I finally finished watching Kamichu! DVDs 1-4, courtesy of Netflix (which I love 
). There were quite a few things I liked about the series and some things that I didn’t, but overall I got what I wanted – something soothing and sweet. Think Spirited Away meets Aria in a small Japanese riverside town.
The first thing that struck me was the plot set-up – the series opens with Yurie announcing that she has become a goddess, and that was that. Everyone around her more or less accepted it as a slightly unusual but overall believable event. In all other aspects Yurie was very much your average slightly clumsy, shy yet totally adorable middle school girl despite being a goddess, and I really enjoyed how matter of factly the story takes this idea and runs with it.
Soon after Yurie discovers her powers she begins making acquaintances with myriads of other whimsical gods a la Spirited Away, ranging from Battleship Yamato to a Poverty God, and embarking on all sorts of adventures – one of the more memorable ones involving a Martian and the Prime Minister of Japan. Adventures aside, the series makes plenty of time for some good girl-friends bonding time, even as one of her best friends Matsuri keeps busy scheming how to get Yurie involved in new ploys to keep her family shrine open and popular – one of which interestingly involved starting an anti-Christmas campaign calling on fellow town citizens to participate in more “traditional” Japanese activities (at the Raifuku Shrine). Another running theme I liked involved Yurie’s attempts to fight against her usual timid tendencies and become a stronger person. This played out in the episode where she temporarily transfers to a new school to participate in a gods’ festival, and also towards the end when she tries to get up enough courage to confess to her long-standing crush Ken-kun. I can relate to this myself as a relatively shy person, so it struck a chord.
Despite the fantastical premise, the series is in fact very slice-of-life in the little details and daily happenings among which the episodes play out. Kamichu! conveyed small-town life beautifully through scenes detailing everyday occurrences and scenes, like Yurie and Mitsue taking a boat ferry to school and back, or Yurie crawling under the kotatsu to try to reach the TV without actually having to leave the comfort and warmth of the kotatsu. This attention to detail created a nice relaxing vibe to the series. The awesome character design was done by Okama, who I love and was definitely a factor in why I started watching the series. Yurie also pulled some of the most endearing faces that I’ve ever seen.
Some things that I did not like – despite the Spirited Away comparison, I got the feeling that this series wasn’t really targeting an older audience. Some of the characters like Yurie’s three assistants from the God Association particularly irked me in that regard, in how they spoke and acted. The story is not particularly “deep,” which was not something I really looked for when picking up the series. It would have however increased the appeal to me as an “older” audience member since some of the things I loved about Spirited Away were the rich imagery and slew of symbolism open to interpretation. Also, as much as I like slice-of-life, Kamichu! was almost TOO slice-of-life in how slow the pacing got in spots. I broke up the viewing into many sittings because I didn’t feel compelled to marathon through the entire series in one go just to find out what was going to happen next. The slow pacing is probably the main reason I thought of Aria when I finished this series. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but for me it’s highly dependent on my frame of mind. When I first started watching Aria I thought it was very slow, boring, and aimed at very young audience members. When I tried it again I thought it was nice, soothing, and great pre-sleep watching material. My Kamichu! viewing experience fell somewhere in between the two.
Overall Kamichu! was sweet. It wasn’t blow-my-mind amazing, but the story wasn’t really meant to be anyways as it very much paced from one snapshot of life to another. If you like slice-of-life with some fantasy mixed in between, you’ll probably really enjoy this series. I ended up rating this one a 3 out of 5 on Netflix, but I really wanted to give it a 3.5 instead – too bad Netflix doesn’t do half stars 
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