The World God Only Knows
| The World God Only Knows | |
|---|---|
The World God Only Knows | |
| Original Manga | Wakaki Tamiki |
| Director/Artist | Wakaki Tamiki |
| Format | Anime (TV) |
| Made By | Manglobe |
| Episode Length | 25 minutes |
| # of Episodes | Season 1-12--Season 2-12 |
Contents
Genre
Harem, Fantasy, Comedy, Romance, Action
Sum it up in a Sentence:
Ultimate gaming nerd is mistaken for Casanova and gets forced to collect a harem that he wants nothing to do with.
Main Description
Keima Katsuragi, a second-year high school student, is an avid bishōjo game player. He is known on the Internet as The God of Conquests (落とし神 | Otoshi-gami) for his legendary skills to be able to "conquer" 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"), and is considered nothing but an intelligent yet gloomy geek with glasses.
At the start of the series, Keima receives an e-mail offering him a contract to "conquer" girls. When he accepts it, thinking it is an invitation to a game, a demon from Hell named Elsie appears. She asks for his cooperation to help her in catching runaway spirits. These spirits hide themselves inside the hearts of girls, and Elsie suggests that the only method to force the spirits out is by "conquering" the girls hearts, making them fall in love with him and filling up the gaps which the runaway spirits hide in. Interested only in 2D girls, however, Keima is appalled by the idea, and refuses the assignment as he has no romantic real life experiences whatsoever. Nevertheless, with the contract already agreed, Keima has no choice but to help Elsie no matter what, as they will be beheaded if they fail.
Aside from focusing on Keima and Elsie's adventures on capturing spirits, the series also makes fun and parodying common and popular cliches about dating sims, anime character stereotypes, and pop culture.
If You Liked This, You Might Like...
- The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - Similar in being a weird anti-harem but yet harem thing. Beyond that, both shows love snappy dialogue and references to pop culture.
- Seto no Hanayome -- Also a comedy/harem with a main character that you don't want to stab
Personal Opinions
Buzmeg
Take every single harem trope and turn them on their ear. What do you have? A disaster, right? Wrong! Somehow, it turns out to be both interesting and hilarious. The catchphrase for this anime is "way better than it has any right to be." The main character is not your standard bland, flavorless reader/author insert. Keima is actually quite competent, has a very strong personality, and is dangerously genre savvy while still retaining enough flaws and faults to prevent you from hating the character. While he is certainly surrounded by characters who fit the stereotypes, the supporting characters also have just enough extra personality to allow the story to twist the stereotypes. Overall, it is just a lot of fun to watch Keima when he is being a completely insensitive bastard who has it totally under control or when he is getting completely mauled by the situation no matter how hard he tries and everything in between.
Redcrimson
By all rights, this show should be just as mediocre as the premise makes it out to be. However, Keima is Lelouch levels of charismatic and the supporting female cast is surprisingly well-developed. The comedy is sharp and the abrupt swaps to light melodrama don't seem intrusive. The art is fluid and the soundtrack is above average(The 1st season OP is a great example of both).
