To be honest, I only started reading and watching The World God Only Knows two days ago. After 48 hours of anime, manga, food and sleep, I’ve at last finished the first season of God Only Knows as well as 138 chapters of its manga. Now, if only they could update faster…
Summary:
It’s the return of the God of Conquest! Our protagonist, Katsuragi Keima, continues to collect “loose souls”, or in other words, make girls fall in love with him using his skills as an avid gamer of galge (bishoujo games).
And let’s not forget his idiotic but adorable partner.
After a brief recap of the previous season, Keima and Elsie discuss why loose souls are attracted to the girls Keima has “conquered” before. The two get into trouble with some parsley delinquents but are saved by Kusunoki Kasuga, the captain of the Girl’s Karate Club as well as the successor to the Kasuga School of Life-or-Death Martial Arts.
The four girls whom Keima “conquered” in the previous season.
Gangsters, or in Keima’s perspective, parsley.
And the Parsley Gangsters win!
Kusunoki Kasuga. Reminds me of Chifuyu from IS.
Dorodorodoro. Guess who is Keima’s next target?
In an attempt to approach Kusunoki, Keima establishes a pupil and captain relationship with Kusunoki. Though Kusunoki at first refuses, she reluctantly agrees due to Keima’s “cute” looks – a characteristic which Kusunoki is secretly attracted to whether it is cute cats, cute teddy bears or the cute Elsie. She however denies this, believing that cute things are weak and will therefore hinder her role as the heir to her family’s business.
Martial arts vs 2D game girls.
You’ve got to admit though, Keima does look quite feminine at times.
One will be a floor cleaning pro if they play enough floor cleaning games – Katsuragi Keima.
Whilst Keima struggles to find a “route” to conquer Kusunoki, he discovers Kusunoki’s secret.
Even god is shocked by how cruel girls can be towards cats.
Embarrassed and infuriated, Kusunoki attempts to murder the cat but a manifestation of herself appears and intervenes.
Keima realizes that Kusunoki’s other self has manifested due to her conflicted feelings to be masculine or feminine. He suggests that Kusunoki can physically overcome her weakness and hence, to draw out her feminine side, the two agree to go on a date much to their embarrassment.
Violent women…are only alright so long as they’re fictional.
We can expect to see Haqua very soon.
Ratings:
Plot: B
Characters: A
Graphics: A+
Music: B
Overall: A
Afterthoughts:
Touche. Katsuragi Keima – an otaku as much as he is a player.
Like I said, I only started and finished God Only Knows since two days ago. Hence, I’m not as excited – or anticipated, in better terms – for this season as I would have been had I actually waited for its release. I’m glad nevertheless that Studio Manglobe decided to make a second season, though judging from the OP and ED, I’m assuming that we’ll once again witness the capture of only 4 girls. Yes, I said 4, not 3.
With that in mind, I’m expecting an anticlimax, if not, an ending similar to season one’s. Unless the producers have decided to make more than 13 episodes, which I doubt seeing as the first was only 12, I can’t see any room for the anime to be as serious or exciting as its manga counterpart, which I must say is plain crazy. Not bad, idiotic crazy, but jaw-dropping crazy. Background information as to what, why and how Keima can capture these “loose souls” is explored so much more in the manga – an exploration which I doubt the anime will ever touch. In other words, I don’t think there will be any conspiracies in the anime.
- Serenata
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Kimmichan
lerorin
Lustri
baka-neko
sakuraxxyume
shrutianime
SilentSerenata
sleepynoyume
tobguestwriter
I guess they need to explain the overall objective of why the heck Keima should save the girls, especially during the earlier chapters that they didn’t animate in season 1 which goes along the lines of “weiss being reborn as the girl’s child”.
Besides, the earlier they clarify the objective, the more effect it will have when it backfires as the anime catches up to the current manga arc
I can see your point. The fact that the anime didn’t, and most likely won’t, explain the concept of weiss and their resurrection, or any mention of old and new hell, means that the anime won’t be as serious as its manga. At best, the anime will be comedic, romantic fluff compared to the manga. But then again, that’s only because there’s not enough episodes to judge from.
I really do wish that the anime will exceed more than 13 episodes though according to ANN, there will be only 12 episodes once again this season. I really like the fact that The World God Only Knows has a rather strong protagonist to begin with, rather than the typical weak-grows-strong characters. Though the storyline can be somewhat cliche and expected at times, Keima’s persona makes up for that fault. It’s really a pity that the anime will be less than 26 episodes in total.
well, on the bright side, this will let the manga keep up with the pace. after all, Kaminomi is a shounen battle anime. as with most shounen anime nowadays, they tend to go into a crappy filler mode once the episodes catches up to the current manga arc and for the love of God, I don’t want kaminomi to have such half-baked fillers T_T
oh and if you were wondering why kaminomi is a shounen battle manga, I read from a post before that kaminomi have elements resembling that of a shounen setting so for starters, just have keima stand together with ichigo and naruto and you’ll see my/his/her point :D
i’ll try to scour for the link to share with you… unless I failed at bookmarking it… orz
Thanks for the link share! Awesome analysis by Memories of Eternity ;D
I agree – it’ll be a bummer if Kaminomi were to go into filler mode. But I reckon even if Manglobe continued Kaminomi for the long run, there won’t be many fillers like that of Bleach. Oh god, Bleach. I’ve lost hope in that anime.
Despite being a shounen battle anime, Kaminomi however, focuses on girls. No hollows or evil ninjas, but girls. I’m sure Manglobe is bound to parody another female archetype from galge sooner or later, even if the storyline were to stray from the original manga. Moreover, I don’t believe the fans will be pleased with just “Keima gaming all day” sort of episode. Well, at least not for me.
Though I ought to ask: WHAT WOULD BE CLASSIFIED AS A FILLER IN KAMINOMI?! The last episode of season one? It’s hard to differentiate – the anime never had a terribly serious plot to begin with. It was all rom-com combined with some parody.
Filler scenes were present at Kanon’s and Shiori’s arc and while they are acceptable, the fact that it dragged the girl’s arcs is a pain in itself since it made the arcs look repetitive with whatever it was trying to convey. Kaminomi has always been fast paced, even in the manga. When Keima it comes to decision making, Keima has always been swift and critical with his choices :D
“I can see the ending!”
I surrender ＼（－－）／ マイッタ
I dislike it when the girl’s arc go on longer than needed and it does become a pain in the ass, especially when we can safely depict that Keima can already see ‘the ending’. I’m not a fan of extra stories either cause I’ll rather the mangaka get straight into the action rather than dwelling on unnecessary and unwanted moments. Urg, the suspension.
sorry for double posting but I just found that link
http://blog.ephemeraleternity.com/2010/04/25/the-world-god-only-knows-and-the-art-of-love/