Review of The World God Only Knows

Expected a twist on harem anime, but was disappointed by how boring and silly it became. Not even funny enough to tolerate. ★☆☆☆ Why do I keep being surprised when MyAnimeList gives me another shit recommendation? I saw the 8’s and 9’s (even some 10’s); I saw the 5-stars; and I read the reviews telling me it was funny—that it’s not your typical harem show. I love a good story that parodies, deconstructs, or puts a twist on clichés. And this show sort of, kinda does that? But not really because so much of it falls flat. The premise is actually much better suited for a more seriousstory.

The show starts funny so I had hopes. I expected to get funnier and wittier, but it actually got more and more dull. It became tedious after halfway through. When a show gets boring I switch over to the dub because I can’t stand being forced to read subtitles for a shit show. It’s a chore. The dub actually made it funnier and more bearable.

The story has a different girl every few episodes for our main guy to seduce, but the girls are so one-dimensional. It makes no sense when the show’s premise is supposed to be an attack on clichés. The girls are supposed to represent typical female archetypes in dating sims, but there weren’t any twists or anything unexpected about them. It was played straight.

The main character doesn’t even seduce them in a clever or interesting way either. It just happens without any real struggle or conflict so you’re left with the girls’ stories to support the plotting.

The only character I liked was Elsie, the female sidekick. She was ditzy, funny, and made the show tolerable. She carried half the show for me. Elsie actually cared about the demon contract. She cared about trying to seduce the girls (because her life depended on it).

I wished for a lot more of her because the main character was so uninteresting. I couldn’t relate to him. He was bland and just didn’t seem to care that if he didn’t fulfill his demonic contract he’d die.

The premise deserved a better story than this. Here’s how it could’ve been much more engaging.

- Take it more seriously.
- Should’ve been a character drama that focused on his growth as a person.
- He’d mature, realizing he shouldn’t have such an unhealthy obsession over dating simulators.
- He’d be forced to interact with real women and find out that real human interaction is far more difficult than a video game.
- You’d see him struggle, you’d see him learn, and you’d see him develop.
- It can still be funny. The 40-Year Old Virgin is somewhat like this. It still had great characters and a character arc while remaining funny.

I’m not going to bother with season 2. The show was amusing (at first), but it’s not worth sitting through 12 episodes for.