Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens, Vol. 1

かんなぎ [Kannagi] #1

by Eri Takenashi

Nagi, a strange young girl in many different ways, appears before Jin, a normal high-school-aged boy. She calls herself a goddess, but is she really? Yes, as a matter of fact she is! And soon, the odd pair starts living under the same roof together. Thus begins the first volume of a bizarre manga tale that winds through both the comical and serious...more or less.

Genres: Manga, Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Romance, School, Shonen, Young Adult

180 pages, Paperback

First published August 9, 2006

About the author

武梨えり

Reviews

[Nicole]

Suspect much is lost in translation.

[David Doel]

This gets a 5 from me because I enjoyed it. It's not important or significant; it's just fun. Also, I learned something about the Shinto religion.

[Kailey Wicked]

dnf at page 71. nope.

[ReadingFrog]

1.5 stars.

[Madeline]

It was funny and cute considering I found it at a thrift store. The cat scene made me so sad though

[Rowynn DeGennaro]

Pretty forgettable

[D.M. Dutcher]

Quirky take on the magical girl genre. A young man is carving a small statue out of the remnants of a shin-boke-a god tree. It was cut down, and he wanted to use it for his school project. To his suprise a shinto goddess uses it to manifest into this world after a long sleep. She's horrified at the tree being cut down, and quickly ensnares him into reigning in defilement-black bugs and creatures-that are appearing at a growing rate.

Don't be fooled by the cover. Nagi is as far from a typical magical girl as can be, with an oddball sense of humor and a lack of panty flashes and transformation sequences. Jin if anything is more competent than her, and the two have some nice back and forth. It manages to give a good sense of what dealing with a shinto deity might be like.

The only downside is they go to the stereotype well with the other minor characters. You wish they would ditch the entire art club, and even Rise-chan to focus on Nagi and Jin interacting with each other. Still an enjoyabe first volume.

[Zachary Rawlins]

I wasn't really sure what to make of this series - I'm not much for the whole 'magical girl' genre, and I was iffy about the art, but a friend from Japan insisted that I read it. The start is very slow, but there does seem to be something here, beneath the surface of what otherwise reads as a very typical 'boy and girl forced to live together' manga. This books deals with Shinto in a much more series way than most other manga do. Its not filled with ecchi stuff or panty shots, though it is oriented toward bishoujo ('pretty girls'), and it is frequently funny. I'm not blown away, but I'm going to stick with it and see where it goes.

[CF]

This is a manga based off Shintoism. As a child, Jin carved a shrine maiden from a sacred tree in Kannagi prefecture. When she suddenly comes to life and declares to stamp out impurity (or 'defilements') from people's lives, Jin doesn't know what to do, so announces she is his sister. Jin doesn't know what he is getting himself in for!

Magic and myth combine to make a strange yet entertaining opening to a story.

An odd yet enjoyable first installment.

[Taliesin]

This is about as far as I'll go with this series. No more.

[Crystal]

Awkward translation.

[Casey]

Awkward, difficult translation. Otherwise I like the concept and characters, though it is a bit cliche.

[Dani ❤️ Perspective of a Writer]

Better by the end; but still rather limp. I wish I liked it more.