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Kannazuki no Miko (神無月の巫女) is a manga series created by the duo Kaishaku, and a 12-episodes anime television series adapted from it. The manga was serialized in fourteen chapters by Kadokawa Shoten's shōnen manga magazine Shōnen Ace in 2004 and 2005, and collected in two bound volumes. The anime series, produced by TNK and Rondo Robe, and directed by Tetsuya Yanagisawa, was broadcast between October and December 2004.

Kannazuki no Miko is the story of Himeko Kurusugawa and Chikane Himemiya, two high-school girls who are the reincarnations of the Solar and Lunar priestesses, respectively. When the evil Yamata no Orochi rises once more, the girls are plunged into destiny as their long-sealed personas awaken to defend the world. The series centers on the romance between the girls, with fantasy and mecha elements helping to carry the plot.

In North America, the manga is licensed by Tokyopop and the anime is licensed by Geneon Entertainment.

Plot
Kannzuki no Miko primarily deals with the romance between Himeko Kurusugawa, a shy and innocent 16-year-old girl, and Chikane Himemiya, an stoic and elegant girl of the same age introduced as one of Himeko's closest friends. While it shows action sequences in abundance, its main driver is character drama.

The story begins when an ancient evil called Yamata no Orochi rises and the girls are revealed as the reincarnations of the Solar and Lunar priestesses, who are fated to defend the world. Orochi acts through eight humans who inherited its power and are known as the heads of Orochi. The first head who tries to kill the priestesses is Sōma Ōgami, a popular boy at their school and Himeko's childhood friend. As Sōma comes to his senses and fights the other Orochi instead, the series reveals Chikane's romantic feelings for Himeko as she kisses the latter while unconscious. Ridden by guilt for this event, Chikane encourages Himeko to date Sōma, who is in love with her too. This in turn puts Chikane's heart into turmoil, providing for much of the drama in the show.

The Miko must awaken Ame no Murakumo in order to combat the threat while Sōma repels the Orochi efforts to kill them. In the meantime Chikane's despair keeps growing as Sōma and Himeko get closer, until witnessing them kissing awakens the memories of her previous life. What she sees leads her to side with the Orochi, sexually abusing Himeko and defeating Sōma in the process. While Chikane defeats the remaining Orochi and takes all their power into herself, Himeko comes to terms with Chikane's betrayal, and decides she wants to know Chikane's reasons and have her by her side again. With a renewed conviction, Himeko performs the ritual alone and awakens Ame no Murakumo, depicted as a white and blue mecha.

As Sōma pilots Ame no Murakumo against the Orochi, now a mecha with will of its own, Himeko faces Chikane in the decisive confrontation of the show. The two girls engage in a sword fight, but Himeko is only defending herself as she just wants to know Chikane's motivations. After realizing no physical or psychological pain -included a confession of love tainted by murderous intent- will make Himeko fight back, Chikane decides to destroy the world. Enraged, Himeko finally strikes, dealing a fatal blow, which Chikane reveals is what she wanted all along. She tells the ritual to restore the world consists in the sacrifice of one of the priestesses in the other's hands, and her soul being sealed in the moon shrine. In their previous life she killed Himeko, and her guilt and rage was now preventing the awakening of Ame no Murakumo, so she decided to become the enemy to force Himeko to awaken the mecha alone and kill her.

The story reaches its climax when Himeko, realizing her own feelings, asks Chikane whether her confession of love was true, which the latter confirms. Himeko declares she loves Chikane too, and kisses her to assure Chikane that she is talking about the same kind of love. As Sōma finishes the Orochi, the girls spent their last moments together before Chikane is taken to the moon shrine. She vows to find a way to reincarnate and meet with Himeko again, and Himeko states that her feelings will never disappear and she will find Chikane no matter what.

In the aftermath of the show, the world is seen restored to its previous state. Chikane does not exist and no one remembers anything about the Orochi, but Himeko knows there is someone out there waiting for her, and so she tells Sōma when rejecting him. An epilogue shows an emotional encounter between a more mature looking Himeko and Chikane in a crossroads.

The manga practically follows the same storyline, albeit more simplified, differing more prominently in the last scenes. Himeko does not respond to Chikane's death wish, and the latter dies by wounds inflicted during her previous fight with the Orochi. In addition, in the manga Himeko stays on the moon shrine with Chikane, and later both are reincarnated as sisters, with their memories and feelings for one another intact.

Anime Design
The general concept was given by Kaishaku, author of the original manga, as the story of two girls who go against the world, in which the hero, Chikane, gets hurt and worries for the sake of the heroine, Himeko, and there is also a hero-sque boy thrown in. Sumio Uetake, scenario writer, was pretty intrigued by the idea of having a girl as the center of the love triangle instead of the boy. He thought it was exciting, and decided to go with the love affair between the two girls as the axis of the series. It was not about "swaying emotions of adolescence" or "comic relief," but something serious and straightforward. Fired up, he proposed to take it one step higher and make the girls get together as a couple at the end. Being of the same gender was made an obstacle they needed to overcome in order to fulfill their love.

One of the more challenging moments during production was the planning of the events in episode eight, which depicts a sexual attack. "Do we really have to take it to this extent?" "Isn't this something out of a midday talk show?" "Won't it be pushed aside as something that is physiologically disgusting?" were some of the questions raised. Nevertheless, this development was meant to be a proof that Chikane would never come back, a "mask of lies" to deceive the Orochi, an act so atrocious that it was beyond any forgiveness and would "make herself lose the right to hold Himeko in her arms". With this in mind, they decided go about the issue with "confidence and awareness", for the sake of deepening the story of the two girls. According to writer Uetake, the underlying theme for this development was that "love is not only beautiful."

For the end of the series, the creators wanted to go on the different path than the typical love triangle resolution. Instead of portraying Himeko's decision as based on her love interests' particular merits, they decided to make her choice something she knew, albeit unconsciously, since the very beginning, which would befit the show's red string of fate theme. To give a greater dramatic impact to the resolution, as well as to emphasize the forbidden love theme throughout the show, director Yanagisawa decided to exclude any "smoochy love games" type of a sweet situation between the two girls. Nevertheless, the basis of the series was the idea of a love that ultimately becomes "permissible", and what lies ahead of it.

Manga
The Kannazuki no Miko manga, written by the manga group Kaishaku, was first serialized in the Japanese mangazine Shōnen Ace published by Kadokawa Shoten starting in 2004. The series was very short, ending at 14 chapters which were later collected into two bound tankōbon volumes. The series is licensed in North America by Tokyopop, which published both volumes in English in 2008.

Anime
The anime adaptation of Kannazuki no Miko was produced by TNK and Rondo Robe, and directed by Tetsuya Yanagisawa. The TV show features character design by Maki Fujii, screenplay by Sumio Uetake, and score composed by Mina Kubota. The opening and ending themes, "Re-sublimity" and "Agony" respectively, were written and arranged by Takase Kazuya and performed by Kotoko. And insert song episode eleven, called "Suppuration -core-", was also sung by Kotoko.

The series was broadcast in Japan between October 2, 2004 and December 15, 2004, and released on six DVDs between December 22, 2004 and May 25, 2005. It is licensed in North America by Geneon Entertainment, which released the series on three DVDs in 2006. The show is also licensed in France, Poland, and Taiwan by Dybex, Vision Film Distribution, and Proware Multimedia respectively.

Other media
On November 25, 2004, a drama CD called Kannazuki no Miko drama CD was released in Japan by Geneon based on the anime version of Kannazuki no Miko.

Kannazuki no Miko had an internet radio program named Radio Kannazuki (RADIO神無月) that ran on i-revo TE-A room from October 2004 to March 2005. The hosts were Noriko Shitaya and Junji Majima, who voiced Himeko and Sōma respectively.

Reseption
Kannazuki no Miko received mixed reviews. It has been heavily criticized for its controversial scene of Chikane raping Himeko, as well as for its ending. Erica Friedman, President of Yuricon, criticized volume one of the anime series as not being well-written. Friedman wondered why Souma and Chikane would allow Himeko to be bullied, outcast and victimized instead of stepping up and claiming their friendship publicly if they truly loved her. She criticized Himeko as allowing "the whims of others" to take control of her life, indulging them by not having an opinion of her own, and naively forgiving "even the basest" behavior. Friedman stated that the story actually revolves around "the love triangle and Himeko's victimization by herself and the people who profess to love her". She said, "Tokyopop's team did as good a job with the material as they could. It's not a good story, nor is it well-drawn, but they made it make as much sense as possible. I applaud them for that. It's not as easy as they made it look." For volume two, Friedman later stated that Tokyopop did a "very superior job with this series".

In response to criticism regarding the end of the manga series where Chikane and Himeko are reincarnated as sisters who are lovers, an incestual relationship, Friedman said, "I don't care for the sisters angle either." In addition, she added that the end of the anime is not a good ending. "It's an indication that the whole cycle will start all over. There is no reason to think that Chikane and Himeko will live happily ever after this time, either," she said.

Anime News Network (ANN) criticized volume one of the series as "[projecting itself as an] instant fan favorite, but somehow [adding up] to less than the sum of its parts." The network said the series "changes in scene and mood don't seem to connect, characters behave without rhyme or reason, and even thrilling action scenes are hampered by sloppy animation. There are lots of little things to like about the series, but as a whole, you have to wonder—"What? That's it?" They stated that "if Kannazuki no Miko were split into two different series, it might be easier to enjoy the separate story threads". The site did, however, credit the anime with "so many striking visual elements" such as giant robots, bishōjo, and an intergalactic villains' hangout. "J.C. Staff manages to come up with effective designs for each. The lead female characters have an appealing look even if they're not the prettiest, while the mechas have an imposing figure despite their simple appearance," relayed the site. The soundtrack, thought of as "classical-tinged" and setting the mood for the series was also credited with being "especially effective" during dramatic character moments.

ANN said that volume one of the series promises something to suit every anime fetish, but "if sensible storytelling and deep characters are what turn you on, then this isn't the series to go to". For volume two, the network said that the series is "an emotionally excruciating" process, and named the continuation of the story as being filled with angst, rage and sentimentality "[dripping] from almost every scene" on the disc. They said that despite this and the angst-ridden dialogue, "the middle episodes of Kannazuki no Miko represent a genuine turning point in the series: the romance and adventure storylines, once so disconnected, come together and swing the cosmic battle in a new direction" and that the voice actors in the English dub still manage to express the sentiments of their characters".