Happy new year! Finale, review and conclusion of this retro-blogathon! *Phew!* Chikane stops a grieving Himeko from killing herself. The truth is revealed as ancient memories are unsealed. The girls reveal their feelings to each other but are soon separated with Chikane’s death, the defeat of the Orochi and the revival of the world - minus Chikane who has been sacrificed to that end and whose past existence has been completely erased though Himeko feels that absence. After the end credits, an older Himeko meets a Chikane-like figure (whose face is not shown) who is wearing the other half of the kaiawase pendant. Himeko rushes to embrace her and the series end with Himeko and Chikane saying “We fall in love again” in unison.
So Chikane has planned this all along. She realized that even if the Orochi was defeated and the world saved, it would mean sacrificing the shrine maiden of the sun so she takes Himeko’s place (signified by wearing the red robes) and ties herself to the defeat of the Orochi to her self-sacrifice.
Chikane thinks that she’s tied everything up nicely - saving Himeko and then allowing her to live her happily ever life with Souma but she never considered that it was important for Himeko to know if Chikane really did love her and never expected in her wildest dreams that Himeko would really choose her over Souma. As such, her plans and her despair were based on some rather flawed assumptions and I argued to Stripey that this whole mess was really due to Chikane’s failure to communicate. However his counter-argument, which I accept, is that this whole process was needed for Himeko to understand Chikane and prepare the ground for accepting and returning those feelings.
It was also quite astounding to see the role reversal in the end with Chikane sobbing in Himeko’s arms instead of the other way round which we had grown accustomed to. The “Happy birthday, Chikane-chan” from Himeko marked how Chikane finally realized that joy of joys that Himeko really did love her and opened her emotional floodgates.
Why oh why? This big robot part was just so unnecessary. Well, at least Souma is, once again, shown to be supportive of whatever floats Himeko’s boat.
Two things about these scenes just made me think of Kaorin in Azumanga. First, the field of yellow flowers (菜の花?) recalls Kaorin’s happiness when she gets Sakaki as a dance partner after the first sports festival and then as a three-legged race partner in the second sports festival. Second, when taking a photograph with Sakaki, Kaorin clings to Sakaki’s arm and leans her head against her.
Back in the now restored but Chikane-less world, Himeko refuses Souma leading to much teasing by Mako. Himeko’s “Don’t kiss me!” (キスはだめだよ!) to Mako was actually quite adorable.
The happily ever ending was a sort of cop-out reset but I guess it’s better than the manga ending (where they’re reborn as twincest).
Kannazuki no Miko has gotten quite a varied response from anime fandom - I’d say that KarmaBurn has got the most balanced review. It seems that some animebloggers who picked it up from the start dropped it before the middle and only returned to writing about it towards the end (if they hadn’t dropped watching it altogether). Big minuses included the initially highly cheesy setting and annoying characters (particularly Himeko and Souma), the atrocious mecha and not least a big point of controversy - the sexual violence. Even those who don’t really like the show and feel that it should not represent the Be all, End all and certainly not the pinnacle of yuri anime have acknowledged that KannaMiko has played an important role in opening up the eyes of fanboys to the possibilities of anime that has yuri as THE main theme rather than a tiny side show (e.g. Maya Ibuki in Evangelion) or one-dimensional recurring joke (e.g. Kaorin in Azumanga).
What rescued the show for me was the dramatic hook “How are Himeko and Chikane going to pair up?” and the surprising twists (Chikane going Orochi and Himeko killing Chikane). For all my complaining about the plot holes and confusions, I do feel that credit is due to the scriptwriters for the surprises. Even more surprising, the series bore rewatching quite well and with hindsight, it became clear that the story was quite tightly structured. The first arc (roughly three episodes each) introducing the main characters and plot elements, the second arc with Chikane angst, the third arc with Chikane putting her plan into action and the final arc leading to resolution. Also all the characters became a lot more sympathetic in the end - I’d posit that it’s really only possible to like this series and stick with from start to finish only if you like Chikane Himemiya and sympathise with her dilemma.
I wouldn’t recommend this series for everyone and I certainly wouldn’t say that KannaMiko is a good representation of yuri anime as a whole - instead it is a fairly prominent marker for one end of the range of the genre, probably with MariMite on the other end of the scale.
Reading couple last posts of yours made me thinking how sad this was. Maybe i should watch it again.
Combination of fantastic op and ed, romance and drama. Touching story, in my top10.
You’re welcome for the heads up, btw. I think that bit of information is crucial in understanding the series at that point. ;)
Overall, your insight into the series is pretty spot on, from what I remember. Like Erica, I thought this series was important because of the doors it might open, and not necessarily because it was a great story. Though, I suppose it amounts to the same thing, like the old axiom, “any publicity is good publicity.”
My hope is that this series does well, finds a large audience, mainly so that other yuri series get licensed, like Marimite, for instance.
If these posts have provided some impetus for people to give this series another look or to get people to try yuri-themed anime in general, then I’ll be very happy.
Though I can understand why KannaMiko has been licensed (big robots and other fanboy content), I’m still plenty dismayed that MariMite has not.
Also it seems to me that yuri anime has become the last refuge of the romance genre. I can hardly recall any recent male-female romance-as-the-main-theme anime that isn’t a harem type series (KareKano comes to mind but that aired in 1998-9; I liked Ai Yori Aoishi (2002) but Kaoru still has an involuntary harem). DOH! Suzuka…
Yeah, romance without harem is very rare. Fortunately there is still some shoujo shows for that purpose. But it would be refreshing watch also non shoujo once in while.
It was great because it did A LOT of unusual things near the end. Episodes 8 to 12 was just insane.
Truly, you wont quite find anything like this outside of a Gainax show.
omae wa itsumo bakero!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ijona youh