Kannazuki No Miko Vol-2: The Lunar Priestess (2003)
Animation Production: J.C Staff
Released by: Geneon Entertainment
Running Time: 100 Minutes
By Jeffrey Couto

Introduction

I enjoyed the first Kannazuki no Miko quite a bit and by the end of the first disc I was interested in seeing were they took the story with the next set of episodes. Thankfully the wait wasn’t too long and this past weekend I got a chance to see the second volume of the domestic release of this series.

I could have never guessed how things would turn out though ! To say I was shocked by huge twist in episode eight would be a giant understatement, which is to the credit of the creative staff behind this anime. So what happens? Read below to learn more, but beware of spoilers! This time it can’t be helped!

Story

"The Advent of the Priestess of the Godless Month! Confronted with his real brother, Souma fights for Himeko, the one he loves. However, if Souma is destined to be the one for Himeko, where does that leave Chikane? Her feelings are so deep and powerful that no one in the world could possibly match the intensity of her love. Chikane is determined to make sure that everyone understands this, including the Orochi, Souma, and most of all, Himeko herself. "-- DVD Box

Review

Volume two of Geneon's domestic release of Kannazuki No Miko contains episodes five through eight in the series, which include:

Episode 5: Over the Darkness of Night
A dramatic battle between brothers takes place as Souma confronts Tsubasa, his older brother who he has not seen in many years! Tsubasa is not pleased that Souma has chosen to protect Himeko rather than to destroy her along with Chikane and is now set to teach him a lesson in what it means to be one of the necks of Orochi!

Episode 6: You, Where the Sun Shines
Souma and Himeko are off on a date…what will this do to Chikane’s heart? Emotions are a powerful tool, can they be used against Chikane?

Episode 7: Rainfall in the Hell of Love
As Souma and Himeko take on a trio of fighters and their giant mecha, Chikane’s heart, mind and soul are being attacked by Miyako, one of the necks of the Orochi, exposing her greatest weakness to our heroine and using it to lure her into the darkness…Will she succeed?

Episode 8: Storm of the Silver Moon
It’s a dark day as friends turn to enemies and enemies do the unthinkable…Will Souma and Himeko be able to survive what will happen today?

So last time out we were treated to a basic introduction to the world of Kannzuki no Miko, our protagonists and the conflict at hand. This is a process that wasn’t particularly complicated or involved and by episode three the series fell into a comfortable groove, which we pick up on right away here with episode six, an all out action-packed episode that pits Souma against his older brother. This confrontation sets the tone for the rest of the episodes as each one takes a darker tone than the previous and the main cast’s relationships spirals to a common explosive point.

It all begins with Souma’s realization that Himeko’s power and support lends him a greater power than the Orochi ever did. They were already close, but now their relationship is growing and they're beginning to understand that they mean more to each other now than they have realized, they’re starting to fall in love. However, this creates a conflict in that Chikane also harbors some strong feelings for Himeko, albeit these are unspoken and kept secret from her. So the story quickly evolves from that of two heroines fighting the Orochi to Himeko and Souma fighting the invaders together while Chikane is left behind to fend for herself to a certain degree. Not your traditional love cycle to say the least and this is where the show’s writers cleverly develop this series with a different flavor than your average anime love triangle.

Instead of having two guys jockeying for the heart of their beloved, what you have here is one guy being very upfront about his feelings and one girl who is more introvert and conservative about her emotions. Whereas Souma wastes no time in expressing to Himeko what he feels for her (once he realizes it), Chikane chooses to simply admire her and keep her true feelings bottled up rather than open up to Himeko. This creates an interesting double angle for the same theme that is handled quite well and used as a story device to its fullest potential.

This is best exemplified by Chikane, whose bottle-up emotions serve as a weak point for her enemies to exploit and use against her, which they waste no time in taking advantage of. This leads to our protagonist’s heart being toyed with and slowly darkened to the point of no return, turning that once innocent love into an aggressive emotion to be acted upon with little inhibition. No longer is this about what is best for Himeko, now it will be all about what Chikane wants, and if that means she needs to abandon her post as the Lunar Priestess and joining the Orochi, then so be it.

This is a very interesting angle to the narrative that took me completely by surprise and left me going, “Wait! What happens now!? What does this mean? Aughh! I got to see the next episode!”. The only downside to it, is the extremely dark scene that follows Chikane’s revelation to Himeko and her newfound assertiveness. Nothing is really shown, but quite a bit is implied and it changes the tone of the story to something that maybe be skirting the edge of “too” dark.

On the animation front this show’s quality is exactly what you would expect from a modern series as it features crisp drawings, a fluid frame rate and amazing visual effects. The mecha scenes were particularly impressive with great attention to detail and continuity from frame to frame being given to each scene that features the necks of Orochi. In addition the background paintings were superb with great usage of color and framing.

The DVD itself is another nice release by Geneon, that features a very nice transfer of the original series. The video was nice and crisp with colors coming across brightly and animation lines showing up sharply. The audio transfer was good and clear with no noticeable issues. Inside the DVD box there is a small insert with information on the dates for each of the other volumes in this series’ release and some artwork, a limited edition poster board and a coupon good towards future releases in the series. The packaging for the DVD is superb and definitely worth checking out (BTW the DVD case features a double sided cover)

Final Thoughts

Kannazuki no Miko proves that even classic themes can still be pulled off in such a way as to surprise the viewer with new ideas and takes on tried-and-true concepts. What appeared at first to be a classic anime tale of heroes with robots against evil organization with robots transforms into something far better than that, making the journey to the conclusion of the series a very fun one.

Recommended to all anime fans, especially mecha afficionados.

Jeffrey Couto