REVIEW: Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai (The World only God Knows)

     The word "harem" carries quite a bad reputation in the anime community since studios would often cheat out by making a low-budget harem show that had high amounts of fanservice and bad content. Because of this, anime watchers tend to stay away from the harem genre in general, and most of the time this is a very good choice. However, I cannot say that for Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai (The World God only Knows), also called KamiNomi. Despite its seemingly repetitive formula of romance with multiple girls, this show proves to be a very enjoyable and entertaining watch.

Background

     KamiNomi is an anime adaptation of a popular manga of the same name. Studio Manglobe is responsible for this adaptation, which as some of you may know went bankrupt in 2015. KamiNomi was not popular at the time of its release, and some even blame the low sales of season three for Manglobe's bankruptcy. The script is written by Hideyuki Kurata and directed by Shigehito Takayanagi. The story of KamiNomi revolves around Keima Katsuragi who is a god of dating simulators. One day, he accidentally (???) accepts a contract with a demon to make real girls fall in love in order to chase out a loose soul that resides in an emptiness of a heart. This is essentially the plot for the first two seasons, and season three has a variation which I will mention later.

Yes they did indeed (lmao)

Characters

     KamiNomi is all about character development, which it does quite well. Instead of the usual harem business where there is only one or half of an episode dedicated to a girl and the rest is used to advance the plot, KamiNomi dedicates all of its episodes for character development, thus resulting in at least two to three episodes for each character. This has made some memorable "conquests", as each arc is called, and all of them have some quirk that makes them stand out. The character design is not ecchi-fied at all; in fact, most of them somewhat resembles real, down-to-the-earth girls. There are a few fanservice moments with the female characters, but these are very mild and low in numbers. The voice cast is actually quite amazing, which includes Hana Kanazawa (Onodera from Nisekoi, Nadeko from Monogatari, Kuroneko from OreImo, list goes on), Saori Hayami (Shinoa from Owari no Seraph, Yukino from OreGairu), and Kanae Itou (lots of side roles, Yui from SAO, Ruiko from Toaru Kagaku no Railgun, but beautiful voice). This must have been a heavy cast to maintain for two seasons (most appear either in season one or season two and all appear in season three). One issue that I have is that every girl forgot about her relationship with the main character after the "conquest" was over. Thus, there is technically no character development at all, but in all honesty, the trip through each arc is really worth it.

One of the female characters of the show

     Another issue that I had in terms of characters is the main character himself, Keima Katsuragi. While I'm alright with the girls' character development being tossed, the main character showed almost no character development (except for season three). In fact, the last episodes of the first two seasons were entirely dedicated to showing how much Keima had NOT changed even after the numerous conquests. This was quite infuriating as a viewer who watched him progress through the arc. However, season three fixed up most of my worries of him, as I will mention in the plot section.

Keima Katsurai

Plot

     There's not much to be said in terms of plot for the first two seasons. As previously mentioned, the character development itself is most of the plot itself, and I would say that they were done quite well. Despite having a repetitive formula, each manages to be something special. The plot's not Shakespeare material, but you will enjoy it all the same.

     As you've probably noticed, I've been setting season three apart from the rest, and this is for good reason. Season three is amazing. Here, the usual formula is broken and the atmosphere becomes slightly more serious which is a welcome change to the series. Keima's personality actually changes towards the end and this change is quite a delight to see. There's also some really gut-wrenching moments and times that you really want to cry for the characters. In fact, I would definitely say that KamiNomi is totally worth watching just for season three alone.

     But there is a BUT, and this BUT is that season three has some returning girls that were not "conquered" in the earlier season. There are two OVA episodes that cover one girl, but besides her, there are two other girls that are essential to season three but are not shown the conquest of. This was most likely done to avoid another season with the exact same formula as the last two season and skip to a more exciting arc. The show does try to patch this up by having some quick flashbacks, but this gap will be appalling to those who are a stickler about continuity. There is also an option to read the manga, and several forums online will tell you the exact chapters to start from. For me, I was slightly annoyed at first but was eventually alright with it since the two girls do not play a major part anyways.

Animation and Artwork

     Manglobe is not particularly known for its animation, and KamiNomi is pretty mediocre. Mind you, this show originally aired in 2010. There are some moments when quality does drop, but most of the time it stays consistent. There are also scenes where the director clearly poured a lot of the budget to create, and these moments are always great to look at. Overall, it's a meh from me.The artwork is good and well drawn. A lot of Keima's town is illustrated well, and that's great because world building is always a great thing to invest in for a three season ride. Characters are drawn realistically and not too out-of-this-world, as I have mentioned before.

Haqua, also known as "Best Girl"

Music and Sound

     The music is well done, if not a bit over-used at times. By this, I mean the character music. Besides season three, each "conquest" has a long music scene where we see some issue or event of a character being shown along with a song that the voice actor themselves sung. While this is nice, mind you that this happens every two to three episodes, and some get really cringy at times. All three openings are done by ELISSA who has not done many openings in the past but has an amazing voice. However, all of the openings are in ENGLISH, and boy you know how bad Japanese English can get. Still, they're okay and the third one's actually catchy. The ending songs are mostly sung by the voice actors themselves and are quite good. I actually love the second ending, but that's just my preference.

     The soundtrack is not spectacular but gets the job done in setting up the mood and atmosphere. A lot of them have a heavenly, chorus vibe which I guess goes with the whole "God" concept. Note that most of the soundtrack is reused throughout all seasons, so you won't be getting many variations.

Verdict

     Overall, the show is fun and entertaining to watch. It's not too heavy, not too lighthearted, but just right in the middle. No matter how many issues people may find in this show, there's no denying that it is enjoyable to watch.

7.5/10