Anime Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens

[Shinmaru]

OK, after [b]Kannagi[/b]'s excellent fifth episode, this series definitely deserves its own thread.

The show follows Nagi, a goddess who attains human form after her spirit is accidentally contained in a sculpture carved from the wood of a sacred tree. Nagi then takes up residence in the house of the sculptor, a high school student named Jin, and proceeds to wreak havoc in his life while also cleansing the impurities of the world.

I am sure that description makes this sound like a generic series, and it can be, at times. In fact, through the first four episodes, I classified it as a guilty pleasure -- definitely capable of being funny, with good characters, but if you had to make a choice between this and, say, [b]Toradora![/b], I would advise wholeheartedly to go with the latter. (Well, I still would, but the decision would be much tougher now.)

But [b]Kannagi[/b]'s fifth episode, which sees Nagi launch full force into a plan to make Jin's entire high school see her as a human deity, is arguably the funniest single episode I have seen of anything this season. There are [i]so[/i] many inspired jokes and sequences -- [spoiler]the cook-off, Nagi's fansite, the interviews with the message board posters, the Super Mario Bros. reference, etc.[/spoiler] -- and I laughed uproariously from start to finish. It is fantastic to see a series I had low expectations for coming in grow into something wonderfully funny.

I know Des has love for this series, too. Anyone else watching it?