Moé Moé Rabu

Opening Sequence:

OP: 「Ankoku Tengoku」 by Ali Project

Hanazono Karin is searching for something called “The Seed of Chaos” and happens to find one in the park. But as soon as she finds it it sends a green lightning bolt towards her, but she is saved by a boy called Kazune, then 2 other boys show up. The transform and attack the Seed but to no luck in destroying it. Karin decides to transform and joins with Kazune in hope to destroy it, but they fail and Karin’s magical item has something attached to it and it grows thorns. Suddenly Karin is thrown back into the past, where she is standing in front of Shii-chan’s, her pet cat, grave.

Remembering that she is staying with her auntie, a boy comes up and ask her what she is doing and calls her an idiot for crying, which results in Karin punching him. The day in the park, Karin bumps into a cute girl called Kujyou Himeka. The two talk and Himeka tells her she is with her cousin, who drops by and Karin finds out it was the boy from last night, who’s name is Kujyou Kazune. But Karin immediately punches him in the face telling him she wants revenge. Seeing how they knew each other, Himeka asks Kazune if Karin is the goddess he is looking for, curious about what they are talking about, Kazune tells her not to interfere in other people’s conversations. Getting mad, Karin tries to punch him again and Kazune notices the ring on her right hand. Grabbing her arm and wanting to look, Karin tells him its a memento from her late mother, but suddenly a light starts emitting from the ring. Not knowing what had happened, Karin runs off.

The next day, Karin is all different. Getting a perfect score on test, being able to play the piano, etc. She doesn’t know what is happening and thinks it might be what happened with the ring. With P.E being the next class, Karin wishes it would rain so she wouldn’t have to do it, but she knows it won’t happen since it is sunny. Though suddenly dark clouds come and it starts raining. Sitting at home later, she is feeling depressed since Shii-chan is gone. However Himeka drops by for a visit and to give her bag back, since she threw it at Kazune before. She also tells her that she has to return home tomorrow which saddens Karin, so she decides to go see her off.

But Kazune is also there but Karin is still mad at him. Kazune asks if anything weird has happened since the ring lit up. Although not answering him directly, he figures out something has and warns her that someone will b after her when she is alone. This makes her even mad and Karin tells him to leave her alone and throws her umbrella away. Kazune apologises and gives her his coat and umbrella, and he then leaves with Himeka. Later that night, Karin is at Shii-chan’s grave. Unbeknowist to her, the street lightss around her fade out and a man stans behind her saying he’s finally found her.

Ending Sequence:

ED: 「Anemone」 by Nakahara Mai

Impressions

Well this was totally different to what I thought it would be. Having not read the manga, I was thinking it would be something similar to Pita-Ten but it is in no way near it. It has a slightly darker tone to it and it feels very different to Koge Donbo’s works that I have seen, but that is what also makes this series more interesting. So far it’s only showing a background story, though how much of this is true is yet to be known, but I get the feeling that this is somewhat like a Card Captor Sakura theme if she has to go around destroying Seeds of Chaos. There is plenty of humour and some sad moments through out so there is a bit of variety going on and it makes it little entertaining.

The animation quality and design are quite good and was higher than I expected. Though given the recent series Winter Garden, another Koge Donbo work, it just shows that animation production is getting to a high standard these days. The manga character designs are probably different to the anime one but I do like the anime version. Everyone is really cute especially with the big round eyes and that’s the major point of Koge Donbo’s work. As before, I can see similarities with Winter Garden but also with Tiny Snow Fairy Sugar, but Kamichama Karin has shown great improvement over these two.

So far I can’t help but feel sorry for Karin. She has lost both parents as well as her pet Shii-chan. She has been through quite a lot of pain and suffering and doesn’t appear to have any close friends, but I am impressed by her attitude to keep trying her best despite knowing nothing will change. Also Nakahara Mai did a wonderful job as Karin. Kazune sorta reminds me of Ten-chan but a bit more of a prick, although one thing is that he does look rather feminine, but then most guys do in Koge Donbo’s works. Himeka by god is almost like Tomoyo from CCS and I get a feeling she’ll whip out a video camera of some sort.

The music I don’t find that great. With the opening done by Ali Project I don’t think it as good as some of their other songs. Although I usually have mixed feelings with Ali Project songs where I usually both like them, but also hate them. Don’t ask me why, I just do. The opening sequence at the end show some interesting bits especially with the burnt and ripped photographs. The ending by Nakahara Mai I found to be better than the opening, but still doesn’t have a good enough impression on me. The ending sequence isn’t that great either so i refer the opening sequence.

Overall it was an interesting episode and with the overall cute character designs I’ll continue watching this, though I won’t continue blogging this. With the impressions that I get from the first episode, I do hope we see a bit more of a darker theme as it would make it interesting and make it unique given the cute character designs.

Preview: