Anime Review: The World Only God Knows

Score: 7.0

Genre: Comedy, Romance, Fantasy
Version: Subbed
Episodes: 36
Where I watched it: Crunchyroll

Synopsis: The World God Only Knows is about a high school student name
Keima Katsuragi who is also known by another name, “The God of Conquest”. The God of Conquest is known for being able to seduce any girl… as long as she’s 2D. The 2D part of that is lost on the air-headed, demon, Elsie. She sends him an email asking him to “conquer” a girl and thinking that it means in a game, Katsuragi accepts. This locks him in contract to capture loose souls from hell who inhabit the hearts of people. And of course the only way to get the loose souls out is to make that person fall in love. Katsuragi instantly hates this because he is in no way interested in real girls in the slightest. Well when he entered the contract a device was placed around his neck that will cut off his head and the head of his new buddy Elsie if they fail to capture the loose souls. So now The God of Conquest has to use his dating sim knowledge to get real girls to fall in love with him.

Media: Like most animes, The World God Only Knows started out as a manga in 2008 and is still running with 23 volumes so far. There was a short 3 chapter spin-off called Magical Star Kanon 100%. Yep that’s a Japanese title if I’ve ever heard one. It follows the pop idol Kanon Nekegawa as a magical girl. There were also two light novels, God and the Devil and an Angel and Prayer and Curse and Miracle. The anime has three seasons and two OVAs. The OVAs are unfortunately not on Crunchyroll but all the rest of the anime is.

My Thoughts (minor spoilers): I liked The World God Only Knows. It was a nice little comedy-lite anime. I call it comedy-lite because it was laugh out loud, going for a joke style of comedy. For example Katsuragi is constantly playing dating sims on his PFP (PSP) even during class. When one of his teachers gets on to him about he says fine I’ll get 100 on all the next tests, and of course he does. Or when Elsie incorporates herself as Katsuragi’s sister she tells his mom that’s she’s Katsuragi’s father’s illegitimate daughter (he’s over seas the entire anime). This makes Katsuragi’s ex-biker mom a little upset let’s say. But she does completely accept Elsie as a daughter. I did need a nice calm anime to bring me down after watching Future Dairies (Note to self: write Future Dairies review 😉 ). I was disappointed that the OVAs were not on Crunchyroll because they take place between seasons 2 and 3 and it assumes you’ve seen them and new characters were added and the series narrative did a brief, enough to let you know that you’ve missed something. But I blame that on Crunchyroll not the series itself.

Like most anime it left me wanting another episode just to see how the characters deal with the aftermath. I would be very surprised if there was another season because how Katsuragi felt at the end unless he plays it off as a moment of madness and denies his feelings. Overall I really thought this was a pretty decent anime.