Destiny of the Shrine Maiden - Reviews

Story
The story revolves mainly around two girls: one is Himeko, a quiet insecure crybaby, and the other is Chikane, a graceful confident and capable, albeit quiet, person. These two share the same destiny, for they are the Sun and Moon priestesses who have the role of protecting humanity against the evil Orochi and his eight henchmen (who want nothing more than to drown the earth in darkness).

The story is quite simple, but also complicated. Here we have two priestesses, and they are to protect the world from evil persons who have some sort of mecha that they can call on during fights. What they are or how they work isn’t explained at all and the mechas end up feeling out of place in this show. Something more along the lines of spiritual power or magic would’ve been more suited in this show.

The complicated part is the relationships. It appears that there is a lot more than meets the eye regarding this theme and it isn’t just about two priestesses protecting the world. Chikane, who holds Himeko more dear than anything in the world has developed feelings of genuine love for her -- yes, this show has its piece of shoujo-ai. This brings us to the third main-character, Oogami, who is the male version of Chikane when it comes to handsomeness and capabilities. He has feelings for Himeko as well and this brings up quite an interesting love triangle: what does Himeko feel?

"The most dangerous man is the one who has nothing left to lose". Take away a person’s most valued things, rip apart dreams and fantasies, induce a little bit of "what-if" reality and give the person in question a little bit of power and you have created a merciless monster. This is taken to its limit in this show and I loved every moment of it. It’s not that I like senseless violence, but rathe,r how a character can change if all hope is lost.

I liked this show from episode one. I’m, frankly speaking, a sucker for these kind of shows and I didn’t think I’d find something which resembled "Yami to boushi to hon no tabibito" even remotely in a while. The elements of this show are not original by themselves. We have seen priestess shows, shoujo-ai, strange mechas, love triangles & Co before, but I have certainly not seen all of these brought together into one show. It works unexpectedly well and the story is fairly unpredictable with twists and turns. BUT, 12 episodes were too short to explain the bits and pieces in this show. They had a lot of things going, but only a couple of things were thoroughly explained.

The show is fairly well executed with an even tempo and story build up. The ending section was one of the greatest things with this show; it spans over three episodes, which is a lot for a 12 episode series. I’m not complaining -- I liked it immensely and it left me with a feeling of satisfaction once the show was over. This doesn’t, however, remove the fact that the show should’ve been longer.
Animation
The visuals are clear and crisp and the character designs are fairly generic, and look like most other modern shows within this genre. There is a bit of CG in this show that was integrated nicely into the 2D animation. The character designs fit the character roles really well.
Sound
The OP and ED themes were amongst the best I’ve heard in a while. Kotoko performs a couple of catchy J-pop/techno like tunes with lots of ambient sound going. I ended up basically watching every OP and ED sequence of this show; I simply couldn’t get enough of these tunes. The in-show song, also by Kotoko, which is played once is of a more progressive techno character and certainly fits the scene well. The general background music in the show is of a more quieter character and is composed of classical music. The choice of music is good and fits the mood – scene – set mood.

The voice actors are good and perform well and really make these characters come alive.
Characters
This section is definitely a mixed bag. Chikane and Himeko’s relationship is well explained and at times we see flashbacks that explain their backgrounds. None of the characters have their background individually explained, except for Oogami whom we get to know a little bit about. The relationship between Chikane and Oogami isn’t explained either which makes it hard to fully understand the way they act towards each other. This is the weak point.

Backgrounds aside, the strong point of this show is the character interactions during the time the show plays out. The main character cast of this show certainly evolves throughout the show. The interaction between Chikane and Himeko (and Oogami) is the strong point and is handled superbly. I felt a lot of empathy towards these characters.

I’d love to give more than 7.5 here, but the lack of character backgrounds take away a bit of the overall viewing experience.
Overall
This is a love or hate show, and I loved every single moment of it. A lot of things happen throughout the show and it goes from a lighthearted romance to a very dark emotionally cruel piece. I will probably rewatch this show in the future, and if nothing else I’ll rewatch the final part of the show which is one of the better ones I’ve seen in a while, even more so when I think of how emotional it got – and I like emotional shows, especially when I feel empathic towards the characters. This show has gotten itself a special place on my favorite list. It’s got its weaknesses, and at times the plot gets downright silly, but I like it as a whole.

Ah, Kannazuki no Miko (KNM), what a ride that was. I am into anime since early 80’s and I got to live through all kinds of fads, even before the internet era. This happens to be a show that created a sort of tsunami when it first aired, because yuri anime were still rare back then and the weird blend of mecha with lesbianism and mysticism made many to believe it was the greatest thing ever conceived.

Of course a few years later all the lackluster faded away, and so did the interest in this show. You see, it didn’t need much for the greatest anime era of all times to come along (2006-2007) which offered a mountain of REALLY good shows. Comparing them to KNM was like the Hanging Gardens next to a flower pot. And that is what is was actually, a small flowerpot which instead of one flower sprouting on it, it actually had three (mecha, lesbianism, mysticism). Needless to say, it felt special only because most of the fandom has no idea of good storytelling (as usual), knows no similar (and better) shows, and bites the premise and spits pacing and quality like they are unneeded elements. Sorry to disappoint them but I am not an idiot.

Seriously, I never liked this show, neither was ever part of the fan club, even back when everybody wanted to part of a group and this was the hottest title yet. Because I learned to appreciate the finer things in a show and not the superficial exterior, a thing which makes KNM look like a huge coconut with an extremely thick exterior and very little juice inside.

But allow me to be more specific. The story of KNM is about two teenage lesbian shrine maidens in need to prevent an eight-headed snake from destroying the world, through the use of magic and huge robots, while battling each head individually, which is practically a huge robot divided into eight machines and respective pilots, all incarnated every X number of generations in an attempt to eat everything (or something). To make things more complicating, one of the heads is a teenager boy in love with one of the lesbians and thus renegades to their side, while at the same time one of the two heroines gets fed up along the way and decides to join the villains. All of which happen within 12 episodes full of mecha battles, mystical training, erotic/romantic moments and funky soundtracks. Yeah, the premise is indeed awesome and on paper it’s a masterpiece.

In practice, it leaves much to be desired as all its cool points end up being average at best.
-The mecha action is just there for no reason at all. It offers nothing plot-wise and it’s not even good action-wise. You can remove it without a problem and take along with it 20% of the total duration.
-The mysticism part is important to place the setting into a pre-existing context, as the story is based on old Shinto myths. Who doesn’t like Shinto with its rich mythology and its philosophy which defines the Japanese mentality? Not to mention, Miko uniforms are in the top 10 most famous sexual fetishes. But again, it’s not as if the story couldn’t be defined with a fictional mythology. It’s not as if you will become less wise without it; it’s loosely using the myths to begin with.
-The lesbian part ends out being its most strong point. The core story is after all love and how a heartbrake can lead to despair, destruction and betrayal. But again, it is not as if the exact same thing couldn’t be done with a heterosexual couple. The element of the lesbians is nothing but a bait for those easily swayed by such superficial taboos (and boy is the anime fandom full of those). I bet the show wouldn’t be half as thrilling back then if it had a (plain, boring, typical) normal relationship but at the same time it’s not as if it’s what makes the anime stand the test of time. Because as we can see today, it failed.

What I am trying to say here is that the only thing that was somewhat interesting back then was the weird blend of technology with magic and erotic taboos. It’s otherwise not doing a good job at being anything other than the usual fuss.
- If you see at the three elements separately, you can easily tell how average it plays out. The mecha battles are performed in the stereotypical way of special attacks and occasional power ups, mysticism is nothing but a vague background element, and the lesbian relationship follows the exact same pattern most similar stories do. They don’t even combine with one another in order to be in need of all three at the same time. You can easily make three separate shows with them.
-Add to that all those following mecha shows like Aquarion or Demosbane or Asura Cryin’ which also combined weird elements (and are equally terrible as anime) that took away the uniqueness of the whole deal (in terms of lameness).
-Add to that the dozens of yuri titles that the industry is so overflowed with today to take away the interest in KNM’s more than typical couple.

But that is not enough, there is even another annoying thing in it. Besides the main couple, all other characters remain nothing but blunt archetypes, with the snake head pilots to be all some lame sexual or shounen stereotypes with a blank character sheet. Yet for the lulz of it, in the final episode we get 3 seconds of each one of them in a flashback, explaining why they have a grudge with the world. By the way, at that time they were all dead and we were seeing that postmortem, in a lame attempt at fleshing them out. Thanks a lot idiots; they are already dead (in fact this famous Hokuto no Ken phrase is quite true to the series, as even there the villains would also be fleshed out in a similar fashion, moments before they kick the bucket).

As for the art, well, it looks average today with the attention to the shrines and that funky moon backgrounds to offer a dreamy feeling that make the artwork look better. Otherwise, the action has jerky movements and boring-looking explosions, with all the attention being given only to those tender romantic moments between the two lesbians.

Finally the soundtrack is VERY good and practically the best thing in the anime. It has many good funky tunes and songs that contributed a lot to the illusion that the show is more than it appears to be (when it’s not).

Bottomline, it is an average anime with bad use of its elements, little reason in rewatching or even remembering it in the longrun.

And now for some excused scorings.

ART SECTION: 6/10
General Artwork 1/2 (generic)
Character Figures 1/2 (generic)
Backgrounds 2/2 (basic but fitting with the feeling of the series)
Animation 1/2 (basic)
Visual Effects 1/2 (basic)

SOUND SECTION: 8/10
Voice Acting 2/3 (corny but fitting with the feeling of the series)
Music Themes 4/4 (very good)
Sound Effects 2/3 (ok I guess)

STORY SECTION: 5/10
Premise 2/2 (interesting)
Pacing 1/2 (erratic)
Complexity 1/2 (not much)
Plausibility 0/2 (none)
Conclusion 1/2 (cheesy)

CHARACTER SECTION: 6/10
Presence 1/2 (generic)
Personality 2/2 (rather cheesy but well founded)
Backdrop 1/2 (generic and simplistic but it’s there)
Development 1/2 (overblown but it’s there)
Catharsis 1/2 (overblown but it’s there)

VALUE SECTION: 4/10
Historical Value 2/3 (quite famous as an interesting retro title)
Rewatchability 0/3 (no reason to rewatch it after so many similar titles came out)
Memorability 2/4 (the overall themes are interesting but other than that no reason to remember it)

ENJOYMENT SECTION: 3/10
Art 0/1 (looks unimpressive)
Sound 2/2 (sounds good)
Story 1/3 (interesting themes but handled poorly)
Characters 0/4 (all of them are generic)

VERDICT: 5.5/10

Kannazuki no Miko (Destiny of the Shrine Maidens)

Plot: "Gentle Himeko and reserved Chikane were born into very different backgrounds, but still became the best of friends. Their fates, they would soon come to discover, are intertwined in a fashion that they can't possibly imagine -- they are the reincarnations of two priestesses who once sealed the god of darkness Orochi in their past lives. Set to revive again, his giant robot-riding agents have set out to destroy the girls, one of whom is Himeko's friend who is in love with her. Riddled with memories of their past lives, the two try to survive long enough to cast the seal on Orochi again..." (site synopsis)

Before starting with the review i want to say a few words as an introduction/opinion about Kannazuki no Miko.This anime officialy enters in my top 3 shoujo-ai animes and for sure in my top 10 favourite animes.Its not to good like other shoujo-ai animes but its still very well made, very touching and with a strong, emotional and captivating yuri aspect.

Story: In terms of story this anime isnt quite that good (dont get me wrong, this anime has a story to begin with and to end with but at some points it gets rather complicated, confusing and with stuff that dont have connection but this is just around the begining because near the ending it clears up kinda fast, like forced ending).Whatever, the story is centered on a beautiful and gentle girl named Himeko.One day she gets to meet Chikane one of the most popular girl in high school who is a member of an important and wealthy family.Of course if we watch the first episode we see that Chikane and Himeko were born in different backgrounds with different life styles but who would have thought about the connections between those two.Who would have thought that Chikane and Himeko are the reincarnation of two priestesses, who in the past they sealed the god of darkness Orochi.Due to some unpleasent events like the revival of Orochi, Chikane and Himeko are informed that they possess the powers of the Sun and Moon Priestesses and they are the only ones that could stop Orochi from destroying the world.However this task didnt prove to be so easy, Oogami one of Himeko's friends is the seventh neck of Orochi who plots to kill the priestesses but because of his strong feelings towards Himeko he doesnt obey Orochi and decides to fight against him to protect Himeko.As the story develops more characters appear who have a significantly influence at the ending and more events take place that endangers the relationship between Himeko and Chikane.The thing that makes this anime interesting is that Chikane developed love feelings towards Himeko but because girl x girl love relationships were forbidden she kept her feelings locked inside of her in order to not cause problems.But this also didnt prove to be so easy to bear since Himeko and Oogami were dating very often.The story of this anime is engulfed with drama.It is nice at some points enjoyable but around the ending it gets realy dramatic, almost tragicaly.The thing is that the ending isnt that sad, but i recommend to you guys that if you happen to watch this anime be sure to check after the credits because it ends in a nice and happy way.

Animation: Not bad, not bad at all, Kannazuki no Miko isnt a masterpiece in terms of animation but it isnt of a low level also.The character designs were very well made i realy liked how Chikane, Kazuki and Tsubasa were designed which realy fited their role.Im not a big fan of mecha animes, but i dont hate them also i enjoy animes that have mecha aspects but not placed randomly and too often.

Sound: Well in terms of sound this anime is briliant.The opening song and the ending song were realy on my taste, i didnt like them from the begining but after listening them like two, three times i started to like them.The background sounds also arent that bad as well because it realy fits the anime environment.

Characters: Related to characters in this anime we can speak about a good character development but under my expectations.At the begining we see new characters appearing but as we pass throught episodes no more characters show up.A thing that i need to say here is that individualy most of the characters werent developed.Except for Himeko and Chikane and something trivial about Tsubasa and Oogami, the other characters were completely left behind treated like side characters.

Overall: Watchable, enjoyable, funny and warm at some points with a nice shoujo-ai aspect, sad, dramatic, almost tragic at the ending but it didnt proved to be that way, infact it ended in a nice, i can say even happy way (again i mention that it is wise to watch after the credits because if you dont then you will think that this anime is unfinished, uncleared, unsolved and confusing).For shoujo-ai fans this anime is a must to watch, but i recommend it to other anime fans as well since this anime in my opinion is kinda hard to hate.Rated it abit more because i realy enjoyed watching it.

~Enjoy and Cya Around~

ADVISORY: Destiny of the Shrine Maiden (Kannazuki no Miko) is a series that features mature subject matter. I would not reccomend the show be watched by anyone under the age of 16. I'd say 17 just to be sure. It is most definetly not for young children.

This is a show I should have never enjoyed. A show that had such a weird case of false advertising it wasn't even funny. With a theme song by KOTOKO and mecha, what could have gone wrong? Easy. A lot of things.

Destiny of the Shrine Maiden, or Kannazuki no Miko (Preistesses of the Godless Month) is a show based on the manga by the duo Kaishaku. Yes, the same Kaishaku that brought the world things like Steel Angel Kurumi and UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie.

I came in expect a Super Robot show with music by KOTOKO and being based on a manga. What I got was more of a love story with loveable characters, incredible music and an all star voice cast on both sides of the Pacific with some mecha (midly awesome mecha designs too!) thrown in on the side.

Now; when I say lovable characters, I mean it. Even though the show was only 12 episodes long, over the course of the plot, I saw characters develop, redevelop and develop again.One of the main leads in this show, Chikane Himemiya(CV: Ayako Kawasumi/ VA: Michelle Ruff) is a prime example. Chikane is one of the two main protagnists of the show and it shows. If anyone develops, it's Chikane. She's the every-girl. The girl every guy wants to date, the star athlete, the brainiac. Her relationship with our other main heroine, Himeko Kurusugawa (CV: Noriko Shitaya/ VA: Stephanie Sheh), a unconfident and shy schoolgirl, does show in the later half on our extradonairy levels. Over the course of the show, Chikane begins to like Himeko more and more. Yes, I mean that "kind" of like. This show has a boat load of yuri material. But that's beside the point. Himeko eventually becomes the most important person in Chikane's life. To that point, the girl gets the girl. The complete opposite of what I was expecting. My only complaint of this relationship was the later half of Episode 8. It was excessive. That's all there is to it.

From stunning visuals (for a 2004 series) to the astonishing soundtrack by KOTOKO, lovable characters and a plot that explores Japanese mythology to true love, no matter the gender, Destiny of the Shrine Maiden is a show worth watching. Don't take reviews or my word for it. Check it out and see for yourself. Opinions may differ as some people call this show crap and others say it's decent. I found myself midly enjoying myself.

 

Overall, Destiny of the Shrine Maiden recieves my thumbs up. Well, swords up.

Get it? Swords. Shrine. Maiden. Robots.

Nevermind.               

Boot to the head on anyone's thoughts but my own! V

Destiny of the Shrine Maiden is avaliable streaming online from The Anime Network in English or Japanese Audio (Subscriber-only). The DVDs have been released as a box set by Sentai Filmworks.

Another 12+ Anime. ( I swear they aren't making anime like they use to.)

Hm.. to be honest I wasn't much interested with the intro but after the action started to happen and the plot was revealed I was starting to. To be honest I didn't get into all that much until around the third episode of the series. But do not let that fool you.

Story-

The story is that Legend tells of a shrine on the moon and when it collapses the battle for the earth will begin. It is up to the Solar Priestess and Lunar Priestess to stop the evil that plagues that plagues the world by reviving the God of Swords. Now that is what got me interested. I never really watched much anime that involved priestess other than Inuyasha. And I must say I rather enjoyed the plot.

Of course they didn't beat around the bush. The series was short which I am not too fond of, and the whole entire series was pretty much constent to that of the plot, beside the few dates. What I did find annoying with the series what how it was Himeko's constent thoughts brusting in now and again. That was the only down side I could see with the story.

Animation-

How do I put this... Girlish and Cute. The animation was good and had an uncommon glow to things, that is what gave it the girlish factor. Everything I scene in the anime was done up to be cute, even the bad guys (I can't spell the names) wasn't really all that threatening. It was rather amusing though. I liked the glow it gave the background a nice touch and a brighter feel to it instead of just leaving it dark and out of focus like some anime do. Though they could have atleast bothered to make it somewhat dark but that is just my opinion seeing as I am more intuned to the Kuroshitsuji style of things.

The character's animation was also rather cute. I swear sometimes Himeko was a chibi because of how innoscent she looked, and Chikane was no better in that station either. They eyes was one thing I loved, though they didn't really have a pupil, they still reflected the emotions quite well when the characters showed it. Soma on the other hand.. the hair could have been better, wasn't as shiny as the other two or other characters, and his animation seems to be quite dull.

Sound-

Oh dear.. Now where do I begin with this. I would have to say I will start out with the good before the bad once again.

The song choices for the anime was a brilliant and well thought out I must say. I thought they went well with the anime and plot. That and they are quite rememberable even if there was only two. I can grantee you that you'd wouldn't forget the names of the songs. Heck I even found myself listening to them on Youtube most of the time. Of course I don't think some are really interested in the up beate KOTOKO.

Now the Voice Actors... I must tell you now that I only got to listen to the english dub, so please bare with me.

The Voice cast to be honest, could have been better. Part of the reason why I didn't like Himeko's thoughts was because of how bad her voice sounded. Wincy and rather silent. Not good. Chikane's voice was good, so I didn't mind her all that much, a bit too serious at times but good none the less. Soma was okay but I didn't like him much either, his battle cries just made me wince in embarassment. I admit they could have done a bit better with the casting, and this is where the review's rating lowers.

Sound effects were alright.. and I didn't mind them too much.

Characters-

I must say that the only character I found to pick at with this is Soma. The tuff and kind bad guy. His character just plan annoys me. Everytime I would see him I couldn't help but think he was in some kind of battle (well he was with himself but that is not the battle I am talking about.). In most of the episodes that showed him I couldn't help but feel that he mostly just yells out like some raving gorilla beating its chest. 'shivers' And lets not forget Himeko.. the shy and innoscent main character in this. 'sighs' She was rather weak for my liking, where as Chikane had bothered to protect herself, Himeko seems to be the one in the most trouble because she really couldn't. She didn't start fighting back until about the end. Oh yes lets not forget about the major sex appeal she had on a couple of men in the series.

Chikane.. What can I say here.. She was either too serious or too nice most of the time. SHe also seemed to stay in her head most of the time instead of really talking to Himeko. She doesn't seem to let her guard down until the very end.

But the characters were good and earned somewhat of my approval. I liked the evil!Chikane much better than the good one, and Himeko I liked much more when she started to fight back. Soma was probably the only character I didn't like in the series.

Overall.. I must say though it didn't gain much of my interest at first, it most certainly has now. I finished the series within three clicks to my account on Netflix and enjoyed watching it, though the voice were a bit troubling. I think my official rating of this would be an 8. I liked it and it was good but a few things could have been changed to make it better.