I had intended to finish this series months ago, but kept putting the second half off a bunch while watching new stuff, so while I am on a roll here, presenting a one-and-a-half-part review on Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai aka The World God Only Knows.
Based on the same-named manga by Wakaki Tamiki, Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai premiered in the Fall 2010 season, and takes place at Maijima High School Academy. Keima Katsuragi (Shimono Hiro) is a student who spends his entire day playing visual novels, dating sims, and eroge, without much interaction or thought about the world around him. He suddenly meets Elsie de Lute Irma (Itou Kanae) who descends from the sky on a broom and declares herself a “demon” sent to collect “runaway spirits”. Declaring Keima her “buddy” and forming a contract with him, placing a collar he cannot remove without penalty of death, he must cooperate with her to find the runaway spirits which manifest themselves within students and feed on their negative emotions and empty hearts. He must use his incredible skill as “The Capturing God” from his games to court these girls and release the spirits so Elsie can collect them.
In the second season, Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai II, the story continues as Keima and Elsie continue to collect runaway spirits, which are getting a little tougher and more unpredictable for Keima, as he struggles to understand the connection between the game world and the real world, believing them to be one and the same at times. Joining the cast is fellow demon and mentor of Elise, Haqua du Lot Herminium (Hayami Saori), who graduated top of their class at the academy, and is already a District Chief, she crosses paths with the two while hunting down a large spirit. Here, she informs Keima of the real origin of runaway spirits, and dampens his informing him of just how many there are to catch before he can free himself from the collar.
This show has a lot of strengths, and it starts with the OP/ED music. ELISA rocks the turntable on the first season OP with “God Only Knows” and paired with the OP animation, I found myself watching it over and over where I usually skip OPs after the first watch. Oratorio commands the second season OP with “A Whole New World God Only Knows”, and again, awesome opening animation. The theme of video games and VN/sim/eroge fits extremely well as a means of telling the story, as Keima often references his gameplay habits when making decisions in courting the girls in his school. The show makes use of quick transitional scenes (SO…) to move about quickly, and doesn’t overdo itself too much in the joke department. There isn’t much of a persistent story throughout both seasons, so it feels very “girl of the week” mostly throughout. Considering the manga is still going, and how the second season had no concrete ending, it’s entirely possible we will see more of this show in the future.
The second season did not go too far off of the first in terms of characters or story. Besides the introduction of Haqua, it maintained the same pace but did challenge Keima a little by giving him some girls that weren’t going to be caught easily as before. If you were to compare it to any other show, I’d say it’s similar to Sora no Otoshimono without most of SnO’s story elements, and even then, SnO often disregarded its own story to fool around each week or do something silly, so it’s probably a fair comparison.
All in all, if you’re a fan of the vidya-type anime or imagine yourself as Keima in daily life, Kami Nomi is a definite watch. You could go much worse, I suppose.
Title: Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai, Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai II
Sub Group I Watched: Chihiro, CMS
Episodes: 12×2 (24)
Rating (1-10): 8, 8
Favorite Character: Keima Katsuragi
Least Favorite Character: Ichirou Kodama
Best Girl: Shiori Shiomiya (Library girl > *)
Worst Girl: Mio Aoyama (too generic)
That PFP: I love my old PSP, but man, my hands hurt trying to play for a long time. You have to be a machine to use that thing all day every day without fail.
