What would you do if you suddenly became a god?
When little Yurie, a junior high school student, discovers that she is a god, she is beside herself in
indecision and asks her friends. Thus begins her new life exploring what it means to be a god and her
struggle to properly fulfill all the responsibilities it entails. From finding stray gods to dealing
with Martians, her life is about to become more than ordinary.
(Source: Geneon Entertainment)
_Kamichu_ is an anime that I vaguely knew about, mainly through looking through Anime News Network, but it didn't really catch my interest when I was younger. If I had watched this when I was a kid, I probably wouldn't have liked it. But I was bored one day and decided to sit down and watch _Kamichu_, since I wanted something different to watch...and I'm really glad I did, because _Kamichu_ is absolutely adorable and criminally underrated. It hasn't even gotten a blu-ray release over here, and the last time it got released in America was in 2008, when FUNimation rescued it along with other Geneon titles to put out since Geneon kicked the bucket. I even like this series enough that I actually bought the old FUNi DVD boxset recently. Yurie Hitotsubashi is your regular average, awkward, unassuming girl living in 1980s Onomichi, Japan. She deals with all the typical things girls her age worry about: studying for tests, hanging with her friends, and crushing on the cute boy in her class. But one day, out of nowhere, Yurie finds that she...became a God. How or why, the show never explains. She tells her friend Mitsue about this, but naturally, Mitsue doesn't quite believe it. Another classmate, local shrine priestess Matsuri, believes her right away and worms her way into Yurie's life, mainly so she can use her new divinity to make money and keep her family's shrine from being shut down. Together they set out to uncover Yurie's supposed powers and place in the world of Japanese Shinto, where cities, places, objects and even concepts can all have their own minor deities, and the girls encounter a little more than they had bargained for. If you're looking for an anime that perfectly encapsulates the term slice-of-life and is just all around warm and charming without being overly so, then _Kamichu_ is the anime for you, because the anime is mainly pure, distilled slice-of-life. Even though Yurie suddenly became a God, complete with using magic and making stuff happen because she wills it, the series doesn't treat it as an earth shattering miracle, but rather an after school job that comes with its own sets of problems, so her new Godhood isn't just there to be used to magically solve problems with a flick of a finger like most modern anime tend to do these days with OP protags. The thing that makes _Kamichu_ stand out from other slice-of-life anime with a hint of magic and otherworldly creatures is how committed it is to being as down-to-earth as humanly possible. From the characters all the way down to the situations they find themselves in, none of it is overly dramatized or made into a huge deal. The various Gods and deities that Yurie and her friends encounter are treated as just a regular part of every day life, even with their cartoony, fantastical designs that contrast with the more realistic designs of the human characters. On the animation front, the show just oozes small town charm in every day. The human characters all have believable, realistic designs that make them feel like people you'd run into on the street, and the animation further empathizes their humanity with kinetic, fluid movement that's used for pretty much everything, like running, walking, squirming, and crawling. Every movement the characters make is treated as a full body experience, like the animators really understood the physics of human movement. Even the characters' facial expressions are full of life, empathizing expressiveness over super sparkly eyes and doll-like aesthetics. The backgrounds have just as much love put into them, with the town the characters live in actually feeling lived in. Crumbling stone stairs, shabby buildings, cracked sidewalks, lots of trees and sunshine, and Matsuri's world weary shrine are all given a lot of attention and care. A lot of the set pieces used in the series are actually based on real locales and landmarks in Onomichi, even though parts of it are inaccurate in regards to their places in the real world (Apparently Yurie's house is based on one in the mainland, so IRL she wouldn't have needed to use a ferry to get to school every day). All of these things in and of themselves would be interesting enough, but apparently, the creators of the anime weren't satisfied with the fact that they had to air 12 episodes, so not only did they make four extra episodes as OVAs but treated them as part of the main series, but for the DVD releases, they even went as far as to add new footage and material to the already existing episodes to refine them and make them better than the broadcast version. Other than a few exceptions, that almost never happens anymore, and I applaud director Koji Masunari and his team for going the extra mile for their creations. Now if only American content creators were allowed that same freedom. The music also remains true to the show's overall down-to-earth tone. Pastoral piano tunes, strings, woodwinds, soft guitars, and harmonicas all give _Kamichu_ that gentle, small town charm. The characters are the same way as well. The main characters all have their own unique quirks, personalities, strengths, weaknesses, and idiosyncrasies that make them feel interesting and relatable, and the show is careful to portray them as naturally and organically as possible, coaxing emotions out of the audience and making them feel earned rather than trying to wring them out of you through artificial means like over-the-top backstories or having the characters only have one single personality trait. Looking at you, Prima Doll. Most of the characters are pretty likeable...with one major exception: Kenji, Yurie's crush. I'm gonna be blunt, this guy is bland as all hell, and not only that, he's such a brainless idiot it's not even funny. Why does Yurie like this guy again? I know crushes can be weird, but...I don't know. Yurie doesn't have as much chemistry with him compared to her two friends. Even two minor characters, Miko and Shokichi, have a more believable romantic chemistry than Yurie does with Kenji. But Kenji isn't the only problem the show has, unfortunately. As much as I love _Kamichu_'s more laid-back take on its premise, the show's intentionally slow, leisurely pace and more lightweight stories may not appeal to those who prefer their shows to have more action, conflict, or more meat to them. Hell, one episode is entirely about just Yurie lazing around the house under a kotatsu, that's it. Furthermore, episode 4 is a particular point of contention because its whole tone completely clashes with the rest of the show and disrupts it entirely. In that one, Yurie heads to Japan's parliament to deal with a cute pink alien visitor, which is not only too far-fetched, but takes the audience out of the appealing small-town setting. I personally didn't hate it, as parts of it were cute, and Yurie manages to do something surprisingly clever in order to help solve the main problem, but I can absolutely see why people wouldn't like this episode. Like I mentioned before, _Kamichu_ never explains how Yurie became a god or why, and the show just expects you to go with it without question. That being said, none of these things really killed my enjoyment of _Kamichu_. Now, the only reason I like other similar shows more than this, such as _Natsume's Book of Friends_ and _Haibane Renmei_ are that Natsume and Haibane have more of a conflict going on and do more with their characters, with Natsume having more episodes and therefore more time to do what it needs to do. Kamichu is simply a sweet, wholesome, charming show that's content to be as down-to-earth and pleasant as humanly possible without coming across as artificial or obnoxious. Having come off the absolute saccharine mess that was _Prima Doll_, that show relied so much on being as cutesy moe as possible that it did so at the expense of literally everything else and refused to make its characters interesting or likeable in any way. Kamichu's more subdued, restrained outlook works because the show knows that simplicity works better than trying to be over-the-top. Kamichu as an anime knows what it is and doesn't try to be anything it isn't, actually caring about its characters and stories. If you're looking to own the show legally, it's actually a lot easier than you think. The series isn't legally streaming anywhere right now, and the original Geneon DVDs are out of print, but you can find copies of them on places like Amazon and Ebay for pretty cheap. I managed to nab the boxset that includes the soundtrack CD for a little over $50, which is pretty standard for most modern series boxsets nowadays. So yeah, Kamichu exemplifies all the good parts of slice-of-life anime, and is just overall relaxing and charming. Definitely give it a shot if you're into stuff like Kamichu.
Like a checkpoint in a video game, Kamichu! will provide viewers with a safe place to rest and heal their soul, far away from all the shitty self insert power fantasies roaming aimlessly out there like zombies in a post-SAO world. Even though the series is chock-full of cuteness that would put Hello Kitty to shame, it doesn't shy away from exploring more serious subjects - albeit in a very subtle and toned-down manner - like hard work, poverty and responsabilities, creating a complex and endearing slice-of-life story. Uncle Ben would summarize Kamichu! with the iconic proverb "with great power comes great responsability", or in that case something more like "godhood oblige". Indeed, the anime narrates the struggles of Yurie, a shy middle-schooler who happened to become a god. She might be blessed with incredible power, but great power begets great expectations. Through her struggle to learn how to use her newly-found powers and how to balance her responsabilities with her school life, Yurie gets an early taste of adulthood. But she also learns how to be confident, kind and helpful, she comes to realize the importance of honesty and the value of friendship and memories. Yurie not knowing what kind of god she is (as there are many other gods in Kamichu!'s world) is an obvious reference to her not truly knowing who she is or wants to be, she is in search of her own identity. Because its story is presented through the perspective of teenagers, Kamichu!'s world is coated with a layer of innocence and naivety that allows serious subjects to be explored in a lighthearted manner but also tends to create a clash of ideals between kids and adults. In an adult world, it's all too easy to lose sight of what's truly important and sometimes a shift of paradigm is needed to see things in simpler terms. This theme is present through most of the narration which includes a strong emphasis on Shinto religion. As a westerner, I can't help but be reminded of practices such as cledonism, a type of divination popular in Ancient Egypt and Greece which attributed special meaning to words, especially to those of children. The particular agency of children, who can see things in simple terms, is for example illustrated by Pollux, a Greek author from the 2nd century AD, who describes in his Onomasticon how the sacrifice of a ram in honor of Heracles was solved thanks to children. Because of a flood, the ram was not able to reach the sanctuary, so the children created a substitute of the animal by placing four twigs under an apple and two twigs on top of it: those were its limbs and horns. This story, despite probably being fictive, highlights how children's games and agency could solve serious issues in a ritual environment. Of course I highly doubt the author had Pollux's Onomasticon in mind when they wrote the story, but I'm sure the special place kids occupy in society is not exclusive to western cultures and it's no coincidence if Yurie is described multiple times throughout the show as naive and simple-minded, the way she thinks and expresses herself is more akin to a child than a middle-schooler. We see throughout the show how her words, imbued with this child-like innocence and simplicity, are able to create change in those around her, in particular adults. It gives them a new perspective and helps them solve problems in a very straightforward way. Maybe 'a new perspective' is not the right choice of words; the series indeed delves into another theme: memories. Several episodes are devoted to the exploration of characters' past, a return to a youth of simplicity and happiness. A youth that seems so distant, yet so easy to recapture. While our past experiences are what ultimately shape our identity, it's important not to forget where we came from. Thus, Yurie doesn't necessarily give people a new perspective on things, but maybe simply enables them to regain a sense of a much needed child-like innocence. Apart from Yurie, the show also features two main side characters. These two, despite not being explored much, give an interesting balance to the trio: Matsuri, who took upon herself to rebuild the fame of her shrine, sees Yurie as a god first and tends to use her powers to attract customers while Mitsue sees Yurie as her best friend first and puts honesty before anything else. Being a short series, Kamichu! unfortunately doesn't have much time to develop its side characters and its conclusion might seem a bit unsatisfying. Furthermore, the 4 specials are all over the place and don't seem to try to convey the same themes as the main 12 episodes. Despite these issues, Kamichu! is a very pleasant anime to watch. It'll make you smile, maybe laugh, and probably overdose on cuteness. The show's animation is very good and every shot includes a lot of small details. The setting of the show and its music also create a sense of nostalgia or melancholy that makes you want to go back in time and relive those sweet childhood summer days, aptly fitting its narrative. Kamichu! teaches us to love. It teaches us to be genuine, kind and respectful.