Kamichu is an anime that I vaguely knew about mainly through looking through Anime News Network but it didnt really catch my interest when I was younger. If I had watched this when I was a kid I probably wouldnt have liked it. But I was bored one day and decided to sit down and watch Kamichu since I wanted something different to watch...and Im really glad I did because Kamichu is absolutely adorable and criminally underrated. It hasnt even gotten a bluray release over here and the last time it got released in America was in 2008 when FUNimation rescued it along with other Geneon titles to put out since Geneon kicked the bucket. I even like this series enough that I actually bought the old FUNi DVD boxset recently. Yurie Hitotsubashi is your regular average awkward unassuming girl living in 1980s Onomichi Japan. She deals with all the typical things girls her age worry about: studying for tests hanging with her friends and crushing on the cute boy in her class. But one day out of nowhere Yurie finds that she...became a God. How or why the show never explains. She tells her friend Mitsue about this but naturally Mitsue doesnt quite believe it. Another classmate local shrine priestess Matsuri believes her right away and worms her way into Yuries life mainly so she can use her new divinity to make money and keep her familys shrine from being shut down. Together they set out to uncover Yuries supposed powers and place in the world of Japanese Shinto where cities places objects and even concepts can all have their own minor deities and the girls encounter a little more than they had bargained for. If youre looking for an anime that perfectly encapsulates the term sliceoflife and is just all around warm and charming without being overly so then Kamichu is the anime for you because the anime is mainly pure distilled sliceoflife. Even though Yurie suddenly became a God complete with using magic and making stuff happen because she wills it the series doesnt treat it as an earth shattering miracle but rather an after school job that comes with its own sets of problems so her new Godhood isnt just there to be used to magically solve problems with a flick of a finger like most modern anime tend to do these days with OP protags. The thing that makes Kamichu stand out from other sliceoflife anime with a hint of magic and otherworldly creatures is how committed it is to being as downtoearth as humanly possible. From the characters all the way down to the situations they find themselves in none of it is overly dramatized or made into a huge deal. The various Gods and deities that Yurie and her friends encounter are treated as just a regular part of every day life even with their cartoony fantastical designs that contrast with the more realistic designs of the human characters. On the animation front the show just oozes small town charm in every day. The human characters all have believable realistic designs that make them feel like people youd run into on the street and the animation further empathizes their humanity with kinetic fluid movement thats used for pretty much everything like running walking squirming and crawling. Every movement the characters make is treated as a full body experience like the animators really understood the physics of human movement. Even the characters facial expressions are full of life empathizing expressiveness over super sparkly eyes and dolllike aesthetics. The backgrounds have just as much love put into them with the town the characters live in actually feeling lived in. Crumbling stone stairs shabby buildings cracked sidewalks lots of trees and sunshine and Matsuris world weary shrine are all given a lot of attention and care. A lot of the set pieces used in the series are actually based on real locales and landmarks in Onomichi even though parts of it are inaccurate in regards to their places in the real world Apparently Yuries house is based on one in the mainland so IRL she wouldnt have needed to use a ferry to get to school every day. All of these things in and of themselves would be interesting enough but apparently the creators of the anime werent satisfied with the fact that they had to air 12 episodes so not only did they make four extra episodes as OVAs but treated them as part of the main series but for the DVD releases they even went as far as to add new footage and material to the already existing episodes to refine them and make them better than the broadcast version. Other than a few exceptions that almost never happens anymore and I applaud director Koji Masunari and his team for going the extra mile for their creations. Now if only American content creators were allowed that same freedom. The music also remains true to the shows overall downtoearth tone. Pastoral piano tunes strings woodwinds soft guitars and harmonicas all give Kamichu that gentle small town charm. The characters are the same way as well. The main characters all have their own unique quirks personalities strengths weaknesses and idiosyncrasies that make them feel interesting and relatable and the show is careful to portray them as naturally and organically as possible coaxing emotions out of the audience and making them feel earned rather than trying to wring them out of you through artificial means like overthetop backstories or having the characters only have one single personality trait. Looking at you Prima Doll. Most of the characters are pretty likeable...with one major exception: Kenji Yuries crush. Im gonna be blunt this guy is bland as all hell and not only that hes such a brainless idiot its not even funny. Why does Yurie like this guy again? I know crushes can be weird but...I dont know. Yurie doesnt have as much chemistry with him compared to her two friends. Even two minor characters Miko and Shokichi have a more believable romantic chemistry than Yurie does with Kenji. But Kenji isnt the only problem the show has unfortunately. As much as I love Kamichus more laidback take on its premise the shows intentionally slow leisurely pace and more lightweight stories may not appeal to those who prefer their shows to have more action conflict or more meat to them. Hell one episode is entirely about just Yurie lazing around the house under a kotatsu thats it. Furthermore episode 4 is a particular point of contention because its whole tone completely clashes with the rest of the show and disrupts it entirely. In that one Yurie heads to Japans parliament to deal with a cute pink alien visitor which is not only too farfetched but takes the audience out of the appealing smalltown setting. I personally didnt hate it as parts of it were cute and Yurie manages to do something surprisingly clever in order to help solve the main problem but I can absolutely see why people wouldnt like this episode. Like I mentioned before Kamichu never explains how Yurie became a god or why and the show just expects you to go with it without question. That being said none of these things really killed my enjoyment of Kamichu. Now the only reason I like other similar shows more than this such as Natsumes Book of Friends and Haibane Renmei are that Natsume and Haibane have more of a conflict going on and do more with their characters with Natsume having more episodes and therefore more time to do what it needs to do. Kamichu is simply a sweet wholesome charming show thats content to be as downtoearth and pleasant as humanly possible without coming across as artificial or obnoxious. Having come off the absolute saccharine mess that was Prima Doll that show relied so much on being as cutesy moe as possible that it did so at the expense of literally everything else and refused to make its characters interesting or likeable in any way. Kamichus more subdued restrained outlook works because the show knows that simplicity works better than trying to be overthetop. Kamichu as an anime knows what it is and doesnt try to be anything it isnt actually caring about its characters and stories. If youre looking to own the show legally its actually a lot easier than you think. The series isnt legally streaming anywhere right now and the original Geneon DVDs are out of print but you can find copies of them on places like Amazon and Ebay for pretty cheap. I managed to nab the boxset that includes the soundtrack CD for a little over 50 which is pretty standard for most modern series boxsets nowadays. So yeah Kamichu exemplifies all the good parts of sliceoflife anime and is just overall relaxing and charming. Definitely give it a shot if youre into stuff like Kamichu.