Anime Cute I Am God
Synopsis
Dressed in a conspicuous outfit and armed with an eccentric spirit, Hina Satou goes around insisting that she is the Asgardian god "Odin." When she crosses paths with a boy named Youta Narukami, she uses her precognition abilities to warn him about an impending catastrophe threatening the end of the world. But being a teenager preoccupied with his problems, Youta finds it hard to believe such a preposterous claim.
Somehow forced to tag along with her antics, he witnesses the effectiveness of Hina's skills with his own eyes and realizes that she truly is capable of divination. Nevertheless, despite her persistence in being a god, Hina is still a child who desires to see and experience the wonders life has to offer. With the world ending in 30 days, Hina, Youta, and their friends venture forward to create lasting memories they will cherish forever.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
Background
MALxJapan -More than just anime-
Related Anime
Characters & Voice Actors
Staff
| | Maeda, Jun Script, Theme Song Lyrics, Original Creator, Music |
| "Kimi to Iu Shinwa (君という神話)" by Jun Maeda x Nagi Yanagi(eps 1-11) |
| 1: "Goodbye Seven Seas" by Jun Maeda x Nagi Yanagi(eps 1-4, 6-8,10-11) | ||
| 2: "Takaramono ni Natta Hi (宝物になった日)" by Jun Maeda x Nagi Yanagi(eps 5,12) | ||
| 3: "Natsunagi (夏凪ぎ)" by Jun Maeda x Nagi Yanagi(eps 9) |
Reviews
Dec 26, 2020
12 of 12 episodes seen
| Overall | 1 |
| Story | 1 |
| Animation | 5 |
| Sound | 3 |
| Character | 1 |
| Enjoyment | 0 |
Infuriating. When I consider every aspect of this anime, that is the first word that comes to mind: The infuriating characters, plot, dialogue, music, art, and acting. It's fascinating. I never thought I'd actually find an anime so blatantly terrible that I cannot stand even a single second of it.
For some background, this is Jun Maeda's third original anime—if you're familiar with Charlotte and Angel Beats, you'll know his writing formula. His stories begin as comedy/slice-of-life centered around high school students; in the second half, an incident occurs. Everything becomes melodramatic—with a supernatural twist. In Charlotte, it was superpowers. In Angel Beats, it was the afterlife. In The Day I Became God, it was the end of the world. Like his prior anime, the story is much more complicated than just a gimmick. If you noticed the 1/10 score, you could guess this is his worst one yet. Maeda's tropes and cliches were passable in 2010, nowadays this anime is a relic. It has the same sappy soundtrack, copy-pasted character designs, and sterile background art. It is like a knock-off version of Clannad your grandma would buy for you at a flea market. Unless the character writing in this anime is a failed attempt at satire, I cannot fathom why they're so insanely stupid; their actions make no sense whatsoever. The protagonist is so blind to his narcissism that all his motivations and goals seem downright appalling and impossible. We don't really get to know anyone else past their surface-level problems or issues. It doesn't help that the tone immediately switches from fun, upbeat, and childish to depressing and melodramatic cry porn that only a 12-year-old would think is profound. And on top of everything else, after not one but TWO mind-numbingly stupid "twists" (that aren't really twists since you can see them coming a mile away), it tries to shoehorn in cringe-worthy pedophilic romance. Because why not? Just throw more matches on this monstrous dumpster fire. To fully unpack what went wrong, we need to start from the beginning. One hot summer day Youta met a girl dressed like a nun calling herself Odin. No questions asked, I have never wanted to punt a character down a flight of stairs more since I saw this gremlin. Odin proclaims the world will end in 30 days because she can see the future. She talks like an annoying brat, yet she acts condescending because of her supernatural abilities. Soon enough, she proves her powers are real by predicting the winner of a horse race. Twice. Youta quickly takes advantage of her powers by getting her advice on how to win over his crush, Kyouko. Since the world is ending, Odin tells him to confidently confess his feelings. He gets flatly rejected because Kyouko has no feelings for him. Inevitably Odin's advice doesn't work right away. Her powers only seem to work when the plot decides it. The conflict of the show seems to be convincing Kyouko to fall in love with Youta. He tries to impress her in a variety of ways, playing in a mahjong tournament, assisting with a dying business, and in general helping his friends achieve their goals and aspirations. It reaches a point where he becomes their messiah, at least that's what the show wants us to think. The truth is, the one who does most of the work is Odin, with her abilities to see the future. Her name is actually Hina, but she calls herself Odin because she's quirky. She also talks like a Shakespeare caricature to seem cute, but it just makes her sound desperate for attention. Do you know that one guy who acts like they're the center of the universe? That's Youta. If one of his friends is going through a rough patch, he's not the first one who comforts them. But his friends are always there for him when he needs help. Whether it be studying, working on a project, or advice. The few times he emotionally supports a friend, he does it to satisfy his own ends. He only helps Kyouko so she will accept his advances. While his friend is going through life-altering trauma, he just monologues, "I thought she loved me, but this proves she probably doesn't." It's like he forgets he's the only one with problems. When one of his friends is suffering (and sensitive to loud noises), he yells, screams, and tries to shake them. When they're depressed, he'll get upset. Not because he's emotionally drained from supporting them, but because he misses getting attention from them. I wanted to reach through the screen and pimp-slap him for being such a tool. The only reason why he has so many friends is that they're not real people. It's like they're programmed to like him. No one calls him out for being annoying. If he was a kid, I could've understood his childish personality, but he isn't. Youta is 18 years old, but he has the emotional maturity of a middle schooler. Youta isn't a person—he's a Generic Male Protagonist; He can't do anything wrong, he has a supportive male best friend, his love internist is nearly non-verbal, he has a bizarre crush on his little sister, and a quirky girl hangs around him. One would assume doing acts of kindness would make him a better person. This is not the case. His development is stagnant because he never realizes how to properly treat his friends. Whenever they're in need, emotionally, he isn't there unless he has something to gain. He doesn't learn why his romantic advances keep failing, even though it is abundantly evident to us. Youta loudly proclaims his frustration in his shrill, annoying voice. Their whole relationship, and Youta's development, fall apart due to incompetent, ham-fisted writing. Watching Youta's desperate attempts to win over Kyouko, despite his repeated rejections, is infuriating. Meanwhile, Kyouko is going through drama in her personal life, which Youta doesn't seem to care about. Their relationship was staler than a month old loaf of wonderbread. It was like watching two planks of wood stare longingly at each other, all the while we're being subjected to painfully unfunny humor. He's firmly set on making her love him—without really considering what she wants. At worst, he attempts to manipulate her for attention. Once, he fooled her into believing she was on the phone with her deceased mother when it was really just Odin faking her voice. It's fucked up, but don't worry, the show thinks this is cute! Thanks for that, Maeda. I hoped Kyouko would've realized how much of an asshole Youta is, but of course, she did not. Her brief backstory was a nakedly obvious attempt to manipulate our emotions, but I felt nothing. We're forced to witness, I kid you not, a montage of cute photos with Kyouko and her dead mother on screen. I laughed my ass off. Why did we need this? For character development? No, that would be too easy. Kyouko suffers from a lifetime of depression due to being unable to reconcile her mother's death, and she summarizes it as just "low spirits." It's not. You're suffering from chronic depression, please seek help. Jun Maeda really should've talked to someone who actually has depression. Kyouko's entire being is unfathomably shallow. She is a trope, not a believable person. Youta says all the time that he's in love with Izanami, but when it comes down to it, he doesn't seem to notice when she's sad unless someone tells him. Does he really care about her, or is he just attracted to her? When they finally talk, the show cuts away to something else because their relationship is suddenly unimportant. It never mattered. In short, the early show is wasted on pointless episodic slice-of-life comedy; it's not funny it's just tedious. I assume Maeda also noticed Youta's lack of development and agitating personality because his "character arc" becomes irrelevant. As the days ticked by, marked by a calendar at the end of each episode, nothing developed. The dramatic stakes never rose. All we get are a few minor hints Hina is hiding her true identity. In the eighth episode, the entire three-act structure resets. A new conflict begins, revolving around Hina. The whole plot beforehand becomes irrelevant. The mysterious clues boil over, and there it is—the twist! This one singular moment throws all logic out of the window. This has to be the WORST twist I have seen in a big-budget anime all year. Once the final arc began, everything took a turn for the worst. Suddenly the focus is shifted to a new character! Just what we needed! He's a edge-lord nerd who isn't around long enough for me to care about him. His backstory is meant to be taken seriously, but it is melodramatic and torturous to watch. I cannot understate this part; his voice acting is AWFUL. Listening to him speak, literally at any moment, sounds like nails scraping on a chalkboard. When he yells, it feels like needles are being jabbed into my eardrums. He is almost entirely irrelevant. It's obvious they shoehorned him in at the last minute, but why? More kindling on the dumpster fire. I had hoped the second half would have some levity or humor to off-set the inevitable major tragedy (like Fruits Basket or Houseki no Kuni, which are already great works of art). Nope. This is cry porn—wallowing in its own crocodile tears. This is an anime studio taking what is at best an offensively LAZY script—the proof of this is that we don't get to know Youta really at all before the plot suddenly jumps the shark. Instead, we are told to feel empathy for him through the magic of cliched music and terrible voice acting. These are professional actors, but the writing sucks so much they became worse. For most of them, this will be the worst job of their careers. It's honestly such a horrible script that had I been an editor for it, I would've used it to prank Jun Maeda with the old "burning bag of poop on the porch" gag. Actually, that's offensive to poop. Every time it attempts to be "deep," the dialogue sounds so saccharine and cringey. Reading the subtitles felt like Maeda ripped up a dozen Hallmark birthday cards and pasted them in his script. This anime is morally bankrupt because it takes trauma that people suffer through every day, then uses it as a cheap plot device to distract us from the shoddy writing. It wants us to relate to its suffering characters, but it doesn't make a dramatic effort to earn our sentiment. Instead, it chooses disgraceful emotional manipulation. I am both concerned and depressed that human beings could be tricked into liking this anime. It has no redeeming value, no artistic integrity, zero thought-provoking moments, and nothing that could be called unique or creative. The word original never crossed Jun Maeda's mind when he wrote this. I could continue to go on about all the issues in this anime, but I will leave it at this. Please, people, I am begging you, don't keep the bar so low. We can encourage some fantastic, inspirational, beautiful, cathartic anime. They exist. This is not one of them. If you don't believe me, see it for yourself. You will realize this is an emotionless hack-job funded by investors who sold out for a quick paycheck. I cannot think of any constructive criticism for Jun Maeda, aside from renaming this anime to The Day I Became a Sell Out. PISS OFF.
Dec 26, 2020
12 of 12 episodes seen
| Overall | 1 |
| Story | 1 |
| Animation | 4 |
| Sound | 6 |
| Character | 1 |
| Enjoyment | 1 |
"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result."
Jun Maeda is practically a broken record at this point. It's honestly a tragedy that the aforementioned quote quite accurately defines the repeat criminal offenses of the all-too-familiar and infamous writer, whom also co-founded the visual novel studio known as KEY. Having previously created and put much of his work into previous popular titles like Kanon, Clannad, Little Busters, Angel Beats, and Charlotte, Maeda unveiled yet another product of his continually recycled method named Kamisama Ni Natta Hi (also known as The Day I Became A God), promptly declaring that it would be one of the most heartbreaking anime series of all time. Considering the kind of reputation, for better or worse, that Maeda has had in the past, it's no surprise that there would be a large number of people who would become curious about another similar-looking series. Unfortunately, the result of this new project was just a perplexing and tiresome disarray of poorly handled tropes and cliches with one of the most ponderous final stretches I've seen from the anime medium, quite contrary to what the overconfident Maeda had previously promised. Instead of a wonderful display of utilizing and combining emotions, drama, friendship, and other associated themes, Kamisama Ni Natta Hi was a literal debacle due to sticking to a redundant and repetitive formula that Maeda has continued to implement adamantly. When considering how the same recipe has had a lot of success for some of his previous series in the past, one may wonder: what in the world happened here? To start things off, Kamisama's story takes place in an unspecified rural region of Japan, and centers around a high school teenager named Yota Narukami, who encounters a strange and peculiar young girl named Hina Sato with an annoying surname complex and a preference to be referred to as Odin. She claims to be a god with omniscience and declares that the world will end in 30 days. Right from the get-go, the story already starts out in an inane and predictable way. Aptly noticing that Yota and his family have names related to gods as well, HIna continually follows him around and is also conveniently welcomed by Yota's parents into his residence, thus becoming regularly involved with Yota and his friends' daily livelihood. It really bewilders me as to how she's allowed to do this and go about as she pleases, even from strictly fictional standards. For about 7-8 episodes, the series is centered around Yota and Hina going around solving other people's issues, which includes that of his friends and family. The whimsical random and ludicrous ventures ranged from participating in a mahjong tourney to filming a movie to playing a baseball game (Maeda and KEY sure have a thing for baseball, huh?). As dumb as they come, these episodic segments are meant to develop the characters and their relationships for a final dramatic stretch; however, with how each problem or issue is approached and effortlessly solved with Hina's "god powers", and how every "character-of-the-week" conveniently becomes a friend, or suddenly has more trust and faith in Yota, feels quite cheap and doesn't pertain much to any overlying narrative structure at all. As a result, the segments come off as pointless filler and don't really add much, if at all, to the plot. Jun Maeda usually starts out his works with a very lighthearted and comedic first half, and when it comes to comedy, there will inevitably be a lot of subjectivity depending on the type of comedy used, so it's understandable why many people would hate him for this habit. That being said, I think many people can agree when I say that the comedy here in Kamisama is not only dreadful, but also detrimental to the story itself. It's bad enough that the comedy comes off more irritating, noisy, and unproductive, but the comedic segments themselves take too much of the spotlight within the episodes than any genuine character work that does occur. Comedy is supposed to highlight the development of friendship, not block it out entirely. Time and time again, these overplayed farces continually obstruct any attempts for more down-to-earth or simplistic straightforward approaches to actually progressing important story elements that would've been essential in terms of prepping the cast and the story for when the most dramatic stretch comes around. Instead, the series is consequently left with no substantial footing, the characters are not fleshed out to make them endearing or memorable, and the plot comes off overly stagnant and unprepared by the time that "emotional" segment unfolds. In a narrative where consistency and buildup are absolutely essential, 8 whole episodes were completely wasted. In all honesty, though, if all of the series was simply consisting just these folly moments of Hina and Yota playing helpers for other people, perhaps it would've fared better; even if it doesn't turn out complete or necessarily good, it probably wouldn't have fallen hard as it actually would later on. Another thing to point out is that there was a recurring bit regarding Yota wanting Hina to help him woe his childhood friend Kyoko Izanami (whom is also aptly named after a god). It was a somewhat regular and rather entertaining gag, but to me, it honestly felt like an actual legit story element at the time. While it could've been quite overbearing, there was an opportunity for the series to go off the beaten path and establish what would've been a very interesting case of a love triangle. Instead, Maeda put it to the side and simply went with the case of Yota and Kyoko's friendship improving. It doesn't help that opportunities like that are shafted by the episode limit and Maeda's stubbornness to stick to the same old method. While the majority of the first half was a mess, episode 5 did have at least one actually good segment regarding Kyoko. In fact, I'd even go out and say that it could've been watched as sort of a standalone presentation. Sure, like with the other episodes, the setup was pretty cheap and rushed, but there was actually genuine emotion there, and it was without a doubt probably the best thing the show ever got. From there, it was a really good opening to further develop Kyoko with future episodes, and considering the type of character she is, her being likely an important point in the story wasn't out of the question at the time. Perhaps it's just me having a soft spot for characters like her, but nevertheless, I felt like this was a severely missed opportunity for Maeda to perhaps try something different, instead of then just casually tossing Kyoko's role to the side to just her being a mere supporting character of the "nakama" boat. By episode 9 was where the "real drama and emotions" in Kamisama were supposed to begin. Prior to this, there were small segments throughout the previous eight episodes that were hinting to a big reveal, but the way they were delivered felt so jarring and overly serious that it's hard to take them seriously even at just face value. As for the actual final segment itself, not only did it leave me so perplexed, but also completely disappointed and displeased by how uncreative it was. Hina was, of course, not really a god and is actually afflicted with a fictional terminal disease. Yes, a made-up severe illness, conveniently set up by Maeda in an attempt to tug on the heartstrings and try to make the audience get emotional. This kind of writing nowadays is way too outdated, and there was no weight to the dramatic moments due to lack of any decent buildup prior to it. Furthermore, her omniscience ability is based off some silly and convoluted sci-fi foolery where said context was keeping her alive. Yota and Hina also suddenly having apparent romantic feelings for each other plays up more on the overdramatic context. With the way Hina and Yota were interacting for the entirety of the show, this just didn't add up. At this point, this recurring process of utilizing plot, romance, and drama-orientated narratives and combining them with supernatural and/or sci-fi elements has grown quite tiresome. Yes, people, it's literally the same old Maeda formula again: a comedic first half, a romantic middle segment, and a dramatic final stretch. The biggest reason it didn't work here at all was because he wasted too much time highlighting the comedic horseplay instead of having the lighthearted segments actually add sufficient context to the story, the characters, and/or even the very setting itself. Coupled with missed opportunities and disjointed, hamfisted character interactions, Kamisama ended up as one big excruciating and clumsy stumble to the finish line. The fact that it ends with a very convenient sort of conclusion with no sense of payoff or satisfaction doesn't sit well with me, either, and it hurts to know that many people will easily get suckered into such flimsy wrap-ups like that. With most of the production being handled by P.A. Works, a studio usually under much scrutiny, due to their association with drama writers like Jun Maeda and Mari Okada, and known for its high-quality artwork, recurring slice of life / drama elements, and collection of mostly anime-original shows, which are honestly hard to come by nowadays, one can expect Kamisama to look really good in terms of audiovisual department. The artwork looks fairly nice all around, using very bright color tones and border lines to illuminate the rural backdrops and attempt to represent the story's initially lighthearted atmosphere. At times, though, the colors and lightings may get too bright and seem very out of place in some scenes, even in a setting where sunlight is in full effect. The character designs are fine but nothing particularly special to really go into detail about. There are well-placed subtleties and points of symbolism throughout the series, but they honestly would've amounted to so much more if there was better writing involved. While the backgrounds do look nice at first glance, they often seem too plain and uninteresting for the first place, and lack the liveliness to give the viewers a more immersive experience. The soundtracks are really good for the most part and do help set the appropriate mood whenever needed, but aside from a few theme songs sung by Nagi Yanagi (who also did the opening themes for the Oregairu series), none of them are particularly memorable. As for the voice acting, I won't say it's bad, but the majority of the dialogue, especially during the more emotional parts feel really forced or even half-hearted. I'm not really surprised since I can imagine even the seiyuus finding it hard to truly get emotionally invested into it to say their lines with the way the show took its course. The character department for the most part is quite abysmal and void, due to the aforementioned issues regarding Maeda's formula. Nearly every single notable character is quite plain and don't really get any genuine sense of development. There's nothing to really make them seem important or momentous to the series. While they do have distinct personalities, the characterization is very black and white. I found Hina Sato absolutely annoying and detrimental to the show. She pretty much forces herself upon everyone else and expects them to look up to and praise her for her abilities. Yes, her abilities did help people, but with the way her character is, just going around contributing to society in some way just doesn't really cut it. Her comical segments involving Yota and the others are just awfully cringe, and are highlighted much more than necessary. The fact that she's the center of nearly all the comedic segments makes the experience even worse, and she herself doesn't actually get much meaningful development, if at all, unless you wanna count the whole forced romance parts. Yota himself is basically your typical selfless male protagonist who is conveniently a friend (and chick) magnet, and rigged to be Hina's savior and hero despite the story starting out with him having feelings for someone else. Otherwise, he would be merely an insignificant component. The only character, as I mentioned before, that I personally did like and saw a faint glimmer in, was Kyoko Izanami. From whatever background the series did provide, and whether or not people will care about that episode 5 or not, she was someone that I thought truly had the best opportunity for actual growth compared to literally everyone else in the series, due to her introvert personality and how she became as such in the first place, even if she was not a main character. With the way episode 5 went, it gave me more reason to believe so, and it's quite tragic that Maeda didn't consider other possibilities, so her focused segment simply became another broken toy tossed aside and thus ends up coming off as overly mawkish and cheap. Because of numerous misdemeanors like this, we are left with a very overall poor showcasing in terms of character work, something that this show should've prioritized more than anything else. In terms of enjoyment value, I can say that for the most part, it was ruined a lot by the comedic segments. Sometimes I may get some laughs and crack some jokes here and there early on, but as the series wore on, the experience became quite tiresome and laborious. Many times I really wanted to skip through the comedic segments knowing that they're likely not contributing anything important to the story, anyways, plus they're just...simply not funny to me. Other than some of the soundtracks as well as the segments involving Kyoko, I couldn't really find much more value in terms of pure enjoyment. Having been exposed to the Maeda formula several times before and being rarely ever impressed by it, I found myself basically kinda going through the motions for the most part. It got even worse when it came down to the "big reveals" and the "real drama" parts. Episode 9 in particular had me besides myself because of how lacking, superficial, and fabricated the "emotional" parts felt. By the end of the trip, I was left in a mixed bag of emotions, not knowing whether or not I should feel extremely mad or sad at how discombobulated this whole trip went. In the end, Kamisama Ni Natta Hi is yet another failed product by Jun Maeda since the likes of Charlotte, and arguably his worst one yet. It really bothers me as to why the man himself insists on using such an outdated method of writing drama in this current era of the anime medium, as this show has been nothing much more than a disgrace to it. After this mess, I honestly would implore him personally to take a step back for a while from the anime industry to rethink things and perhaps try something new. I don't want this vicious cycle continuing any further. Maeda is no longer the acclaimed writer he used to be. Times have changed, and its time for him to make a full renovation as well as new ventures, instead of wasting time continually manufacturing sappy soap operas like this one. As for this show, I honestly cannot recommend this to even any die-hard Jun Maeda / KEY fan out there unless they're that easily manipulated emotionally. There's far better options out there than this forgettable P.A. Works by-product.
Dec 26, 2020
12 of 12 episodes seen
| Overall | 10 |
| Story | 10 |
| Animation | 10 |
| Sound | 10 |
| Character | 10 |
| Enjoyment | 10 |
"Tis pointless. We mean there is no point to you studying. The world shall end in 30 days." - Hina Satou
First of all, I'm surprised about what Hina said about the apocalypse of the world, but what could it be? Could it be a zombie invasion or could it be a nuclear fallout? Nope! There's nothing like that will happen in the anime, but what Hina announced is very mysterious!
But is it really true that the world will end in 30 days? After Hina's prediction of the weather changes and the horse racing outcomes, everything is confirmed to be true. But I feel like it's too coincidence to be true. If she has checked the weather report and the power level of the horse racer before she meets Youta, that will make sense. But still, her prediction ability is too mysterious to be true. Throughout the series, the story of the anime doesn't get serious until later at about mid-season. Around that you'll find the truth to Hina's Godly powers and her announcement about the apocalypse of the world. And since the anime is original, each episodes has several theories of predicting what will happen in later episodes. For the characters, Youta is your average high school student. He later encountered Hina who declares herself as Odin-sama. Hina is a very cheerful female MC but gets frustrated whenever someone doesn't recognized her as a Goddess or someone has Godly name which is better than her current name, Hina Satou. Also there's Izanami, who is very beautiful and also a quiet one. Youta has a crush on her and with the power of Hina's prediction ability, he tries hard to win Izanami's heart. But it all ended in a failure and got rejected. Despite that, he will never give up. If you watched Charlotte before, Nao Tomori's VA, Ayane Sakura is also voicing Hina Satou which is great and perfect for Hina's cheerful personality. The OP song will make us feel happy when listening to it, while the ED song has a lyrics that give a lot of meaning for the entire anime. Not to mention, the anime is really colorful and shining too, especially the OP and ED of the anime. The character designs are also really nice, they really did a great job at designing Hina and Izanami. If you know the pattern of Angel Beats and Charlotte, Jun Maeda starts their anime in comedy first before we enter a serious plot. Expect some laugh at the early series of the anime. Just as I expected. When I heard that Jun Maeda is going to create the saddest anime of all. It was really true. To be honest, I nearly cried at the beautiful ending and also the music at the end of the anime. Probably one of the best episode I ever watched. If you're looking for a tearjerker anime, then this anime will be good for you. Have a good cry everyone!
Dec 26, 2020
12 of 12 episodes seen
| Overall | 5 |
| Story | 4 |
| Animation | 9 |
| Sound | 8 |
| Character | 4 |
| Enjoyment | 6 |
Coming out from "Kamisama ni Natta Hi" (KS) with questions is par for the course. How on earth does an original Key anime, helmed by none other than Jun Maeda himself, struggle to barely crack the Top 10 for Fall seasonals on MAL? How did a promising premise from a strong first episode morph into a completely different show in its second week? Also, why was I OK with that? Also also, when did I stop being OK with the narrative? "What happens when you have both the power of god and anime on your side?" KS introduces the audience to Hina, an odd girl dressed like a nun. She approaches the unassuming protagonist, Youta, and nags him to let her crash at his place (this isn't a sus thing, I promise.) You see, Hina claims to be a god capable of predicting future events, and has foreseen that she'll be staying over at Youta's for the time being. Obviously our baffled MC has no reason to believe her audacious claims, but several demonstrations of her divine abilities force him to accept the improbable: that the mysterious Hina really is a god, and that she's offering to act as his personal genie during her stay. But there is a catch: in 30 days, the world ends. It's a great hook to kick off a series, one with limitless potential. Youta is allowed to live life in any way he chooses, with no consequences. And as a title card counted us off towards the impending apocalypse, I was left with several questions. What will Youta do with this power, and what adventures will he end up on? How exactly does the world end? Just who is Hina anyway? What would happen next? The answer? ...Nothing much, really. KS' second episode, in stark contrast with the ambitious series pilot, goes as far as to sideline Hina and spend 15 minutes doing budget parodies of '90s Hollywood blockbusters. KS only kept up this trend in the coming weeks, putting aside its promising story in exchange for an episodic sitcom. Short asides, featuring a gifted hacker tangled in a mysterious corporate investigation, would serve as the only reminder that KS actually had, y'know, a plot. The Doomsday Clock continued to wind down with every episode, but I'd never feel like KS was headed anywhere. Though KS didn't pan out the way most audiences would have expected, I was surprised to find out that I was still having a great time. As the kind of critic who finds himself with the bad habit of lamenting over missed storytelling potential, I was uncharacteristically forgiving towards KS' first half. That's because the show still managed to pack some elements that kept things enjoyable from week-to-week. The first idea that seemed interesting was the series' usage of fatalism. The world is coming to an end in 30 days, yet no one in the cast seems to care. There's something pretty funny about Youta encountering a deity, only for him to continue spending his summer in the most vanilla way possible - studying for finals and playing video games. While the characters aren't complex enough to acknowledge these philosophical ideas, I did find this theme amusing all the same. The threat of Armageddon is never depicted as a depressing existential tragedy or anything, but leans towards a somewhat optimistic direction instead. Sure, there are circumstances fated to happen, beyond our control. So let's just focus on making the present the best it can be. Another highlight worth praising is the entertaining comedy. This caught me off guard, given that it wasn't particularly an aspect of the script I was looking forward to. My previous run-ins with Jun Maeda shows involved the borderline sleep-inducing first episode of "Clannad" and the absolutely absurd energy of "Angel Beats." Neither were really to my liking, but KS brings the best of both worlds together for a winning combination. The show walks a fine line between realism and absurdity, with a mildly-heightened reality that snowballs its lunacy to hilarious effect. KS uses Hina's powers to account for some silly contrivances that ensure each episode feels different from the next. Sure, the gags don't make a ton of sense at times and they can often drag throughout an entire episode's runtime. Yet the show makes itself really easy to enjoy, taking inspiration from "Love Is War" through the use of dramatization and pop culture references. Hina and Youta's VAs complement this chaotic energy well, with great line delivery from both. All these elements set a fittingly fun tone to explore KS' message: the value behind memories. Memories are part-and-parcel of the human experience. Some of them are fun and enjoyable, and those happy moments can bring all sorts of people together. But, as explored in Ep 5^, other memories can be dark and murky, causing pain as they linger in your mind. KS looks at how memories influence our thoughts and motivate us to take action. It's in those bleak places where we need to seek closure and look ahead, clinging to our past while seeking out the future. And in overcoming those obstacles with those we love, we strengthen our bonds and make new memories to look back on. This theme offers an explanation for why the show was willing to forego the big plot teased in the first episode. KS was more concerned about putting together a wild summer filled with adventure, fun and heart. Those days of sun were presented really well, thanks to great work from P.A. Works. The studio hadn't quite topped themselves or anything, but average P.A. visuals still look more stunning than most studios' best works. Na-Ga makes a comeback with KS' character designs, so be sure to look out for those if you're a massive fan of Key instalments. Personally my favorite inclusion to the show was its soundtrack. Nagi Yanagi shines with all her song performances and accompanies the cast on their Summer holidays. As the world neared its end, these friends made great memories, which geared them to face the uncertainty of KS' second half. And here's where things start to fall apart. KS did deliver some good material in the early stages, but cracks were already beginning to emerge. If I were to summarize KS as a whole, the phrase I'd come up with is "don't worry about it." There's no need for a grand overarching plot that fully utilized Hina's powers, there was no need to worry too much about generating big conflict. It's all about having a good time! It's a chill approach that I could get behind, and didn't turn out all that pointless either. However, a couple of problems persisted, taking this thoughtless construction to an unhealthy extreme. Characters felt largely one-dimensional, and the unnecessarily large ensemble cast made matters worse. Youta is a boring blank slate who's in love with his childhood friend, and has to rely on gimmicky stage-impersonations (ramen connoisseur, "mahjong" prodigy, etc.) to disguise his one-dimensional nature. Not too much I can say about Hina^^, but the other main characters don't fare all that well; given that Izanami and Kokuhou are supposedly Youta's best friends, it never feels like he gets a lot of time with them. Things get sillier when we look at the rest of the ensemble, which feel even more inconsequential. The biggest offender is Miss Tengan, who adds absolutely nothing to the story. All she does is act grumpy and show up for the most asinine of reasons. Sora's entire, like, personality is totally based off, like, how a boomer author thinks pre-teens talk IRL. Oh, and there was this loan shark dude who started off as a bad guy, had his entire character arc take place off-screen, and showed up uninvited and reformed a handful of episodes later. Having the core characters underwritten isn't a huge gripe for me, but seems mildly puzzling given that Maeda is supposedly an expert at tugging the heartstrings. This problem, coupled with the overbearing number of side extras, means that the script has no choice but to give important characters rushed flashbacks that introduce their backstories. Speaking of the script, it follows the aforementioned trend of not really giving a shit. Due to the nature of the first half, there's little in the way of objectives or goals that Youta and the gang need to work towards. Maeda's idiosyncrasies as a writer also means he takes any and every opportunity to elicit an emotional response, at times to the detriment to the story. But eh, subtlety is kinda thrown out the window sometimes. If there's an extreme road to take, you can count on Maeda to stack his chips and go all-in. Suspension of disbelief doesn't really matter, "don't worry about it." These issues are further exacerbated in KS' second half. The guise of a "turn-your-brain-off" comedy comes apart quicker than one of Youta's silly impersonations, leading me baffled at several of the show's writing choices. As it turns out, the reason why Maeda overstuff KS with cast members is for a big attempt at emotional payoff in its penultimate episode, reinforcing the message of finding strength through good memories. But while thematically sound on-paper, it landed pretty weak within the show, because the characters that shared those moments with Youta didn't create much connection with the audience. Poor pacing made me feel that the show was still spinning on its heels, even in the most vital of moments. The script doesn't go full-"Charlotte", and the final episode manages to stick a somewhat satisfying landing. However, it does find ways to go off the rails in other areas. Hina's powers are far from the dumbest plot contrivances in the show, which Maeda crams in arbitrary conflict and bizarre choices that only serve to further pad the runtime^^^. A couple problems that could be solved with a simple conversation instead are dragged out across 15 minutes, and other obstacles are thrown in a messy way to generate artificial issues that are less tense than confusing. These strange issues distract from what would otherwise be powerful moments on their own right. Earlier this year a Tweet circulated, claiming that Maeda had penned the "most heart-breaking anime of all time." Props to him for the attempt, but his questionable writing makes me wonder if those emotional beats ever reached their fullest potential. With all this being said, I've decided that the biggest weakness of KS is a lack of direction. Outside of its central theme, audiences don't have much to latch onto other than a mystery box hanging over their heads. Unfortunately the box is opened far too late into the story and forces Maeda into a corner, resulting in poor writing choices that ensures that the entirety of KS is lesser than the sum of its parts. Tl;Dr: "Kamisama" is unquestionably at its best when spending its carefree time in the summer. A neat theme about cherishing memories is accompanied with entertaining laughs. While seeing a wasted premise felt somewhat disappointing, this unexpected approach made me curious to see how KS would balance its more emotional elements later on. However, the script by Jun Maeda appears ill-equipped to deal with the storytelling potential teased since Episode 1, favoring to leave aside a majority of its hefty pacing responsibilities to the very end. This "mystery-box" storytelling necessitates weird plot contrivances and limits the places our story could go. Our already-messy script then undergoes more padding, which leaves more questions than answers and distracts from the emotional moments. There's no clear goal throughout the series, and it's a trick that worked… until it didn't. 5/10~ *** STRAY RAMBLINGS (SPOILERS): - ^Ep 5 is quite easily my favorite episode of the series. The comedy was less balls-to-the-wall, no absurd disguises or whatever, so I really appreciated the relatively lowkey break from all the shenanigans. Which was fitting, given the more serious subject matter. Definitely took some cues from "Kakushigoto" and the infamous "Violet Evergarden" Episode 10. Not that I'm complaining, of course, those were great stories. It proved to be one of the few times KS was capable of balancing its gags with the emotional beats. *** And that's all I have to say about Maeda's latest work. Apologies if I seemed a little too hard on the guy, his reputation really precedes him for all the right and wrong reasons. Although given how entertaining some of this show was, I may finally be inclined to give his older works a second try. If you happen to like my verbose rants, feel free to check out my other reviews for seasons past and present, peace~
What in god's name is going on?
If you're looking for answers, you've come to a terrible place; but I'll do my best to give my take on all the above points and more. This review contains mild spoilers, so feel free to skip ahead to my Tl;Dr if you'd like to go in blind.
- ^^If you've made it this far, I've take it you've made it to at least Ep 9. Last warning. With that out of the way, let's talk Hina. My feelings on her are kinda mixed, and I'm not sure if all I have to say is very constructive, given the subject matter. Please forgive my ignorance if I hit a wrong nerve. First, we're gonna have to address her romantic attraction to Youta. To me, it looked like a clear example of how Maeda was cramming in plot points for the purpose of hitting us in the feels. It was a decision that made zero sense to me and had no buildup before it was brought up. Although, I'm not sure how much of my conclusions are impacted by my biases, given her… less than attractive stature. I've seen enough of the Uzaki-chan debate to be scarred from coming near a similar discussion, so hopefully acknowledging my potential biases will be enough to state my case. The other aspect I wanted to touch on was the portrayal of Hina from Episode 10 and onwards. Logo's Syndrome seems to be a fictional condition, borrowing symptoms from muscle atrophy and mental handicaps. While I'm probably not fit to judge how true-to-life the performance was, I do find the hypothesis posited by Hina's caretaker rather interesting. Memories do make up a big part of our identity, so seeing that realisation dawn on Youta in Ep 11 was pretty impactful.
- ^^^Wow, what a needlessly convoluted script. Please allow me to nitpick away… It started off strong by throwing away the Doomsday clock and skipping ahead past New Years' and Finals. While the pacing felt unpredictable, the joke setup did not, as Suzuki played around as a Hina stand-in for the first half. Suzuki screams less "genius" and more "BVS Lex Luthor," but minus Jesse Eisenberg's chaotic energy. His ploy to force memories onto Youta for no reason other than to callback to prior episodes in a sentimental manner makes zero sense. I get it, the show has this big nihilist theme about futility and predestination or whatnot, but passively accepting a sad outcome doesn't excuse the characters for dragging out this pseudo-intellectual plan for anywhere up to 5 MONTHS. If you wanted to pretend to have friends, there was no need to pull out a 20-step 400-IQ chess move that nearly backfired because your mark was being emo and stupid. The messiness doesn't end there. Apparently all those escapades as a mahjong pro and a ramen critic were mere training for Youta's big mission... getting into a remote hospital. How is it that he's able to just wear a key card and waltz his way into disguises wherever he goes? If you're not gonna make him put in effort to conceal his identity, why make it happen in the first place? Apparently HIna's rehabilitating after her brain surgery, which left her with a light scalp of hair and a sudden fear of men. Why the surprise phobia, you ask? Because the plot allowed Youta to take Hina in as a legal guardian of sorts... but only if Hina gives consent. This too left me hella baffled. If a patient is not in a mental state capable of making decisions, it's up to the guardian to exercise control over the situation (this extends to extremes such as euthanasia.) So if this boy who looks way too young for his age is arbitrarily given provisional guardian rights... what was the point in shoehorning in this conflict to begin with? Maeda could have easily just left those provisional rights out of the question and the scene would be nearly unchanged.
- Ep 9 had easily the WORST hacking sequence of all time. Fish? Really?
- BEST GIRL: Hmm, as I mentioned earlier, none of the characters stood out to me. Now, let me have a look at the candidates… wait, you're telling me Sora's a film buff? MAD. Gee, now I feel terrible for dissing her in the main review, but I thought it was a funny bit. Anyways, hats off to her!
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