her poor grades. Her only friend, her cat named Shii-chan, passed away recently, leaving her completely alone. All she has left of her parents is a ring given to her by her mother, which she treasures dearly as the sole thing left of her past.

Kamichama Karin begins the moment her life takes a turn for the better, when she is approached by Himeka Kuujou, a cute girl who has also lost her parents, and Kazune Kuujou, her cousin who finds girls to be troublesome, both of whom are searching for a goddess. Her mother's memento ring shines brightly in their presence and fills her with its radiance, making her smarter, faster, and capable of granting wishes. It turns out that her ring allows her to become the very goddess they were looking for, and now that she has awakened that power, others will come after her for it…

Kujou, Kazune Main

Sawashiro, Miyuki Japanese

Hanazono, Karin Main

Nakahara, Mai Japanese

Kujou, Himeka Main

Shitaya, Noriko Japanese

Suzune Supporting

Koyama, Kimiko Japanese

Nishikiori, Michiru Supporting

Ishida, Akira Japanese

Shii-chan Supporting

Katou, Nanae Japanese

Kuga, Jin Supporting

Suzuki, Tatsuhisa Japanese

Karasuma, Kirio Supporting

Asanuma, Shintaro Japanese

Karasuma, Rika Supporting

Yoshizumi, Kozue Japanese

Kazusa Supporting

Miyazaki, Ui Japanese

Takahashi, Tomoko Producer

Yoshino, Aya Producer

Takahata, Yuuichirou Producer

Annou, Takashi Director

Reviews

Sep 28, 2013

AnimeAwesomes117

Recommended

Kamichama Karin is a anime that includes very well written romance and very cute characters! I thoroughly enjoyed the romance. However I did not like the plot twist, the ending or the last 4 episodes at all. I thought it was overall complex. I did in fact enjoy the humor alot. It has medicore sound and art, nothing spectacular. Overall I enjoyed this anime. It was very cute and it was decent.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Mar 25, 2016

GingerMuggins

Mixed Feelings

Sorry if this seems long, I have a lot of personal back story with this puppy.

I grew up with anime ever since I was five years old and saw my very first episode of "Sailor Moon" on TV. I also grew up with Studio Ghibli films. Anime was always there, but I didn't realize what it truly was until I was about 10 years old. My older sister was starting to get into anime, and so naturally I followed in her footsteps, because older siblings were cool, yo. We got into reading manga, but there was a problem: my parents were a bit strict ... on ratings. My sister could read manga that said "for 13 and older", because she was 13, but I couldn't, because I was 10. Thus, for the first couple of years of my anime and manga life, I was mostly stuck with magical girls and stuff intended for younger audiences. I didn't really mind, though, because it was anime and manga and to me, that was all that mattered.

My very first manga was volume 1 of "Di Gi Charat", characters created by Koge-Donbo, and I loved it. Being a big fan of "Di Gi Charat", I searched for more of Koge-Donbo's works. I begged to get the "Pita-Ten" manga (I wasn't 13 yet) because it was by my goddess Koge-Donbo! For Christmas I got the first three volumes and was so excited I thought my eleven-year old mind would implode.

Imagine my excitement when Koge-Donbo released "Kamichama Karin". I ate up that manga like Ponyo ate up ham. Mmm. It also pleased me because I was REALLY into Greek Mythology. Our class in seventh grade spent a whole month on Greek Mythology and to this day was one of the most interesting and entertaining subjects I have ever learned in a classroom. I told my teacher about "Kamichama Karin" and how it had references to Greek Mythology! I was so pleased!

When they announced a "Kamichama Karin" anime, I'm pretty sure I almost peed my pants. I watched it over and over, and even made "Kamichama Karin" AMVs in the eighth grade *cringe*. For the longest time, "Kamichama Karin" was the greatest thing to happen to me in my entire life.

So what the hell happened? I grew up.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love magical girl anime to death. And I'm not just talking about using the magical genre for social commentary like in "Puella Magi Madoka Magica", but the legitimate magical girl stuff. "Sailor Moon", "Cardcaptor Sakura", "Princess Tutu", "Saint Tail", I love these shows! They told girls like me that I can be super feminine and still kick ass.

"Kamichama Karin" tells me that, sure, you can have all of these cool powers, but you're going to really suck at them and constantly need help from guys to save your hiney.

Looking back on "Kamichama Karin" as an adult, it's really upsetting. I looked upon this anime so fondly from sixth to eighth grade, and it's like it was all meant for nothing. The things I liked about it during those days suddenly seemed meaningless.

Like the Greek Mythology. How cool of an idea is that? Anime characters harnessing the power of the gods and goddesses? Well, they don't really do much with it. They just kind of say "Karin, you have the power of Athena", and don't really do anything with it. Imagine how cool it would be if they dove into the history of Greek Mythology and tied that to the story, but there is no point to having Greek Myth in this story. You could've replaced the gods and goddesses with "the guardians of the tundras of CandyLand" and it would've made as much sense.

Also, magical girl anime is supposed to be where female characters shine. So why is Karin so useless? She hardly uses her power, and when she does, it either doesn't work or doesn't have a big payoff. It's usually Kazune who does all the work (and by all the work, I mean say what his power is, shoot a beam of light, and the bad guy going "oh no, you got me, i'll get you next time!").

Karin is such a disappointing character. I don't mind that she doesn't get good grades, I don't mind that she's awkward and clumsy, and I don't mind that she butts heads with Kazune. What I DO mind is how her character is portrayed as weak because she is feminine. Like I said, she never uses her powers. And instead of seeing character progression and seeing her become stronger (like Usagi Tsukino in "Sailor Moon"), she learns nothing. What's the point of a protagonist in a magical girl anime that doesn't learn anything or gain anything? Instead we just see her fawning over Kazune and Kirika.

I also think the anime didn't adapt the manga very well. While I'm not forgiving the manga for its share of flaws, taking out important plot points and characters is just a big mistake for an adaptation. Yuuki is actually supposed to be a more important character in the manga (even if that plot point isn't written very well at all), but in the anime his character is "boy who plays violin that Miyon likes". Also, there was a character in the manga named Ami who appeared. She's no where in the anime. Granted, she wasn't the most important character ever, but it would've been nice to include her. I'm not saying manga-to-anime adaptations have to follow every single thing, but maybe they could've been used to improve the anime.

Also, one of my absolute biggest pet peeves was the voice acting for Himeka. Everyone else was fine, but Himeka was so annoying. I have never heard a character speak so slowly in my life. This is the voice that I imagine if you gave drying paint a voice. You know when the teacher called on that one kid in class to read and it takes ten minutes for them to get through a sentence and you're sitting there trying not to squirm from the pain? That's Himeka's voice.

So, uh, what do I like about the show?

Believe it or not, I do like some of the characters. Some. I like Kirika and Kirio. I don't think Kirio is one of the greats in anime villain history, but I wish we had more focus on his relationship with Kirika and Himeka Karasuma. I feel like more people would've sympathized with him. I also like Michiru. Except when he gets rapey and decides to randomly kiss people. Eh. I've also always really liked Kazusa and wish both the manga and the show had more focus on her, because she's kind of like, "hello, it is I, a character that is said to be important", and proceeds to not really do anything important. But I would've loved to see an episode focused on her instead of six more scenes where Karin punches Kazune and calls him a sexist pig.

I also thought the anime did a better job with some relationships. While I was just saying how I wish it showed Kirio's relationships more, I really liked how Karin was able to see how important Himeka Karasuma was to him. I even liked the moments between both Himeka's, because we never saw anything like that in the manga.

The animation is OK, but is pretty infamous for its "quality". If you google "anime quality" in images, one of the very first things you'll see is the very infamous "Karin fish eye" screenshot from episode 4. And yes, it's hilarious. Luckily the rest of the show looks better and they did fix up some of the mistakes for the DVD release, but it still has its share of hiccups, like some more fish eyes, some anatomy errors, hair looking too long or too short, or clothes looking too big or too small.

Ok, I think it's about time to wrap this up. I've spent most of my time criticizing, so you would think I would give this anime a lower score. And yeah, maybe I should've given this a 3 (I give 4's to anime I find laughably bad). But I'm not going to, because I can't forget how "Kamichama Karin" was a big part of my life at some point.

I adored the manga, and I did watch the anime almost religiously. My "Kamichama Karin" AMV's and fanfiction were cringy and not very good, but it did help me understand good writing and good editing. Now that I've grown up, I can see the flaws pouring out. But I can't deny that once in my life, it was one of the few things I clung onto with such passion.

So, to finally wrap this all up, would I recommend this to anyone? I think magical girl anime fans will like it well enough, although it might not be the greatest thing ever. I think beginner anime watchers might enjoy it too, the same way I enjoyed it when I was beginning to really get into anime. Eventually, though, I think when you grow up you can understand that, no, maybe it really isn't all that great as it seemed.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Jul 4, 2020

powerpufftsubasa

Not Recommended

SUMMARY
----------
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:
________________
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
------------
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)
-----------------
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!

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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