Review of The World God Only Knows

Sadness is a state of mind that can often strike us when we least expect it. Seeing as how we have no control over 3rd party factors, which are usually the cause for these emotions, we all come face to face with these feelings. The World God only knows, written by Mamizu Arisawa, takes these metaphysical emotions, and gives them a corporeal and physical form as ‘lost souls’. Interestingly enough, the term lost soul is also referencing a person who has perhaps lost their way, or is not of right mind. This further compounds on the idea that these supposed lost souls are the resultof the amalgamation of both the human sentiment of longing, as well as well as our despair. Despair is the result of an unrequited desire to succeed or achieve; and as seen in TWGOK there are only two options for those who face this problem. The first is to be rescued and freed of your strife by a Katsuragi Keima (the symbol for salvation), or to unfortunately meet your own self destruction due to these emotions. Hidden beneath this colorful and fun show lies a very depressing issue which presents itself worldwide, the topic of clinical depression and its effects on an individual.
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The show is labelled as a harem anime, however I see it as more than just that, I see it as a deconstruction of the harem genre. The show underhandedly mocks the absurdity behind most dating Sims, and the logic they use relating to romance. Similarly this show, acting as a comedy tells us the story of a boy with literally no experience with girls, using his knowledge of video games in order to woo several handful of girls, and do so successfully. However the show realizes how ridiculous of a premise it has, and rides the idea all the way home. At this point the show also has no fear of creating a multitude of plot devices to further push forward this inane harem trope. The prime example of this is how at the end of each and every one of Keima's captures, after removing the lost soul, the girl loses any memories regarding her capturing, an extremely convenient idea which is made obvious and even questioned by the show’s own protagonist. The show understands that it is making a fool of itself and embraces these plot holes, but does so gracefully. While it is a show that shouldn’t and can’t really be taken too seriously, there are still some underlying ideas brought forth by the show, introducing much heavier sub plots which the viewer is free to explore and ponder on their own. The story while simple and seemingly plain is actually quite elegant in that while avoiding pointless over-complications of its story (at least for the first half of the show) it manages to create a world and characters that will intrigue and interest you.
Among the many points of interests that TWGOK presents to us, a many sub plots serve to further draw us into the story (these examples are based solely off of the first season, seeing as how future seasons do draw light on some of these subjects); the demon world that gets mentioned and explained just enough to make us want to learn more of its existence, but not enough to solidify its form, leaving us with a sort of mystifying world that we don't fully understand and can try to piece together ourselves. The lost souls themselves, we are told that they are the escaped souls of dead powerful demons, however if they escaped that implies that they were imprisoned, does this mean that they were evil, and if so what were the wrongs they were convicted of, and who were they. Further on the lost souls, if they were imprisoned that implies the existence of a complex society with set moral standings in the demon world, in that case does the demon world contain a political system similar to that of the human world, and if so is it mere coincidence are have there been past ties that linked both worlds together. We often associate the term demon with negative qualities, however in TWGOK it is quite the opposite and in fact the demons go out of their way to help humans, why is this. By simply opening up our mind and looking past the simplistic nature of the show, we can see a more complex and layered world that has been brought to life.
The story begins with the introduction of the main character Keima Katsuragi, also known by his online name: the legendary "God of Conquest". He is well renowned online as the man capable of taming any girl's heart, any girl from a dating sim at the very least. Unfortunately for Keima this information is available to anyone, and falls into the hands of Elsie, a young girl and demon from hell who has been tasked with saving those who have been affected by 'lost souls'. These lost souls are evil spirits that once dwelled in hell, old spirits of great power who settle into the emptiness in a heart created by negative emotions, and feed off of their host's negative emotions. Elsie, not the brightest crayon in the box, misunderstands Keima's abilities, and sends him an e-mail containing a contract asking him to "conquer" these girls who have been inhabited by lost souls. Unaware that the request was making reference to real life girls he agrees to the terms, however after finding out the truth he rejects his assigned mission, and as such he is faced with a difficult decision: attempt to actually interact with real girls (whom he has next to no experience in dealing with), or go out in an explosion due to is inability to comply with his contract. Unhappily, Keima decides to make the only rational choice, and try to use the skills he has honed through his years of dating sim experience in real life, in order to make real life girls fall in love with him, thereby saving them.
Further analyzing how this show acts as a deconstruction of harems in general, we must look at what most of your average harem shows might contain. At its simplest formula, the show will contain an average and boring main protagonist who for no reasonable explanation draws the attention of all the show's girls. When comparing Keima Katsuragi to this copy and paste character persona, several key points must be noted. Firstly Keima our protagonist is known as the ultimate otaku/nerd. Seeing as how a large portion of the demographic for harem shows consist, not surprisingly, of normal people who are still in middle or high school. Now in response one might find it odd to make the main character one with which most people don't want to relate to. He is supposed to initially appear to be a character with which many of the shows viewers can't relate to, this disparage in relatability acts as a catalyst for one of two reactions in the viewer. The intended response is that of fondness, however the other response which a lot of people seem to feel is a strong dislike of his character. Luckily both of these responses create a tie between the viewer and the protagonist. Secondly, unlike most harem shows, instead of the girls instantly falling for him for no rational reason, most of the time he imposes on them until they eventually develop some semblance of emotions or interest towards him, at which point he exploits the weakness in their heart (lost soul) in order to make them grow fond of him.

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Characters: 9
I am split when it comes to the cast, there are many characters in the main cast who I care for dearly, and who are well written. At the same time however there are also plenty of uninteresting and bland characters that populate the supporting cast. While I do not give as much weight to the supporting cast (especially not in this case as they are supposed to be representative of a typical harem stereotype), it still annoys me the lack of individuality among a lot of the secondary characters. Thankfully the protagonist makes up for what they are lacking. It is in my strong belief that Katsuragi Keima is what authors should aim to create, he is an interest individual with character, and real emotions. He is not a lovable main character, in fact it is quite to the contrary, while he may be helping the females of the show, he never adopts the image of a white knight you would typically expect, and for that I commend the writers with the creation of an actual person rather than a cardboard cut-out with a stereotype plastered on. The next character, and my personal favorite is Elsie, she is quite simple to be honest. A kind and sweet girl who is personified by her small quirks. She will easily put a large grin on your face, and can certainly increase your enjoyment of the show easily.
Character Development: 9
Character development is the concentration of the show to say the least, the story takes us through the lives of the many characters (unfortunately some of the story lines are quite bland to say the least), and we get to see the characters grow and overcome their problems tanks to Keima’s help. While the concentration for development is obviously on the heroines of the show, we also see slight changes in Keima himself as his actions lead him to make personal assessments, a lot of which he ends up retracting.
Plot: 8 (series as a whole would be a 9)
Pleasantly simple plot with small twists on the typical harem tropes, while keeping an original feel to the show, it never really tries to go beyond its boundaries, and for that I find that the story suffers, that is at least, until after the first season.
Pacing: 8 (series as a whole would be a 9)
A good amount of time is spent on each individual heroine, unfortunately however, due to time restraints the show never manages to cover all of the girls seen in the manga. While that may have been unavoidable, it did feel at times that certain arcs were dragged on for too long (cough cough second arc).
Music: 10
I’m sorry if you did not find yourself enjoying the music, you weren’t trying hard enough (or you really just don’t enjoy that genre I guess). An enjoyable intro sung beautifully in Engrish, accompanied by a total of eight ending songs. While most of the ending songs are quite generic, there are two (ED3 and ED8) which really stuck out. While the third was simply enjoyable, the eighth seemed to add to the feel of the show. The song is sung by the voice actor for the main protagonist, in an off key and just plain terrible way, however it manages to put a smile on your face it fits the quirky and fun feel of the show. Otherwise the show has a nice selection of soothing background music which help draw in the viewer.
Animation: 9
The animation, like the story is simple at its base, however is also endearing at the same time. It’s the subtle emotion changes, and enjoyable style that really gives the drawings life, and makes us care and feel connected to the characters of the show.
Enjoyment: 10
Easily one of my top 10 favorite shows, and definitely my favorite harem show (Noucome trailing far behind as my second), the show doesn’t try to be more than it is, a harem show. Yet it still manages to draw a line between itself and other shows akin to it. I have seen all three seasons a total of 2 or three times, along with the occasional odd episode, I truly enjoyed the experience that came with watching it, so much so that I went on to read the manga. Today I look forward with hope to seeing the announcement of a fourth season. I guarantee that anyone can enjoy this show, while they might not like it as much as I do, I promise that giving this show a try is not a waste of your time. And after saying that I award it with my highest score to date.
Final Verdict: 90/100 (series as a whole would be 93/100)