The show is about a trio from Japan that have grown up together and soon find themselves as integral parts of a prophecy that could spell the end of mankind at the hands (or is that mouths?) of an eight headed dragon from ancient times. The three leads are Himeko, a girl about to enter womanhood on her 16th birthday that is afraid of her own shadow; Chikane, a wealthy young lady with the kind of self assurance and skill that comes only from within; and Souma, a boyfriend of Himeko and moody type who seems drawn towards a different path. The two girls seem to have a very close relationship (yes, I mean like they could end up making out together type of close) and their birthday's are just around the corner when all of a sudden, a demon appears out of the morning sky to wreak havoc. This demon dragon is named Orochi and when a solar eclipse appears, we find out that he has found a way to extricate himself from his resting spot on the moon. Generations ago, a group of powerful priests sealed him in there and such powers are handed down genetically.

A lot takes place in the first few episodes but we find out that the two girls are important to the prophecy in that one is the lunar priestess and the other is the solar priestess though neither seems to be aware of the strength they hold within. Souma, on the other hand, finds out that he's one of Orochi's "necks" (basically a stooge to be ordered about as needed) and is ordered to kill his two friends. He ends up in a powerful & giant mech robot that appears from the ground beneath him (as though appearing from a crevice caused by the earthquake about them) and starts to follow his nightmarish order when something from within stops him. He loves Himeko and the power of that love keeps him from carrying out his order, allowing him to openly rebel in an act of defiance that has never happened in recorded history.

This sets off the other bad guys who attempt to pick up his slack and he eventually fights them off, with some exposition by the forces of evil in an alternate dimensional resting spot where other members of the evil team have assembled. Souma's guardian explains some of the background legend and everyone is aware that the overpowering evil within Souma is so close to the surface that he could falter and slay them at any time. His pure love keeps him going as an agent of good, even though his destiny is not going to allow him to keep at it much longer. For their part, the girls soon find themselves trying to maintain a semblance of their everyday lives, Chikane as the most popular and gifted gal in high school and Himeko as her friend." You can see what I meant about confusing as well as the need to watch the series in order now, yes?

Movie: Kannazuki No Miko: The Lunar Priestess continued the adventures of the trio and their foes with the back cover saying: "Confronted with his real brother, Souma fights for Himeko, the one he loves. However, if Souma is destined to be the one for Himeko, where does that leave Chikane? Her feelings are so deep and powerful that no one in the world could possibly match the intensity of her love. Chikane is determined to make sure that everyone understands this, including the Orochi, Souma, and most of all, Himeko herself." The episodes this time were 5) Over the Darkness of Night, 6) You, Where the Sun Shines, 7) Rainfall in the Hell of Love, and 8) Storm of the Silver Moon. Without spoiling the action too much, the general dynamic switched mid way as the fighting between the leads against the various heads of the dragon to protect Himeko in a directed frontal assault gave way to subversive tactics employed to corrupt Souma and Chikane from within.

As established in Kannazuki No Miko: The Solar Priestess, both Souma and Himeko have a huge crush on the girl. Souma's love being so powerful that it gives him the strength to break free from the control of Orochi's will and fight his family while Chikane's love is shown as the longing for forbidden love (they are both girls after all) for her friend to cause her hesitation in the face of the enemy. The initial fact that the dragon is so overwhelmingly powerful changes to the need for using the love of the duo for Himeko against them (after all, if he and his multiple heads are so powerful, why the need for indirect attacks?) makes up the bulk of the plot during these episodes. Unfortunately, the weird manner in which the stories are carried out takes vast leaps in logic (once again) and relies on information not provided as to the specific questions it raises. Whereas the first volume jumps right in and overloads with a wealth of background information, leaving lots of plot holes in the process, this subtler form of advancing the story does likewise but in a different manner, still leaving the viewer guessing.

Okay, there was still enough basic action sequences and story of interest to keep me watching as a Rent It but with one more volume to go, I renewed my belief that the story seems to have been mapped out as a full season series that was trimmed down to a shorter set of episodes without corresponding parts edited down in the process. This made cuts to the explanatory material necessary in order to keep most of the action but caused the show to lose some coherence along the way. If you've ever watched the fourth season of Babylon 5 where some aspects were rushed and other material obviously cut to wrap up the show faster than planned, you'll know what I mean. It wasn't a terrible ride though; just limited compared to what I believe was initially scoped out by the creators of the series.

Picture: Kannazuki No Miko: The Lunar Priestess was presented in an anamorphic widescreen color 1.85:1 ratio picture as shot by director Tetsuya Yamagisawa for airing on Japanese television. The colors were bright and cheerful, the anime style itself kind of lacking in detail. It looked as good as the covers did, and the robot designs were interesting though the abundance of visual effects kept me from analyzing the picture too closely most of the time. The frame rate was nothing special but it was about average for a recent release from Japan, marking another Geneon title with few flaws.

Sound: The audio was presented with the original 2.0 Dolby Digital Japanese track, a new English language dub (also 2.0 DD), and English language subtitles. In terms of which track was better, I had to defer to the original in terms of the flow of the language but it was far from the worse dub I'm listened to of late. The subtitles seemed to closely follow the dub with few variations for those who care and offered a standard track as well as a signs only stream to enjoy. The dynamic range of the two audio tracks appeared to be almost identical as did the separation between the channels. Unlike a number of other releases lately, the bass didn't seem to be substantially higher on the dub and each showed a moderate amount of directionality (though not so much when the battles weren't taking place).

Extras: On the DVD itself, there was a clean closing and some trailers to others shows. The cover was a true double sided cover, there was a paper insert with art on it, and there was a pencil board (as well as another $3 off coupon).

Final Thoughts: Kannazuki No Miko: The Lunar Priestess showed how the perversion of love can be used to influence someone to embrace the dark side of life and managed to have a few decent action sequences for those of you into that but it was very uneven in terms of serving any of the demographic audiences it sought to please, resulting in being of limited appeal to all. The replay valued suffered and if you're an action fan, you'll find the romance angle and trickery parts boring while if you like those parts, the action sequences will seem bolted onto the show to bring in viewers from that audience. By trying to be all things to all people, it serves none all too well but give it a look if you enjoyed the first volume and you might find more to like than I did.

If you enjoy anime, take a look at some of the recommendations by DVD Talk's twisted cast of reviewers in their Best Of Anime 2003, Best Of Anime 2004, and Best of Anime 2005 articles or their regular column Anime Talk.