Anime: Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai

This is a review for both Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai and Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai II, 12+12 = 24 episodes in total.

Story
The premise of the story is that demons spirits who have escaped from hell have used the vacuum created by some negativity like loneliness in a girl to take up residence in her heart. Katsuragi (the hero's) role is to make her fall in love with him so that the demon can be pushed out. Once out in the open, the good demon who has hired Katsuragi can then easily catch that bad demon.

Though the premise seems as if Katsuragi is cheating/manipulating the girls, its actually not. Katsuragi is really serious about his games. To him its just like basketball or boxing. When he is forced to interact with the real girls its very clear how honest and empathetic he really is. And since the girls that he needs to exorcise are people who already know him as a looser otaku, he has quite a difficult job in getting to know and overcome the negative impression they have of him. Its also a little sad, because the moment a demon is exorcised, the girl looses the memories that had lead up to it, so Katsuragi is never rewarded for his efforts. Ofcourse, they move on to the next girl, so its not that sad, but still....

In 24 episodes they exorcise some 8 girls, so its like 8 animes stuffed into 1. Somehow its quite satisfying.

Animation, sound, editing
Its a modern anime, so this is all upto par. Nothing more, nothing less.

Character, Value and Enjoyment
Life is worth living only because of the love we feel. And that is the consistent theme of this anime (most anime infact). Each character in the story is a different kind of person each person's life is analysed in an empathetic way to understand how Katsuragi can reach out to them. This is the main value and enjoyment in this anime.

There is also a lot of comedy.

A lot of reviews say its a little cliched. To be frank, what is not? Real people are clichéd. Real life too is cliched 7 billion times. Animes are kind and idealistic. And thats why we enjoy them.

Check out 2 or 3 episodes, to see if its to your taste.

Harem anime usually have the problem of deciding how its story is going to be told. If it decides to have the hero focus on one heroine, the other girls are left out and it alienates anyone who would have preferred the hero to be with another heroine (single route). Some harem anime have addressed the bad side of this approach by giving each heroine a self-contained arc within the series to develop a romance for each of them and it pleases more viewers. But the hero’s development resets at the start of every heroine’s story arc (omnibus format).

Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai solves the problem of how a harem anime tells its story because of the story itself. The series revolves around Keima Katsuragi and a demon girl Elcea de Rux Ima (Elsie) who hunt and capture Loose Souls that have possessed people—all girls—by using the emptiness in their hearts. To drive out and capture a Loose Soul from its host, the emptiness in their hearts needs to be filled with love—cue Keima’s romantic involvement. When a Loose Soul is driven out and captured, the girl loses all of her memories about Keima and the Loose Soul possessing her.

The brilliance of the story is twofold: The romantic interest built up for each heroine is self-contained (omnibus format) while still affecting Keima and Elsie’s development throughout the show (single route). It’s the best of a self-contained story and a continuous story.

But having the best of both worlds presents its own problems. As a continuous story, Keima repeatedly falling in love stretches the suspension of disbelief even by anime standards and such a problem doesn’t happen in single route harem anime. As a self-contained story, let it be known the omnibus format has its own problems of trying to properly develop each heroine within a limited time span. Fortunately, the heroines are all developed as much as two or three episodes will allow. And while they aren’t the most complex characters around, they don’t need to be when they’re all distinct from each other to please the heroine taste of as many viewers as possible. Added with the limited amount of time Keima spends with each heroine in-universe and it’s apparent they couldn’t be developed as much as one might want because of those time constraints.

Visually there’s not much to talk about. The colors and designs vibrantly represent all of the characters whether it’s the normally apathetic-to-the-real-world Keima, the bubbly could-bounce-anywhere Elsie, or even the placid and unassuming Shiori. There’s nothing to fault here but nothing that stands out too much either. Audio-wise, the music track that sticks out the most is the one that plays whenever Keima successfully romances a heroine; most of the show’s music is noticeable in every scene but not enough to stand on its own while occasionally using a lack of music to good effect.

The show isn’t anything more than good but that isn’t a criticism against it. After all, it’s uncommon for a story itself to address the storytelling problems a harem anime usually has. Being a combination of the single route and omnibus format approach lets the series take a unique role as a show that finds success from being a hybrid of two very different ways of storytelling. Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai’s lack of flaws of and solid strengths make it a very solid anime that can be enjoyed by almost anyone.

I've tried and failed to review The World God Only Knows once already. It's a series that changes in the memory; I enjoyed it greatly on watching, but looking back I wondered what I ever saw in it.

Having recently rewatched the full series, that feeling remains. Oh, I can see the enjoyment value all right. It's a harem show without even the guilt of the contest; male lead Keima gets to conquer each of several girls in turn, finding out their inner character so that he can resolve their problems and make them fall in love with him. It has get-outs for the other things that make this genre a fundamentally guilty pleasure, too; Keima is a very distinctive character at least superficially. And there's a strong comedy element to the show; not just the usual beat-up-the-guy-who-saw-you-naked moments (though we do get shades of that occasionally), but genuinely amusing, intelligent humour. The World God Only Knows really is funny, and really does derive a lot of its entertainment value from that, rather than the pandering wish-fulfillment one so often sees from this kind of show.

But the thing is, underneath all the well-crafted jokes, that pandering wish-fulfillment is still there. Keima may complain about the cliches of certain character types - and make genuinely thoughtful observations on how they play out in games and real life - but the characters still fall into those slots. To be fair, The World God Only Knows does put its own twist on at least some of the archetypes, but the result never feels like a true, realistic character - just an archetype with a tacked-on secondary attribute. Most tellingly, there's no attempt to criticize the problems those character types cause in real life. The stuck-up rich girl is respected, even celebrated - as are the librarian so shy she can hardly talk to anyone, and the idol who thinks everyone should watch her. It contrasts poorly with something like Toradora or even Haruhi, which at least had an awareness that there were downsides to each of its girls' personalities.

On the presentation front, there is some evidence of cheapness in the animation - simple character designs, plenty of retreats to super-deformed mode, and occasionally dull backgrounds - but not enough to distort the show. Music, by contrast, is remarkably well-done; there is a simply superb opening song (hints of whose full seven-minute glory leak into the final episode, though sadly not in complete continuity), and a remarkably large number of insert songs in Kanon (the aforementioned idol)'s arc. Indeed, The World God Only Knows probably contains as many or more performances than a music-focused series like K-ON! (though it must be said that singing is far easier to animate than instruments). It makes for a slightly peculiar show; one can only assume that the creators guessed (not unreasonably) that anyone who cares for dating game and otaku humour will also enjoy jpop. For myself, I found the Kanon sequences the most enjoyable part of the show, perhaps because her flaws seem less important than those of the rest of the female cast - prima donna tendencies are forgivable in a singer who entertains that many people.

But aside from the musical side, The World God Only Knows is half good humour and half bad pandering. Bad because it gives us the male lead winning over all the archetypal females, but doesn't reap the rewards of this sacrificed dignity; I have a certain respect for, or at least enjoyment of, series that go all-in on this front (e.g. Akikan), but TWGOK doesn't push it far enough to be enjoyable, nor make any real effort for realism in its characterization. It reminds me a little of Baka to Test, another very funny show with an incoherent plot and a certain degree of pandering. But that series kept its fanservice visual; its characters actually felt real. The girls in The World God Only Knows don't, and that's what sinks it. By all means enjoy this show - I did, for all my complaints - but with characters like this, it really should remain a thoroughly guilty pleasure.

Notice: The review covers all three seasons. They don’t deserve separate entries.

Animated by Manglobe, a studio that made lots of entertaining but eventually passable titles, with the exception of Ergo Proxy, the only great anime they ever made.

An average viewer looking at the majority of early comments and reviews for this show, would be made to think it is a masterpiece or something. I myself couldn’t believe how many tens of thousands were worshiping it and anticipating it to be the best anime of 2010. While the first season was still airing there was this ridiculous hype going around, making it look like THE MOST AWESOME ANIME EVER MADE AND EVER WILL BE. I of course was not that dumb to fall for such silly tricks since this is clearly a fan catering show, which in effect makes it not great by default. And here is a list of all the things it did wrong just to prove you that.

1) The premise

The protagonist is good at seducing women. 2D galge women that is; he has zero experience or interest in real women. So one day this spirit chick appears and demands from him to gather lost souls from girls he manages to kiss. He of course uses the methods he learned from the games … which surprisingly work most of the times, even if he occasionally improvises. The premise is very interesting; an anti-social is expected to deal with real women and not fictional ones. It is very intriguing to see how someone who has spent his life in a fantasy land, suddenly has to deal with actual problems … Too bad the anime is as unrealistic as the games.

Unfortunately, this is not a cathartic show like Welcome to the NHK. It doesn’t offer a realistic vision of how a man needs to face reality. Why? Because in effect it is a harem/galge parody! It makes fun of clichés and thus it is not serious. At the same time it is not trying much to show the negative side of hentai games; so it feels like it’s just an anecdote for the fans. No sir, galge games are very entertaining, even when they don’t teach you anything practical about women. But otherwise work most of the times!

2) The presentation

So why is that a bad thing you may ask? Why can’t it be funny for being simply a parody? Well, let’s start by saying it’s not funny to the most part. It is equally shallow and passable as most harem or ecchi shows out there, full of tired jokes around stereotypical characters. Every girl is a walking collection of clichés and they are trying to make fun of them in the most obvious way imaginable. Plus, the very way they tell the jokes is not interesting, since more than half of the show lacks background music to make the humor bolder. Not even the production values are that good to help you get into the mood. The character designs may look perky and lively, yet the actual animation is crummy, full of stills and jerky motions, simple coloring and lots of deformity. Not even the punch lines work wel,l as many times the characters talk in a plastic way. Their tone of voice is just too out there which definitely doesn’t sound like how real people talk in the real world. And it doesn’t even sound natural; they feel like they are just reading from a script.

3) The cast

Ok, so the premise is stupid and the presentation sucks but perhaps the characters make up for it. Something like being lively, developed and different than the norm which will make them memorable. Nope, they ain’t, they are all stock material, commonplace in all harems and ecchis. Although I understand why they can fool the average viewer to believe they are not.

The protagonist is not a typical indecisive lead but a determined male, willing to do what it takes to win the heart and the lips of any girl. He is also awesome enough to be called THE GOD OF CONQUEST. Other than that he is just an eccentric caricature and not a developed individual. He is clearly handsome and can have any girl he wants, yet he never did so and wasted his youth on fake ones. That is pure fan catering, since people who are playing these games a lot are actually very ugly, or anti-social, or very disappointed with real women. You are just supposed to root for a handsome guy to seduce girls? Try doing that with pimples and a huge belly! Yes, it’s supposed to be a joke, but it’s hard to empathise with something so obviously fictional.

What is even worse is why and how he does anything he does in the story. He constantly tries to win the affection of girls NOT because he really cares about them. He just wants to manipulate their emotions, to seduce them and exploit them, just so his spirit chick can extract their soul when he kisses them. Ain’t that purely satanic? Manipulating emotions so you can steal souls? How is that funny in any way? They keep saying this is some sort of a cure but it is amongst the lamest excuses they can use in any galge. They might as well have said that girls have issues, and having their mental barriers collapsing for you if you talk to them enough times, spreading their legs as reward for miraculously curing their anxiety. The excuse that he will die if he doesn’t keep seducing more girls is doing nothing but adding more fuel to the lameness. Oh, so you are FORCED to have a wonderful time living your own harem? How tragic, keep manipulating girls, or you will die for being honest and modest.

Even the girls he targets are not interesting. Despite the attempt to make a joke out of galge stereotypes, they all pretty much act the same way as in any game or harem. They are simplistic, with colorful hair, high-pitched voice, simple personality, and nothing to make them any more real that those fictional ones in the game. Not only that, it also presents them as equally easy to fall for you as is in the games. Even worse, when the lead actually manages to seduce and kiss them, then they GET AMNESIA and FORGET EVERYTHING! Ain’t that the pettiest thing ever? You exploit women, have sex with them, and then you get away free since they don’t even remember it. Hentai in the making.

How can you possibly like these sorts of characters? They are awfully chauvinistic in nature and the show itself is shallow enough to use amnesia as means to negate character development and reset everything, like they don’t matter at all. THIS IS NOT FUNNY AT ALL! I keep hearing the amnesia routine is used purely for excusing each girl being thrown out of the story instead of stalking the lead afterwards and steadily increasing his harem. That is a piss poor excuse to negate their importance as characters to begin with. How about they remain friends? How about they aid him in some way? They are simply erased from the story, like they never existed, just like their memories. Thank you very much; I don’t care about them this way.

Even the protagonist who retains his memory doesn’t change at all. In fact, despite the numerous interactions and kisses and out of screen sex, he is still playing galge like a maniac. Heck, the last episode of every season is purely about him playing fifty games at the same time to cover for all the hours he wasted on trying to “help” real girls. Yeah, 3D is so boring. IT’S NOT FUNNY!

And by the way, the amnesia fuss in negated in the third season, thus the girls gain back their memories and our noble protagonist needs to face the consequences of his actions. That is why the third season is amazing and an actual deconstruction of the stereotypes. But you still need to suffer through two seasons of cringe before getting there, and by then the chances of giving up or not caring anymore are very high.

4) The story

The anime is just a harem/galge parody and the story either does not exist or doesn’t matter. Besides the interesting premise, the show is completely unrealistic and far-fetched, with the plot being practically stand-alone arcs where the hero tries to seduce a different girl or deals with some galge related topic. There is no arcing plot in the first two seasons, other than a line of jokes around stereotypes. So again, the third season makes things a hundred times more interesting since the girls regain their memories and that leads to actual character development.

5) The value

This anime made the mistake of coming out at a time where far many more fan catering shows were in the market. If it was alone, then it would definitely feel more interesting and even original. Yet when pitted against Oreimo’s far better production values and bolder otaku culture, it just feels like it doesn’t have a chance; a thing reflected in its sales. It also has very little replay value since there isn’t anything cool enough in it to deserve a second watch. And it sure as hell doesn’t have enough fan service to keep the majority awake even if they are bored with all the rest.

6) The enjoyment

Mediocre to good production values, aimless story to the most part, obnoxious and undeveloped stereotypical characters, not that good next to other fan catering shows. The show ends up being the most disappointing anticipated series for many years. Not for me of course; I am smart enough to know fan catering never means something great. Good anime have a voice of their own and don’t rub clichés at your crotch as a cheap effort to sell. Although there are several good jokes around galge scattered throughout the series, it is hardly enough to deem the anime great. It has a very messy storyboard and cheap animation at many occasions, thus the jokes don’t come out as funny as they could have. Heck, not even the very title of the anime was done right. The World God Only Knows??? When will you Japs learn your English? The third season is worth it but having to suffer two seasons of cringe to get there, does not.

And as always, don’t blindly trust the majority. Despite the raving fandom, the series is a disaster sales-wise and even the ratings dropped vertically after the anime was completed. It is both a bad adaptation of the manga as well as completely boring compared with what came out around the same time. And I am not saying the show is bad because the majority is not interested (many great anime have poor sales). I am not saying it is great because many fans love it (beats me why Gintama is even in the top 50). I am just pointing out that this is clearly an overrated series and one should NOT start watching it with the assumption it is awesome. Because it ain’t. Overall, an average time killer at best.

And now for some excused scorings.

*This review contains spoilers*

"Reality is a shit game!"

'Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai' ('The World Only God Knows') is about a self-claimed "otoshigami" (Capture God) who can "capture" the heart of any 2D girls in dating-sim games. One day, he unknowingly signs a contract with a demon through email, and ends up in a quest to capture real 3D girls in order to collect runaway souls residing within their hearts.

Story/Character: 8/10
The first season of 'KamiNomi" involves the capture of 4 girls, with 3 filler episodes.

Katsuragi Keima is an interesting character. He's full of confidence in front of the PFP screen and calls himself "Capture God", backing up his claim with godly galge gaming and analytical skills. What's more interesting is that he applies eroge logic and theory to real life, disapproving people, objects, and events in reality as having "unrealistic settings". Keima is a reluctant hero in this show as he's only interested in 2D girls, and he received very little character development, but that's just fine because it shows how dedicated he is to gaming, and his "modern samurai" way of life. Filler ep-4 was a great display of his game philosophy and dedication.

Elsea is a demon who looks and behaves like a typical clumsy 2D girl. Her character development was very poor despite having a filler ep-8. Her very existence and costume/accessories is probably more suitable for 'Soul Eater' series, but her character is one of the best eye candy ever, and she's a package that makes the absurd premise possible.

Takahara Ayumi was the first target, a Sporty Cool. She was given only a single episode, but served well as an introduction to the premise.

Aoyama Mio is next, a Tsundere Princess. She seemed like an common archetype at first, but our Capture God finds out that her family had lost all their wealth. Her arc was an introduction to Keima's standard gaming strategy: Encounter, creating chances to meet often, formation of negative impression, and turning the negative impression into positive impression.

Then comes Nakagawa Kanon, a Yandere Idol. Her insecurity as a solo performer causes unhealthy obsession with Keima because he's the only person who has zero interest in her. Her arc was rather draggy, but features quite a bit of insert songs and slapstick comedy.

Best was saved for the last with Shiomiya Shiori, an introvert librarian. The story's pace suddenly slowed for her arc, which turned from a slapstick-heavy comedy to serious artsy anime. Her character made this a very interesting arc. We as viewers can hear her "speech in the mind", but Keima who's used to be in our position suddenly realizes the difficulty in her capture because he had to work to draw out the inner voice. Shiori's character development was done very well with her gradual curiosity in the trouble maker in the library, and Capture God's eventual understanding of his target. It is extremely difficult to make slow, mesmerizing pace work, but the amazing direction and production had done just that. The atmosphere in the library and art house camera movement / perspectives were phenomenal, and painted a world of its own.

The final episode was a filler. While it was somewhat corny, it further establishes the protagonist's character and devotion to games, and the pure absurdity of it was hilarious. The near-full use of 8-plus-minute oratorio also featured as OP was a nice touch that intensified drama. It also ended with a cliffhanger by introducing a new character (I presume Elsea's perfect sister), and hinting a sequel season.

Comedy was quite inconsistent. Sometimes intelligent, such as stating 3D girls' flaws with 2D logic, parodies, and God's Teachings. Other times, it's plain unintelligent, like Elsea tripping randomly.

Overall, the story and characters are very interesting, but as a fantasy comedy, it's filled with improbable situations, gimmicky story developments (like requiring the target to fall in love, girls losing memory after Capture), and the inevitable corniness that comes with it.
Character development for all the heroines were done in a frantic speed as an arc-format anime, but every one of them were more than the typical 2D heroines thanks to numerous plot twists, and they were captured in unconventional methods that never gets tiring.

It is apparent that the ending was produced with another season in mind. In fact, at least 24 episodes may have been decided from the start, so it may still be a bit too early to judge its story and character development just yet.

Animation/Sound: 10/10
The OP in 'KamiNomi' can only be described as a "Masterpiece". The animation quality, atmosphere, song quality, song choice, originality, transition flow, audio-visual harmony, appropriateness, effectiveness as OP, wow-factor... I would rate 10/10 for every aspect of it.

The art in this series is generic anime style drawn to perfection. Unique design for protagonist, and Elsea must be the cutest anime girl ever. The supporting characters are generic but easily distinguishable designs, this works to support the plots where Keima predicts girls' personality based on appearance. Dynamic movements, funny chibi-forms, surreal representations, and great use of CG. The presentation was done exceptionally well with bunch of creative cuts, background effects for comedy, and mood setting. Above all, the amount of detail is staggering, with the sheer number of objects in the background, reflections on various surfaces, and attention to imperfections and stains on walls and floors. Characters also have up to 3 degrees of shading versus the typical 2. Despite the generic style, art work in this series is so outstanding that it can no longer be considered ordinary.

Seiyuu cast was excellent. The protagonist's voice had a wide range, from the absolute confidence while talking about eroge theories to humorous screams. Everyone else also sounded like they should, full of emotions.
BGM was really sophisticated and lively, complementing the story by enhancing the atmosphere of every scene. Different sets of BGM were used for each arc.
Kanon's insert songs were incredibly well done. Yes, they're moe pop songs, but the level of production was so high that it's hard to believe they were written solely for anime inserts.
Regular ED is a light pop song in good contrast with OP accompanied by a creative theme, ED-ep4 was an average song for a unique game heroine, ED-ep12 was a rofltastic song that was a quite daring way to end the show.

Value/Enjoyment: 9.5/10
'KamiNomi' had a fantastic pacing and offers comedy, drama, and emotional attachment. All of it was backed by a masterful presentation that was incredible to the point of over-production. Despite its inherent corniness, I found this show to be extremely enjoyable. It is the series with a sense of highest degree of completion among all series I've seen so far. In fact, the production value in this series rivals that of theatrical anime.

I really liked the way they presented the empty feeling you get after the girls forget Keima's involvement after the kisses. It must be devastating to be the only one having the memory of their time together even if he wasn't interested in 3D girls. Nevertheless, our samurai hero will stand strong and keep the memories of "The World God Only Knows" in his heart as he continues on to fulfill his mission of capturing girls' hearts in the second season. I will definitely be there to hear the demon's "dorodorodoro" detection of another wandering soul and witness the Capture God's miracles.