Kannazuki no Miko Mechatalk: Part Two – Take no Yamikazuchi

The second of the Three-Part Kannazuki no Miko mechatalk is here! Kannazuki no Miko might be a poor excuse of a Mecha anime as the series prefer to focus on Yuri relationships of the Main heroine instead of making proper Mecha series. However, it doesn’t mean that the Mecha department of this series does not have any merit, as the effort by the team that handled this particular part are actually quite apparent despite it is a thankless errand.

Therefore, to reciprocate the earnest labor given for the Mecha that Kannazuki no Miko had, I proudly present the Mechatalk article dedicated for Take no Yamikazuchi! This article will be more extensive compared to your typical Mechatalk articles which is a rarity for this blog these days just to show the respect I have for this Kannazuki no Miko protagonist mecha. Take no Yamikazuchi is the literal MVP Mecha of Kannazuki and the major reason why the Mechatalk for its series exist in the first place. Because despite the poor overall execution of the storyline, Take no Yamikazuchi and his pilot are actually one of those among the many that make it as an exemplary paragon which represents the pure essence of Mecha. 

 

Loosely named after a famed Japanese war deity, Take no Yamikazuchi made its grand appearance in the first episode of Kannazuki as a mysterious Giant Robot clad in rags that have sentience somehow and give chase after a pair of Highschool girl which turned out to be the destined Solar and Lunar Miko, wreaking havoc along the way. It was not until the main male protagonist Ogami Souma intervene and somehow able to get inside and pilot Take no Yamikazuchi, promptly giving a rough beatdown on the second Head of Orochi Seven who is present with her mecha attempting to finish the job. 

Perhaps the reason why Take no Yamikazuchi decided to make its fateful appearance on that particular day in the first place is to reunite with Souma and have the latter fulfill his evil destiny as Orochi Seven. But due to the unpredictable factors revolving around the Two Shrine Maidens especially the Solar Miko, the circumstances took a change somehow.

It was only after when the things from the fight settle down that it is revealed that Take no Yamikazuchi is one of the fragment of Orochi itself representing the 7^th Head and actually one of its most powerful fragment along with Take no Yasukunazuchi. Having the literal power of giant robot fueled by Evil god’s power at one’s beckon obviously have a price. As Take no Yamikazuchi will continuously took a toll upon Souma’s body and spirit eventually will turn him into the Evil Demonic servant creatures for Orochi.

However, being the only thing that can effectively thwart Orochi Seven’s power, Using the Evil power to fight agains evil, Souma is willingly to risk his soul if it meant to protect his love which happened to be the Solar Miko, Himeko

Being the Fragment of the Evil God Orochi, Take no Yamikazuchi possess immense latent destructive potential. The greatest strength of this Protagonist mecha from Kannazuki is probably its adaptive combat capability to adapt fighting style suitable for its wielder. But in the end, it is still up to Souma himself to tap out the potential. Being skilled in Martial arts, Souma fight with Take no Yamikazuchi mostly by brawling in Pacific Rim fashion, releasing flurry of punches and duking it out against Orochi Seven with some Grappling moves being thrown in on occassion  

And then It was during Souma’s fight with his older brother, Tsubasa who is the leader of Orochi Seven that Take no Yamikazuchi had the opportunity to improve its combat capability significantly. In this life or death combat situation desperately to try protect Himeko, Souma gave it his all and able to have Take no Yamikazuchi materialize a sword weapon to somehow even out the one-sided fight abit with the leader of Orochi Seven. Later on Souma do take some fencing lesson from time to time to improve his combat capability with Take no Yamikazuchi

  While Take no Yamikazuchi is a melee oriented mecha due to Souma’s fighting style, It does have some ranged attack options through the Crystal orbs embedded on Take no Yamikazuchi’s Arm and Chest. There are several attack configurations available which cost more energy compared to the regular melee attacks due to its higher potential destructive power and usually used by Souma as a finisher. The most basic ranged attack is where Take no Yamikazuchi join its hand in Zeorymer Fashion to create energy Shockwave sufficient to disintegrate Orochi Seven mecha. Then when Souma gets more proficient with Take no Yamikazuchi, he is also able to create concentrated Energy orb from Yamikazuchi’s chest which is launched at the enemy for powerful explosion attack

With the help of Solar Miko’s power, Souma is able to unleash even more devastating ranged attack by making Mikazuchi enveloped in Golden aura akin to Hyper Mode and then proceed to point the Crystal on Yamikazuchi’s arm to create a Massive energy Orb and unleash it as devastating Finisher called Nichirin Koretsu Daigekiha or Sparkling Solar Wave of Ultimate Destruction. With Yamikazuchi’s awakened form later on, Souma is able to unleash even more powerful and compact version of this attack to help destroy Orochi.

As the inseparable half of Take no Yamikazuchi, this mechatalk article will obviously also cover Ogami Souma. A High School student of Ototachibana academy, Ogami Souma is literally a perfect model student who is very good at almost everything making him very popular among the students in Ototachibana especially with the girls. Due to his popularity, he is often paired with another popular student, Chikane who is actually the Lunar Miko as Ideal couple. However deep down both actually love the Solar Miko Himeko. making them the rival for the Solar Miko’s affection.

Orphaned in very early age, Souma grew up with Himeko and the feelings eventually bud into love. If Kannazuki was not a Yuri series and Chikane was out of equation, Souma and Himeko’s romantic relationship could have blossomed into a very beautiful one. Because Souma truly have a very strong and pure affection toward the Solar Miko even if the feelings are doomed not to be reciprocated.

Therefore even upon finding out his destiny as the seventh Head of Orochi who exist to kill the Solar and Lunar Miko. Souma decides to defy his lot and fought with Take no Yamikazuchi to protect Himeko. This is not an easy effort due to the constant corrupting power of Orochi which the glowing crest on its head serve as a reminder and Souma is doomed to get his soul corrupted and turned into mindless demonic creature eventually.

As a character, Ogami Souma is a clean cut of a Hotblooded Mecha protagonist archetype which had really really bad luck to star in a Yuri series along with Take no Yamikazuchi. Had Souma starred in a regular mecha series, he would have gotten a harem for himself because he really what it takes to be good Shonen Hero and a Gigachad in the making.

This is probably not the anime Production team’s fault because that’s just how bad the Kannazuki no Miko manga original source material made by Kaishaku. It just breaks my heart that Souma got really shitty treatment in his own series and never properly rewarded for his immense effort just because the main heroine decide to be obsessed being a Yuri. Seriously, he still willing to help Himeko to reach out for Chikane and try to save her just because he wants Himeko to be happy. Nevertheless, Souma do get some consolation in the end of the series and he gets to show what it takes to be a good Mecha protagonist. 

Souma’s feats throughout Kannazuki especially in the finale part is impressive enough for me to dedicate a full fledged Mechatalk article for him. Because the essence that he tried to convey through his character are just that good for Mecha despite being severely limited in Subpar series

Being a fragment of the Evil God Orochi, Take no Yamikazuchi is still a very malevolent being at its core, hellbent for destruction despite Souma’s best effort to restraint its evil nature. It was not until Chikane using her Lunar Miko power to hijack Take no Yamikazuchi for her own purpose, letting Yamikazuchi to show its true evil nature along with its Demonic visage that has been hidden for so long.

As expected from one the most Powerful fragment of Orochi, Chikane uses Yamikazuchi to promptly wipe out the 6 Heads of Orochi with relative ease, main using energy Bow materialized on its arm due to Chikane’s preferred archery fighting style. Throughout Kannazuki, Take no Yamikazuchi is implied to have its own sentience and could have rebelled against Chikane despite the latter have its Lunar Miko power. However Yamikazuchi contently tags along with Chikane as the Lunar Miko lets it to sow destruction even if it is upon its Orochi allies.

Being the only survivor of Orochi Seven, Tsubasa and Take no Yasukunazuchi do put up a very good fight and could have given Chikane a serious trouble. Because Tsubasa could still control Yasukunazuchi effortlessly despite the latter fully show its evil visage just like Yamikazuchi. However during the fight, it is implied that Tsubasa saw through the ruse of Chikane serving Orochi. Seeing that there is an opportunity to free his little brother, Souma from Orochi’s curse for good. Tsubasa decides to give up the fight and plunged himself to the depths of abyss.

During the Final confrontation, as Chikane let loose of Yamikazuchi’s control. The latter revert to its original nature of mindless destruction but promptly dispatched by Ame no Murakumo despite it is still not in its full power. After Yamikazuchi’s defeat, some of its fragment are converging into Orochi’s true form leaving some husk in the process

During the final battle where Ame no Murakumo have fully awakened and fight against Orochi. Souma, having reached his limit is in the process of turning into Orochi’s mindless demon as his body consumed by darkness. However he still barely lingers with his humanity due to his unconditional love for Himeko and in the brief chance of opening due to Orochi’s weakening power. Tsubasa, even after his death use his remaining power to save Souma breaking free from Orochi’s power.

 Thus after struggling constantly with his very own life against every odds that stacked against him all of this time. With a little bit of miracle and his sheer willpower, Souma is able to break free against his doomed fate as Orochi and actually transcend the assigned lot for him and Take no Yamikazuchi. Freed from Orochi’s power and inheriting some of Yasukunazuchi’s, Take no Yamikazuchi gained his awakened form. Enveloped with Silver Aura and possessing Ring of Light at its back like Ame no Murakumo, Take no Yamikazuchi become a True justice fighting Robot. Possessing a smiting sacred power In this Yamikazuchi’s new form, Souma is actually capable of hurting Orochi in the tag team with Ame no Murakumo. In this final showdown, Souma actually have the honor of finishing off Orochi’s weakened form with his new form of Solar Wave of Ultimate Destruction, ending the Good vs Evil struggle in this cycle and reset the timeline for better.

Wow, I rarely do lengthy 2000+ words of article these days for Realm of Darkness! But hopefully this article of mine could help fellow Mecha fans to appreciate Take no Yamikazuchi despite the limitation of Kannazuki no Miko had as a mecha series. The effort for this second Kannazuki no Miko mechatalk are no doubt greater than the previous one and most likely remain that way for this particular Mechatalk series.

Take no Yamikazuchi might not be the coolest looking Super Robot out there and heck it look like a fatter version of Mightgaine. But along with Ogami Souma, they are the literal representation of the unyielding will of a humanity which is always a key essence of Mecha genre, at least for the good ones and that’s what matters. To me, these fictional Giant Robots exist as an extension of Men and his will to face any challenges that are beyond the limitation of their mortal coil. Therefore just like real life, an Individual’s willpower do matter for Mecha series and possibly remain as their greatest Assets. Through these vessels of Iron giants, a Human can show even greater extent what they can achieve with their willpower.

Despite the Struggle given to them are rather thankless one, Souma with his unwavering Ideal actually surpass and transcend the great obstacle that should have crushed him just like many before him. With his quality of character and a proper mecha setting, Souma could have shined very brightly and could have been another of those Legendary hero when he reaches his adulthood. But alas given the limitation of Japanese anime industry that never allow anything outside short term profit, His story could not be concluded that way. To be honest Super Robot Taisen series could have easily fixed Souma’s fate in Kannazuki no Miko especially if they can trim down the Yuri BS significantly. But up until now the series has not been picked up even if I think the licensing cost should have been cheap. But I am still optimistic that Take no Yamikazuchi and Ogami Souma could get the proper conclusion that they deserve.

With Take no Yamikazuchi mechatalk article done, this Kannazuki no Miko mechatalk series will conclude at the third one which will cover Ame no Murakumo and Orochi. Not exactly too eager since I never like the main heroines. But I respect the good parts from Kannazuki so I will do a proper wrap up for this mechatalk series too.