You know, the day you posted this, I was just thinking of you that morning, and of this show, which I was forced to watch for college anime club.
I always hated it, but I freely acknowledge that I am a guy and that I don’t like Yuri. Well I don’t know your gender, but I have gleaned from the various subtle hints like you posting one million reviews of Yuri-related materials that you are a yuri fan, so I wondered what you thought of it, as someone marginally closer to the target audience than I.
So I do appreciate it. Even if I like Souma more than you, and even if I would’ve devoted more time to criticizing the juvenile and horny animation, genuinely harmful view that homosexual relationships need to be held to very different standards when it comes to things like abuse than heterosexual ones, and occasionally wretched pacing.
Apologies for any weird problems caused by phone posting.
For the record, I'm a heterosexual male, a group that seems to be the target audience for yuri apart from lesbians.
I probably would have gone into more detail about the double standard if the review could be longer, or if I'd written an essay focusing on the problematic nature of the show. As it stands now, I decided it would be best to bring up the rape and how the story glosses over it, then spend the rest of my character allotment discussing the other underwhelming aspects of the series.
To be fair, your review does at least address the problem overall, but I think going as deep as you did into each individual character was a mistake that ate up wordcount. Then again... I also appreciate that you go into why they failed, and places where the show zigged instead of zagging that resulted in the problem.
I think my other complaint is that you suggest the problem was that the show was too short. I disagree. If anything, it\'s too long, and doesn\'t have enough story to fill out all its episodes. The problem is that the show wasted time it could have spent developing important characters or story aspects on unnecessary or irrelevant things that did not ultimately serve any real purpose except, sometimes, fanservice.
You raise some fair points, although I gave two sentences each to Himeko, Souma and the Necks of Orochi(in other words, The Hero, the Romantic False Lead and the Quirky Miniboss Squad), and only devoted more space to Chikane, with part of it about the rape. While the part in which Chikane turns evil and rapes Himeko is problematic, that becomes relevant in the latter third of the show, whereas the shallow characterization is a problem that lasts for the entire series.
As for the show being too long/not long enough, I'll concede that the show didn't do a good job of using the episode count well. Of course, I don't know of many shows that are shorter than 11 episodes unless they're some sort of short OVA series.
I wonder if the time frame the series was set in is part of the problem. At the beginning of the series, Himeko already knows both Chikane and Souma(after hearing Chikane call Himeko "Kurusugawa-san" in Episode 1, I thought they were strangers at this point, but that's what Chikane calls Himeko in front of others), which was a bit of an abrupt introduction to their relationship and limited how much their relationships could develop over time. It might have worked better if the series started when Himeko met Chikane, and had Souma be someone Himeko met recently rather than a Childhood Friend. Of course, that would possibly delay the introduction of the Necks of Orochi until later in the story, but maybe the series could have solely focused on Himeko's love life rather than trying to add all the magical mecha battles and lore about the priestesses, Ame no Murakumo and Orochi(which requires better worldbuilding to pull off well in a Twelve Episode Anime).
EDIT: If I were to write about the problematic elements of Chikane and Himeko's relationship, that would be a separate piece that would most likely be longer than 3,000 characters and would inevitably involve spoilers of the entire series.
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Anime: A problematic series that aged poorly and has bad characters.
This review covers the anime. The manga has some noticeable differences, but as far as I know, the important parts are the same. It also contains some spoilers.
Destiny of the Shrine Maiden, aka Kannazuki no Miko(KNM), is a yuri series that was revolutionary for its time, but aged poorly, in part due to its problematic elements.
KNM is about two girls named Himeko and Chikane, who learn that they're the priestesses whose duty it is to seal the evil god Orochi. Himeko wrestles with possible feelings for her ChildhoodFriend Souma, while also gradually realizing that Chikane is in love with her. The conflict with Orochi is nothing special, but what about the characters?
The characters are easily the weakest part of KNM, probably because it's too short to properly develop most of them. Himeko, the hero, is a bland Nice Girl who somehow wins the love of the most popular boy and girl at her school. She has a traumatic past with an abusive aunt and uncle, but not nearly enough is done with it.
Chikane is the most divisive character in KNM, and for good reason. On the one hand, she's a far more complex and flawed character than people in-universe or out initially think, and has relatively good chemistry with Himeko. On the other hand, not only is she somewhat possessive of Himeko, but then there's Episode 8.
While I don't usually have spoilers in my reviews, I'll make an exception for the part everyone knows about- Chikane raping Himeko. While rape is the surest way for a character to become a Hate Sink short of mass murder, Chikane retains the narrative's sympathy, and the action is soon forgotten about. She turns out to have her reasons for doing this, but it could easily have been replaced by trying to kill Souma in a jealous rage and the effect would have been the same.
Speaking of Souma, he's a boring character whose existence revolves around Himeko(granted, the same goes for Chikane, but at least she has character flaws). This is a shame, because he actually has an interesting relationship with his evil brother Tsubasa, which only becomes relevant a handful of times.
The vast majority of the Necks of Orochi, with only a handful of exceptions, are one-note and only exist to provide a Monster of the Week for Souma(himself a Neck and a Flat Character to boot) to defeat. They all have tragic backstories, but they're only mentioned in passing near the end of the series, and don't do nearly enough to flesh out their characters.
The action is so-so, whether because it wasn't KNM's main focus, or because the anime, which was made almost 20 years ago, doesn't have very good art.
While I am a Yuri Fan at heart, and recognize that Destiny was novel for its time, many better yuri series have been released since then, so there's no reason to waste your time on this one.