The Side Table

Title:  Kamisama Kiss

Story and Art by: Julietta Suzuki

Published:  2006-2016

Genre:  Manga series

Number of books:  25

Rating:  3 out of 5 stars

Summary:  

High school student Nanami Momozono is left homeless after her dad skips town to avoid his gambling debts. When she saves a man from a dog, he offers her a place at his house in return. Nanami accepts, glad to have a place to stay, but his house is actually a shrine and it seems that the man has passed on his job as the local deity to Nanami. As she learns how to care for the shrine and the responsibilities of the position, she must deal with an arrogant familiar, temperamental gods, the workings of a whole new world of magic, and, of course, school life.

Opinion: 

I was cleaning up my bookshelf and found myself sitting down to binge read this entire series before I packed it away. Kamisama Kiss started as a book recommended to me by my other manga/anime nerd friends and I kept with the series to its finale. I just loved the story and the artwork.

From the beginning, I was interested in how this normal high school girl was going to fill the shoes of basically a god. Of course I knew she was going to do it but it was the journey of getting to that point that had me picking up the next book. These characters developed realistically. Yes, there were some points where I was embarrassed for Nanami or I was sympathetic for Tomoe (the familiar) when he was trying to teach her something that she wasn’t getting. But that was makes the story so great. It’s not a tale where everything comes easily for the characters; they had to learn how to grow.

Julietta Suzuki did a wonderful job on this series. 

Recommendation:

If you’re someone who likes Japanese mythology, high school stories, and are curious of how the two blend together with great characters.