Kannagi the dark horse
Fall’s unexpected bright spot
The other day, Jason asked me what the dark horse this season was. The True Tears, if you will.
Seems like I haven’t seen enough to make a real judgment yet, but to my surprise I answered pretty quickly: Kannagi.
What a catch! If asked to sum it up, I’d say Kabitzin suddenly became a cute female spirit of nature with a dime-store magical girl wand and is living at some kid’s house, watching TV and eating all the cup noodles! What’s not to love?
(Tree) God is in the details
The premise is nothing new. In the world of anime, gods and spirits become flesh in the form of cute girls and shack up with high school losers all the time. Then they break stuff around the house while they try to figure out how the mortal world works. They create misunderstandings with the boy’s childhood friends — who, as we all know, are the only fitting mates for our male heroes. They even have arguments early on, wherein they storm out of the house for good, only to need help (from the boy) and finally return home, where they find that the incident has only strengthened their inexplicable relationship.
The difference in Kannagi’s case is in the execution.
Nagi is not too cute and klutzy, though she’s no athlete. She’s not too tsun-tsun, even though she does get angry and obstinate when Jin hits a sensitive spot with his words. And she’s not too helpless, needing a loser-boy-master to help with everything — even if it did take her a second to figure out the TV.
Instead of her traits adding up to one big cliché, they add up to a real character. And with the added benefit of her love of puns, Nagi becomes a lot more enjoyable than any supernatural-girl-in-your-house in recent memory.
Lookin good
High-quality art really benefits that characterization too. Like Lucky Star’s cartoony-yet-realistic body language helped create a million Kagamin fanboys, the execution here makes Nagi more real when she scratches her leg with her foot while watching tennis on the floor, as Jin saws frantically at the glued-on wand behind her. Or, best of all, when she describes the circumstances surrounding how the wand got glued to the exact center of the table.
Birdy DECODE’s animation slipped badly last season, but the style here is already so inextricable from the overall experience, I hope A-1 Pictures can maintain this level.
Acting — not so wooden (LOLS)
I was surprised to find that Nagi is voiced by Haruka Tomatsu, the voice of Lala in To Love-Ru. If this isn’t proof that the material makes a difference, I don’t know what is. I actually wished for the ability to jump through the television and strangle Lala’s seiyuu once. Now I’m glad that the god of comic book powers didn’t grant me that one, since every conspiratorial half-stifled laugh at an awful pun is cuter than the last.
Hiro Shimono, ef’s Hiro and RahXephon’s Ayato, already had my vote going into this but he’s proven to be great as well. Take this scene in episode two, when Nagi finds some kittens:
Nagi: At least get them some milk.
Jin: you can’t feed kittens cow’s milk.
Nagi: Your breasts are too small to make any milk, so give it up. HAHAHA. That’s what you’re thinking isn’t it?
Jin: I’m not thinking that.
Jin: Maybe a bit.
It doesn’t look like anything great in transcript. LOL small boobs no one likes those except anime fans harhar, we’ve heard that one. But the delivery on both of their parts is what makes it special, and funny.
That’s a lot of high-quality ingredients all thrown together in a pot, but unfortunately it’s not a soup until you cook it right. And in this metaphor, which is itself pretty half-baked, that means the story. I think we’ll still have to wait and see where that goes. From next episode’s title, it sounds like Nagi will head off to school with Jin, so I hope that we don’t get deluged with clichés from here on out. I also hope the whole smashing-impurities plot will continue to develop, while helping the charming characters do the same. It may still be too early to definitively guarantee Kannagi’s place in the season, but as of now I’m surprised and hopeful.
Edit: I’m not the only one. Hop over and tell OGT he’s not as alone as he thinks.
