Kannagi

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]

Nagi Main

Tomatsu, Haruka Japanese

Zange Main

Hanazawa, Kana Japanese

Aoba, Tsugumi Main

Sawashiro, Miyuki Japanese

Mikuriya, Jin Main

Shimono, Hiro Japanese

Akiba, Meguru Supporting

Kakihara, Tetsuya Japanese

Kimura, Takako Supporting

Hayamizu, Risa Japanese

Hibiki, Daitetsu Supporting

Hoshino, Takanori Japanese

Lolikko Cutie Supporting

MAKO Japanese

Maid Cafe Manager Supporting

Ootsuka, Houchuu Japanese

Kamimori, Mr. Supporting

Tachiki, Fumihiko Japanese

Iwakami, Atsuhiro Producer

Ochikoshi, Tomonori Producer

Shimizu, Akira Producer

Yamamoto, Yutaka Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Sep 7, 2024

lithiumcarbonate

Recommended

I just finished Kannagi in 2024 and this harem comedy, while obviously a bit dated today has so much charm and timeless humor. The comedy in this show is top notch and the characters are surprisingly well developed and varied for an anime in this genre. The voice acting and writing are subtle yet so good, there were just so many good lines in this show. My personal favorite, “It’s a Sony”. The opening song and animation just grab your heart with moe and make you feel good. There is fan service as expected but it’s tasteful compared to most ecchi, Kannagi gives the impression ... of a refined yet still a bit sexy and voyeuristic version of an ecchi show.

The story doesn’t really go anywhere and poor communication or over the top reactions make up the majority of the conflicts in the show. I’ll be the first to admit it does not have the strongest plot but honestly the point of Kannagi isn’t a great plot. The point is to enjoy the amazing animation and design of the show and have fun with the characters and comedy which is well developed throughout. It’s a little bit pervy, a little bit silly, a little bit smart, and even a little bit touching at times, and always funny. The main love interest has that best girl magnetic power even though she’s childish and selfish at times, you can’t help but love her. The childhood best friend is cute and helpful and though she plays into the classic jealousy trope we still get different views of her throughout the story. This show does a great job of using romance anime tropes without them feel tired.

The use of the ending and beginning songs throughout the story in the sound design was great. I love that they did a karaoke episode and that the op is performed by the main voice actress. I thought the themes of tradition and mythology being overtaken by modernity and technological development were interesting even if they weren’t explored very much, along with other plot points like the hinted multiple personalities in certain characters. Overall I loved this show and it’s continued to stay in my mind after watching because I think it really has a unique charm in the style and animation.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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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.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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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.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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