Kamisama Kiss by Julietta Suzuki

Title: Kamisama Kiss

Mangaka: Julietta Suzuki

Age Group: Teens

Series is: Ongoing with 8 volumes

Volume(s) Reviewing: 3-4

My Rating: 4.5/5

In volume 3, Nanami rescues a poor snake that is being harassed by her classmates. She doesn't realize that her goodwill leads her to being marked by the snake for betrothal! The snake turns out to be a shinshi named Mizuki who ends up kidnapping her and wanting her by his side forever!

The first half of this volume is a bit more serious compared to what has been happening so far. Mizuki plays a vital role in the series from this point on after being introduced. Why he kidnapped Nanami is quick to be revealed and that part of the story ends after three chapters. It switches back to a more fun note when Nanami gets sick and Tomoe takes her place at school by transforming himself into her. Meanwhile, Nanami who is at home sick is visited by Mizuki. He transports her soul back to the past to show her what Tomoe was really like.

In volume 4, Nanami goes to the beach with her friends and has Tomoe and Mizuki tagging along. Tomoe is unable to enter the water but when Nanami's friend, Ami, gets swept away by the ocean, he dives in to save her. Ryu-Oh Sukuna, the ruler of the sea, shows up immediately to take Tomoe away because of what he did years ago. In return for him, Nanami must find Ryu-Oh's missing eye. Will she be able to find it?

Nanami has developed strong feelings for Tomoe recently, which she confesses to him in the beginning of this volume. Volume 3 and 4 have been giving a lot of insight and depth on each character. With a bit of Tomoe's past revealed and the events that happened around it with Nanami, it foreshadows some things that will likely occur in the next volume or two. It is very sweet to see how much Nanami cares for Tomoe and will do anything in order to save him (though in honesty I feel that it is too much sometimes). I quite enjoy the last couple of chapters in volume 4 because Mizuki managed to permanently situate himself into Tomoe's and Nanami's lives. I am curious to see how it all turns out.

Review copies provided by Viz.

Kamisama Kiss by Julietta Suzuki

Title: Kamisama Kiss

Mangaka: Julietta Suzuki

Age Group: Teens

Series is: Ongoing with 8 volumes

Volume(s) Reviewing: 2

My Rating: 5/5

Nanami is starting to get used to her new life as a tochigami. But it is so gosh darn boring! Hearing that a popular idol is going to attend her school, she decides she wants to go back after all. Tomoe isn't too happy about it but he reluctantly lets her go. Except this idol is not at all what he seems...

I love this volume much more than the last! Why? Because at one point, Tomoe gets turned into a child and it's so adorable! I love re-reading those parts because he is simply so cute!

Moving aside from my gushing of child Tomoe, I think the second volume definitely adds on to the last. It doesn't jump into a plot that is going to be continuous for awhile like most series. However, there is new development between the characters as well as introduction to new faces. I'm glad that there is a steady pace in the story, not going too fast or too slow. It gives you enough content to be satisfied fully and urges you to move onto the next volume.

Review copy provided by Viz.

Kamisama Kiss by Julietta Suzuki

Title: Kamisama Kiss

Mangaka: Julietta Suzuki

Age Group: Teens

Series is: Ongoing with 8 volumes

Volume(s) Reviewing: 1

My Rating: 5/5

Nanami's father leaves her homeless so he can run away from his gambling debts. With her house evicted, Nanami has nowhere to go because she has no other family. In one fortunate encounter, she meets a dog-scared man named Mikage, who willing gives her his house. She decides to check it out...only to find that it is actually a shrine with demons!

Apparently, Mikage has made her the deity of the shrine so she must take on his responsibilities. Now living a life completely out of the norm, how is Nanami going to survive?

I read this manga series online a few months ago and was in love with it. I was so happy when I heard it got licensed by Viz because it can finally be read in North America.

Even though in the beginning Nanami accepted the idea of demons existing right away was a little unrealistic, it was done so swiftly that you don't even notice. I found Tomoe (Nanami's familiar who is a fox yokai) to be very androgynous at first. Which to me made a very interesting love interest for Nanami. I would love to see their relationship grow further down along the road because of conflict in personalities.

Kamisama Kiss is a read that manga fans will love. It's adorable and will still give you the same pleasure if you read it again and again. It has that fun atmosphere as well as the serious ones where the protagonist is in danger. I look forward to pick up the next volume in the series!

On the side note, I want to complain about whoever wrote the English summary for the first volume. Towards the end of the summary, it mentioned how Tomoe is "pretty hot". I find this completely irrelevant because Nanami is not drawn to Tomoe in that sense at all. Having that in the summary implies that the protagonist sees him as a good looking guy in the beginning but I know for a fact that she is not drawn to him till much later on. The inaccuracy of the synopsis annoys me because this happened to another series I reviewed by Viz before, which is Flower in a Storm. I think before writing a summary, one should read the book or manga first or it would give the reader the wrong initial impression of the book.

Review copy provided by Viz.