Nitsujcember Part 2: The World God Only Knows

After the first blog I decided to do another one using a different format in order to find which style of writing suited me best. This time around the style was more straight to the point, summarized the arcs, and the characters in them. I would make a few jokes and side comments but for the most part I was just focusing on the story and its characters. I decided to review The World God Only Knows because I was a big fan of the series and I wanted to stick with something I knew a lot of about. I was basically staying in my comfort zone for the time being. Anyway, The World God Only Knows also known as TWGOK is a series that follows Keima a high school boy who is a resident of the 2-D world and likes to play dating sim games. Because of this and is attitude about the real world he’s an outcast at school not that he cares, as long as he has his games he’s content with the world. One day, Keima enters into a devil contract and has to remove these loose souls from girls using his skills and knowledge he learned from his games to make the girls fall in love him. The series is very fun to read and watch. When I found out this was being turned into an anime I got hyped and they did a god job adapting the series into an anime. The characters are representative well. Keima is an awesome lead, he’s not one of these dense MCs he’s very smart and clever. He’s dedicated to his methods and if one method doesn’t work he’ll adapt to the situation and come up with a whole new plan just like an actual gamer. He captures the heart and soul of what it means to be a gamer. His partner Elsie the devil is the exact opposite. She’s not all that smart but she’s a reliable character who puts a lot of trust in Keima and even though she at times doesn’t understand him and doubts him a little she still has faith that he knows what he’s doing and trusts his methods. Which is perfect for Keima. He’s the kind of guy you can trust and shouldn’t doubt. Even though it may not seem like he cares deep down he does care he’s just too proud to show it.

The girls for each arc have great characters. I do like how even though the end goal is the same the stories presented in each arc is different from the previous arc and each girl has a different personality and method that Keima needs to adapt to. The first three girls are pretty cliché. Ayumi’s the athletic girl, Mio’s the rich girl, and Kanon’s the idol but the way their stories are handled is great and enjoyable. My favorite girl in the arc was definitely Shiori the quiet library girl. She’s adorable plus out of all the girls in the season she was the one who changed the most in my opinion. Probably my least favorite arc was Kanon’s arc. It’s not a bad arc but it’s the one arc that deviated greatly from the source material. Kanon’s concerns weren’t failing on stage, it was going unnoticed by everyone around her. I still don’t understand why they changed her story up that much. I also felt that the arc dragged on longer than it should of. While I am glad the anime added more to her backstory it really doesn’t play that a big of a factor in the story and comes across as needless padding. They probably could have cut an episode out and another manga episode out to squeeze in the Kusunoki arc which in my opinion would have been a good ending point for the season and started the second season with the Haqua arc. Still though I do like the anime. I thought it was a good adaptation of the manga, they nailed the characters, the animation was good, and the orchestra music was great. I originally gave the anime a 7/10 and stand by that score to this day. It’s a good anime worth checking out.

Posted in Nitsuj-cember, Specials and tagged , , , , .