Kamichama Karin

Information of Anime

Karin Hanazono lost her parents & is living with her relatives.  She is clumsy & not a bright person.  Overall, she isn't good with anything.  One night after mourning after her decreased pet & only friend Shii-chan, she is approached by a boy in glasses named Kiro Karasuma who demands for her ring, a memento from her mother.  A boy named Kazune Kujyou comes to her aid.  The encounter would lead her to understand that her ring possesses the power of gods & allows her to transform into one.  Living along with Kazune & Himeka Kujyou, Karin's life is about to change

Storyline (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Below is a summary of the storyline I've seen.  If you haven't seen the series yet & don't want to be spoiled, skip this section.  If you want to know the story & want to see how I viewed it, read on.

The story starts off in the future where a grown up Karin & her team try to take out a seed of chaos in a park.  However, she gets hit & gets sent back in time & lose her memories from the future.  So the story starts off fresh for the viewers.  Here, we learn about Karin's character & about her ring.

The ring that Karin possesses strong god powers & attracts Kiro Karasuma's attention in getting it.  His brother, Kirika Karasuma who is loved by Karin, each possess a ring that grants them the power of evil gods or devils.  Kazune also possesses a ring that allows him to transform into a god.  Karin doesn't understand this war until Kazune explains it to her.  The Kujyous & Karasumas each have a girl named Himeka.  They are actually the same person with two different personalities that have been separate from one body.  Both sides are trying to save her without going into a worse case scenario where she can die & cause a disruption in the balance of the world.  Instead of working together, Kiro decides to attack Kazune instead.

However, both sides have problems as Karin is in love with Kirika.  However, it's an one-sided love.  Kirika doesn't like the idea of how Kiro is attacking them to get the ring from Karin.  He suggests working with them instead of fighting.

As the show progress, characters that we seen in the first episode from the future such as Michiru Nishikiori appear.  However, everyone doesn't know each other & seem to get suspicious of one another.  Also, Karin gets a big shock when she finds out that Kirika is actually a girl.  Aside from understanding why Kirika decided to act like a boy because of her past, the viewers are thrown with a lot more questions such as why Karin & Himeka have the same picture of their "parents" where Michiru points out the father being Professor Kujyou.  Mysteries continue to build in regards on how this is all related & how the two Himekos will be saved.

Later on in the show, Kiro's ring is destroyed by Kazune which puts the Karasuma's Himeko in bad condition.  Future Kazune & his son Suzune come to the present to provide hints to help Karin.  From there, the mysterious of the two other rings are revealed as they contained the souls of Kirihiko Karasuma & Kazuto Kujyou.  Plus, the truth of Kazune is revealed.

During this explanation, the two Himekas finally meet when the Kujyou's Himeka goes to the Karasuma's house to save Karin & Kazune.  When they met, they disappeared.  To save them, Kazune & Karin fight Karasuma to break his Zeus ring.  Losing her ring, Karin uses Michiru's ring when he appears to save her & Kazune.  With Kirio's help, Kazune manages to break the ring.

The show ends with two weeks later with all the rings broken & the two Himekas being well.  Plus, the Karasuma brothers are doing well.  Kazune goes missing though.  After the credit roll, Karin goes back to the place where she first met Kazune.  The future Kazune comes to pick up Karin & returns her to her own time.  However, she still remains in her child form.

My Personal Review

Kamichama Karin is quite a cute show.  I didn't know what the show was about & just grabbed it for the heck of it.  Although it has some perverted references, it's actually enjoyable for all ages as the cute appearances suggests.

Animation

The character designs should give you that impression that it is from Koge Donbo, the same person that did series such as Digi Charat & Pita Ten.  It's an instant giveaway.  Although the characters come in many forms that Koge likes to do such as the SD forms, the designs sometimes look very bad.  Sometimes the eyes can be too far apart or too stretched out vertically.  Even the nose & mouths are badly drawn at times.  It makes me wonder how it managed to bypass quality control like that.  Looks like an extremely rushed job.  I like Koge's work very much & it is a pity to see it go bad like that.  As for the fashion, very cute.  Although some of it looks plain, it somewhat fits the character's personality well.

The backgrounds are so-so.  Not a lot of details & it does have it's dull side at times.  They look a little flat & very plain.

The colours are dull with a bit of brightness.  The characters & the backgrounds blend in very well with the toning.

In terms of the animation movement, it's a mixture.  Sometimes the movements are realistic & sometimes the movements are not normal.  But they are quite smooth with some strange cycles such as walking & running.  It looks unnatural at times.

Sound

The sound effects are really on the silly side.  Very fix for a cute love comedy show.  The sounds aren't too clear at times, but otherwise it's okay. 

The seiyuus here aren't too bad.  They fit their characters very well.  But the Kazune-Z members sounded a bit too old & lacking.  Kirika's seiyuu is done by Yuki Kaida & I didn't like it much.  Yuki has done a lot of male parts in her career, but the male voices she provides are too feminine for my taste.

The music is mainly on the cute pop side.  Fits the show well, but it's not something I want to put into my music player.

Story

Basically, two parties fighting it out to get their Himeka restored into one body again.  The show has quite a lot of elements to add into its storyline aside from the Himeka part.  We got a love story between Kazune & Karin & the mystery of the rings as well.  Although the show is cute, I did find it funny on how Karin transforms.  It's weird to be saying "I am god!" to undergo a transformation.

For character development, the chuck of it comes from the love relationship parts really.  Nothing about getting strong or changing ideals.  Even though it has a somewhat deep story, the characters wouldn't be going though a lot of development.  At most, it would be Karin improving her god powers.

For the story itself, it's a bit deep.  It's got a lot of mysteries about the past such as Himeka's & Karin's.  Also, the mystery about obtaining the power of God & body modifications is interesting.  It's not a kid show because of its appearance.  The story is actually a bit complex.  Plus, a lot of things get thrown to the viewers very fast. So much, that the show doesn't cover it all; leading to an ending that doesn't cover all the issues & mysteries.  It's somewhat incomplete.  You don't see the future Karin & that mysterious person with god powers that was teaming up with Karin, Kazune, & Michiru.  But it manages to cover the mysteries of the two professors & how the god-transformation research came about.

Overall Conclusion

Kamichama Karin is a loveable story with a lot of comedy bits in it.  It's very enjoyable for all ages as its got childish & perverted jokes in it.  Plus, the storyline is pretty interesting for all types of audiences.

Kamichama Karin gets a 6.5/10.  The story is interesting as its got a bunch of interesting elements in it.  However, the character development is quite weak & which makes some of the characters easy to understand.  However, the show's cuteness factor is what keeps it alive.  That is if you ignore some of the animation problems on some of the character's faces.  But the amount of information thrown at you & how much of it is resolved gives out an ending that leaves you wondering.