Monday 3 November 2008

Kannagi - Episode 5

Poor old Jin, surrounding by Nagi, Zange and Tsugumi all fighting over his attention. Wait, what am I saying, there's nothing poor about it!


Anyway, after Zange turns up unannounced at Jin's house at the end of the last episode, the fifth instalment of Kannagi starts off by said popularity contest becoming some kind of cooking competition, where the overall loser seems to be food itself. This is however a brief distraction from the real business of this episode, as we see Nagi becoming increasingly popular as she hangs out at Jin's school, to the point where she ends up with her own fan club (complete with membership cards!) and a hugely popular web site. Of course, this is encroaching on Zange's territory somewhat which she isn't too pleased about, and as an added difficulty the teachers are beginning to grow tired of the "trespasser" around the grounds. Thankfully for Nagi, she has an unexpected friend on the inside in the form of Suzushiro, a teacher of religious studies at the school who not only understands who (or rather what) Nagi is, but also happens to be the father of Hakua, the girl whose body Zange has "stolen" for her own ends.

As with previous episodes of Kannagi, there's a lot to like here, from the brilliant presentation of Nagi's online fan club (complete with forum posts and YouTube... sorry, "YamaTube" intro video) to Nagi's magic wand's "upgrade", and with plenty of other humourous and just plain fun goings-on inbetween. It's relatively clear to see what direction the series are heading it, but that's almost secondary to just how plain enjoyable Kannagi is to watch - Great characters, nicely animated, and with just the right amount and blend of humour to go with it, this series continues to be a winner in my book.

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