is a anime

Anime

is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

 series based on a series of light novel

Light novel

A is a style of Japanese novel primarily targeting junior high and high school students . The term "light novel" is a wasei-eigo, or a Japanese term formed from words in the English language. Light novels are often called or for short...

s by Yoshikazu Kuwashima, which premiered May 18, 2006 in Japan across the anime satellite television

Satellite television

Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...

 network Animax

Animax

is a Japanese anime satellite television network, dedicated to broadcasting anime programming. A subsidiary of Japanese media conglomerate Sony, it is headquartered in in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, with its co-founders and shareholders including Sony Pictures Entertainment and the noted anime studios...

. The original light novel series have been concluded with 8 volumes, however on January 25, 2008 a sequel series titled has been released.

Plot

Samatarou Kamiyama is the son of a god and must live in the human world with his family to learn about them, in order to become a better god when the time comes to succeed his father. His closest friend is Tenko, Samatarou's guardian angel since birth. One day he falls for Kumiko Komori, a girl who just transferred to their school, and decides to win her heart without relying on any of his relatives' godly powers, oblivious to the fact that Tenko herself has a crush on him.

Characters

Samatarou is the blue-eyed, blue-haired son of a god (kami) and a goddess (megami), who is studying humanity on Earth in order to be a better deity when he is ready to succeed his father. Samatarou isn't human, evidenced by the fact that he mentions never having felt really hungry and by Tenko's comment that he shouldn't be too strongly affected by pain when she punches him. Samatarou doesn't seem to have full control of his powers yet, although he is capable of communicating in telepathic/chibi form and he displays other abilities infrequently. Samatarou is generally kind-hearted, considerate to people and capable of acts of courage and determination, but he is easily embarrassed by his family's madcap antics and he is easily bribed with yakisoba bread. Before his crush on Kumiko, he seemed to be generally fed up with his life, where he got everything he wanted just by wishing it, and was lacking in resolve. Samataro's name spells out God which is Kamisama (Kami comes from Kamiyama and Sama comes from Samataro)

In "Kamisama Kazoku Z" he becomes a 'god,' but according to his words, seems like it's only 'an increase in duties.'

Tenko is a pink-haired, pink-eyed angel that was summoned to Earth on the very day that Samatarou was born, to be his guardian and guide until he was ready to move ahead by himself. Since Tenko appeared in the form of a newborn, she has grown up with Samatarou and developed feelings for him along the way. This did not stop her from acting as Samatarou's conscience and occasionally punishing him for what she considered to be his misdeeds. Tenko tries to help her charge with his first crush, only to suffer conflicting feelings when she realizes her own feelings. Despite having considerable willpower and integrity, Tenko is in some ways as innocent as a child and lacks some knowledge of general human traffic. For instance, she was quite unknowing about the method of conceiving children and operated by the same explanation that Meme got; first boy and girl kiss, then the stork comes. A defining trait of Tenko is that, whenever she suffers an emotional extreme of some sort, steam visibly erupts from the top of her head. Tenko's name is a variation of Tenshi

Tenshi

Tenshi is a Japanese word for angel. It may also refer to:* The title of a 2006 film starring Kyoko Fukada....

which means Angel.

In "Kamisama Kazoku Z" she becomes an 'archangel,' but does not gain any flight abilities or so, and nothing really changes from the original series.

Black-haired, dark-eyed, slender and pretty Kumiko Komori temporarily transfers into the same school as Samatarou and Tenko and becomes Samatarou's first crush. After becoming the victim of some emotion-influencing by Misa and Meme, Kumiko develops genuine feelings for Samatarou when he saves her from a nasty fall. Later, when she again transfers into the school, she tries to develop a closer relationship with Samatarou, but startling revelations are made. It turns out that Kumiko is the daughter of a female devil, who targets Samatarou and his family. Kumiko has been looking after her mother, feeding her the energy of human souls, ever since her demonic powers started manifesting in middle school without any kind of reciprocation. In the end, she tries to escape her fate as a devil and asks for Samatarou's help. After the climax of the anime, when she has regained touch with her true heritage, Kumiko changes back into an angel like Tenko.

In "Kamisama Kazoku Z" she becomes '.' This came from the simple idea that putting the letter '' would make one splendid.

Osamu is the father of Misa, Samatarou and Meme and husband to Venus. Osamu appears as an older man, who acts playful and appears to be a loving husband and father, albeit a somewhat odd one. When in his workplace in the heavens, Osamu's main occupation appears to be the granting of human wishes. Before Samatarou started showing his own initiative to get what he wanted, Osamu frequently spoiled his son and heir, granting his every desire instantly, even if Samatarou didn't particularly want him to. Because Osamu tends to go overboard when granting his son's wishes, he frequently embarrassed his child. Since Samatarou started moving forward by himself, Osamu has stayed in his workplace, doing his own job. He doesn't object to visits from his family, however.

In "Kamisama Kazoku Z" he becomes the '' but without his daily duties gone, he has become even more disengaged.

Venus is the mother of Misa, Samatarou and Meme and wife to Osamu. The goddess of love appears as a beautiful woman, who doesn't quite act her age and loves playing around with her children and husband. She manages to frequently embarrass her son Samatarou when doing so, since she tends to engage in cosplay and has made it clear that she'd engage in casual nudity as well, if Samatarou were not so dead-set against the idea. Venus seems to have a slight complex about her age and appearance, as she can go ballistic when being addressed as 'old lady' or 'grandmother' and is easily distracted from the topic if she becomes suddenly worried about her age and looks. Additionally, Venus has displayed great jealousy whenever it seems like a girl might be stealing 'her Samatarou-chan' away from her, even when that someone might be Tenko. Despite her sillier traits, Venus displays considerable flexibility, compassion and wisdom when the need arises. When she was temporarily human, her personality was completely opposite, now cold and distant from her children.

In "Kamisama Kazoku Z" she becomes the '' but there are no changes from the original series.

Misa is the oldest (known) child of Osamu and Venus, older sister to Samatarou and Meme. Misa is a candidate for goddess status who already controls most of her powers; one of her specialties is influencing people's emotions so they'll do whatever Misa wants. When outside her family home, Misa projects the image of a sweet, demure girl and has gained quite a following. This is despite the fact that she apparently considers men 'scum', as she feels they all think exactly the same way. At home, she tends to lounge around in her underwear and enjoys teasing her little brother and Tenko. She frequently goes along with Venus' and Osamu's antics, apparently just to get a laugh at Samatarou's expense, but is unaffected by her parents' antics herself, apparently possessing ample willpower. Misa is quite perceptive and not without compassion; when the need arises, she will assist.

During her brief stint as a human, Misa was much more shy than she is as a megami candidate and actually had a boyfriend. In her true form, she doesn't seem to have any steady relationship.

In "Kamisama Kazoku Z" she becomes the 'goddess' but there are no changes to her, such as her character etc.

Meme is the youngest child of Osamu and Venus, younger sister to Misa and Samatarou. Meme is a candidate for goddess status and controls some of her powers, despite her young age; like her sister Misa, she is quite skilled at controlling people's emotions. Meme usually appears emotionless and acts quite mature for her age, but she is a child. Her lack of experience can cause her to join in with the mad antics of her older relatives, possibly because she has no reason to think what they're doing is in any way unreasonable.

During her brief stint as a human, Meme was a much more outwardly cheerful child, but appeared to be rather scatterbrained; she managed to put the wrong shoes on her foot without noticing anything was wrong.

In "Kamisama Kazoku Z" she becomes the 'goddess' but there are no visible changes to her.

Shinichi is Samatarou's and Tenko's friend at school. He's quite girl-crazy and frequently peppers his speech with English phrases when he becomes excited - which he often does, especially when talking about girls. His friends consider him something of an idiot, sadly not without reason, but he seems to be essentially good-natured. Eventually, Shinichi manages to develop a romantic relationship with Ai Tachibana, much to the horror of Samatarou and Tenko. Despite their feeling of foreboding and Ai's occasional displeasure, Shinichi is apparently true to the relationship.

In "Kamisama Kazoku Z" he appears as an adult. Married with Ai, he has a daughter named 'Lulu(ルル).' He comes to the classroom in which Ai teaches just for reasons such as Lulu is not hiccuping etc, and Samatarou thinks that 'he has become even worse than before.'

A female devil, the mother of Kumiko. Very sadistic and evil, Fumiko deceives her only child into thinking that her youth and power were draining away and that she needed the energy of human souls to sustain herself, all in an effort to turn her daughter into a true devil at heart. She shows no compassion nor care for her own child and initially sends her to capture Samatarou, so she might dine on his vast energy. At the end of the anime series, it is revealed that Fumiko was once an angel who fell in love with a mortal man and conceived Kumiko with him. The mortal left them both when he saw Kumiko's angelic heritage and Fumiko's heart was broken and turned into a devil.

Suguru claims to be an archangel. He makes contact with Tenko when he believes Samatarou is capable of moving on without his guardian from now on and comes to Earth himself when Tenko asks for a three day grace period, just to spend some more time with Samatarou. Suguru appears as a piggy bank, which can fly and tells how much money it contains and receives, according to him because he didn't want to draw attention to himself. He seems to resent being addressed as 'pig', claiming to be a most splendid archangel. His claims do nothing to prevent Tenko from smacking him around a couple of times. It is suggested at the end of the anime that Suguru is actually Tenko's father, but he has apparently chosen not to reveal this to her - yet.

In "Kamisama Kazoku Z" he becomes the '.' However for bragging about himself being higher than Papa(Osamu) for having two letter ''s, gets placed on top of the TV.

Cast

All characters and voice actors' names are in the Western order (given name, family name)

Role	Japanese Cast
Tenko	Ami Koshimizu Ami Koshimizu is a Japanese voice actress affiliated with Production Baobab management. She was born in the city of Kokubunji in Tokyo Prefecture. She is an award winning voice actress.-Career:*She graduated from Aomori Yamada High School...
Samatarou Kamiyama	Daisuke Kishio Daisuke Kishio is a male Japanese voice actor. He is a member of Tokyo Actor's Consumer's Cooperative Society . Kishio changed his given name from 大輔 to だいすけ on June 1, 2007 with the pronunciation and romanization remaining the same....
Kumiko Komori	Ai Maeda
Osamu Kamiyama	Masashi Ebara Masashi Ebara , better known as , is a Japanese voice actor, actor, and narrator from Kanagawa Prefecture. He stands at 175 centimeters and is affiliated with 81 Produce....
Venus Kamiyama	Nanaho Katsuragi Nanaho Katsuragi is a female seiyuu. She was born on December 20, 1966 in Nagoya and is affiliated with 81 Produce. Between 1987 and 1997 she was a member of the Takarazuka Revue, assigned to the Snow Troupe.-Voice roles:* .hack//Liminality as Kyoko's Mother...
Misa Kamiyama	Yumi Touma
Meme Kamiyama	Akemi Kanda Akemi Kanda is a Japanese voice actress who is affiliated with Aoni Production. She was formerly a member of the voice actor unit DROPS, which included fellow voice actors Ai Nonaka, Tomoko Kaneda, Mariko Kōda, and Ryōko Shiraishi, and of the voice actor unit Aice5 along with Yui Horie, Chiaki Takahashi,...
Lulu	Ryou Hirohashi
Lulu (child)	Tomoko Kaneda Tomoko Kaneda is a Japanese voice actress, J-Pop singer, and radio personality who was born in Yokohama, Japan. She had worked at Aoni Production for 11 years, and had worked at freelance since April 2011, and it was announced to belong to Across Entertainment in August 2011. She graduated from Department of...
Shinichi Kirishima	Hiroaki Miura Hiroaki Miura is a Japanese voice actor from Nagano Prefecture. He is affiliated with the studio Aoni Production and has starred in several voice-over roles for anime, video games, and film since 1998.-Anime:* Air Master...
Ai Tachibana	Mamiko Noto Mamiko Noto is a Japanese voice actress working under Office Osawa. She was born in the city of Kanazawa, Ishikawa, and graduated from Hokuriku Gakuen Senior High School.-Voice:...
Fumiko	Mariko Kouda
Suguru	Yasuhiro Takato Yasuhiro Takato is a Japanese voice actor who works for Aoni Production.-Film and television:*Saruo in Dōbutsu no Mori , the film adaptation of the Animal Crossing video game series.*Mesopotamion Guy and Haou in Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo*Jean in Captain Tsubasa...

Episodes

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#	Title	Original airdate

Theme songs

Opening: "Brand New Morning" by Mai Mizuhashi

Mai Mizuhashi

is a female Japanese singer from Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. She sang the opening theme for the anime Kamisama Kazoku and the ending theme for Hitohira. She also sang the second ending theme song of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, "". She also sang the ending theme, "Yumemiro Otome" for "Doujin Works".-...

Ending: by Miraku (Mai Mizuhashi, Mayu Kudō, and Fumika Iwaki)