Kamisama Kiss: Volume 11

by Julietta Suzuki, 193 pages

It's almost the New Year and everyone's doing their best to prepare.  For the shrine, that means going to pick up their ofuda (a talisman that works as a kind of fortune / good luck charm) from the deity in charge of the coming year.  Nanami decides to tag along with Tomoe and Mizuki (partly to keep them from fighting) and finds that to get Mikage shrine's ofuda they each first have to walk through a gate that shows the deity what they've been doing the last twelve years.  This is nothing new for her shinshi, but Nanami has a harder time getting out and the other two have to enter her gate in order to retrieve her and finish their errand.  There, Tomoe gets to see a side of his headstrong tochigami he hasn't seen before and realizes she's not as tough, or as weak, as he thought.

Aw, little Nanami is cute.  She's had a rough life, but her mom taught her well.  This story reveals a lot about Nanami and Tomoe, both, including some plot-relevant hints that they don't pick up on but the reader does.  The other New Year's stories and snippets in this volume are good, too, and show us what various characters are up to and how they've grown, including a peek at conflicted Kirihito's continuing efforts to get his body back and Yatori's still-hazy involvement in everybody else's business.  Suzuki does a nice job presenting little seasonal side stories that still advance the larger plot and add to her characters' development.

Kamisama Kiss: Volume 10

by Julietta Suzuki, 192 pages

Jiro the tengu is forced to reconsider his rigid survival-of-the-fittest philosophy when it comes to leading his clan as interloper Yatori's schemes come to light and Nanami decides to put things right.  Happily, her plan to do that includes lending her tochigami powers to Kurama and letting him boss proud Tomoe around.

This is a fun, hopeful little series of supernatural shenanigans and stubborn romantics served up with just a touch of depth, a nice tonic to the stresses and angst of a long day in the real world.

Kamisama Kiss: Volume 9

by Julietta Suzuki, 192 pages

Nanami and Tomoe stumble upon a young tengu in search of a long-lost kinsman.  The aging leader of his clan has fallen ill and the resulting power vacuum threatens to destroy their mountain home.  The little one is sure that if he can find his missing idol,  conflict and tragedy can be avoided.  Finding the human-world-acclimated heir is the easy part.  His beautiful face is plastered on billboards all over the city, after all.  But convincing him to take up the responsibility-laden life he left behind proves more complicated.

Kurama reluctantly takes center stage for something unrelated to his stardom.  The source of his troubles is a most unpleasant tengu name Jiro, whose cold, cruel nature and history of pragmatic violence has earned him the fear, but not the love, of his fellows.  It's good to see Kurama address his earlier-hinted-at origins here and I look forward to seeing him outshine his rival--with, of course, help from a few friends.  I'm also curious as to how Jiro's scheming hanger-on, Yatori, connects with the confused Kirihito.  There are so many shades of "badness" to the villains of this series.  I have a feeling there's going to a lot of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" philosophizing before these messes get cleared up.

Kamisama Kiss: Volume 8

by Julietta Suzuki, 191 pages

Nanami is trapped in the land of the dead with the mysterious "human" Kirihito.  Tomoe's not with her, so she'll have to rely on her own skills to protect the weakening Kirihito and escape.  By the time Tomoe does figure out what's going on and tries to help, he may no longer be a match for the entryway's new locksmith...at least not in his present form as a shinshi....

Lots of introspection for Tomoe, Kirihito, and Nanami this volume as they each have to analyze their pasts and presents and interpret what it all might mean.  Kirihito in particular earns some sympathy points.  Considering how unpleasant he was in the past, his punishment and recent connections with humans have forced him to experience the world through a different set of (more empathetic) senses.  It will be interesting to see what he, Tomoe, and Nanami do with their newly altered circumstances (though they do not all realize just how much things have changed).

Kamisama Kiss: Volume 7

by Julietta Suzuki, 189 pages

Nanami gets to the Kamuhakari conference but feels less than welcomed by many of those attending.  When Ôkuninushi-sama, the hosting kami, asks her to do him a favor and deal with a problem at one of the nearby gates of the land of the dead--a seal traditionally weakened for the week-long conference, as its usual guards are attendees--she can't say no.  But what exactly has she gotten herself into?

Goodness, Tomoe used to associate with a very bad element.  The little flashback to his days of hanging out with Akura-Oh (an even wilder fox yokai than Tomoe) is the darkest scene of the series to-date.  The prospect of him getting his original body back and once more wreaking havoc in the world is a scary one.  How did he wind up temporarily occupying his present vessel?  And how's Tomoe going to react when he finds out what he's up to?  And how much of his own past does Tomoe really remember?  I like how the series has been patiently adding snippets of depth and character development as it goes along.  It makes me want to read more every time.

Kamisama Kiss: Volume 6

by Julietta Suzuki, 192 pages

Nanami finds her kami skills put to the test again by Otohiko-sama, the wind kami who put her through her paces before the festival.  This time, there's an annual conference of regional kami coming up, but there's only one free seat.  If Nanami wants to go and prove herself before her (non-human) peers, she'll first have to beat another human kami named Kayako who's already considered a "living kami" with worshippers galore.  Does Nanami stand a chance?

Ah, Kayako's got a familiar stranger in her camp...for the moment.  Nanami decides to compete for the seat a.) because Kayako's an arrogant, smack-talking young lady and Nanami's pride won't let her back down and b.) she hopes to find news of Mikage, the shrine's former tochigami, for Tomoe's sake.  She can tell that, despite his grouchy protestations, he misses his former master and wants to see him and ask him why he left.  And c.) now she wants to go for wronged Kayako's sake, too.  This is one of those series where the heroine unintentionally expands her fan club everywhere she goes--even if some of her new "friends" still act antagonistically toward her.  Normally, I find that a cheezy plot gimmick, but Nanami's not some saccharine, boringly perfect princess do-gooder charming her way through life.  She's temperamental, barely getting by in school, and plenty stubborn and sarcastic.  But she tries her best, means well (most of the time), and genuinely wants other people to be happy (unless they tick her off, in which case she wants them to learn their lesson first).  I like her.

Kamisama Kiss: Volume 5

by Julietta Suzuki, 191 pages

As she struggles to get her shinshi, Tomoe and Mizuki, to stop fighting with each other and get along, Nanami decides the shrine itself could use some love and attention, too.  A shrine's not much of a shrine if it has no worshipers, and Mikage's have been absent for years, so she comes up with a plan to hold a shrine festival to encourage the locals to visit.  But the townspeople think the shrine is a haunted ruin, and Nanami doesn't know the first thing about organizing a festival or performing her role as the current (human) kami, so she and the gang have their work cut out for them.

Aw, Tomoe and Mizuki don't exactly like each other, but they make up enough to understand one another a little better.  This volume nicely follows the festival plot while slipping in little moments that hint at backstory and future story arcs concerning Mikage, Kurama, Nanami's mysterious and colorful kami-tester, and a strange young festival attendee clad in black.

Kamisama Kiss: Volume 4

by Julietta Suzuki, 191 pages

Tomoe's been coming to school with Nanami to watch over her since her run-in with Mizuki, but he's not very good at "laying low" and draws a lot of admiring attention from the other girls in class.  Worldly-wise Kurama takes him aside and tells him to watch out or Nanami will fall for him, too.  Incredulous, Tomoe laughs such silliness off, but the tengu's warning proves well-founded.  Later, a trip to the beach leads to Nanami once more travelling back to the past, this time to save the object of her unrequited love.  But what she sees there only confuses her even more.

Poor Nanami, in love with a guy who says he refuses to get romantically involved with a human.  The reasons for his intransigence on the matter are a mystery, but she's a proud young woman and does her best to move forward and deal.  I love how Mizuki, who formerly tried to force her to marry him, gives himself renewed purpose in life by sneakily making himself her second shinshi and so becoming a part of the Mikage shrine family.  He was lonely and masterless before, so it makes me happy that he's neither anymore.

Kamisama Kiss: Volume 3

by Julietta Suzuki, 197 pages

Nanami inadvertently gets symbolically engaged to another shrine's shinshi, so an exasperated Tomoe has to keep an extra eye on her at school to make sure the other shinshi doesn't try to collect on the deal.  But she's an unintentional handful, that Nanami, and steps out for a just moment to run an errand while her bored bodyguard's napping....

Hee hee!  This series is mostly light but with some nice touches of melancholy and a very few dark elements to give it some depth.  This volume has a little of everything, too.  For seriousness, there's the other shinshi's situation and Nanami's brief glimpse of a very different Tomoe back in his wild fox days.  For fun, there's Tomoe going to school looking like Nanami (who's home with a fever) and dealing with his tengu / celebrity-idol rival for her affections.  It was recently announced that this series is being adapted into an anime in Japan, so I'm hoping it gets streamed or released here so I can giggle through it as I have through the books.  :)

Kamisama Kiss: Volume 2

by Julietta Suzuki, 192 pages

When she finds out that Kurama, a popular teen idol, has enrolled at her school, Nanami decides that hitting the books once more will be a good way to avoid the boredom of their quiet shrine home. Tomoe is not so keen on this plan, knowing that other spirits out there will target her as a tochigami, but he relents and lets her go--with certain conditions. But Tomoe forgets that as a powerful shinshi (a servant of a tochigami) he's not an unattractive prize, himself.

Privileged, arrogant Kurama's pretty funny, with his heavy eye-liner and "fallen angel from hell" idol persona. The fact that he's not really so terribly awful underneath the excess of attitude helps. Watching Tomoe pout about not getting to eat him is just as fun. I wasn't as interested in Narukami as an antagonist in the latter half of the volume, although her giving us the chance to see toddler-Tomoe (at least on the outside--inside he's still all his prickly grown-up self) get snuggled by Nanami and give dirty looks to Kurama makes it worth it. And when he gets his original body back, it's not exactly what Nanami's expecting, which points to more fun in the future.

Kamisama Kiss: Volume 1

by Julietta Suzuki, 198 pages

When Nanami Momozono's useless father skips out on his debts and his daughter, she finds herself evicted and alone with nowhere to go. After she "rescues" a cowardly gentleman from a dog in the park, he suddenly offers up his house for her to watch while he's away, kisses her on the forehead, and runs off. With no other options, she follows his crude map and ends up standing before a run-down shrine, not a proper house. Also, it's not exactly empty. Nanami isn't just house-sitting, she's been chosen as the new tochigami, or master deity of the shrine. Unfortunately, one of her new minions doesn't take too fondly to her. Should she stay? Should she go back into the human realm and fend for herself?

If I can't have more Karakuri Odette, then I will happily take more Kamisama Kiss. Suzuki's stories are fun and sweet and she makes you care about her characters from the get-go. Tomoe, the surly fox spirit, refuses to accept Nanami and doesn't bat an eyelid (or maybe just one, when no one is looking) when her life is in danger, but he's clearly been hurt by the abandonment of their previous master and possibly more before. It's his nature to care, but experience has made him wary. And Nanami, while understandably freaked out by the idea of legends turning out to be not so not-real after all, has her own harsh experience with abandonment and has been playing the responsible adult for most of her life, so she takes charge of her new situation as best she can. I look forward to watching the two of them develop some mutual respect. :)