Hey guys Justin here welcome to a new part of the show I like to call the Otaku Corner. This is where I set aside the Nitsuj gimmick and talk about manga/anime topics or any other topics that fits into these two categories. This is just me being me and just giving my thoughts on what I think about the topic. For my first topic I’m going to give my thoughts on the entire series of The World God Only Knows but before that I would like to talk about some events from last week and why my blog came out late last week. You see last week I had originally planned on posting a review of the anime Kampfer but unfortunately I had some computer problems and that document got corrupted in the process. I tried recovering it but all my attempts failed and I just don’t feel like re-writing it all over again. After that I decided to cut my losses and moved on to next week’s review which was the Teen Titans so I spent half of Wednesday and majority of Thursday getting that review done and having it ready to be posted on Friday. So with this I regret to inform that I will not be posting a full review of Kampfer but I will do a quick review of the series in this blog because I really did want to talk about it.
Kampfer is the German word for Fighter and is name of the comedy/romance anime that came in 2009 under the production of studio Nomad (Rozen Maiden series). The anime is based off a light novel written by Toshihiko Tsukiji in 2006 and ending in 2010. He also wrote a manga for the series which got started in 2008 and ended in 2013. The anime tells the story of Natsuru a high school boy who along with other high school girls gets roped into participating in a battle going on between these two planets in a faraway galaxy with these mysterious beings known as the Moderators overseeing the battle. The only problem is only girls can be Kampfers so whenever Natsuru transforms into a Kampfer he changes from a boy to a girl each time. Because of his female side he gains quite a following in school becoming the most popular girl among the girls who are all apparently lesbians and his high school crush Sakura also has the hots for his Kampfer side and vows to marry her not knowing that Natsuru is in fact the object of her affection. As series goes on Natsuru befriends other Kampfers who are on his side and others who are not on his side but refuse to take part in the battle. The three that join are Akane a quiet shy library girl who becomes a completely different person when she transforms into a Kampfer becoming violent and swearing like crazy. Mikoto his childhood friend who comes from a family of archeologists and is actually a good friend of Akane, and finally Shizuku the cool and beautiful student council president who is hands down the best character in the show. And the one thing these three girls have in common is that they all fall for Natsuru which under circumstances I be okay with but not for this guy because Natsuru is the most dense anime character I have ever seen. I mean it, he’s denser than Ichika from Infinite Stratos. He never notices that the girls like him. Hell, he even goes on a date with Shizuku willingly and has even kissed her a few times throughout the series. But no, he can’t see it because he’s too focus on Sakura who we find out doesn’t like Natsuru and actually finds him annoying in fact Natsuru can’t even give a reason why he likes Sakura he just likes her which pisses me off because this is the girl that he has a complete obsession with and you mean to tell me he can’t even come up with one legit reason why he likes her? Shallow. Near the end of the series we find out that Sakura is a Moderator, has a small harem of Moderator Kampfers and wants to kill Shizuku and the others because they refuse to fight. She hypnotizes Natsuru to do her bidding but he breaks out of it and instead sides with Shizuku and the others to fight back against Sakura but she escapes with her harem vowing to make Natsuru bow to her one day. Also in the series there are these strange and disturbing stuffed talking animal dolls called the entrail animals who serve as advisors to the Kampfers. They’re pretty random and serve as a comedic relief in the series. Overall I’m in the neutral zone with this anime. The story is ridiculous but so ridiculous that it’s fun to watch and see what happens. Shizuku is a great character and probably the only redeeming character in this show who keeps this anime afloat with everyone else either being okay or just downright worthless like Natsuru. The guy is just annoying I swear that by the time this anime is over you are going to want to beat this guy up he is that dense and stupid. Even when he finds out that Sakura is the enemy and out to get him he still refuses to stop chasing her and wants to make her his girlfriend. That is just sad. The animation is alright there’s nothing all that outstanding about it, music is rather good and catchy, but the fight scenes aren’t all that great, short, not too many and a letdown with the only good fight scene being at the end of episode 11. The final score for this anime is a 5/10. It’s an anime with a ridiculous story that’ll make you laugh with some good comedy but it gets bought down big time by the annoying and stupid main character, okay main and secondary characters with only one great character stopping the anime from being entirely bad. If you decide to watch this anime I say go in for a laugh but don’t expect it to be great or memorable. So that’s my review of Kampfer now let’s move to the topic I wanted to talk about The World God Only Knows.
As I’m sure all of you know by now The World Only Knows manga came to an end last month. Since it was one of my favorite mangas I just wanted to give my final thoughts on the series as a whole. First off great manga overall. If you haven’t read it yet I encourage you to go out, find it, and read it because it is worth it. The characters were memorable and well-developed particularly Keima. I love his character, he was just a great character from beginning to end. The guy starts off as someone who has no interest in the real world but at same time he’s very philosophical a lot of the things that come out of his mouth are very meaningful and get you thinking. We know he’s not an idiot he’s very smart and I like how in all of his conquest he applies the knowledge he learned from games to help him conquer girls. I also like how through his interaction with the girls he begins to become more and more involved with the world and actually starts to develop feelings for the world instead of remaining emotionless and cold. But what really makes me like him is the fact he doesn’t let anybody stop him from being who he truly is. He likes playing videogames and nobody is going to take that away from him or change that. It’s who he is. The girls are also great I like how each of them is basically a stereotype of a girl you would see in a sim dating games we got the athletic girl, the rich girl, the idol, etc. but at the same time we get a fresh new batch of girls you normally don’t see in dating games like the library girl, the normal girl, the perfectionist girl, the shogi girl just bunch of other girls I would have never thought to put in a game and they’re all done well characters that have their own personality and character that you come to like and cheer for in the manga. I honestly thought these were just gonna be one-shot girls but no each them have a very realistic character that you can identify with like Ayumi’s problem I went through something similar like hers in high school when I got moved up from the JV basketball team to the varsity team and I was a little scared and nervous because I was playing with guys who were juniors and seniors in high school and I was just a sophomore. I mean I was happy to be recognized and moved up but at the same time I was wondering am I good enough to run with these guys.
The stuff with the goddesses was also a welcomed addition to the story because you can tell the story was bound to get stale if the author kept having Keima conquer girl after girl so I say smart move on introducing the goddesses and making them a big part of the story. I like the way he did too, he didn’t rush it or just throw it out there he just steadily kept building it up until it was time to bring them into the story. That’s good writing and storytelling right there. My favorite goddess is still Vulcunus just because even though she’s physically the weakest out of all of her sisters she’s very assertive in her host’s relationship with Keima and I love the part in the manga where she attacked Keima in the school in her doll form that was just silly and a little scary at the same time. It was interesting seeing how all of them have similarities between their host and differences but I do wish we got to see more interactions between them and their host just to see how they all acted when they were alone. Diana was probably the funniest out of all the goddesses just because she was always worried about Tenri and encouraging her to be more assertive with Keima since she liked him and it was funny seeing her get jealous whenever Keima was hanging out with other girls and getting mad over her sisters having wings while she doesn’t have any yet. You can just tell that even though they’re goddesses they still are girls and are gonna act like girls.
While the overall series was great I do feel that in the final arc the author may have rushed and left things undone. Now before I begin I wanna say I like the last arc there was a lot going on my favorite part was finding out that Dokuro was actually Keima’s homeroom teacher and actually has a crush on him. In all honesty my jaw drop when I read this because I just couldn’t believe what I was reading. The sadistic teacher likes her trouble making student, the same student who does nothing but make your job harder and you turn out to be a devil. The story of the last arc was very intriguing with Keima traveling back in time and having to connect the timelines so everything would connect and I did enjoy seeing a few of the characters in their cute child forms especially Tenri she was so adorable. Watching Keima tag all the girls so that they’ll be targets for Vintage was a huge eye-opener and it was great seeing how and why these girls were selected to have loose souls occupy their heart and all through this we see Keima finally reach his breaking point and realize that what he’s doing isn’t right but necessary; playing and manipulating the feelings of girls finally taking a toll on him and him even willing to risk the collapse of the timelines just to find a way that doesn’t involve getting Tenri caught up in all of this mess. That just shows how much Keima has changed throughout the series. If you were to ask me if Keima would start to care or develop feelings for others at the beginning of the manga I would have said no but now you can honestly say he has change and believe that he’s change. This is a very believable change in character and it’s done so good probably the best change in character I’ve seen in a long time.
Now that I’ve got the good stuff out of the way let’s look at the bad stuff. First off what was up with that stuff about Elsie being the final boss? Is it just me or did that just come out of nowhere and felt rushed out with no build up or nothing? I mean don’t get me wrong I had my own theory about her not really being a devil because when you compare her to Haqua and Nora she’s not very devil like if anything she’s the opposite of a devil she comes off more as an angel in training. It almost feels as if the author had this idea for what Elsie really is but just couldn’t come up with a good story for it so he decided to just throw it in at the last minute hoping to feel in the confusion and explain why she didn’t come across as a devil when compared to the others. Speaking of Elsie she was the funniest character in the manga everytime she showed up you just couldn’t help but feel happy and I’m glad she got a happy ending where she finally became Keima’s real little sister she earned that title. Although I am sad that Haqua forgot about her at the end. But anyway Elsie was a good comic foil for Keima and I think played a big part in helping Keima become a part of the real world. She was constantly there for Keima and did her best to try and understand Keima’s mind and how it worked. She failed of course but give her credit she was at least taking the time to try to and understand him which is something no one else in the manga did and I do like that she trusted Keima no matter how insane or crazy his ideas may have been. I don’t think Keima could have had a better partner in the manga helping him out. The second thing I didn’t like was Ayumi’s change in character near the end with not caring what happened to the world when the timelines stop connecting and everything went blank. Which I have to admit was pretty cool and probably the author’s favorite chapter because he had to draw almost nothing. Anyway, I don’t like how Ayumi just turned into somewhat of a bitch just because Keima had the affection of other girls even though she got the full story and knows why Keima did the things he did but still to just up and leave in the middle of a crisis just seems out of character for her. I get it he played with your feelings and is being distant instead of facing you but still he’s going through a hard time too and trying to figure out what he wants to do or should do. He doesn’t want to keep her waiting but at the same time he doesn’t wanna hurt her more than he’s already hurt her. The final thing I have a problem with is Keima choosing Chihiro at the end. Yeah I’m still not rooting for her. I like her but I just don’t think she should have ended up with Keima at the end there. Personally I’m really not sure who he should have ended up personally I liked Shiori and Yui but I don’t think they would have been a good match for him as well. In a sense I kinda felt this was coming because she was the only one to knock Keima off his game and she is the one Keima spent the most time with but it’s still shocking to see that she’s the one that Keima picked at the end. This is one of the rare situations where I wouldn’t mind the main character in a harem anime ending up with no one just to show that he still has a few things to think about. Outside of these three problems there are a few small one’s like how did Dokuro become who she is? What happened to Urara and Kaori I would have loved to see them in the present just to know what they’re like now? We could have Kaori take on Keima again with her crazy self and added another love rival with Urara. Who is Keima’s dad what does he do for a living? We never get to see him and I’m curious what he’s like. The guy turned a biker chick into an obedient and loving housewife. That takes a lot of skills to accomplish so I wanna see who this guy is. Finally, what made Keima engross himself in videogames? Has he always been like that or was there something in his life that triggered him down this path? I really wanna know what caused Keima to be the person he is today.
But those are just small complaints and the end I still like The World God Only Knows, it’s one of favorite mangas that I’m sure I’ll go back and read again in the future and I look forward to reading the author’s next work. So those are my thoughts, thanks for reading, and if you want me to talk about a topic whether it be anime, manga, or something you feel is worth talking about and has a connection to anime or manga let me know I be glad to talk about it. I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
Thanks for reading, as always feel free to leave a comment, request, or feedback in the comment section below or send them to iamprojectnitsuj@gmail.com