Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Anime Review: TWGOK

still in the spirit of Christmas, yet CraneAnime make another review... this time about TWGOK (The World God Only Knows) even though the one who did it is me and our intel... haha...
me, Dwi_Edge: Red
our intel: Purple


http://i.imgur.com/62E22.jpg
Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai
神のみぞ知るセカイ
- The World God Only Knows -



Synopsis

Keima Katsuragi, a second-year high school student, is an avid galge gamer. He is known on the Internet as "The Capturing God (落とし神 - Otoshi-gami)" for his legendary skills to be able to "capture" any 2D girl in games. However, in his actual school life, Keima is known as otamegane (オタメガネ), a derogatory portmanteau of the two words otaku (オタク) and megane (メガネ-"glasses").

At the start of the series, Keima receives an e-mail offering him a contract to "capture" girls. He accepts what is thought to be a challenge, and a demon from Hell nicknamed Elsee appears. She asks for his cooperation to help her in catching the runaway spirits. These spirits hide themselves inside the girls' heart, and Elsee suggests that the only method to force the spirits out is by "capturing" their hearts—making them fall in love and filling up the gaps which the runaway spirits hide in. Appalled by the idea, Keima refuses after clarifying to Elsee that he is only interested in "capturing" 2D girls and that he detests reality. Nevertheless, with the contract already accepted, Keima would have to help Elsee no matter what; if they fail, both Elsee and Keima would lose their heads.

Alternative Titles
English: The World God Only Knows
Synonyms: Kaminomi
Japanese: 神のみぞ知るセカイ


Trailer




Information

Type: TV
Episodes: 12 (Completed Season 1)
Producers: Manglobe
Genres: Comedy, Romance, Shounen, Harem
Vintage: 2010-10-06

Opening Theme:
"God only knows" by Oratorio The World God Only Knows

Ending Theme:
#1: "Koi no Shirushi (コイノシルシ)" by Ayana Taketatsu (ep 1-2)
#2: "Koi no Shirushi" by Aoi Yuuki (ep 3,5-6)
#3: "Tatta Ichi Do no Kisei (たった一度の奇跡)" by Tomo Sakurai (ep 4)
#4: "Happy Crescent (ハッピークレセント)" by Nao Toyama (ep 7)
#5: "Koi no Shirushi from Elsie" by Kanae Itou (ep 8)
#6: "Koi no Shirushi" by Nao Toyama (ep 9-10)
#7: "Koi no Shirushi" by Kana Hanazawa (ep 11)
#8: "Shuuseki Kairo no Yume Tabibito (集積回路の夢旅人)" by Hiro Shimono with Oratorio The World God Only Knows (ep 12)


Official Websites:
http://www.tv-tokyo.co.jp/anime/kaminomi/
http://kaminomi.jp/








Cast


considering the spoiler fill in, our intel "wash out" the spoiler in this section, so just see it without any ill feelings

http://i.imgur.com/WyTvy.jpgKeima Katsuragi (桂木 桂馬)
VA : Hiro Shimono


Age : 17
Birthday : 6 June
Class : 2-B
Height : 174cm
Weight : 53kg

Keima Katsuragi, the protagonist of the story, is a 17-year-old high school student attending Maijima High School Academy. At an early age, he acquired an obsessive interest in video games; now he is known as "The Capturing God (落とし神, Otoshi-gami)" in the gaming world for his legendary skills in "capturing" any girls in dating sims. But ironically, he is called otamegane (a derogatory portmanteau of the two words otaku and megane-"glasses") by almost everyone in his school due to his extreme devotion to videogames.
[SPOILER ALERT]
Despite himself saying he likes girls, it's the perfectly theoretical and beautiful girls of the game world that he prefers, not the girls in reality. His love for games is such that he even goes into withdrawal if he doesn't play games enough and he has the bad habit of locking himself in his room and playing games for days on end when he's depressed.
At the start of the series, Keima becomes a collaborator for catching runaway spirits when he replies to an instigative e-mail to his mail address in his PFP (otoshi-god@zumcities.co.jp) requesting his help to "capture" girls without knowing it was a contract from Hell, to which Elsee appeared and asked for his aid to "capture" girls in real-life. For each individual of the "Capture Targets"—a girl with the runaway spirit in her—Keima utilizes his analytical skills and experiences from dating sims to "capture" them. When he has figured out the final push needed to "capture" a girl (in both reality and games), he says the catchphrase "I can already see the ending". Whenever he isn't capturing runaway spirits, he is almost always seen playing video games on his PFP (a parody of Sony's PSP), which might explain his weak physique.

Also, despite the fact he even plays video games in class, he is still at the top of class in every subject. During a scolding of a teacher for his gaming habits, Keima reasoned that all would be fine as long as he aced all his exams; he then proceeded to do so, demonstrating a great academic ability. It is shown that Keima's analytical skills he utilises to "capture" girls is also applied by him in his studies, proven true when he flawlessly predicted the questions on the upcoming English test based on the teacher's personality and the examination extent. As the story progresses, his perspective of the "real world" girls becomes different. Nevertheless, he remains faithful to his "2D girls", in particular, a girl named "Yokkyun" who seems to be drawn in a parody style of famed visual novel Kanon.

His mastery and devotion to girl games was revealed to be way higher above than just average otakus. He is able to play six game at the same time with each of different screens with the activation of his 'Capturing God Mode'. His PFP breaks numerous times during the series, but later found that he actually has a lot of spare PFP hidden around his body. He frequently does lengthy lecture on various archetypes of characters and philosophies on capturing girls. However, he is completely ignorant to everything else, including real girls and their body, foods and even his own life.
[SPOILER ALERT]

http://i.imgur.com/5lBgU.jpgElsea de Lute Irma (エリュシア・デ・ルート・イーマ)
VA : Kanae Itou


Job : Private Household Demon
Age : 300
Birthday : 14 March
Class : 2-B
Bloodtype : ? (O-type character)
Height : 159cm (with bun)
Weight : 44kg
BWH : 83-58-84

Primarily known as Elsie (エルシィ), Elsea is a demon who was assigned to capture evil spirits that have escaped from hell and is the Deuteragonist of the story.
[SPOILER ALERT]
She is shown to have a very sweet, pure and innocent personality and often tries to please Keima's expectations as a "little sister" though often fails due to the cultural differences between them and how her endeavours usually leave Keima in a bad situation. She is fairly popular among young males, apparently more people (primarily boys) began coming when she began working in the family's cafe, such that Keima's mother once had her dress as a maid to attract more customers on the ground that no-one could resist her when she's wearing it (from the reactions around her while she's wearing it and after she takes it off it can be inferred to be true). Her feather cloth (the floating scarf she is always seen with) can change the appearance of an object, create disguises to aid the mission or it can hide people in plain sight. She is left-handed and is rarely seen without her broom, which she had for 298 years, as it was from her original role as a cleaner for hell. She reveals that she has an older sister that was very famous and was known as the "Demon of Demons". Ironically, despite being a demon, she is shown to have an incredible fear of ghosts and the dark.

To stay close to Keima, she tells Mari, Keima's mother, that she is an illegitimate child of Keima's father (nearly getting his parents divorced), and ends up living in the Katsuragi household as well as attending the same class in school.
[SPOILER ALERT]

http://i.imgur.com/cUP7O.jpgAyumi Takahara (高原 歩美)
VA : Ayana Taketatsu

Job : Track-and-field Club Girl
Age : 17
Birthday : 2 May
Class : 2-B
Bloodtype : O
Height : 158cm
Weight : 50kg
BWH : 84-60-85

An athletic, cheery girl in Keima's homeroom at school; Ayumi is a member of the school's track-and-field team. She is an exceptional runner and was chosen as the representative for the upcoming tournament.
[SPOILER ALERT] However she was pressured by jealous third-year runners, causing her to fake an injury in order to back out of the tournament. Keima, who was able to see through the deception, consoled and encouraged her not to give up which led to capturing the escaped spirit. The cause of Ayumi's crevice in the heart was the pressure of the third year runners, which caused guilt in her. She also had disbelief in her own ability to run.
[SPOILER ALERT]

http://i.imgur.com/ywn1R.jpgMio Aoyama (青山 美生)
VA : Aoi Yuuki

Job : Ex-celebrity
Age : 16
Birthday : 2 January
Class : 2-A
Bloodtype : A
Height : 149cm
Weight : 38kg
BWH : 74-54-77

An elitist daughter of Aoyama Central Industry's president. She is imperious and disdainful, being from a wealthy family.
[SPOILER ALERT] However, not known to the public, she is no longer rich. Keima discovers this after stalking her to a shabby apartment. Despite her financial situation Mio continues to think of herself as a rich woman and is unable to let go of her late fathers memory. In order to get closer to her Keima took on the role of her chauffeur and driving her to school in various bicycle/carriages. He then confronts her at a fancy party, convincing her to accept the past and move on. The cause of Mio's crevice in the heart was her stubborn belief in her father, not being able to let him go.
[SPOILER ALERT]

http://i.imgur.com/JzVxg.jpg
Kanon Nakagawa (中川 かのん)
VA : Nao Toyama

Job : Idol
Age : 16
Birthday : 3 March
Class : 2-B
Bloodtype : AB
Height : 161cm
Weight : 45kg
BWH : 86-58-85

The most popular idol for her quaint style, beauty and singing talents. She is also in Keima's homeroom but had not been attending frequently because of her idol occupation. Kanon hopes that her song would "resound in everyone's hearts".
[SPOILER ALERT] She is constantly anxious and dependent about the acknowledgment of her existence by others. When she feels ignored the spirit possessing her causes her body to appear transparent to others. Her lack of confidence is so great that when Keima first met her and didn't recognize her she buzzed him with a pair of stun guns that she carries. On the night of her premiere performance as an idol she was overcome with stage fright, (becoming nearly invisible) until Keima encouraged her to believe in herself, filling the gap in her heart. During the performance afterwards Kanon began to glow so brightly that it was hard to see her. Keima commented on this, saying that she was no longer and 'idol' but a 'star'. The cause of Kanon's crevice in the heart was her doubt of her existence as an idol.
[SPOILER ALERT]

http://i.imgur.com/OwewD.jpgShiori Shiomiya (汐宮 栞)
VA : Kana Hanazawa


Job : Library Committee Member
Age : 17
Birthday : 26 December
Class : 2-C
Bloodtype : B
Height : 157cm
Weight : 41kg
BWH : 78-54-80

A reticent girl who loves to read books. She is a member of the Library Committee, which acts as the governing body and librarian for the school library. Her official position is a secretary.
[SPOILER ALERT] She has always wanted to talk to others but finds that she cannot articulate as fast as her thought process, as a result by the time she has formulated a response to something, the conversation has already moved on. From the beginning, Keima immediately catches her attention and anger by saying that physical books are no longer necessary in a digital era. As Keima continues to vandalize the books in the library, she becomes more conversational each time. Near the end of her story arc, she learns that three thousand books are to be disposed of to accommodate an audio-visual booth. Protesting, she locks down the building and barricades herself in the library. After Keima literally descends into the library and gives her "courage", she finally overcomes her silence. The cause of Shiori's crevice in the heart was her wish to speak out her mind while having some doubts of receiving a good reply.
[SPOILER ALERT]

http://i.imgur.com/gfikp.jpg
no... this is a review... not just our opinion...
so let's stick with this one...
nah, this review is full of spoilers... so just skip to the overall one if you don't want to be spoiled

Review

Story (8/10)
The first season of 'KamiNomi" involves the capture of 4 girls, with 3 filler episodes
first, you need to know about that. Well, the girls are mentioned above and you even can see them in the Trailer or the OP song.

KamiNomi have such a good story, instead of being adapted from a great Manga... some people may despise it, but I think KamiNomi (Anime) is good enough to be watched. At first, anyone would think that TWGOK will nonethelessly predict about the story, I can't blame you, coz I did too.
haha... I just didn't like it when they have some stupid filler episodes (about Elsie... etc..) but eps 12 is an exception (God Capturing mode, dude! Can you feel the spirit?)

and as for this Anime Flag episodes, it's seems normal to me... and rather than hentai show "Yosuga no Sora" this Anime flag system is great. And yet Keima isn't a lucky bastard (like Rito - Motto To Love Ru) or some hentai bastard (Haru - Yosuga no Sora, even though their voice actor is a same person) and ... many others...
Keima is truly a god... despite me of being a god here (at Crane) he's the only male god I know (the female god is Haruhi) and he's truly a SHOUNEN Character, not a harem magnet / lucky bastard or anything. Ah... for your info, I don't know which is the game Keima playing, but it looks like he's playing the all-age one... just like Sugisaki Ken (Seitokai no Ichizon)

next is about the story development
the girls flag isn't monotone, they have their own pace and problems... which is not boring at all. Each one of the girls have interesting story... but their character will be explained below.
hmm, about the rest? I just wanna say that the Comedy is fine... and I'm always LOL-ed when Keima explain things to Elsie Galge-ly

I can't say too much about Story, as I forgot most of it (what dude? it's just finished airing and you forget already?) haha...
the only thing that echoing in my head is:
"I can already see the ending":fufufu:

Audio (8/10)
The OP in 'KamiNomi' can only be described as a "Masterpiece". The animation quality, atmosphere, song quality, song choice, originality, transition flow, audio-visual harmony, appropriateness, effectiveness as OP... just as perfect as Keima capturing god skill... Even me, willing to give the 10/10 score for this OP... (as Opening, not as a good song)
but the ED is mediocre... it's too futsuu... futsuu da... just like Falost, the mindmaster of this blog... hahaha... actually, the atmosphere and the animation quality are good (for ED)

and more decending points coming from the Seiyuu voice acting...
Keima voice is just retarded, whereas not make him look cool at all and for the girls.. ugh... I only remember the Elsie voice... which is great

as for BGM... hell I dun understand the awesomeness of BGM, so just let this one slide...

Visual (9/10)
hell yeah, finally 9 points for the art. The Character Design are perfect to me, as I don't really care about the nose or something trivial like that... and about the background, it's as good as the character... they just marvelous... well, you can't ask more for Fall Anime... let's hope winter one have better animation...

and yet, why I don't give a perfect score? coz, some act and flag is just boring at some points... the art isn't fully used as a great animation, maybe they just being lazy sometimes.

Character (7/10)

the characters were actually fine, but they lacked character development. By that I mean since they adopt the ''amnesia'' way of doing things, they destroy their only way to give some character developments to the secondary characters... since they forget everything and the main characters actually didn't have that much development in their personalities... well, I can let this slide coz this anime is readying for moar season and it'll be fine if they added some development at Keima, coz he's not improving or anything... he's just being a god at first till the rest of the Anime. But you can see he blushing at the very first episode of the Anime which is make him look futsuu (normal) not too unique. Well, that hole is plumped by his god skill so it's okay...
:keringat:
Plus, a lot of characters were quite clichéd , not offering an intense uniqueness...
not to mention, but they kind of boring (maybe coz I already played too many galge.. just like Keima)

Overall (8/10)


after thinking for a while, I'm decided to give this score to KamiNomi... not too high but not too low either... it's above normal though. As in the terms of recommendation, this anime is worth to watch it really have strong aura which make me watched it till the end:top:
at first, I'm watching the LQ one (not to mention that I have slow DL speed and have a little expectation for KamiNomi) but when I got the HQ one, I go all out with the downloading and dL the Chihiro one...

so, after all TWGOK / KamiNomi is great... aarghh... dunno what's there to say... anyway, just watch it and put your comments and thought here.



Recommended fansub: Chihiro

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