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Kamichama Karin
かみちゃまかりん (Kamichama Karin)
Genre	Magical Girl, Shoujo, Romance
Manga
Authored by	Koge Donbo
Publisher	Kodansha Tokyopop Play Press Egmont Manga & Anime
Serialized in	Nakayoshi Yatta!
Original run	2003 – Present
No. of volumes	7. Sequel: Still running, currently 3.

Kamichama Karin (かみちゃまかりん, "Little Goddess Karin") is a manga written by Koge Donbo about a twelve year-old girl named Karin who finds out that she is actually a goddess. Kamichama Karin is published in Japan by Kodansha and licensed in the U.S. and Canada by TOKYOPOP.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Characters 3 Releases 4 Sequel 5 Anime 6 Miscellaneous information 7 See also 8 External links

Karin is just an average middle school student. She has terrible grades and is a poor athlete. She lives alone with her aunt after the death of her parents when she was young. But after the death of her beloved cat Shi-chan, her luck changes. Karin soon discovers that her only inheritance from her mother, a mysterious pink ring, can help her transform into a little goddess with the help of Athena. Soon after, she begins to befriend others with rings like hers; trying to solve the mysteries surrounding their lives.

Karin Hanazono (花園花鈴 Hanazono Karin): Karin is the main protagonist of the series. She is an orphan as her mother and father have died when she was young and she lives with her aunt. A few months prior she lost her cat Shi-chan. Karin moved in with Kazune and Himeka after they found out her goddess powers.

Karin is an outgoing person, and sticks up for her friends. Her mother's ring allows her to borrow godly power. Her ring is pink and has the power of the goddess Athena. Later on, she realizes she has a crush on Kazune, but she knows Himeka loves him and is convinced that her feelings are only one sided. She sees a picture Himeka and Kazune each have of their parents, which are the same. Karin happens to have one exactly like them of her parents.

Age 12
Appearance: Karin has long, brown hair that she usually wears in pigtails secured with olive hair ties given to her by Himeka.

Kazune Kujyou (九条和音 Kujō Kazune): Kazune is Himeka's cousin. He is the sun god (Apollo), and is extremely powerful. While Himeka loves bugs, Kazune hates them, partly due to his fear of them. He is a very straight forward person. He seems to be jealous of Kirika, Karin's "prince charming." He seems to have a crush on Karin as he forced her to kiss him.

His ring has the power of the god Apollo. He is stronger in god form because he was "messed with", starting before he was born. However, he is incomplete, and passes out after spending time in god form.

Age: 12
Appearance: Short, blonde hair and blue eyes.

Himeka Kujyou (九条姫香 Kujō Himeka): Himeka is Karin's friend and Kazune's cousin. She is very important, and she is one half of a goddess, of which the other half is Kirio's younger sister, who also seems to be named Himeka. When one Himeka becomes stonger, the other becomes weaker. Ever since she had been young, she had always defended Kazune, who had been a bit of a crybaby. Strangely, the only adult at hers and Kazune's house is the butler. It is revealed later on that she has a crush on Kazune. She is a very nice girl and loves bugs.

Age: 13
Appearance: Long, straight, black/brown hair. She typically wears her hair down in three little round clips on each side of her head

Kirio Karasuma (烏丸キリオ Karasuma Kirio): ): Karin refers to him as "Mr. Glasses Man." He is the main antagonist. He is the student body president of Sakurakaoka Academy, the most prestigious school in Japan, where Karin, Himeka, and Kazune happen to attend. While still a student, he tests the protagonists and fights them off of the campus.l

His only true relative is his twin Kirika, but he does have another ‘sister’ by the name of Himeka. His ring has the powers of the god Mars.

Age: 15
Appearance: Dark hair, wears glasses, tall.

Kirika Karasuma (烏丸霧火 Karasuma Kirika): Kirika is Karin's prince charming. He is Kirio's twin brother. At first, he does not believe that Karin is a goddess, but comes to believe in it. Kirika is unwillingly forced to fight Karin because of the other Himeka and his brother Kirio. Later on the manga in Volumes 4 and 5, it is revealed that he is a girl. She gives help to Karin and Kazune when her father get revival through her brother, Kirio.

In Goddess form, she is Nyx, the goddess that Kirio sent out in the first book to see if Karin was actually a goddess. She is named for the Greek goddess of night, Nyx.

Age: 15
Appearance: Blonde with dark eyes, tall.

Himeka (Karasuma): Kirio and Kirika's half-sister. The other half to Himeka Kujyou. In the beginning of the series she is unhealthy, and spends most of her time in bed asleep. She is somewhat of a criminal genius and not sweet and innocent unlike the good Himeka. The evil Himeka is the driving force behind Kirio's obsession with defeating Kazune.

Michiru Nishikiori (錦織みちる Nishikiori Michiru) a.k.a. Micchi: He is an exchange student from England. Being very amorous, he often makes romantic advances at Karin as well as Kazune. Micchi is also an orphan; his parents were killed in a car accident. That's how he met Kazune's father who saved him and gave him the ring. He is in the same grade as Karin but is older than his other classmates because he spent a year in the hospital. Although he has a ring just like Karin and Kazune's, he can only see gods and goddesses and cannot transform into a god himself. He seems to have information given to him by Kazune's father about the rings, the divine power and the family relationship between Karin and Kazune.

Age: 14
Appearance: Dirty-blonde hair, semi-long. He has heterochromia- or one eye is a different color than the other. This was caused because of the car accident Michiru was in. Kazune's 'father' saved him by making a replacement left eye.

Miyon Yi (李 美永, Japanese: I Miyon, Korean Hangul: 이미영, RR: I Mi-yeong, M-R: Yi Mi-yŏng): Himeka's best friend from elementary school. Although she lives in Japan with her mother, she's actually Korean. She has a crush on Yuuki and hopes that he would get to music school.

Age: 12
Appearance: Hair a blueish shade of aquamarine, long, fluffy hair that ends in tight curls. She is always wearing tassel hair clips

Yuuki Sakurai (桜井優生 Sakurai Yūki): Miyon's friend from elementary school. Plays the violin, although he's embarrassed to admit it. He thinks Karin tested into their school and thinks she's very intelligent. He has a power which can make a forbidden ring (at last known as Zeus's Ring) shine.

Age: 12
Appearance: Dark, bowl cut hair parted to the side

Shi-chan: Karin's cat that died and then was resurrected by the goddess, Nike, who lived inside her. She helps Karin now by giving advice and by turning into a shield. In one instance, Karin uses her as a projectile.

Age: Immortal
Appearance: A brown-gray cat with a small star on its forehead.

Ami-chan: A childhood friend of Michiru who appears in volume 6. She appears to hate the professor for the change in Michiru after the accident. Ami came to Japan to give Kazune a mysterious notebook that tells Kazune how to save both Himeka. She is also the one who reveals that Kazune kissed a "Scandalous Maid" a.k.a Karin.

Age: unknown
Appearance: A big bow tying her hair into a high ponytail

Kamichama Karin has 7 volumes in the series. Tokyopop has released volumes 1-6 in English, with volume 7 due on May 11th. The sequel (Kamichama Karin Chu) is still running, and is up to volume 3. No plans have been announced yet to release it in English.

The adventure continues in Kamichama Karin-chu with the main cast now in the eighth grade. As Kazune comes back from his trip to London, Karin and the gang (except for Himeka) are back together again. Karin and the gang travel through time, along with a new comrade: a celebrity named Jin Kuga, fighting a new enemy: The Seeds of Chaos. Besides Jin, there are 2 more (known) new characters: Rika Karasuma and Suzune. Rika's exact relationship to the other Karasumas is unknown. Suzune is a little boy, actually Karin and Kazune's future child, that appears to Karin to warn her of the danger. Rika seems to be trying to make Jin their comrade. And to Jin, Karin is apparently his "godess" Currently, volume three is out in Japan. There is no word from Tokyopop of translating Kamichama Karin-chu as of yet.

An anime of Kamichama Karin will air in Japan starting on April 6, 2007. Animation is being done by Satelight.

It starts off in Kamichama Karin Chuu, the sequel to Kamichama Karin. Karin and Suzune are running through a park when the Evil Himeka attacks Karin and somehow bringes her to the first time she met Kazune at Shi-chan's grave. After that the events follow the storyline of the Manga. So far only episode 1 has been released in Japan.

Cast:

Mai Nakahara as Karin Hanazono
Miyuki Sawashiro as Kazune Kujyou
Noriko Shitaya as Himeka Kujyou
Akira Ishida as Michiru Nishikiori
Shintaro Asanuma as Kirio Karasuma
Yuki Kaida as Kirika Karasuma

Opening Theme: "Ankoku Tengoku" (「暗黒天国」, "Dark Heaven") by Ali Project
Ending Theme: "Anemone" (「アネモネ」) by Mai Nakahara

• Kamichama Karin is often considered a parody of the mahou shoujo (magical girl) genre. Examples include battle cries (which, on page 183 in volume 1, Koge Donbo admits the point of Karin's "I am God" was to have her say something stupid and how the manga started as a gag) and how Karin & Kazune once switched transformations when their rings were switched.

• Switching rings can work, but the battle costumes and powers will stay with the ring. For example, when Micchi swaped Kazune and Karin's rings, they had each other's costumes and powers.

• Kazune acts very feminine as shown when Himeka and Karin was going on a girls day out, he decided to follow. While on the shopping trip Karin and Himeka manipulted him to carry their bags, at the cafe Kazune was going to order ice-cream but decided not to as Karin and Himeka said that they were going to pick it as it would make any girl happy. At the end all three of them go to the movies, Himeka and Karin choosing a very sad, yet stupid love movie which left Kazune in tears.

• Kazune's fan club is called the Kazune-Z. Their goal is to "preserve" and help Kazune in any way possible. For example, when Kazune was tired out from helping Karin and fell asleep in class, the girls all raised their hands so the teacher wouldn't call on Kazune.

• Kazune collects godly rings, and keeps them in a box. One day, Karin opened the box and put all of the rings on her fingers. Kazune caught her, and stuffed the rings back in. For the twenty-four hours that followed, their hands were stuck together.

• If you look closely, you'll notice that Karin's, Kazune's, and Himeka's hair grew considerably from when they first appeared to the second volume. Koge Donbo's reasons for doing this are unknown. It may be due to a time lapse.

• In a bonus story, most of the characters go to the beach; and Kirio accidentally stole Karin's bikini top.

• Kazune once put on a apron. cat ears, shorts and made his eyes all droopy to provide "service" for the Kazune-Z .

• Kamichama Karin was originally going to be a two chapter one-shot manga, according to Koge Donbo. Due to its unexpected popularity though, Donbo continued the story.

• Miyuki Sawashiro, the seiyuu for Kazune in the upcoming anime, is no stranger to Koge Donbo works. She is the voice for Petite Charat/Puchiko in Di Gi Charat, and also did Kotarou in Pita-Ten.

• Kazune and Himeka are in the series Kon Kon Kokon also by Koge Donbo
• In the secound part of vol. 4, when Kazune and karin hand gets stuck together, there situation relates to the part in Pita-ten, the only way for their hands to let go, is to say something nice back.

• Koge-Donbo

* TOKYOPOP's Kamichama Karin page