Kamichu!

Kamichu! (かみちゅ!) is a Japanese anime television series, strongly influenced by the Shinto religion, that follows the adventures of teenage goddess Yurie Hitotsubashi and her friends. The title is short for Kamisama de Chūgakusei (かみさまでちゅうがくせい, lit., "A Deity As a Middle School Student"). The series was created by Besame Mucho (ベサメムーチョ, Besamemūcho), which is the joint pen name of Tomonori Ochikoshi, Koji Masunari, and Hideyuki Kurata. It was broadcast by the anime television network Animax on its respective networks worldwide, including Japan, East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, where it received its first English-language broadcast.

The series was adapted as a manga serialized in Dengeki Daioh, a shōnen manga magazine, and collected in two tankōbon volumes.

At the 2005 Japan Media Arts Festival, Kamichu! received an Excellence Prize for animation.^[1]

On July 3, 2008, Geneon Entertainment and Funimation Entertainment announced an agreement to distribute select titles in North America. While Geneon Entertainment will still retain the license, Funimation Entertainment will assume exclusive rights to the manufacturing, marketing, sales and distribution of select titles. Kamichu! was one of several titles involved in the deal.^[2] However, as of August 2011, the rights to the series had expired.^[3]

Story

Yurie is a petite, shy, and otherwise ordinary middle school girl who suddenly discovers that, overnight, she has become a kami, a goddess in the Shinto sense. She has no idea what sort of goddess she is or what her powers are. Her friends give her the nickname Kamichu, a portmanteau of kami (神, god) and chūgakusei (中学生, "middle school student"). In her journey she meets many other divinities and spirits, and learns the ways of the gods in order to become a great goddess herself. During the course of the series, Yurie grows more in being both a better goddess and as a person.

Kamichu! is set in the Spring of 1983 to the Spring of 1984,^[4] in the city of Onomichi, Hiroshima prefecture, on the shores of Japan's Inland Sea. Many of the temples and landmarks shown in the anime are real locations in and around the city, faithfully depicted.

Main characters

Yurie Hitotsubashi (一橋 ゆりえ, Hitotsubashi Yurie)

Voiced by: MAKO (Japanese); Megan Harvey (English)

Yurie is the protagonist of the series. In the first episode, she tells her best friend Mitsue that overnight she has become a goddess; how or why this became so is never further explained. She is remarkably naïve and simple-minded, but always has the best intentions. She has had a crush on Kenji Ninomiya for a long time, and gets very nervous and red-faced around him. Whenever she exercises her divine powers, her hair grows very long and she often falls asleep afterward, due to the taxing effort involved. At the end of the anime she becomes Kenji's girlfriend.

Matsuri Saegusa (三枝 祀, Saegusa Matsuri)

Voiced by: Rika Morinaga (Japanese); Stephanie Sheh (English)

Matsuri is the person in charge of the Raifuku Shrine in Onomichi. She runs the shrine with her sister, Miko, and their widowed father, the chief priest. Matsuri is always thinking of schemes to earn money for the shrine or attract more visitors to the it, usually through exploiting Yurie's newfound divinity. Unlike Miko, she cannot see spirits without the charms that Yurie usually writes (though in the manga and anime, Miko states that Matsuri had been able to see spirits in her childhood). Her name means "worship".

Mitsue Shijo (四条 光恵, Shijō Mitsue)

Voiced by: Kaori Mine (Japanese); Erika Weinstein (English)

Mitsue is Yurie's bespectacled best friend. She's very down-to-earth, and serves as the "straight man" for her friends, but wishes that her life were more exciting. Yurie often goes to her for advice, which is simple common sense that is always right. She is usually possessed by Yashima when he needs to communicate with people or when he wants to play the guitar.

Miko Saegusa (三枝 みこ, Saegusa Miko)

Voiced by: Ai Nonaka (Japanese); Rachel Hirschfeld (English)

Miko is Matsuri's shy younger sister. She does the cooking in the house, and is very polite and respectful to everyone. She helps out in the shrine and has the ability to see spirits. She has a crush on the shrine's god, Yashima, whom she often speaks with. Her name, Miko, is also the term for a Shinto shrine attendant.

Kenji Ninomiya (二宮 健児, Ninomiya Kenji)

Voiced by: Issei Miyazaki (Japanese); Johnny Yong Bosch (English)

Kenji is the president and only member of his school's calligraphy club. He is quiet, aloof, and a bit slow on the uptake. He loves his brushes, and he often does calligraphy for the Raifuku shrine. He only does calligraphy when he is 'inspired', yet it takes him a while to realise that most of his sources of inspiration revolve around Yurie, who has an intense crush on him. At the end of the anime, he becomes Yurie's boyfriend.

Yashima-sama (八島様, Yashima-sama)

Voiced by: Kousuke Okano (Japanese); Yuri Lowenthal (English)

Yashima is the local kami of the Raifuku shrine. He wishes to be a rock star, so he often possesses Mitsue (who is totally against this) in order to fulfil his dream. He is also often seen with an Akita Inu that talks. He seems to be close friends with Miko Saegusa, but it is implied that he is more interested in her sister, Matsuri.

Shoukichi Hitotsubashi (一橋 章吉, Hitotsubashi Shoukichi)

Voiced by: Makoto Tsumura (Japanese); J.D. Stone (English)

Shoukichi is Yurie's younger brother, who like Miko, attends the same school as his older sister, one grade below. Often, he acts more mature than his sister and often teases her, but he does love her. He has a crush on Miko, and acts differently and blushes whenever he is around her.

Kiyomi Noto (ノート 清美, Noto Kiyomi)

Voiced by: Ryou Hirohashi (Japanese); Lily Mason (English)

A classmate of Yurie, Matsuri, and Mitsue.

Ukaru Nishimura (西村 ウカル, Nishimura Ukaru)

Voiced by: Yuki Kaida (Japanese); Lucian Lee (English)

A male student at Yurie's school who was competing for student council.

Bin-chan (貧乏神(貧ちゃん), Binbou-gami)

A poverty god Yurie takes in after he saves Tama's life. He shares Tama's body.

Tama (一橋 タマ, Hitotsubashi Tama)

Voiced by: Chiwa Saito (Japanese); Carrie Savage (English)

Yurie's pet cat. After she began to share her body with Bin-chan, she exhibits a number of human traits which make Shoukichi suspicious.

Akane Hitotsubashi (一橋 あかね, Hitotsubashi Akane)

Voiced by: Miki Itou (Japanese); Karen Thompson (English)

Yurie and Soukichi's mother.

Kenkichi Hitotsubashi (一橋 憲吉, Hitotsubashi Kenkichi)

Voiced by: Mitsuaki Hoshino (Japanese); Talis Axelrod (English)

Yurie and Soukichi's father.

Ino, Shika, Chou

Ino Voiced by: Sam Riegel

Shika Voiced by: Liam O'Brien

Chou Voiced by: Hunter MacKenzie Austin

The three tiny spirits that the God Association sends to Yurie as her assistants. Their names are puns, as they were given by Yurie for unrelated reasons but correspond to the animals that they resemble. Chou is a butterfly, Ino is a boar and Shika is a deer. "Ino-Shika-Chou" is also a winning hand in the cards game, Hanafuda.

Media

Anime

There are sixteen episodes in the anime series. Twelve episodes were broadcast on TV Asahi in 720p, omitting episodes 8, 11, 13, and 16. The DVD release included all sixteen episodes. The opening theme was "Fair Weather Followed by Fair Weather" (晴れのちハレ!, Hare Nochi Hare!) performed by Maho Tomita, and the closing theme was "Ice Candy" (アイスキャンディー, Aisu Kyandī) performed by MAKO.

The titles of several episodes are from Japanese pop songs from the 1980s and 1990s.

Manga

Kamichu! was adapted as a manga serialized by MediaWorks in Dengeki Daioh, a shōnen manga magazine, and collected in two tankōbon volumes.

There are fourteen episodes plus one short episode in the manga series. Four long episodes consist of two parts (02+03, 04+05, 09+10, 12+13).

Music

Three Kamichu! CDs were released:

1. アイスキャンディー Maxi - 2005-08-24 ^[5]
2. 晴れのちハレ! Maxi - 2005-08-24 ^[6]
3. Kamichu OST - 2005-10-26 ^[7]

Reception

The anime received an Excellence Prize at the 2005 Japan Media Arts Festival.^[1]

See also

• Arahitogami: More information on human being as a God(dess) in Shinto religion.

References

External links

• Official Kamichu! website by Sony Music (in Japanese)
• Official Kamichu! website
• Interview with Hideyuki Kurata and Koji Masunari (in Japanese) - about the anime Kamichu!
• Kamichu! (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia