Well, I know you were all waiting with bated breath to read my opinion on this final installment of the Kannzuki no Miko series.

As you may remember, I found the anime to be superficial, devoid of meaning and tedious, but marginally distracting. I reviewed it several times with increasing incredulousness – primarily because, while the series made absolutely NO sense at all, many people, mostly male, seem to feel that Kannzuki represents the height of yuri. This story was indubitably colorful, had lots of action and noise and sound and light, but it simply made no sense. That a senseless 13 episode miniseries that had no plausibility, not internal consistancy and utterly pointless rape should be seen by any minority of viewers as the *epitome* of the genre I have labored to promote is simply…exhausting.

Folks – there is good Yuri out there. With plots, and character development, etc. Drawn by women for women. This is real Yuri, not the parody of several genres tossed with a light dressing of Yuri so it sells.

Yamaji Ebine
Takashima Rica
Tadeno Eriko
Morishima Akiko
Hayahiya Shizuru

These women draw and write Yuri – with plots, characters, genuine expression of lesbian love and desire. Look for them – read them – learn what good Yuri is.

Okay, that rant having been concluded, let’s turn our eyes towards the work in question.

We left Himeko having just been raped by Chikane. This was used in the anime as well, where the explanation for the act was to make Himeko hate Chikane, as she’s becoming an orochi.

In the manga the act is complicated by the fact that it seeems to be tied into Chikane and Himeko’s existence as Miko of Moon and Sun, respectively.

In reality, it is fairly obvious that the people who comprise Kaishaku, like most people, have absolutely no understanding at all of the emotional damage rape does. In this expert text, Himeko wonders if it really happend, gets a twinge of pain in her abdomen, is horrified, but when Chikane seems like her usual self, is fine. Fine? Oooookkkkkkkaaaaaay…..

Then follows pretty much exactly the same nonsense that occurred in the anime. Lots of mecha fights, which *still* make no sense, since we are never really given any motivation for the Orochi respresentatives. In my mind, there should at least have been one flashback to explain the how/why of becomming a homicidal kubi, but that’s just me, always looking for, you know, plausibility, in a story.

BTW, kubi mean “neck” and the scanlators translate it that way, but in our language we’d probably call them a “hand” rather than a neck, as in hired hand, or ranch hand. After watching the anime and reading the manga, I am still entirely puzzled as to the kubi’s exstence at all. Why were they there? What were they hoping to do? Shoot things, okay…but why? I like the idea of shooting things too, but I can, at least, tell you *why* I’d like to pop you. Sister Miyako is hot, but the rest, *especially* Tsubasa, are a complete yawn. Tsubasa’s only reason to exist seems to be to pander to fans of long-silver-haired boys. Hmmm – I guess if we see the kubi as pandering to random fetishes, they make more sense. Okay. That works for me.

The climax of the manga and anime are similar, but not *quite* the same. Chikane explains that her behavior (violent rape, emotional torture and criminal passive-agressiveness) was meant to save Himeko from a fate worse than fate. In the anime, Chikane accepts an eternity that consists of a rather shorter period of time than eternities are wont to be, alone on the moon.

In the manga, Himeko comes with Chikane, rendering all of Chikane’s violence and abuse pointless, because apparently it would take MORE than that to make Himeko hate Chikane. One can only boggle.

In an epilogue which does not exist in the anime, Chikane and Himeko are born as incestuous twins who apparently live happily ever after.

Ratings:
Art – 8
Story – 2
Characters – 6
Yuri – 9 (I cut off a point for the complete and utter lack of understanding of the dynamics of women in love/lust.)

Overall – 6

Honestly – this could, really, have been an excellent story. Given time, back story, character development and a modicum of internal consistency, it could have been decent. But it wasn’t. Not really.

I have read several comments about my earlier reviews of the Kannazuki no Miko anime stating that I was over-harsh, that it was a good story with lots of lovely yuri, etc, etc…. I remain unrepentant. I do not think it is harsh to require a story to make sense or at least to be internally consistent. The anime made no sense. The horrible eternal fates that Oogami, Chikane and Himeko fought against were, to be sure, horrible. But, and here’s the crux of my complaints, they lasted a few minutes, not millennia. The ridiculousness of the ending of the anime sucked whatever meaning the plot had managed to hold on to (which was damn little considering the bad guy in the series turned out to be not much more than a really loud voice.) No. I’m sorry – I was not harsh.

However…I am about to be harsh.

This manga is a piece of utter, plotless dreck, wrapped up in frisson of hormonal angst, senseless screaming and a rape scene that has no meaning or context, because the story simply stops. I imagine that a second volume was initially planned, but none has been printed, so there is pretty much no explanation at all of anything. Which is kind of a mercy, because if the explanations are anything like the ones from the anime, they will make no sense at all, and simply cease to have any meaning at some point.

Yes, I am perfectly aware of the meaning of the rape, and all the other stuff that goes on, and if a decent writer got a hold of it, it would all make a damn GOOD story. But no decent writer did, and the version we are forced to endure has SO many plot holes, assumptions and sections where common sense simply has to be abandoned, that I just can’t say that it all makes sense, and still look at myself in the mirror.  (I love you, so I will rape you so you hate me so you kill me, so I can protect you from a horrible fate. Only a schizoid personality can make that make sense.)

Kaishaku, the mangaka also known for Steel Angel Kurumi isn’t really known for strong plots. I sincerely hope that he didn’t write this as well, but was just hired to illustrate someone else’s story. It reads like a story idea that just sort of peters out mid-way, like a fanfic writer who burns out halfway through an epic Evangelion fic.

Okay – to be fair, the plot, such as it is, is pretty much the same as the anime, with a little more time for Miyako, the nun/1st Kubi. Also, Chikane is, IMHO, much more openly seductive and desirous (and not in the bizarro-world psychotic way of the anime, but in a genuine, gosh-I-want-you normal way) of Himeko. For her part, Himeko is less wishy-washy, but only because there’s less of the manga to be wishy-washy in.

The final score at the end of volume one is: Kisses from Himeko; Oogami 1, Chikane 1. Rape of Himeko; Chikane 1, Oogami 0. So depending on what kind of person you are, Chikane either has won or lost.

Doesn’t matter, though, because the story doesn’t end…heck, it barely even starts.