Shameful Otaku Secret!

With this, I take my leaf

Sometimes, even otherwise-good anime seasons will grace us with surprisingly good series that are a notch above what we’re normally stuck watching. While Kannagi may not have managed to make the top spot for Fall ‘08, it probably did manage to be the biggest surprise.

Story

Kannagi centers around Jin, who carves a wooden sculpture of a mysterious shrine deity he saw as a kid. When it comes to life as Nagi, eyes will roll, but what you’re predicting doesn’t ever really come to pass. In fact, somehow a hilarious show comes out of this clichéd and idiotic setup.

Rather than being the ultra-omnipotent type of god, or the typically naïve magical girlfriend type, Nagi is a pun-loving layabout who spends her time eating Jin’s food, watching TV, and very occasionally catching “impurities” with a dime-store Mahou Shoujo wand. The shape of the story is very much sitcom, so it’s more than a little off-putting to find the series ending on a serious note. The end just doesn’t work all that well. For 10 episodes, we’re given nothing but laughs, and if those 10 episodes make you a fan, why would you want to see a bunch of moping around (and sudden devotion to the supposed plot) for the other three? It’s not that I don’t care about Nagi’s identity crisis, it’s just that it’s foisted upon us pretty late in the game.

Characters

As Kabitzin mentioned, the characters are probably the primary strength of Kannagi — or for me, one of the two main strengths, along with the animation. The story is flimsy, not that interesting, and mostly unexplored until those last episodes, but the characters manage to be a huge pile of charm. Soft-spoken Jin is a bit more than your typical harem hero. Zange-chan the idol, who dresses like a slutty nun and can’t sing for shit, is funnier than the average interloper. Tsugumi is the kind of cute childhood friend that you can root for, just like you’re supposed to. And the art club’s cast of weirdos all generate their own kinds of laughs. At the center of that is Nagi, the pun-spewing screwoff god. Haruka Tomatsu (also great as Chika in Kyouran Kazoku Nikki and not so good as Lala in To Love-Ru) brings her to life masterfully — when reading the manga, it’s impossible to imagine Nagi any other way.

Animation and Music

The execution of Kannagi, by A1 Pictures and erstwhile Lucky Star director Yutaka Yamamoto, was the second of its strong points, and one you can’t just chalk up to good source material. Yamamoto proved himself brilliant at both LS-style fan-pandering and impeccable comic timing. Minimal background music and large periods of silence often reinforced the sly delivery of jokes. As far as the animation itself, it was true to the manga, looked good, and maintained a consistent level of quality throughout. I’ll just repeat myself:

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.

When combined with Nagi and Jin’s excellent voice acting, the animation style drove home their classic two-man comedy routines.

Bottom Line

Kannagi ended kinda poorly, all full of emo and previously-absent clichés, and that took it down from being one of the highlights of the year to a show that probably won’t be as fondly remembered as say, Toradora, with its more cohesive story. But I went back and watched a couple of the funnier episodes, and when this series was on, it was hot. In hindsight, I wish there had been more of a story, but at the time I was watching most of the episodes, the lack of a “point” didn’t bother me at all. It was just funny and entertaining. If Kannagi were to get a second season, I would most definitely watch more.

But it’s still good, so far.

Not really too much else worth mentioning about that, but hopefully the quality doesn’t falter. So far there’s been nothing original about the plot in general, so adding another anime cliché should just be another test of Kannagi’s ability to execute brilliantly. It’s still a bit early, but it hasn’t failed yet.

This is mostly an excuse to respond to remarks made by He-Who-Must-Be-Spoken-To-in-Trackbacks (you’re welcome for the trackback), which no one loves to do but the statement that “nobody … even paid attention” raised a flag. Heaping praise is being dumped on Kannagi from all over the webernets, and let’s just say I wasn’t the only one zaitcev glossed over when he decided he was the sole party who noticed the animation quality. In fact, I even mentioned the Lucky Star resemblance (passing mention, I guess, but the parallel is clear as day).

Why is it people have to imagine they’re the only ones to notice something? Some other bloggers I love have a tendency toward this underdog stuff as well. Maybe it’s everyone’s desire to be the one finding the hidden gem, but let’s just all get together here: Kannagi is pretty boss, it’s so boss that we all know it, time to start a fan club.

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.