***Warning, the following may contain spoilers for Kamisama Hajimemashita Kako-hen. Reader discretion is advised.***
Series Synopsis
Nanami Momozono (voiced by Suzuko Mimori) has grown accustomed to her role as the god of the Mikage shrine. She hopes to continue living happily with the most important person in her life, the fox demon Tomoe (voiced by Shinnosuke Tachibana).
Tomoe also only has eyes for Nanami. Unfortunately, his feelings for her have broken the spell that has kept a deadly curse at bay. When he looks at Nanami, Tomoe recalls a time when someone from his past made him feel the same way. In his desire to be with that person, Tomoe made a deal where the price was his life. And now the time has come for him to pay up.
Unwilling to let Tomoe die, Nanami decides to travel back 500 years to when Tomoe was in love with the other woman. She hopes to stop Tomoe from making the deal that is currently killing him, as well as, allow him the happiness she knows he has earned.
All roads have led to this moment. The final chapter to this story has begun.
Series Positives
This has been a long time coming.
I have been waiting to return to the Kamisama Hajimemashita series. Having reviewed the second season back in November 2017, my upload calendar, which included Fairy Tail Month, Pre-Blog Month 2, me showcasing the Fall 2017 and Winter 2018 seasons, didn’t allow me the time to check out the Kako-hen arc sooner.
With those busy five months over, I couldn’t have been happier to finish this story. Granted there is one more entry in the Kamisama Hajimemashita franchise in the form of the single, twelve-minute OVA, Kamisama Shiawase ni Naru. I do see myself getting to that one in an Impressions post, but regarding the main bulk of this series, we have reached the end.
I say that because the Kako-hen arc was a satisfying conclusion to the Kamisama Hajimemashita series. The most prominent lingering question of this franchise finally got an answer. That question being, how did Nanami fit into Tomoe’s past?
This mystery has been around since season one. An issue with the Kamisama Hajimemashita series has been its difficulty in acknowledging this point as being a thing that exists. This has been irritating because this story has never entirely ignored it. Enough details have been around to ensure we, the audience, would always remember this question. As a result, this has only ever been a tease.
I won’t pretend this hasn’t been frustrating. However, I also don’t want it to seem like getting to this answer has been holding the show back -- it hasn’t. The Kamisama Hajimemashita series has always been fantastic, and you cannot ask for a better shield against annoyances. Plus, I knew this third installment was going to tackle this exact point.
As an aside, calling the Kako-hen arc the third installment of the Kamisama Hajimemashita series may not be accurate. But it is convenient. Thus I’m going to keep referring to it as such.
Going into this final installment, I had expectations. Yes, some of those expectations had to do with the learning of Nanami’s and Tomoe’s true history. But to be honest, that was secondary. The thing I was hoping for the most with Kako-hen was it being a proper continuation, as well as a fitting finale for the Kamisama Hajimemashita series. If this arc didn’t do that, everything else would have been pointless.
I got my wish.
Right off the bat, of the three installments, this was my least favorite. Along with that, if given a choice, it would have been great to have this story be a proper season rather than four OVA episodes. Despite these things though, I enjoyed the Kako-hen arc very much. 
To give this third installment some credit, its one job was to fill in the final, major gap in the Kamisama Hajimemashita story. With that being its only goal, I would say Kako-hen knocked it out of the park. But with this also being the cap off to an outstanding series, it wouldn’t be unfair to say this arc also went above and beyond what it needed to do.
In addition, it’s essential for us to take into consideration some context. There was a reason why the Kamisama Hajimemashita series did what it did before this installment. Or to be more specific, there was a reason to what it didn’t do.
I will maintain that the story of the Kako-hen arc was unnecessarily delayed. The finale puzzle didn’t need solving in the prior two seasons, but a few more pieces to work with would have been helpful. I would even say season two would have benefited greatly had this story been a part of it.That said, the tone and atmosphere of this third installment were fitting as a final chapter.
Also, and I don’t know this to be a fact, the manga version of the Kako-hen storyline may not have been around when the first two seasons aired. This arc’s last episode released only a few months after the manga’s run ended in May 2016. This doesn’t excuse the amount of teasing this series haphazardly threw together. But it is what it is.
The point I’m trying to make is, the Kako-hen arc didn’t fail to deliver.
Nanami and Tomoe
Everything the Kako-hen arc did right, stemmed from Nanami and Tomoe. If you have read my two other reviews for this series, as well as my Top Anime Couples list, this shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.
The Kamisama Hajimemashita series has always been Nanami and Tomoe’s story. Not only that, the Kako-hen arc focused on what was, arguably, the pair’s most important moment in their relationship
What I’m about to say is not one hundred percent accurate, but follow me on this. The Kako-hen arc was a role reversal. For the first time in this series, Nanami was in Tomoe’s position. She was the one with the most experience. Or at least, she was the person with the firmest grasp of the situation.
Nanami has always been adaptable. Even back in season one when she became a god, she was pretty accepting of what was going on around her – all things considered. Here at the end of her story, she had already seen a lot. She had long since settled into her divine role to the point where something like time travel didn’t phase her.
The world of gods and demons was like a typical Tuesday for Nanami. This allowed her to focus all her efforts on her goal of saving Tomoe.
Moreover, the Tomoe we had come to know over the course of this series wasn’t the Tomoe in this arc. The Kako-hen version of Tomoe was his more demonic incarnation. He was the fox demon who instilled fear in the minds of all who ran across him 500 years ago. It was as if we got a brand new character.But do you know who this version of Tomoe wasn’t new for – Nanami.
Nanami had already made peace with the fact that this side of Tomoe existed. Nanami also knew her Tomoe was alive within this supposedly evil version of him. Therefore, Nanami took away Tomoe’s greatest advantage he had over people. She wasn’t afraid of him.
The interactions between the much more confident Nanami and the declawed Tomoe made for some of the best moments of the Kako-hen arc. I should also add these moments came in the last two episodes of this OVA series.
I will bring up the first two episodes in the Series Negatives section, but I want to make this clear now. The first two episodes of the Kako-hen arc were problematic, not awful.
You will understand the difference in quality when you get to one particular scene in episode three, The God Becomes a Bride. Once the story got to this point, that was when Kako-hen started getting really good.
This scene was reminiscent of the moment in season one when Nanami confessed her feelings to Tomoe. What happened in the Kako-hen arc brought this full circle.
Before I say more, Nanami was in a much more perilous position in the Kako-hen arc than she was in season one. This remains true even after you consider the fact that Nanami may have been about to fall off a building during the scene in question from the first season.
Then again, I might be misremembering what happened. Regardless, Nanami, in this installment, wasn’t in a great spot.
Then again, I might be misremembering what happened. Regardless, Nanami, in this installment, wasn’t in a great spot.
Tomoe did something in this scene that was the last thing Nanami wanted to happen. It was a heavy slap of realization for Nanami. No amount of reasoning or mental dodging could dilute what she was trying to do during this entire storyline.
Although it may have been for Tomoe’s sake, Nanami was trying to have Tomoe fall in love with someone who wasn’t her. When that train hit Nanami, it hit her pretty damn hard.
To go along with this, Tomoe’s reaction to Nanami’s reaction was the answer to the question this installment was leading us towards. And from this moment to the end, the Kako-hen arc rode high.
As I said, this was a very satisfying ending to the Kamisama Hajimemashita series.
Series Negatives
Not to discredit what the Kako-hen arc did, its ultimate resolution, although satisfying, was expected. This was a story I absolutely wanted to know, but it was a story I had already mapped out extensively in my head.
Why was that? It’s because I saw the first two season of Kamisama Hajimemashita.
If you have done that as well, don’t go into the Kako-hen arc expecting surprises.
This is not something I blame this installment for. No, this was the natural result of the Kamisama Hajimemashita series avoiding this topic so unnaturally.
Also, I’m not going to go into the details, but while the Kako-ken arc did answer the final big question, it didn’t answer all the questions. That or this story tried tying up loose ends in disappointing exposition dumps.
To be fair though, this wasn’t the most troubling aspect of the Kako-hen arc. As stated earlier, that title goes to the first two episodes of this installment. Let me reiterate; these opening episodes weren’t awful. But they will leave you with a ton of concerns going forward with this story. Whether those concerns become reality is irrelevant.
For starters, the first two episodes drove home the nature of what the Kako-hen arc was. This was a four-part OVA special that was released over the span of one year.
How is this a problem if you were to watch all four episodes in one viewing session? For the most part, it wasn’t that much of a problem. That was unless the story was actively reminding us the Kako-hen arc was part of the Kamisama Hajimemashita series.
There was a segment in the second episode that did nothing except waste a whole bunch of time. There was no real need for the story to take a break where it did, but the Kako-hen arc needed to ensure that many of this series’ side characters made an appearance.
The Kako-hen arc even did that annoying round-robin tactic of having everyone say something despite what they had to say added nothing to what was going one, and was, therefore, utterly pointless.
Don’t get me wrong; I liked all the characters that had a forced appearance in this storyline. But that was the issue. The Kako-hen arc forced-in people only for them to have their final hurrah of the franchise. I understand why an OVA series would want to do this, especially with this being the last chapter and all.
Too bad this doesn’t make it any less tacky.
However, the thing that bugged me the most about the first two episodes of the Kako-hen arc was how the story wanted to play up Kamisama Hajimemashita’s silliness. This series’ comedy did get a little goofy at times. But when this happened before, it was charming, and it fit with what was going on in the story.
Not here.
In the opening minutes of the Kako-hen arc, Tomoe began to suffer from his centuries-old curse. If nothing were to happen, he would die. So it goes without saying, this part of the story was a little dire.
One of Kamisama Hajimemashita’s two main characters was on his deathbed and suffering. Therefore, wouldn’t it be a grand old idea to throw in a bunch of stupid slapstick at this moment?
This was not the time for jokes. I’m not saying the Kako-hen arc couldn’t have humor because it did have a lot of well-placed gags that were funny. But just because you can add in comedy doesn’t mean you should.
Concerning this, I have good news, and I have bad news. The good news is, this early misplaced humor was the fault of only one character. And it was only this character who was being the most annoying. The bad news is about who that character was.
I will tell you the answer, but first, try to guess. To help you with your guess, as I was writing this part of the review my eye was twitching with rage quite a bit.
For you see, the character who was being super annoying during the first two episodes of the Kako-hen arc was…Nanami.
If there is one thing you know about my opinion of the Kamisama Hajimemashita series, it’s this. I love Nanami. She is one of my all-time favorite characters in anime. Pardon my language, but f@#$ this arc for making her be the most annoying part of anything concerning this franchise.
While it was temporary, and that’s important to remember, it still happened.
I can’t say I was happy about that.
But the Kako-hen arc quickly redeemed itself. That and this is a personal beef I had with this installment of the Kamisama Hajimemashita. The poor comedy was the real issue. Nanami being the cause was something I had to deal with.
If you can get through this, and it will not be hard to do so, the Kako-hen arc did start to hit bullseyes up until the final credits.
Final Thoughts
As far as I’m concerned, we have reached the end with this series. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t sad to see it go.
This final installment didn’t have the best of starts. But it didn’t stall out in the beginning either. Once this story started picking up momentum, it grew to become the concluding chapter this series deserved. And helping to accomplish this was one of the best couples in all of anime.
If you have seen the first two seasons and have loved them as much as I have, there is no reason to skip this one. Kamisama Hajimemashita Kako-hen is easy to recommend.
But these are just my thoughts. What are yours? Have you seen this show? What would be your advice concerning Kamisama Hajimemashita Kako-hen? Leave a comment down below because I would love to hear what you have to say.
And if you liked what you read, be sure to follow me on my social media sites so that you never miss a post or update. Also, please share this review across the internet to help add to the discussion.
I’m LofZOdyssey, and I’ll see you next time.
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Others in the Kamisama Hajimemashita Series
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