Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens / Characters

Here is a list of characters who appear in the Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens Anime and Manga.

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Main Characters

Both

Age-Gap Romance: A 20-year-old Jin and a 13-year-old human Nagi reunite at the end of the manga. Nagi knows it would be inappropriate for them to reassume their romance when she's still young, but they're assured to become a couple when she gets older.
Divine Date: Jin is a human boy and Nagi is an incarnation of the Kannagi deity that protects his town. They fall in love, although Nagi has doubts a goddess can be together with a human. This is resolved at the end of the series where Nagi has reincarnated as a human.
From Roommates to Romance: Jin and Nagi live under the same roof under the pretense of being relatives, in order to hide the fact that Nagi is a goddess whom Jin accidentally gave physical form. They eventually develop feelings for each other and Jin would like their cohabitation to stop being platonic.
Official Couple: At the end of the series, they reunite after Nagi is reborn as a human, allowing them to finally be together, even though they have to wait a few years before acting like a couple because Nagi's human reincarnation is only 13.
Reincarnation Romance: At the end of the manga, following Ozuma's instructions allows a miracle to happen and Nagi returns to Jin, having reincarnated as a young human girl. Despite the 7-year age gap, Jin and Nagi are happy that they can be together again.
Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Jin is the Savvy Guy (the more down-to-earth Only Sane Man) to Nagi's Energetic Girl (eccentric Manic Pixie Dream Girl).
Teacher/Student Romance: Downplayed. In the epilogue, Nagi reincarnates as a middle school student and Jin, who is now a college student, meets her again as her home tutor. Although they still have feelings for each other, they aren't going to start a relationship right away because of Nagi's young age.
Unresolved Sexual Tension: Even after both notice they have feelings for each other, Nagi's status as a goddess and other complications keep them from officially becoming a couple for a long time. They do get together at the end, after Nagi's reincarnation as a human.

Jin Mikuriya

Voiced by: Hiro Shimono, Miyuki Sawashiro (as a child)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mikuriya_jin.png

Kannagi's main protagonist. Jin is an Ordinary High-School Student who has been able to see spirits from a young age. At the beginning of the story, he carves a statue of the local shrine's deity made from the wood of its recently cut down tree. As it turns out, the deity of the town of Kannagi, Nagi herself, manifests itself from Jin's sculpture, and soon he has his hands full dealing with his new house guest.

Accidental Pervert: He once falls on top of Nagi when she's wearing nothing but a Modesty Towel.
Adorably Precocious Child: When he was in junior high. Still shows some traits of it, even though he's trying to get rid of that image and appear "manlier".
Butt-Monkey: Many of the others' jokes are made at his expense, and more often than not he'll usually get the short end of the stick out of any deal or situation.
Cannot Spit It Out: It takes him a while to admit even to himself that he has feelings for Nagi. To his defense, Nagi acts very immaturely most of the time, and Jin only decides to aim for a real Relationship Upgrade once she started to show signs of reciprocating. He finally confesses shortly after Nagi recovers the memories she lost after her revival.
Chick Magnet: Has Tsugumi, Hakua and maybe Zange vying for his attention. But he's only interested in Nagi, who doesn't reciprocate right away.
Covert Pervert: Jin starts having more and more sexual fantasies involving Nagi as the story goes on and he becomes more aware of his feelings towards her. He controls his urges for the most part, but has lots of trouble resisting his dirty thoughts, and occasionally lets them slip out.
Deadpan Snarker: He's prone to get snarky, especially around Nagi.
Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Over time, it's shown that Jin joined the art club in order to find something he could be good at. It culminates in a chapter where he looks over his many failed endeavors at sports and art and decides to go on a short trip through the city to find himself. He ends up finding Ozuma, who tells him that as long as his interest in the subject is high, he might have to face hardships, but his effort wouldn't be in vain.
Did I Say That Out Loud: During a chapter when Jin gets sick, Nagi asks what she could do to help him recover. He muses that maybe she could lie down next to him...but he says it out loud, so Nagi instead hits him. Though later she ends up lying next to him while he's asleep anyways.
The Dulcinea Effect: He steps in to defend Zange from some guys who were harassing her when he first met her, even though she didn't need his help.
Eye Pop: Jin has a hilarious one when he sees one of the entries on Nagi's fan blog claim that he's gay with Daitetsu.

Hair Antennae: Pointed out by some other students who go on to call him "Aho Aho Man".
Height Angst: He's very frustrated about being short for his age.
I Got Bigger: He grows a little taller than Nagi in the last arc of the manga. In the epilogue, he's much taller than Tsugumi at 20 years old.
I Just Want to Be Badass: Back in elementary school, Jin started hanging out with Daitetsu because he wanted to learn to be a strong and intimidating delinquent so others would stop making fun of him for being short.
I See Dead People: He's been able to see spirits from a young age and is pretty freaked out by it. It rarely comes up in-story though.
The Jailbait Wait: When Nagi returns to him as a human girl, Jin still has to wait at least 5 years to get together with her because she's currently 13 years old.
Loony Friends Improve Your Personality: Tsugumi believes Nagi's quirky personality has been a good influence for Jin.
Love at First Sight: Implied to be the case with Nagi, from the first time he met her in his childhood. When Takako asks Jin about the first time he became interested in the opposite sex, he immediately thinks of the first time he saw Nagi as a goddess in front of her tree when he was younger.
Love Epiphany: In Chapter 34, Jin realizes he's in love with Nagi because he's always thinking about her and feels happy at hearing Nagi say she needs his help.
Master of None: Jin might be able to be decent at something, but he constantly compares his skill level to those who skills are above his, and subsequently quits whatever hobby he undertakes, whether it's soccer or art, when he decides that he can't reach the level of those with the most talent and ability.
Minor Living Alone: He's a first-year high school student who is living alone while his father is overseas. His father has the intention of making him more independent.
Mistaken for Gay: His relationship with Daitetsu is on a friendship level with one-sided rivalry from Jin, but the things they say and do in public end up making people around them think they're gay. Jin's admiration for men's well-built bodies only adds to the misunderstading.
Muscle Angst: He's jealous of large and muscular men's bodies.
Nice Guy: Though he does have some snarky qualities.
One Head Taller: At the end of the manga, he's now a head taller than Nagi because they're seven years apart.
Only Sane Man: Compared to those like Nagi and the other art club members, Jin comes off as the most normal of his social group.
Ordinary High-School Student: He's a mostly normal high school student who just happens to be able to see spirits and impurities. One day, he makes a statue from the wood of a sacred tree and carves it in the image of a goddess he saw once as a tree. Then, that same goddess materializes through the statue and asks his help to exorcise impurities since she can't touch them herself without becoming corrupted.
Porn Stash: Referenced more in the anime, though Nagi still brings it up in the manga.
Private Tutor: After he enters college, he gets a part time job as a home tutor for the granddaughter of the Kamimori family who is in her second year of middle school. He's very surprised and overjoyed to find out his student is a reincarnated Nagi.
Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Comparitively, Jin is actually the manly to Daitetsu's sensitive.
Smoking Is Cool: Jin thought so in the manga; he was hoping it would get rid of his "innocent boy" image.
Superpowerful Genetics: He has outstanding spiritual powers because he's a descendant of Ozamu who has spiritual powers rivaling a god's. In the finale, Jin can summon the same giant foot as Ozamu to purify the giant spider impurity.
Thanks for the Mammary: He gropes Shouhou's breasts when they're both naked at the hot springs because he still didn't know Shouhou is a girl.
Took a Level in Kindness: He was a much bigger jerk in the past, but he's mellowed out to be a rather ordinary guy, though if he's very irritated, he won't hesitate to snap back.
Unknown Rival: To Daitetsu. Jin makes it his goal to beat out Daitetsu at something artistic, and Daitetsu tries to help with whatever advice he can give, but ultimately Daitetsu is just more artistically inclined than Jin is.
Unwanted Harem: Jin is only truly attracted to Nagi, but that doesn't stop Tsugumi, Hakua, and Zange from trying to make their own advances.
Would Hit a Girl: In middle school, he went on a rampage in his class and hit Tsugumi in the face when she tried to stop him.

Nagi

Voiced by: Haruka Tomatsu

A deity who manifested from the wood of the sacred tree, Nagi is unintentionally brought to life by Jin and finds the world very different from the way she remembers it. With her sacred tree cut down, impurities that she once held in check were free to roam the town of Kannagi. Using a magical girl wand with some onusa tied to it, Nagi decides to carry out her duty as a goddess and rid the land of impurities. She isn't very focused on this task though, and instead she's usually seen enjoying living in the present day.

A-Cup Angst: She doesn't like being reminded that she's flat-chested, causing her some distress when she can't find a bra as she has nothing to fill them in. It's mentioned in one of her character cards that she hates men who like big breasts.
Accidental Truth: Nagi makes up a story about having a Split Personality to get out of trouble early on in the series. Jin thought it was weird that Nagi came up with such a lame excuse when she can make her other lies sound more plausible. That's because that wasn't a lie and Nagi didn't even know it.
Alternate Identity Amnesia: Nagi has another self who takes over her body from time to time. Every time the other Nagi shows up, she passes out and Nagi wakes up with no memories of what her other self did.
Amnesiac God: She believes she's a goddess who must exterminate impurities, but she doesn't really know anything about herself because her memories from before taking physical form are fuzzy.
Amnesiac Lover: After her revival at the school concert, Nagi doesn't remember Jin due to her Kannagi personality blocking her memories of him.
Antiquated Linguistics: She speaks an archaic dialect of Japanese, including using "warawa" as a first-person pronoun. She keeps talking this way even after reincarnating as a human.
Become a Real Girl: She's a replica of the goddess Kannagi given physical form through a vessel made from the wood of Kannagi's tree. At the end of the manga, Nagi's vessel is destroyed, but she comes back as a human girl, having been reincarnated in the past to eventually reunite with Jin.
Betty and Veronica: The Veronica to Tsugumi's Betty. Nagi is the Tsundere Physical Goddess and Manic Pixie Dream Girl who makes Jin's life more exciting. She wins.
Bizarre Taste in Food: She makes very weird combinations of food, like eating Japanese rice with French dressing and adding milk to her miso soup.
Blessed with Suck: Nagi is a goddess who has the ability to see and remove impurities from the town. However, the slightest touch of any of the impurities weakens her and spreads corruption to her body. It's stated that Nagi's wavering power is the reason why she, unlike Zange, can't bear to touch them, and that as the number of her worshippers grow, so will her power as a goddess. It doesn't quite work out that way, as by the time she confronts Ozuma, she either doesn't have enough power to resist corruption, or she simply doesn't care what would happen to her body after that point.
Compulsory School Age: Nagi is a goddess who has been around for ages. After she loses her tree vessel and materializes, Nago enrolls at Jin's high school with the help from a teacher who knows her true identity, pretending to be a Scholarship Student so she can make the students into her "worshippers".
Consummate Liar: She's pretty good at lying. Jin is surprised by how Nagi managed to convince Tsugumi that she's his relative when Nagi made up silly excuses like having a Split Personality earlier. And turns out she didn't trick him because that excuse wasn't a lie.
Corrupt the Cutie: Later in the manga, when Nagi speaks with Ozuma at the theme park while on a date with Jin, she ends up deciding that she no longer cares about being corrupted, as neither she nor Ozuma belong in the present anymore.
Cry into Chest: When Jin promises he will help her find out the truth about her and impurities, Nagi breaks down crying into Jin's chest.
Cute Clumsy Girl: At least when she worked for a short time in the cafe.
Duplicate Divergence: She's an embodiment of the Kannagi deity. In her past life, her behavior was identical to Kannagi's until the influence of Ozuma made her change into the more cheerful and quirky Nagi we're familiar with. Eventually, Nagi and Jin ask Kannagi to grant Nagi an individual existence so she can live as she wishes. After Nagi's body is destroyed while exorcising the impurities plaguing the town, she's reborn as a human girl completely unrelated to Kannagi and Zange.
Endearingly Dorky: She's somewhat clumsy, loves puns more than she should, and has a small but growing understanding of the present era, yet she garners a fanclub within her first few days at school because she is just that endearing.
Evil Costume Switch: Along with dangerously loose-fitting, tattered robes, she also gains darker skin and paler hair after absorbing The Corruption.
Genius Loci: Originally, she was a sentient sacred tree. After the tree got cut down, she took human form from the statue Jin made in the image of her spirit form that he saw when he was a child.
Genki Girl: Not much seems to get her down. At least, not until the revelation of her true nature, anyways.
God Is Dead: Zange performs a purification ritual on Nagi after she has absorbed The Corruption, and Nagi disappears afterwards.
Gods Need Prayer Badly: Nagi needs the worship of her followers in order to wield any sort of power as a goddess.
Heroic BSoD: When she's forced to face the fact that she doesn't remember anything about her past, and when she has to question if she is truly a goddess or not.
Heroic Sacrifice: At the end of the manga, Nagi sacrifices her physical form by using all of her power to exorcise the large number of impurities that have manifested all over the city. Thankfully, with Ozamu's advice, Nagi comes back after being reincarnated as a human.
Hime Cut: Played With. She's a Shinto deity who acts like a Miko to exorcise impurities. Fitting the image, she has blunt bangs, cheek-length sidelocks, and classic-length straight hair. However, personality-wise, she is childish and clumsy instead of graceful and dignified.
Humanity Is Infectious: In her previous incarnation, Nagi was nearly emotionless and completely focused on her duties as a land goddess. While she thought of the humans of her land as her adorable children, she couldn't empathize with their feelings nor feel sadness over their hardships and deaths. After she started spending time with her bodyguard Ozuma and his wife, Nagi gained a more human-like personality to the point she tried to absorb a corrupted Ozuma in an attempt to help him reincarnate despite knowing the risk of being corrupted herself. It was because Nagi started to care more about humans than her role as a land goddess that the Kannagi entity sealed her memories of Ozuma and then of Jin, but Nagi is ultimately let free by Kannagi to be her own entity and becomes a human at the end of the story.
Humanizing Tears: Nagi comes off her high horse and stops fooling around when she's forced to confront the fact that she has no idea who she really is, or even if her divine nature is real. She can't hold back her tears as she confesses her insecurities to Jin.
God in Human Form: In the epilogue, Nagi has reincarnated as a human girl with all the memories of her past life as a goddess.
Immortal Immaturity: Nagi sure acts childish and mischievous for a goddess.
Impossibly-Low Neckline: When she turns into a corrupted goddess, she wears a kimono completely off her shoulders.
Insecure Love Interest: Nagi doesn't think a romantic relationship between her and Jin can work out because he's a human and she's a goddess, and she believes a human girl like Tsugumi would make Jin happier.
Kindhearted Cat Lover: When she found a pair of stray kittens, Nagi immediately says she wants to raise them. When the kittens and their mother sadly died, Nagi mourns them.
Laser-Guided Amnesia: Nagi is not aware of her past at first, and although she knows she has to cleanse the town of impurities because they'll cause corruption, she still has no idea what the nature of the impurities are, and with her lack of power, she also finds herself questioning if she was ever really a goddess in the first place.
Limited Wardrobe: For a while, she only wears the same clothes her physical form materialized in until she points it out to Jin. After that she wears a larger variety of clothing, though since she wears her first outfit a lot around the house, she seems the most comfortable in the clothes that she manifested in.
Love Revelation Epiphany: While the feelings were already there, Nagi becomes aware of Jin romantically until after he confesses his love for her at the amusement park.
Magic Wand: She buys a Magical Girl toy wand to be her purifying tool for exorcising impurities.
Magical Girlfriend: She's a pretty tree goddess who changes Jin's life when she's unintentionally brought to life by him through a statue he carved from sacred wood and she gets him to help her with catching impurities, causing the two to fall in love in the process.
Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Somewhat deconstructed. Nagi is full of energy and curiosity towards her new environment, but at the same time she really tends to overdo it, leading her to do more harm than help for Jin. In the end, she's the one who usually has to be corrected and brought down to earth. Moreover, her happy-go-lucky personality is put on to both avoid talking about her disconnected memories and to seal off her other, truly divine nature. Also Reconstruction, as Tsugumi states that the time Jin spent with Nagi really has made him more open to try new things.
Mundane Utility: Her onusa staff gains the power to act as a flashlight.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Her original self absorbed a corrupted Ozuma in an attempt to make him reincarnate. She became corrupted by the impurities too and Zange had to exorcise her. As a result, Kannagi's land was plagued by impurities for centuries and Ozuma couldn't even reincarnate since his essence became one with the impurities.
Physical Goddess: She's the goddess of a local shrine at Jin's town. She originally resided inside a sacred tree at her temple, but it got relocated and the tree was cut down. Nagi manisfested physical form through a statue that Jin made from the sacred tree's wood.
Pretty Freeloader: Soon after she took physical form from Jin's statue, Nagi decided to live at his house since the sacred tree that was her vessel got cut down. Jin even admits how ridiculous it is that he must sleep on the couch because his freeloader took his bedroom.
Psychopomp: One of her abilities as a land goddess is absorbing people's and animals' corpses into her body and making sure their souls reach the afterlife. This backfired when she tried it on Ozuma after he became a vessel of impurities and she ended up becoming corrupted herself.
Pungeon Master: She gets off a pun at any opportunity.
Raised by Grandparents: She's reborn as the granddaughter of the Kamimori family and is living under the care of her grandparents in Japan while her parents are overseas.
Really 700 Years Old: She is a deity who protected the town in ancient times. She looks like a teenage girl in her current body because she's based on the image of the statue Jin made.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: When she becomes a corrupted goddess.
Reincarnation: At the end of the manga, Nagi reincarnates backwards in time and returns to Jin as a 13-year-old human girl.
Relatively Flimsy Excuse: She's a Physical Goddess who is living with Jin because she needs his help to exorcise impurities. So no one asks too much questions about why Jin has a young girl crashing at his house, she passes herself off as Jin's half-sister who moved with him to escape her abusive household.
School Idol: Invoked. In order to regain her divine power, Nagi decides to create her own fanbase at Jin's high school and becomes highly popular among the students in a matter of days.
Secret Secret-Keeper: She's able to figure out that Shouhou is a girl when the latter had everyone else fooled into thinking she was a guy.
Sibling Rivalry: She's at odds with her younger sister Zange who wants to take over the position of the town's deity now that Nagi is weakened. Their rivalry takes a more spiteful turn more often than not.
Single Woman Seeks Good Man: She falls in love with Jin because of him promising to help her find answers about herself and giving her his support in everything.
Split Personality: She has another personality inside of her that Nagi herself is unaware of at first. This other personality acts mysterious and dignified compared to the usual Nagi. She also knows more about what is happening than Nagi, but isn't willing to share information.
Split-Personality Takeover: In later chapters, Nagi's goddess persona took over complete control of Nagi and absorbed Ozuma's impurity, resulting in Nagi becoming a goddess of misfortune. There are occasional flashes of her outer personality when Jin tries calling out to her, seemingly to show that she might still be Fighting from the Inside.
Squishy Wizard: Nagi can't touch the impurities that roam the town, but she can dispell them with her staff.
Supreme Chef: Played With. She's a really good cook and the food she makes looks delicious, but her strange sense of taste doesn't make her food appealing for many.
This Is Your Brain on Evil: Once Nagi has absorbed the impurities into her, she takes on a darker appearance and acts very maliciously, kidnapping people in the town and letting them sink into a bog, apparently planning to absorb them into herself as a goddess of misfortune.
Tsundere: Sweet (Dere) type. Nagi is cheerful, bubbly, and friendly. She only loses her temper when she gets into arguments with Jin.
Wishful Projection: She wants Jin to act as her traditional loyal vassal, though obviously Jin isn't going to just go along with that, leading to most of the arguments between the two.

School

Tsugumi Aoba

Voiced by: Miyuki Sawashiro

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/aoba_tsugumi.png

Jin's childhood friend who also has a crush on him. She looks out for his well-being and checks up on him from time to time under the guise of keeping a promise to his father, even though she likes visiting him for herself as well.

Accidental Pervert: Funnily enough, it's Tsugumi who ends up walking in on Jin while the latter is naked after letting herself into his house. She hits him because of it as well. She apologizes afterwards, saying it was her reaction out of her own shock.
Betty and Veronica: The Betty to Nagi's Veronica. Tsugumi is the normal childhood friend who has a crush on Jin, but he only thinks of her as an older sister. She loses.
Butt-Monkey: While she doesn't receive this as much as Jin, she takes a lot of embarrassment from the other characters, and remains the Unlucky Childhood Friend throughout the story.
Childhood Friends: She has been friends with Jin since they were practically babies. She would like a Childhood Friend Romance, but knows Jin doesn't like her that way.
Clingy Jealous Girl: This side of her usually comes out when Nagi or Zange seem like they're getting too close to Jin, though she does her best to reel her jealous feelings in.
Covert Pervert: She is at first embarrassed by the rather inappropriate comics that Akiba collects, but her curiosity about the subject leads her to read through them anyways.
Curtains Match the Window: She has red hair and red eyes.
Damsel in Distress: Tsugumi is kidnapped by Nagi in order to lure Jin to her.
Girl Next Door: She's a classic nice and wholesome childhood friend stereotype.
Green-Eyed Epiphany: For most of her life, she thought she cared about Jin in a Like Brother and Sister kind of way. When Nagi starts living with Jin and the two grow close, Tsugumi realizes she doesn't want Jin to fall in love with another girl.
Hopeless Suitor: She has an obvious crush on Jin. He cares about her a lot, but as an older sister rather than a potential love interest.
I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: In the manga finale, Jin turns Tsugumi down because of his love for Nagi. Tsugumi takes it fairly well as she already expected to be rejected when she confessed.
Idiot Hair: She has a small strand of hair standing on top pf her head.
One-Note Cook: She's a good cook, but she's limited to only simple dishes that involve vegetables and eggs.
Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Tsugumi yells throughout a crowded hallway about her plan to ask Jin if there was anything romantic between him and Daitetsu after the latter spent the night in Jin's house. Lead to them both being Mistaken for Gay.
Patient Childhood Love Interest: Tsugumi is Jin's childhood friend and has an obvious crush on him, but ignores those feelings in favor of treating Jin as her little brother even though she's growing jealous of his closeness to Nagi. At the end, Jin turns her down precisely because he's too used to seeing Tsugumi as a mother/older sister figure and his heart is already settled on Nagi.
Romantic Runner-Up: Tsugumi could be a good love interest for Jin, but Nagi is the main heroine so her loss was decided from the start.
Strong Family Resemblance: She looks just like her mother did at her age.
Unwitting Muggle Friend: To Jin and Nagi. Unlike them, she's a completely normal human and doesn't know her two best friends are exorcising impurities, thinking Nagi is just playing at being a Magical Girl.

Zange

Voiced by: Kana Hanazawa

Click ^here to see her true appearance

Nagi's "younger sister", Zange is a deity who emerged when a part of the original sacred tree was taken and planted on the other side of the river that divided the town. As the two trees were worshipped separately, eventually the two goddesses became separate entities altogether, resulting in Zange's existence. Currently she has more power than Nagi, as her sacred tree is intact and she uses Christianity as a vehicle for finding new worshippers. She is intent on defeating Nagi and being the only goddess and idol in the town of Kannagi.

Adaptation Dye-Job: She has red eyes in the anime. In the manga, they're purple like her sister's.
Annoying Younger Sibling: Annoying her older sister is like her favorite pastime. She also uses her ability to touch impurities with Hakua's body to get the bugs near Nagi since Nagi can get stained by them.
Beneath the Mask: She sure breaks character a lot when she's out of the public eye.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: In front of humans, she pretends to be a saintly girl who wants to help people with her confessions. Her true personality comes out around Nagi where she's revealed to be arrogant, mean, and manipulative.
Cool Big Sis: She can act somewhat like an older sister to her host Hakua in the moments where she's helping Hakua build up some self-confidence.
Dreadful Musician: She's incredibly terrible at singing.
Duplicate Divergence: She and Nagi were originally one guardian deity of the Kannagi town. Their object of worship, the sacred tree, had part of it extracted and planted at the other side of the town's river. The two trees were worshipped as the separate deities, so Zange gained her own identity as Nagi's younger twin sister.
Gods Need Prayer Badly: Like Nagi, except that she has a larger following and also uses Christianity to help keep her powers strong, meaning she doesn't need it as badly, though she still wants to become the only goddess in the town.
Hime Cut: Played With. Her true goddess form has the same hairstyle as Nagi; blunt bangs, cheek length sidelocks, and long straight hair. Like Nagi, Zange is a Shinto goddess acting as a miko that can exorcise impurities, but her personality isn't graceful.
Identical Twin ID Tag: Since she and Nagi are twins "born" from the same sacred tree split into two, Zange's true form looks identical to Nagi with black hair.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While she is very self-serving, Zange does occasionally show that she cares for Hakua and Nagi.
Kill the God: Zange ends up exorcising Nagi after Nagi is fully corrupted from the impurities. However, she is very cruel and ruthless in her purification, and very thoroughly traps Nagi so that even Jin's interference in the middle of their fight works to her advantage. Afterwards, however, she is genuinely surprised at the fact that she even exorcised Nagi in the first place, indicating that she may not have fully been herself during the process.
Lethal Chef: When the girls have a cooking contest to have Jin taste their food, Hakua refuses to assist Zange for the competition to be fair. The thing Zange cooks barely resembles food.
Lovable Alpha Bitch: She's popular and well-known in the school, but she is very manipulative and abusive towards Nagi who has been stealing her believers at school since her arrival. Later in the manga, she becomes much nicer and helpful to Hakua and even Nagi.
Manipulative Bitch: Very calculating in her efforts to become the town's sole goddess.
Meaningful Name: "Zange" means "confession".
Mistaken for Prostitute: She attracts believers by walking around town offering to hear people confess their sins and troubles for 100 yen. A couple of times, Zange gets harassed by thugs who think she's offering an indecent kind of service and offer her even more money if she "plays" with them.
Mugging the Monster: When some thugs start harassing her on the street a second time, Zange shows she's perfectly able to defend herself when she beats them up and scares them away. Having witnessed this, Jin realizes Zange didn't need him to save her from the same thugs before.
Naughty Nun: She cut her skirt in order to broaden her appeal, and she has no problem acting promiscuous when flirting with Jin or manipulating any other person.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: By gathering the impurities to form Ozuma and having him meet with Nagi to help her remember the past, she causes Nagi to become a corrupted goddess when Nagi absorbs Ozuma like she did in the past.
No Sense of Personal Space: She has no intention of respecting Jin's boundaries, as she is very intent on seducing him and getting him to abandon Nagi.
Nuns Are Mikos: Zange is a Shinto goddess who very loosely bases herself on the image of a Catholic nun. Her host being a daughter of a priest is treated in the same way as daughters of Shinto priests, who are not required to be celibate.
Nun Too Holy: Even when she's not interacting with Nagi or the rest of the art club, she still doesn't act very pious for someone dressed like a nun.
Only Known by Their Nickname: Zange is the name she gave to herself after possessing Hakua's body. Her original name is Nagi like her sister.
Physical Goddess: In the finale, Zange gains her own physical body nearly identical to her sister's thanks to Jin making a statue from the wood of Zange's tree.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Zange is the assertive and confident Red Oni to Hakua's passive and shy Blue Oni.
Sadist: She gets aroused at the idea of humiliating her sister by stripping her naked and binding her so some students find her in an indecent position.
Shipper on Deck: She seduces Jin to mess with Nagi, but Zange also wants to help her host Hakua get closer to the boy she likes.
Showing Off the New Body: Zange does this briefly when she first possesses Hakua and first tries on a nun outfit.
Sibling Murder: She exorcises her own sister Nagi after Nagi is corrupted by impurities.
Sibling Rivalry: With her older sister Nagi, as they are both competing to be the top idol of Kannagi.
Signature Headgear: She wears a distinctive cross hairpin to complement her Naughty Nun outfit.
Stealth Hi/Bye: Zange pops up in the middle of other characters' conversations without warning quite often.
Symbiotic Possession: Her possession of Hakua is a mutual agreement. Zange needs a human vessel to attract worshippers and deal with impurities. Before Zange took residence in her body, Hakua was having many problems because she was prone to Demonic Possession. Hakua is alright with Zange possessing her because she can sense the goddess isn't a bad spirit and honestly thinks Zange is doing a good deed by hearing people's problems.
The Tease: She likes to flirt with Jin. It's mostly to make him flustered, but she also wants to make moves on the boy Hakua likes because Hakua won't do it herself.
Terrible Artist: Hakua was the one who drew Zange's sign to attract believers because the one Zange drew first had such awful art that Hakua wanted to cry if Zange walked around in her body while carrying such an ugly sign.
Tsurime Eyes: Her true form has the eyes slanted upwards, showing her assertive personality.

Hakua Suzushiro

Voiced by: Kana Hanazawa

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hakua_copy_5163.png

The young girl who currently acts as a vessel for Zange. Although Hakua herself doesn't mind being a body for Zange to use and she later becomes dependent on the goddess's help, her father thinks otherwise, and wishes for his daughter to be free from Zange's possession.

Accidental Pervert: She finds out Shouhou is a girl when she walks in on her at the toilet.
Adaptation Dye-Job: Her hair is navy blue in the manga, but the anime made it purple.
Birds of a Feather: The reason why Hakua has a crush on Jin in the first place is because she found a kindred spirit in him when they were little, with the revelation that they could both see ghosts.
Blessed with Suck: Her ability to see spirits made her childhood very miserable. Unlike Jin, Hakua's ability was due to a curse that she inherited after her mother died and her timid nature left her very open to be possessed by malevolent spirits. And even without the danger of her body being taken over, the ghosts that Hakua saw were mostly suicide and war victims.
Bully Magnet: In the past, she was bullied by other children who didn't believe she could see spirits as she claimed and accused her of only wanting attention.
Curtains Match the Window: She has blue hair to match her blue eyes.
Defecting for Love: Hakua doesn't want Jin to hate her for Hakua's actions, so she forces Zange out of her body after Zange purifies Nagi.
Demonic Possession: She suffered from this frequently before Zange decided to possess her body.
Empty Eyes: One way to know if Hakua is in control of the body is that Hakua's pupils lack eyeshine. They gain eye shine towards the end of the story to show her newfound confidence.
Fairy Tale Motifs: Before Zange came along, Hakua felt like a princess trapped at a tower because her father had to keep her inside the house so spirits wouldn't possess her.
Forgotten First Meeting: She first met Jin at a summer camp when they were children. Jin didn't recognize her because Hakua never returned to the summer camp because her body kept getting possessed by spirits. He finally remembers her when she reminds him of their experiences together at the camp.
Friendless Background: She could never make friends while growing up because of the incidents where she got possessed by evil spirits. With some of Zange's help, Hakua can make two good friends with two girls at her class.
Grand Theft Me: Subverted in that Hakua is willingly letting Zange possess her. But Zange still acts much more boldly and risque than Hakua would like. However, if Hakua truly has a problem with what Zange is doing and fights back, she regains temporary control over her body.
Grew a Spine: Hakua starts the story as a shy girl who lets Zange have full control of her body due to her weak will having made her prone to possession since childhood. She slowly grows more confident thanks to the support of Zange and her two best friends. By the end, she has developed enough backbone as to Zange and spirits not being able to possess her anymore.
Helpless Good Side: Shy, quiet Hakua is a far cry from the clingy, manipulative Zange inhabiting her body.
Hereditary Curse: According to Zange, she inherited the curse that claimed her mother's life. Hakua's fainthearted nature made it harder for her to cope with said curse than her mother did.
Heroic Willpower:
- Seeing Jin so furious with Zange after her exorcism of Nagi convinces Hakua that even Zange had gone too far with her antics. Thus, Hakua forces Zange out of her body on her own and reclaims it.
- Near the end of the manga, Zange loses the ability to control Hakua's body because Hakua has built enough self-confidence to resist possession.
Hime Cut: She has blunt bangs, shoulder-length sidelocks, and straigth waist-length hair. While shy, Hakua shows some traits of a Yamato Nadeshiko since she's kind, demure, and gains a strong will over time.
Hopeless Suitor: She has a crush on Jin, but even she knows that she has even less of a chance than Tsugumi because Jin only wants Nagi.
I See Dead People: Hakua has the same ability as Jin to see the dead and other spirits. Unfortunately for her, this left her very open to Demonic Possession.
I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Since she knows Jin won't ever fall for her, all she wants is that he can be happy with Nagi.
In-Series Nickname: "Aqua" by Jin, since it sounds so similar to Hakua.
Innocent Blue Eyes: She has blue eyes and a gentle, demure personality.
Interrupted Suicide: Tried to hang herself on the church's tree, but was stopped by Zange, who decided to take control of her body.
Not So Weak: She tends to give Zange absolute control over her body and its actions, and while Hakua can't stand to be without her help, she will retaliate and fight for control if she disagrees with what Zange is doing.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: The passive and shy blue to assertive and confident Zange's red, emphasized with their different eye colors.
Secret-Keeper: She's the first to find out Shouhou is a girl when she accidently walks in on her in the toilet.
Shrinking Violet: She's so extremely shy that she lets Zange do all the talking for her and when she's in control of the body while alone with Jin, she can do nothing but cower in a corner.
Shy Blue-Haired Girl: She has blue hair and a very shy personality.
Supreme Chef: Hakua made the bento box with delicious food that Zange brought for Jin. Zange can't cook at all without Hakua's help.
Tareme Eyes: She has droopy eyes suiting her shy and kind personality.
Textile Work Is Feminine: She's very skilled at embroidery.
Third-Option Love Interest: Just like Nagi and Tsugumi, Hakua also has a crush on Jin. Although, she doesn't actively pursue his affections because she knows she doesn't have a real chance anyway. In the final chapter, Jin muses over how he probably could have developed feelings for Hakua if the options of Nagi and Tsugumi weren't available.
True Blue Femininity: She's often portrayed in an aquamarine dress which is the source of Jin's nickname for her, "Aqua." She's also the most demure and gentle of Jin's potential love interests. Bonus points for her hair and eyes also being blue.
Unhappy Medium: Before Zange possessed her body, Hakua needed to go through several exorcisms because she was susceptible to possession by malicious spirits that caused her to act violently or make lascivious advances at boys of her class. This caused her father to keep her inside the house and Hakua became depressed to the point she was about to hang herself at Zange's tree when the goddess took over her body.
Water Is Womanly: Her name Hakua sounds like aqua which means water, wears an aquamarine dress several times, and because her father is a priest, she can use holy water to cleanse impurities. She's also a very kind, calm, and polite young lady.
Willing Channeler: Hakua willingly lets Zange use her body for whatever purpose she deigns. After Zange very ruthlessly exorcises Nagi, Hakua agrees with Jin's stance that Zange was too merciless in her purification. Hakua then expels Zange from her body.

Daitetsu Hibiki

Voiced by: Takanori Hoshino

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hibiki_daitetsu.png

Jin's "rival" in the art club and one of his friends. Because of outward appearances, most people, Jin included, think of him as a delinquent until they actually get to know him. He is very talented artistically, and is considered one of the best members of the art club.

The Ace: According to the other members of the art club. Sometimes borders on Informed Ability since everyone talks about his abilities more often than the audience is actually shown them, and when the viewers/readers do get glimpses of Daitetsu's work, it isn't particularly spectacular or genius.
Beware the Nice Ones: He really is a Gentle Giant, but when Jin was in trouble in junior high, he chased off some delinquents by punching a dent in the wall of a building as a warning.
Face of a Thug: Despite his scary-looking face and imposing figure, he's actually very sensitive and kind.
Friendless Background: Daitetsu was feared by his peers for his fierce looks, which resulted in him having very few friends growing up. Daitetsu even tells Jin that he shouldn't be a delinquent precisely because it's so lonely.
Gentle Giant: Daitetsu is actually pretty timid and dislikes fighting despite his daunting appearance.
Japanese Delinquents: Very obviously, Daitetsu is a subversion of this trope, though he can at least act the part for a little bit when he confronts other true delinquents in order to protect Jin.
Kind Hearted Cat Lover: Male version of this trope.
Mistaken for Gay: Some of his interactions with Jin are heavy on Homoerotic Subtext and lead others to assume they're gay. Trying to dispell the rumors only worsened the situation.
Nice Guy: When you look past his intimidating looks, Daitetsu is easily the nicest guy in the series.
Perma-Stubble: Adds on to the whole Younger Than They Look thing.
The Quiet One: Doesn't speak quite often, and when he does, he only tends to say what is necessary to get his thoughts across.
Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The sensitive to Jin's manly, relatively speaking.
Younger Than He Looks: He's a high school freshman along with Jin. Still looks like he's a lot older though.

Meguru Akiba

Voiced by: Tetsuya Kakihara

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/akiba_meguru.png

Another member of the art club, but all he ever draws is manga. He claims to have joined the art club instead of the manga club because he could not stand the otaku behavior of its members, although Akiba is quite the otaku himself.

Boomerang Bigot: He hates other otaku, but shows an large amount of insider knowledge on anime and manga.
Butt-Monkey: Takako enjoys making fun of him, though occasionally he'll redirect some of her comments to make her look bad.
Character Filibuster: When it pertains to his interests, he loves to talk about the quality of the techniques that were used to create them, whether good or bad. Depending on how emotionally invested he is in a topic, he may have anywhere from a short response to a whole verbal thesis prepared on how he feels about the subject.
Closet Geek: Akiba is a closet Otaku who insists that he is interested in some of his more unsavory tastes and shows merely for the art. He is critical of other otaku and joined the art club in order to be away from the ones who were a part of the manga club. In middle school, he was open about his passion for Magical Girl shows and perverted manga, but all it got him was his peers calling him disgusting and avoiding him. That's what he's trying to appear more "normal" in high school.
Delinquent Hair: His hair is naturally black, but he dyes it blond.
Genre Savvy: Akiba is the one of the cast who can quickly get he workings of the story, such as being able to figure out Nagi is a Physical Goddess drawing worship power out of otaku's love for moe.
Last-Name Basis: No one ever really calls him by his first name, instead calling him Akiba.
Leaning on the Fourth Wall: He says that if they were in the manga, Jin would be the main character because he has both a pretty "relative" living with him and a cute childhood friend.
Meaningful Name: Akiba? Sounds a bit like Akihabara, the hot spot in Tokyo for otaku culture...
Meta Guy: At times, he will point out how the characters situations would believably fit into a manga.
Sequential Artist: He draws his own manga at the club and is trying to get published at the magazine Monthly Deja-Vu.
Stereotype Reaction Gag: Usually comes from Takako or Jin assuming something, but then it turns out that it's true, whether he'd like to admit it or not.

Takako Kimura

Voiced by: Risa Hayamizu

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kimura_takako.png

The president of the art club and Jin, Daitetsu, and Akiba's senior. She enjoys watching the interactions of the male club members and eventually blossoms into a Yaoi Fangirl.

Cuteness Proximity: Takako loves seeing anything that she decides is cute, with girls like Nagi being very high on her list.
Distracted by the Sexy: Takako is very eager to see cute girls in cute clothing.
The Gadfly: She gets a kick out of teasing the art club's younger members.
Girlish Pigtails: She wears her hair in twin braids and has a youthful personality.
Guy on Guy Is Hot: She doesn't mind any implicit BL between her club members.
Muggle Best Friend: To Shino, unexpectedly. Turns out Shino is a magical girl who protects the town's people from impurities and Takako has been helping her carry out the job behind the backs of their other friends.
Nosebleed: The most prone to them due to her overactive imagination.
Secret-Keeper: She's the only one who knows Shino is secretly a magical girl.
Skewed Priorities: When she finds out Shino has turned into a magical girl, her only concern is questioning whether a high school student counts as a "girl".
Yaoi Fangirl: She takes pleasure in seeing the usual yaoi tropes play out in front of her.
Younger than She Looks: Jin notes that Takako looks like an office lady outside of school, and after watching her saccharine karaoke song performance, the rest of the club also decides that her performance would suit a high school student instead, to which Takako replies that she is a high school student.

Shino Ookuchi

Voiced by: Mai Nakahara

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/okouchi_shino.png

Vice president of the art club and Takako's best friend. She is quieter than Takako but enjoys watching the younger members' interactions just as much as the president does. She is especially interested in how Jin handles his own feelings for Nagi.

Embarrassing but Empowering Outfit: She's deeply embarrassed when people see her in her magical girl outfit because it's basically a cosplay that looks childish in a girl of her age.
Eyes Always Shut: She always keeps her eyes closed. This is a trait of her family with her father explaining they're emulating the portratal of Buddha's closed eyes. The only times we see Shino open her eyes is when she turns into a magical girl.
Hero of Another Story: Near the end of the manga, it's revealed Shino had an exciting plot going on without anyone noticing. The squirrel familiar of Nagi's tree chose Shino to be a magical girl and she has been dealing with impurities behind scenes for the entire series.
Magical Girl Warrior: She cleanses impurities while dressed as a magical girl wielding a naginata.
Naginata Are Feminine: She's a ladylike Ojou and wields a naginata as her weapon when she turns into a magical girl.
Ojou: Her family is the most influential and wealthiest in the Kannagi town. Some of her relatives even have a private beach.
Proper Lady: She seems to be built up in this way, being quiet and ladylike.
Satellite Character: Most of the time she isn't seen unless she's with Takako or one of the other club members. She got a bit more focus in the Beach Episode chapter of the manga, but other than that she tends to be with Takako most of the time. This is subverted with the reveal that Shino is secretly a magical girl who purifies impurities in secret.
Secret Secret-Keeper: She knows all about the Shinto gods and impurities being real thanks to the squirrel of Nagi's tree telling her about them. She also had an idea of who Nagi was from the start, but didn't confirm it until much later.
Team Mom: She seems to be this for the art club, as she is the most mature member of the group and tends to look on its members and the other girls with the most concern.

Reiri Suzushiro

Voiced by: Kenta Miyake

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/suzushiro_reiri.jpg

Hakua's father and a theology teacher at Jin's school. He is also a Catholic priest. He wishes for his daughter to be free of Zange's possession, and to that end has decided to support Nagi in her efforts to overthrow her sister as an idol to the town.

Reasonable Authority Figure: Hears Nagi out when he discovers that she's a goddess and lends her his help afterwards.

Others

Miyuu Kanzaki

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kanzaki_miyuu.png

A relative of Shino. Miyuu is a little girl who lives at the Shiomi town next to the sea. She's something of an idol in the town as all the residents adore her.

Cosmic Motifs: She wears stars in her hair and clothes.
Deliberately Cute Child: She plays cute and innocent to make herself lovable to the people in town and gain divine power through their "worship". Her true self is more similar to Zange.
Dragons Are Divine: The deity she represents is a sea dragon.
Idiot Hair: She has a curly strand of hair standing on the top of her head.
Girlish Pigtails: Her hair is tied up in twin-tails because they look adorable in a little girl like her.
God in Human Form: She's a human avatar of the dragon god that protects the Shiomi town.
Precocious Crush: She has a crush on the much older Ryuuya who says he will make her his bride when she grows up. Since Miyuu and Ryuuya are avatars of the same dragon god, Nagi thinks the deity must be narcissistic.
Rose-Haired Sweetie: Subverted. She's a pink-haired little girl who acts nice and cheerful to endear herself to others. Her true personality is far from sweet.
School Swimsuit: She wears one at the beach.
The Smurfette Principle: She's the only girl among the dragon god's four human avatars. Nagi is pretty sure the god is male and compares Miyuu to Akiba playing a videogame with a female character.
Third-Person Person: She refers to herself in third person because of her young age.
Verbal Tic: She ends her sentences with "-suno". Unless she drops the Deliberately Cute Child act, that is.

Ozuma

A mysterious boy created from a huge mass of impurity that seems to have some connection with Nagi.

Bizarre Taste in Food: He likes to eat ramen with mayonnaise. Nagi seems to have picked up her strange sense of taste from him.
Bodyguard Crush: Subverted. He was Kannagi's bodyguard and the townsfolk thought they were lovers, but they were just good friends.
The Defroster: Nagi originally was aloof and detached, since she didn't understand human feelings. Her interactions with Ozuma gave her emotions and a good part of her current quirky personality seems to be inherited from him.
Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Ozuma has black hair and unhealthy-looking skin. His body is also made of impurities.
Extreme Omnivore: He got used to eating insects when he was traveling as a monk. This is what made it easy for him to eat impurities.
Fusion Dance: When he finally meets Nagi, their bodies fuse together and she turns into a corrupted goddess.
Go Out with a Smile: In the finale, Ozuma is finally exorcised for good by Nagi and Jin. The last thing he does is telling the two to stay well with a smile.
Luke, I Am Your Father: He's eventually revealed to be Jin's ancestor.
Made of Evil: He's made from the impurities in the town that Zange gathered inside a coffin.
Mistaken for Romance: Zange claimed that Ozuma was Nagi's lover, but that was a misunderstanding on her part. In the past, the townsfolk spread false rumors about Kannagi taking Ozuma as her lover and Zange merely assumed it was true when she saw them together, unaware that Ozuma was actually Nagi's bodyguard.
The Not-Love Interest: Ozuma and Nagi were close enough for Zange to believe they were lovers, but their relationship wasn't romantic.
Rapid Aging: He first appears as a child. He later grows into an adult after Zange collects more impurities to construct his body.
Really 700 Years Old: When he met Kannagi, he had already lived for 300 years even though he still looked like a young man.
Retirony: He was planning to retire to the mountains and raise a family with his wife after he and Kannagi finished purifying the impurities plaguing the land. Unfortunately, the impurities were so many that Ozuma had to consume them in order to contain them into his body.
Sealed Inside a Person-Shaped Can: Since Kannagi's power couldn't fully exorcise the impurities in the land, Ozuma turned himself into a living vessel for the impurities by eating them. He planned to isolate himself in the mountains, but Kannagi absorbed him in a failed attempt to help him reincarnate.
Spell My Name With An S: His name has been translated as "Ozuma" or "Ozma".
Thanks for the Mammary: He met his wife Hibari when he woke up on her lap and accidentally groped her chest.
Walking Spoiler: His connection with Nagi is at the core of the main mystery in the series. Nearly all imformation about him gives away the major twists in the series.

Shouhou Hinoue

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hinoue_shoho.jpg

A buddhist monk in training that takes shelter in Jin's house. Shouhou is researching the history of Ozuma who shares a mysterious connection with Nagi, motivating Shouhou to work together with Jin to find answers. Shouhou is initially believed to be a boy, but she's in fact a girl who passes herself as a boy to protect herself when traveling alone.

Bifauxnen: She looks androgynous enough to pass off as a cute boy without anyone suspecting her true gender.
Boyish Short Hair: Her short hairstyle is one of the traits that make it easy to mistake her for a boy.
Girliness Upgrade: In the epilogue four years later, Shouhou is starting to embrace her femininity as people are starting to notice she's girlier now and she's open to the idea of wearing dresses from now on, to the delight of her shikigami.
Leg Focus: Jin thinks her slender legs make her look good in a skirt.
Recursive Crossdressing: When she goes to the School Festival dressed in a male uniform, some girls mistake her for a pretty boy and put her in an Alice in Wonderland cosplay.
Supreme Chef: Tsugumi is left speechless at Shouhou's cooking skills.
Sweet Polly Oliver: She poses as a boy for the sake of exposing herself to less danger during her travel.
Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Despite her boyish looks and not being comfortable with femininity in general, Shouhou is very good at cleaning and cooking, although she personally consider herself any amore feminine for it.

Characters / Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens

Main Characters