This series begins with a young boy capturing a spider/bug on the grounds of a Shinto shrine. When he finally captures it a Kami/tree spirit/miko appears and touches him from behind, when he turns around he just stares at her, then she touches his forehead and she disappears in a gust of wind and a swirl of blowing leaves. The series then fast forwards several years into the future where we see the same boy now a young man carving a shrine maiden out of a large piece of wood.

         After he has finished the carving he goes to get his bike because he needs to take his carving to a contest. When he returns to his carving, the ground begins to tremble, and the statue explodes releasing a young shrine maiden. The boy is very shocked after seeing this and he falls to his knees, the young shrine maiden looks around, and tells the boy to just relax until the shock wears off. Later, the two of them share some tea inside the boy’s house.

         They start talking and asking questions of each-other, he asks her if she’s a tree spirit? She tells him she’s a Kami (local deity) and that she is basically the mother of all the trees, animals, and so forth of this area. Then she asks him about the container (carving) that she is occupying, and he tells her that he made the carving out of the sacred tree. When she hears this she is shocked and doesn’t believe him, so he takes her to the location of the chopped down sacred tree, when she see this she is angry, worried, and sad.

 

         At the site of the sacred tree, a large bug climbs on her body (she calls this a impurity) and he grabs it off her and when he tosses it to the ground it disappears. Back at his place, she is really sad and depressed about the current situation, and he gets uncomfortable about being soon close to a cute and attractive young lass. But everything changes when she sees a magic girl show on TV, and decides to battle the impurities of the area magic girl style. Back at the site of the sacred tree, she uses some exorcism items she made to banish the impurities. After he helps her banish the impurities she gives him her thanks and she tells him to call her Nagi. She also asks what his name is, he tells her that he is named Jin, and when they shake hands he thinks that she has disappears in a gust of wind and leaves just like before, but this time she is still there.

 

       Back at his place she tells him that she needs to stay here to banish the impurities, and that she needs his help. She also says that since he created her vessel he has some responsibilities in the matter, after they eat, she again starts to watch some TV shows.

       Later he goes shopping, and when he gets back he finds her asleep, he is really nervous about the living arrangements with Nagi even though she is a Goddess she is still a cute, live in the flesh girl. He wakes her up and tells her to take a bath, while she is in the bath he hides all his girly manga from her.

      Before the evening is done he has to deal with other problems arising from living with a girl, like he has to go buy more clothes for her since she has only one set, and also he has to keep her hidden from everyone since he’s supposed to be living alone. Finally, he sets the sleeping arrangements, she’ll sleep in his room and he’ll sleep in the living room. During the night he realizes just how human she is when he sees that she has to use the bathroom just like everyone else. Well, that’s all for this episode.

        I found this first episode to be entertaining and interesting, the animation seems to be of good quality, and the characters seem to visually pleasing. I like the premise of a local Kami appearing in the modern world and having to see what has become of their creation and how the local people view them. I also found it interesting how Nagi reacts to modern things like TV, phones, and present day foods.

        While I found Nagi’s character to be likable and enjoyable, I find Jin to be the typical portrayal of a male in this genre of anime. While he’s a nice guy he’s also the typical anime guy who doesn’t know how to react to a girl if she’s within ten feet of him, and he really doesn’t know how to deal with a glimpse of a bare thigh or a little cleavage.

         Overall, I feel that this series is worth continued watching, I’ll just let Jin’s lack of a proper man card pass over me. The issues dealt with in this series have been done before, but I think that watching Nagi will make this series a win in the long run.

Below are some production sketches of Nagi.