Yuzu Hieda is an ordinary high school freshman who also happens to be a shrine maiden. Her childhood friend and cousin, Tadahiro Amatsu, is coming to live with her and her family. As Yuzu has had a long-standing crush on the boy she is more than happy to see him again. Unfortunately he has recently become the target of Ayatachi, a mysterious masked sorcerer who wants him for some nefarious purpose. Tadahiro has the power to see the spirit world through his left eye (which is colored differently from his right eye), but there isn't much he can do to defend himself from the demons Ayatachi throws at him. Fortunately, Yuzu is more than skilled when it comes to dispatching the nightmarish denizens of the spirit world (and what she can't destroy with her ceremonial dagger, she will usually accidentally run over with her bicycle).
When the demons become too much even for her to handle, Yuzu starts up the "Miko Council" at her local school, recruiting various members of her high school class and training them to become demon hunters. They take to it surprisingly well and much character-driven hijinks ensue...
Of course, the forces of evil aren't going to sit back and do nothing while all this is going on. They send their own agents to the school, disguised as transfer students. Will they succeed in their plan to summon a dark god and plunge Japan into "nothingness?" Will Tadahiro ever remember the childhood promise he made to Yuzu as they held hands at the Shrine of the Morning Mist? (And will Yuzu ever make it to school on time and without running anybody over?) You'll have to watch to find out...
Shrine of the Morning Mist (Asagiri no Miko) is a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Hiroki Ugawa. The manga was serialized in Shōnen Gahōsha's Young King Ours from 2000 to 2013. The manga was licensed in North America by Tokyopop and in Australia and New Zealand by Madman Entertainment. The manga was adapted into an anime series, directed by Yuji Moriyama.
The anime is licensed in North America by Media Blasters and is currently available on DVD and Blu-ray as well as streaming on Crunchyroll
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This show presents examples of:
- Anthropomorphic Personification: Two of the Twilight Miko are actually the animated spirits of a badminton birdie and racket, respectively.
- Big Fancy House: Shizuka's house is an extreme, played-for-laughs example.
- Calling Your Attacks: Something most (but not all) of the miko feel compelled to do for their flashy demon-killing attacks.
- Childhood Marriage Promise: Not a promise to marry exactly, but it serves much the same dramatic purpose for the plot.
- Malevolent Masked Men: When the bad guys show up with their masks on, bad supernatural stuff is about to go down.
- Dark Magical Girl: The Priestesses of the Twilight.
- Edible Theme Naming: Yuzu and her sisters are named for the flavorings of a traditional candy from their area.
- Got Me Doing It: Seiko eventually gives in and begins calling her attacks just like the others.
- Instant Fan Club: Seiko has one, consisting of some of her female classmates.
- Kissing Cousins: Yuzu ikes Tadahiro, who is her cousin.
- Living with the Villain: The mikos don't know of the Twilight Priestesses' identity, and one of them even strikes up a friendship with one over an internet bulletin board.
- Love Letter Lunacy: Seiko (who has had a long history of bad luck with boys) receives a love letter and thinks her days of loneliness are over. She obviously hasn't seen a lot of anime.
- Rescue Romance: The last episode.
- Scenery Porn: The setting is based on a real town in Hiroshima, leading to tons of gorgeous shots of the skyline bathed in mist and the abundant greenery of the nearby mountain. One DVD extra comparing the animation to the reality consisted almost wholly of this trope.
- Training from Hell: Yuzu's eldest sister Kurako puts all of the aspiring miko through this.
- Transformation Sequence: Parodied in one episode when the mikos' big flashy "transformation" turns out to be "mundanely rushing to the locker room to put on their priestess clothes."
- Yamato Nadeshiko: Two... sorta.
- Played straight: Shizuka tries very hard to the epitome of Japanese femininity.
- Subverted: Kurako is a shrine maiden who definitely looks like the trope, but puts the Council through regular Training from Hell so severe it borders sadism.
