"No girl with an iota of sanity would transform into a god on her first date!"
Klutzy underachieving sixth-grader Karin is miserable. Not only are her parents dead, but her beloved cat, Shii-chan, just died, and on top of all of that, she gets terrible grades in school. Little does she know that, thanks to a ring left to her by her late mother, Karin is about to transform into a goddess, and her life will never be the same. Teaming up with Kazune Kujyou, she vows to protect Kazune's cousin Himeka from Kirio Karasuma, who is after her for unknown reasons. Karin also gets a crush on Kirio's twin brother Kirika Karasuma, but could he be involved with his brother's plans? And why does the New Transfer Student Michiru "Micchi" Nishikiori have a god transformation ring of his own?
Created by Koge-Donbo, the original manga was supposed to be a one-shot Affectionate Parody of magical girl series, but its unexpected success caused it to be continued for seven volumes and aired as an anime show. There is also a sequel, Kamichama Karin Chu, where Karin and Kazune's Kid From the Future comes back to Set Right What Once Went Wrong, and introducing new character Jin Kuga and giving the main cast new transformations.
Not to be confused with the vampire series Karin, or with Kamichu!, the other series about a girl who becomes a god.
- A God Am I (Kirihiko Karasuma's true plan)
- Art Shift (to seventies Shojo style to tell the story of Miyon's play, and Kirio's view of a disguised Karin.)
- Big Fancy House (both the Kujyous' and Karasumas', to the point where both Karin and Ami have gotten lost in them. This is lampshaded when Karin wonders why they all have such big houses. Jin's mansion is much bigger, and sparkly. It turns out to be a subversion, as Jin doesn't live in the house himself, but lives in a shack, and has never been inside the actual house.
- Bishonen: Kazune, Michi, and Jin.
- Blank White Eyes
- Blue with Shock
- Calling Your Attacks
- Clingy Jealous Boy (Jin. Kazune as well in retaliation. Come to think of it, Micchi also fulfills the clingy part quite well.)
- Cloning Blues (Kazune.)
- Dark Magical Girl (Nyx)
- Disney Death (Kazune at the end of the first series.)
- Elevator School (Sakuragaoka Academy has elementary, middle, and high school branches.)
- Expy (Kirika and Kazune look an awful lot like Ten-chan.)
- Fan Girl (in-universe example: Kazune, Micchi, and Jin all have their own respective fan clubs: the Kazune-Z, Michirians, and Jeens. Jin's fangirls can get downright violent.
- Girlish Pigtails (Karin's twin pigtails)
- Gratuitous English (I AM GOD!)
- Groupie Brigade (Idol Singer Kuga Jin is often surrounded by hordes of fangirls. Karin has had to fight her way through the crowd to talk to him more than once.)
- Hot Shoujo Dad (Kazuto Kujyou)
- Invisible to Normals
- Idol Singer (Jin)
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold (Kazune)
- Joshikousei
- Kid From the Future (Suzune)
- Kissing Cousins (Himeka has a crush on her cousin, Kazune. It turns out that Kazune is actually a clone of her real father, Kazuto Kujyou.)
- Little Miss Almighty
- Meaningful Name (Michiru means "to fill with water" and is used when describing the tide rising. In Chu he gains the powers of Poseidon/Neptune. This wasn't actually a reference to a certain other "Neptune" named Michiru.)
- Apparently Koge Donbo was going to list his god as Poseidon (the greek name, to match the others), but got mixed up because of the Sailor Moon character and put the roman name instead.
- Magical Boys (Kazune, Karin's love interest, and several others)
- Magical Girl
- Meido (Karin wears a maid outfit while kissing Kazune, leading Ami to call her "the scandalous maid".)
- Mind Screw (Well, maybe not that much, but the story gets pretty complicated.)
- Mismatched Eyes (Michiru) purple is his natural eye color. The blue one is a replacement made by Professor Kujyou for the one he lost in an accident.
- New Transfer Student (Micchi, later Jin)
- No Koreans in Japan (Averted by Mi Yon Yi (Miyon), who is a friend of Karin and Himeka's.)
- No Sense of Direction (manga-only character Ami)
- Non-Human Sidekick (Nyake)
- Not What It Looks Like (In a side chapter, Karin and Kazune get their hands stuck together and have to change into their gym clothes in the storage shed. Kirio walks in on them in a... rather compromising position.)
- Off-Model: Am I kawaii?
- Ominous Latin Chanting (Zeus no Yubiwa)
- Parental Abandonment (Karin, Kazune, Himeka, Micchi, Kirio and Kirika all have dead parents. Kazune and Karin, however, are clones of Kazune's supposed parents, and the Kujyous are actually Himeka's parents, though they're still dead.
- Actually, only Kazune is a clone. Karin was turned into a young child/infant with no memories of her previous life.
- Pastel-Chalked Freeze-Frame
- Post Episode Trailer
- Power of Love (in full force in the sequel, where the finishing move is Love Attack, and the mid-season power up comes from Love Evolution.)
- Rapunzel Hair (Kazusa)
- School Play (Miyon writes one for the school festival. It's a bastardization of "Snow White", "Sleeping Beauty", and "Momotaro".)
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong (the plot of Chu, though it's more like Set Right What Will Go Wrong)
- Shout-Out (Koboshi helps Karin out when she gets sick during the School Play.)
- Slap Slap Kiss (Karin and Kazune)
- Spin Offspring (Koge-Donbo's current series Doki Doki Tama Tan stars one Nishikiori Tamae who is apparently Michiru's daughter. No sign of Suzune, though.
- Talking Animal (Nyake)
- Theme Twin Naming (Kirio and Kirika. It's also worth noting that their father's name is Kirihiko.)
- Not to mention Kazune, Kazusa, Kazuto, and Suzune Kujyou. Not to mention how Kazuto's wife Suzuka and future Karin fit into this pattern as well.
- Transfer Student Uniforms (Jin, but not Micchi)
- Transformation Sequence
- Transformation Trinket (the Kamika rings)
- Verbal Tic (Nyake adds "da shi" to the end of her sentences)
- "Well Done, Son" Guy (Jin's father, which is the reason he became an idol.)
- Wholesome Crossdresser (Kirika)
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? (Kazune is terrified of bugs. His cousin Himeka loves them.)
- You Suck (Karin)