Kamisama ni Natta Hi

"Tis pointless. We mean there is no point to you studying. The world shall end in 30 days." - Hina Satou

First of all, I'm surprised about what Hina said about the apocalypse of the world, but what could it be? Could it be a zombie invasion or could it be a nuclear fallout? Nope! There's nothing like that will happen in the anime, but what Hina announced is very mysterious!

But is it really true that the world will end in 30 days? After Hina's prediction of the weather changes and the horse racing outcomes, everything is confirmed to be true. But I feel like it's ... too coincidence to be true. If she has checked the weather report and the power level of the horse racer before she meets Youta, that will make sense. But still, her prediction ability is too mysterious to be true. Throughout the series, the story of the anime doesn't get serious until later at about mid-season. Around that you'll find the truth to Hina's Godly powers and her announcement about the apocalypse of the world. And since the anime is original, each episodes has several theories of predicting what will happen in later episodes.

For the characters, Youta is your average high school student. He later encountered Hina who declares herself as Odin-sama. Hina is a very cheerful female MC but gets frustrated whenever someone doesn't recognized her as a Goddess or someone has Godly name which is better than her current name, Hina Satou.

Also there's Izanami, who is very beautiful and also a quiet one. Youta has a crush on her and with the power of Hina's prediction ability, he tries hard to win Izanami's heart. But it all ended in a failure and got rejected. Despite that, he will never give up.

If you watched Charlotte before, Nao Tomori's VA, Ayane Sakura is also voicing Hina Satou which is great and perfect for Hina's cheerful personality. The OP song will make us feel happy when listening to it, while the ED song has a lyrics that give a lot of meaning for the entire anime. Not to mention, the anime is really colorful and shining too, especially the OP and ED of the anime. The character designs are also really nice, they really did a great job at designing Hina and Izanami.

If you know the pattern of Angel Beats and Charlotte, Jun Maeda starts their anime in comedy first before we enter a serious plot. Expect some laugh at the early series of the anime.

Just as I expected. When I heard that Jun Maeda is going to create the saddest anime of all. It was really true. To be honest, I nearly cried at the beautiful ending and also the music at the end of the anime. Probably one of the best episode I ever watched. If you're looking for a tearjerker anime, then this anime will be good for you. Have a good cry everyone!

A COMPLETE DISAPPOINTMENT. A DEVASTATING DISASTER.

No attachments formed.
Full of plot holes, and it's "dramatic" impact covers for it's extreme amount of faults.

I feel sorry for some underrated animes with a rating of 7 to 7.30 where some of the storylines are good and has character depth than this one. This anime deserves a rating of 6.70 to 6.90 cause I think it's unfair for some animes (that have better writing, characters and execution) in par with this anime's rating. So okay IT'S A DISASTER.



SYNOPSIS:
At the end of the last summer vacation of high school, Youta Narukami spends his days preparing for ... the university entrance exams, when a young girl named Hina suddenly appears, proclaiming herself as the "god of omniscience." Youta is confused and does not believe Hina when she tells him "The world will end in 30 days." After witnessing Hina's God-like predictive ability, Youta begins to believe her powers are real. Hina, who is innocent and childlike despite her supernatural powers, decides for some reason to stay at Youta's home. Thus begins the start of their lively summer before the end of the world.


REVIEW BEFORE WATCHING:
When I watched the PVs, something struck my heart and it feels that it is ready for another emotional rollercoaster. I can feel light tears from my eyes and I can already sense that I need a lot of tissues for this. The soundtracks brought such huge impact and they convey feelings through music.

I have high expectations for this one. I am a sucker for drama animes cause I can somehow feel connection and emotional relation to them.

Now let's get to the point,
the main heroine, main protagonist and side characters are funny and they share a comic connection to provide comedic relief. The character introductions are interesting and I hope they would be a good contribution in the story/plot. Some of the characters break the static tropes and has very interesting personalities that could help for the buildup of drama, emotional resonance and depth construction. And the story of what is the truth behind Hina, remaining 30 days and her prediction ability, captures my attention and interest which encourages my mind to create such theories, enhance my predicting ability, assess my analytical and strategic abilities, and it helps me broaden my understanding, knowledge and capabilities in critical thinking skills.

The visuals are stunning and very good and the OSTs are heartwarming. THERE ARE A LOT OF SYMBOLISMS and HIDDEN IMAGERY from the OP and ED, and it is making me extremely curious!

This is just my temporary score and I hope the ending would give justice to this anime and raise its impact towards the viewers. I hope that the drama would be perfectly/neatly executed and I hope that the ending would provide strong resonance of connection, emotional tension and depiction of feelings towards the viewers. May you all have a good day ahead!

Coming out from "Kamisama ni Natta Hi" (KS) with questions is par for the course. How on earth does an original Key anime, helmed by none other than Jun Maeda himself, struggle to barely crack the Top 10 for Fall seasonals on MAL? How did a promising premise from a strong first episode morph into a completely different show in its second week? Also, why was I OK with that? Also also, when did I stop being OK with the narrative?
What in god's name is going on?
If you're looking for answers, you've come to a terrible place; but I'll do my best to give my ... take on all the above points and more. This review contains mild spoilers, so feel free to skip ahead to my Tl;Dr if you'd like to go in blind.

"What happens when you have both the power of god and anime on your side?" KS introduces the audience to Hina, an odd girl dressed like a nun. She approaches the unassuming protagonist, Youta, and nags him to let her crash at his place (this isn't a sus thing, I promise.) You see, Hina claims to be a god capable of predicting future events, and has foreseen that she'll be staying over at Youta's for the time being. Obviously our baffled MC has no reason to believe her audacious claims, but several demonstrations of her divine abilities force him to accept the improbable: that the mysterious Hina really is a god, and that she's offering to act as his personal genie during her stay. But there is a catch: in 30 days, the world ends. It's a great hook to kick off a series, one with limitless potential. Youta is allowed to live life in any way he chooses, with no consequences. And as a title card counted us off towards the impending apocalypse, I was left with several questions. What will Youta do with this power, and what adventures will he end up on? How exactly does the world end? Just who is Hina anyway? What would happen next?

The answer? ...Nothing much, really. KS' second episode, in stark contrast with the ambitious series pilot, goes as far as to sideline Hina and spend 15 minutes doing budget parodies of '90s Hollywood blockbusters. KS only kept up this trend in the coming weeks, putting aside its promising story in exchange for an episodic sitcom. Short asides, featuring a gifted hacker tangled in a mysterious corporate investigation, would serve as the only reminder that KS actually had, y'know, a plot. The Doomsday Clock continued to wind down with every episode, but I'd never feel like KS was headed anywhere.

Though KS didn't pan out the way most audiences would have expected, I was surprised to find out that I was still having a great time. As the kind of critic who finds himself with the bad habit of lamenting over missed storytelling potential, I was uncharacteristically forgiving towards KS' first half. That's because the show still managed to pack some elements that kept things enjoyable from week-to-week. The first idea that seemed interesting was the series' usage of fatalism. The world is coming to an end in 30 days, yet no one in the cast seems to care. There's something pretty funny about Youta encountering a deity, only for him to continue spending his summer in the most vanilla way possible - studying for finals and playing video games. While the characters aren't complex enough to acknowledge these philosophical ideas, I did find this theme amusing all the same. The threat of Armageddon is never depicted as a depressing existential tragedy or anything, but leans towards a somewhat optimistic direction instead. Sure, there are circumstances fated to happen, beyond our control. So let's just focus on making the present the best it can be. Another highlight worth praising is the entertaining comedy. This caught me off guard, given that it wasn't particularly an aspect of the script I was looking forward to. My previous run-ins with Jun Maeda shows involved the borderline sleep-inducing first episode of "Clannad" and the absolutely absurd energy of "Angel Beats." Neither were really to my liking, but KS brings the best of both worlds together for a winning combination. The show walks a fine line between realism and absurdity, with a mildly-heightened reality that snowballs its lunacy to hilarious effect. KS uses Hina's powers to account for some silly contrivances that ensure each episode feels different from the next. Sure, the gags don't make a ton of sense at times and they can often drag throughout an entire episode's runtime. Yet the show makes itself really easy to enjoy, taking inspiration from "Love Is War" through the use of dramatization and pop culture references. Hina and Youta's VAs complement this chaotic energy well, with great line delivery from both.

All these elements set a fittingly fun tone to explore KS' message: the value behind memories. Memories are part-and-parcel of the human experience. Some of them are fun and enjoyable, and those happy moments can bring all sorts of people together. But, as explored in Ep 5^, other memories can be dark and murky, causing pain as they linger in your mind. KS looks at how memories influence our thoughts and motivate us to take action. It's in those bleak places where we need to seek closure and look ahead, clinging to our past while seeking out the future. And in overcoming those obstacles with those we love, we strengthen our bonds and make new memories to look back on. This theme offers an explanation for why the show was willing to forego the big plot teased in the first episode. KS was more concerned about putting together a wild summer filled with adventure, fun and heart. Those days of sun were presented really well, thanks to great work from P.A. Works. The studio hadn't quite topped themselves or anything, but average P.A. visuals still look more stunning than most studios' best works. Na-Ga makes a comeback with KS' character designs, so be sure to look out for those if you're a massive fan of Key instalments. Personally my favorite inclusion to the show was its soundtrack. Nagi Yanagi shines with all her song performances and accompanies the cast on their Summer holidays. As the world neared its end, these friends made great memories, which geared them to face the uncertainty of KS' second half. And here's where things start to fall apart.

KS did deliver some good material in the early stages, but cracks were already beginning to emerge. If I were to summarize KS as a whole, the phrase I'd come up with is "don't worry about it." There's no need for a grand overarching plot that fully utilized Hina's powers, there was no need to worry too much about generating big conflict. It's all about having a good time! It's a chill approach that I could get behind, and didn't turn out all that pointless either. However, a couple of problems persisted, taking this thoughtless construction to an unhealthy extreme. Characters felt largely one-dimensional, and the unnecessarily large ensemble cast made matters worse. Youta is a boring blank slate who's in love with his childhood friend, and has to rely on gimmicky stage-impersonations (ramen connoisseur, "mahjong" prodigy, etc.) to disguise his one-dimensional nature. Not too much I can say about Hina^^, but the other main characters don't fare all that well; given that Izanami and Kokuhou are supposedly Youta's best friends, it never feels like he gets a lot of time with them. Things get sillier when we look at the rest of the ensemble, which feel even more inconsequential. The biggest offender is Miss Tengan, who adds absolutely nothing to the story. All she does is act grumpy and show up for the most asinine of reasons. Sora's entire, like, personality is totally based off, like, how a boomer author thinks pre-teens talk IRL. Oh, and there was this loan shark dude who started off as a bad guy, had his entire character arc take place off-screen, and showed up uninvited and reformed a handful of episodes later. Having the core characters underwritten isn't a huge gripe for me, but seems mildly puzzling given that Maeda is supposedly an expert at tugging the heartstrings. This problem, coupled with the overbearing number of side extras, means that the script has no choice but to give important characters rushed flashbacks that introduce their backstories. Speaking of the script, it follows the aforementioned trend of not really giving a shit. Due to the nature of the first half, there's little in the way of objectives or goals that Youta and the gang need to work towards. Maeda's idiosyncrasies as a writer also means he takes any and every opportunity to elicit an emotional response, at times to the detriment to the story. But eh, subtlety is kinda thrown out the window sometimes. If there's an extreme road to take, you can count on Maeda to stack his chips and go all-in. Suspension of disbelief doesn't really matter, "don't worry about it."

These issues are further exacerbated in KS' second half. The guise of a "turn-your-brain-off" comedy comes apart quicker than one of Youta's silly impersonations, leading me baffled at several of the show's writing choices. As it turns out, the reason why Maeda overstuff KS with cast members is for a big attempt at emotional payoff in its penultimate episode, reinforcing the message of finding strength through good memories. But while thematically sound on-paper, it landed pretty weak within the show, because the characters that shared those moments with Youta didn't create much connection with the audience. Poor pacing made me feel that the show was still spinning on its heels, even in the most vital of moments. The script doesn't go full-"Charlotte", and the final episode manages to stick a somewhat satisfying landing. However, it does find ways to go off the rails in other areas. Hina's powers are far from the dumbest plot contrivances in the show, which Maeda crams in arbitrary conflict and bizarre choices that only serve to further pad the runtime^^^. A couple problems that could be solved with a simple conversation instead are dragged out across 15 minutes, and other obstacles are thrown in a messy way to generate artificial issues that are less tense than confusing. These strange issues distract from what would otherwise be powerful moments on their own right.

Earlier this year a Tweet circulated, claiming that Maeda had penned the "most heart-breaking anime of all time." Props to him for the attempt, but his questionable writing makes me wonder if those emotional beats ever reached their fullest potential. With all this being said, I've decided that the biggest weakness of KS is a lack of direction. Outside of its central theme, audiences don't have much to latch onto other than a mystery box hanging over their heads. Unfortunately the box is opened far too late into the story and forces Maeda into a corner, resulting in poor writing choices that ensures that the entirety of KS is lesser than the sum of its parts.

Tl;Dr:

"Kamisama" is unquestionably at its best when spending its carefree time in the summer. A neat theme about cherishing memories is accompanied with entertaining laughs. While seeing a wasted premise felt somewhat disappointing, this unexpected approach made me curious to see how KS would balance its more emotional elements later on. However, the script by Jun Maeda appears ill-equipped to deal with the storytelling potential teased since Episode 1, favoring to leave aside a majority of its hefty pacing responsibilities to the very end. This "mystery-box" storytelling necessitates weird plot contrivances and limits the places our story could go. Our already-messy script then undergoes more padding, which leaves more questions than answers and distracts from the emotional moments. There's no clear goal throughout the series, and it's a trick that worked… until it didn't. 5/10~

***

STRAY RAMBLINGS (SPOILERS):

- ^Ep 5 is quite easily my favorite episode of the series. The comedy was less balls-to-the-wall, no absurd disguises or whatever, so I really appreciated the relatively lowkey break from all the shenanigans. Which was fitting, given the more serious subject matter. Definitely took some cues from "Kakushigoto" and the infamous "Violet Evergarden" Episode 10. Not that I'm complaining, of course, those were great stories. It proved to be one of the few times KS was capable of balancing its gags with the emotional beats.
- ^^If you've made it this far, I've take it you've made it to at least Ep 9. Last warning. With that out of the way, let's talk Hina. My feelings on her are kinda mixed, and I'm not sure if all I have to say is very constructive, given the subject matter. Please forgive my ignorance if I hit a wrong nerve. First, we're gonna have to address her romantic attraction to Youta. To me, it looked like a clear example of how Maeda was cramming in plot points for the purpose of hitting us in the feels. It was a decision that made zero sense to me and had no buildup before it was brought up. Although, I'm not sure how much of my conclusions are impacted by my biases, given her… less than attractive stature. I've seen enough of the Uzaki-chan debate to be scarred from coming near a similar discussion, so hopefully acknowledging my potential biases will be enough to state my case. The other aspect I wanted to touch on was the portrayal of Hina from Episode 10 and onwards. Logo's Syndrome seems to be a fictional condition, borrowing symptoms from muscle atrophy and mental handicaps. While I'm probably not fit to judge how true-to-life the performance was, I do find the hypothesis posited by Hina's caretaker rather interesting. Memories do make up a big part of our identity, so seeing that realisation dawn on Youta in Ep 11 was pretty impactful.
- ^^^Wow, what a needlessly convoluted script. Please allow me to nitpick away… It started off strong by throwing away the Doomsday clock and skipping ahead past New Years' and Finals. While the pacing felt unpredictable, the joke setup did not, as Suzuki played around as a Hina stand-in for the first half. Suzuki screams less "genius" and more "BVS Lex Luthor," but minus Jesse Eisenberg's chaotic energy. His ploy to force memories onto Youta for no reason other than to callback to prior episodes in a sentimental manner makes zero sense. I get it, the show has this big nihilist theme about futility and predestination or whatnot, but passively accepting a sad outcome doesn't excuse the characters for dragging out this pseudo-intellectual plan for anywhere up to 5 MONTHS. If you wanted to pretend to have friends, there was no need to pull out a 20-step 400-IQ chess move that nearly backfired because your mark was being emo and stupid. The messiness doesn't end there. Apparently all those escapades as a mahjong pro and a ramen critic were mere training for Youta's big mission... getting into a remote hospital. How is it that he's able to just wear a key card and waltz his way into disguises wherever he goes? If you're not gonna make him put in effort to conceal his identity, why make it happen in the first place? Apparently HIna's rehabilitating after her brain surgery, which left her with a light scalp of hair and a sudden fear of men. Why the surprise phobia, you ask? Because the plot allowed Youta to take Hina in as a legal guardian of sorts... but only if Hina gives consent. This too left me hella baffled. If a patient is not in a mental state capable of making decisions, it's up to the guardian to exercise control over the situation (this extends to extremes such as euthanasia.) So if this boy who looks way too young for his age is arbitrarily given provisional guardian rights... what was the point in shoehorning in this conflict to begin with? Maeda could have easily just left those provisional rights out of the question and the scene would be nearly unchanged.
- Ep 9 had easily the WORST hacking sequence of all time. Fish? Really?
- BEST GIRL: Hmm, as I mentioned earlier, none of the characters stood out to me. Now, let me have a look at the candidates… wait, you're telling me Sora's a film buff? MAD. Gee, now I feel terrible for dissing her in the main review, but I thought it was a funny bit. Anyways, hats off to her!

***

And that's all I have to say about Maeda's latest work. Apologies if I seemed a little too hard on the guy, his reputation really precedes him for all the right and wrong reasons. Although given how entertaining some of this show was, I may finally be inclined to give his older works a second try. If you happen to like my verbose rants, feel free to check out my other reviews for seasons past and present, peace~

One of the most curious questions about mankind is how did we come to exist. Is it from natural evolution or is there a higher being such as God that created us? The Day I Became a God gives off a strange vibe but not only its title but also premise. What is this show that P.A. Works and Aniplex have bene working on after all these years?

It shouldn’t be a big surprise that director Yoshiyuki Asai returns to direct this anime original. Coming into this show, I am reminded of another anime that premiered nearly 5 years ago. Remember Charlotte? If not, that’s fine ... because this anime isn’t connected to that show at all. Still, that does raise some concerns as the director made some rather questionable decisions. The big question to ask yourself is what does The Day I Became a God offer for us.

To start off, this is indeed an original anime and is Key’s third project since Angel Beats and Charlotte. Watching the first episode triggered a familiar feeling with other Key’s works. It didn’t too long to meet the Key-style protagonist, Yota Narukami, and main heroine, Hina Sato. It’s like fate destined them to meet with Hina proclaiming herself to be a goddess. Claiming to “Odin”, she immediately shows off her God-like complex in a rather peculiar, yet comical way. Make no mistake, Hina is more of an airhead than some malevolent entity. Regardless whether you believe in her words, Hina’s hyperactive energy attracts all the attention in the show. Her personality equates to almost child-like behavior and it’s up to Yota to guide her. In essence, Hina learns what it’s like to be a normal person and enjoy normal activities such as eating with friends, playing video games, or visiting new places. The duo’s character bond is peculiar but it’s shown to be one developed with trust despite some of their daily mishaps. Hina also wants to help Yota in some ways such as trying to help him with his feelings towards Kyouko Izanami. It’s the budding childhood romance you’d probably expect from Key’s anime. However, this isn’t a Romeo and Juliet fairy tale.

In later episodes, we learn the truth about Hina. I’m not going to spoil the events but let’s just say that Hina is suffering from a condition that is far from normal. Watching her personality change is a strange sensation as the latter half of the show feels rather different compared to the first few episodes. Obviously, the director and staff planned this from the start and everyone’s reactions will be different. To me, the plot needed more than what it showed. The first half pushed the story in such comical direction that this show itself should’ve included comedy as part of its genres. Drama hits later into the story with the startling revelations. Yota’s desire to save Hina transcends his personality from a butt monkey into a more of a hero, one who promises to help his friend no matter what.

To be honest, I wish there could be a lot more to say about the supporting cast. When I looked over and tried to remember their roles, most of them really didn’t make impact. Even Kyouko and Hiroto didn’t have a role that sold me on the show’s story. I mean, we do have the typical best friend (Ashura Kokuhou) or younger sister, Sora Narukami for the male protagonist. However, the majority of the characters are overshadowed by Youta and Hina. Think about it, did any of them really made you go back to the story and saw them in a different light? The worst written characters are the adults in the series such as the CEO or Yota’s parents. They don’t typify the example of an important character. Only Kyouko with her background story and Hirito’s character role had some significance to the overall show’s direction. But even then, it felt so lacking and forgettable. I hate to say it but with even that colorful key visual, the characterization in this series just don’t impress.

Yes, before you ask, this anime is created by Jun Maedea, you know the same guy who also holds noticeable projects under his belt such as Clannad and Little Busters! His themes of family and friend bond is a recurring element in this anime. The character designs also reflect in his style with the cast giving off a visual novel-style look, especially for the female roster. Now, it’s obvious some people will say it’s generic but for what’s worth, the anime does have an appeal with its colorful attraction. From the over eccentric character reactions to some of the emotional moments, it’s definitely lives the standards of modern production quality. The theme songs also contains a colorful balance between the cherry upbeats and the melancholic tunes. And if you ask me, Hina’s voice can get stuck into your head sometimes with that hyper energetic God-complex

I guess it’s a recurring trend now. Every 5 years, it seems Key wants to show off their latest projects and here we are. Will we get another 1-cour original show in 2025? I guess that bridge will be crossed when we get to it. For now, this anime convinced me to keep your expectations in check and be aware that anime originals have its risk. The risk here? Too much Goddess and not enough goodness.

There is a lot of fun to be said about this show, even if it follows a simple formula in terms of it's delivery when it comes to episode to episode. But it's all in good fun, and very entertaining from start to finish. Let me explain.

We stat off with the story, with this kid looking supposed god telling a normal guy that she is a god, and that the world will end soon. Pretty chilling right? But the interesting side to it, is that we honestly don't know if she is telling the truth, or that she knows something more than she's telling. Which ... adds more depth, when things she predicts, actually come out the way she saw it. Which just leaves our MC dumbfounded and confused. But it also has it's funny side, with how situations plan out, and how the characters interact with one another.

For starters, our self proclaimed god reminds me so much of Rista from the cautious hero series in terms of her reactions. If things don't go her way, she reacts like a little kid, and it's funny with how over the top it is. Hell, the whole set up in episode 3 was just pure laughs for me with it's execution. Great stuff. The MC himself is pretty great too, sure he may look like any generic character, but it fits in well with the story.

The art is also a good highlight, it can be bright and colourful, and other times it can fit night time super well. Cannot go wrong there, along with the music and sounds in the anime fitting each and every scene. They really did a good job there.

All in all, you should watch this show! It's funny, and it keeps the interest following with it's plotline. Give it a go!

Maeda Jun is back with another original work to break our hearts yet again.

You know, over the course of the final quarter of Kamisama ni natta hi, I genuinely asked myself multiple times a day, “what the hell happened to Maeda Jun in his childhood to give him this much pain to express in every series he writes?” While I still don’t have the answer to that, it’s apparent this man has something that enables him to be able to break our hearts like this.

Disclaimer, this show is heartbreaking. Not in the sudden hit by a car type of pain that we felt in Angel ... Beats and Charlotte, but more slow burning, death by a thousand cuts type pain. Without spoiling much, this show goes from very happy slice of life moments to prolonged despair, sadness and watching characters we just saw being upbeat a few weeks ago, suffering over a 2-3 week period at the end. Its final arc was honestly hard to watch for me. But, that is truly a testament to how well written it is given that we developed such strong emotional bonds to these characters.

The writing is really good in this show and I honestly felt very connected to every single member of the cast. I think the story and its twists while predictable, are still enjoyable and make sense logically. I think the build up to those twists is really well done and the character development is handled nicely as well. In that regard, it’s a much better experience than Maeda’s last work, Charlotte, which really went off the rails at the end. I think this stays pretty consistent throughout.

Art and animations is as solid as you’ve come to expect from Key projects. In fact, I’d definitely say this is the best looking one of the bunch. As usual, we’ve got a really emotional OST this time around as well, nothing surprising there. It really makes several scenes in the show potentially iconic.

Well written story, likeable characters, emotional connection to the cast, great OST, nice art and animation, etc. It’s hard to think of anything that could be better for me in this show. I’m always a glass half full type of person and looking at the positives here, I can’t recommend this enough if you’re a fan of Maeda’s work. Kamisama ni natta hi gets 10 out of 10.

I want to clarify that I write this when i seen the chapter 11, although this is enough to have a conclusive review about this anime.

If you think that this anime is bad because of a few things that are talked about, I allow you to read me, maybe I will open your mind to enjoy this anime as I did.

In the first chapters there are not very important things to highlight. We are shown the life of young students who have average goals enjoying their activities with the presence of Hina, who has the power to look to the future. Everything seems to be ... pure comedy within this, but then we are shown scenes of a young man with white hair looking like a slave to the antagonist of the series. Also cryptic scenes of Yota's parents. He was just leaving us clues about the future development of the story.

At no time did I feel that the comedy that this series was offering us was bad or boring, quite the opposite. Something that I thought that the author was not manipulating well was the essence, since there were already 8 chapters of the same thing and they were not even showing us the past of the characters. The series did not seem boring to me, the problem was that I expected to come across a deep story, not a superficial comedy that would give me an experience similar to that of any other existing comedy series. If there is a remarkable detail in these 8 chapters, it is that, despite the obvious countdown to the end of the world; Yota, Hina and their friends are not afraid of the world ending, the biggest concern is shown in chapter 9 (the "why" you will have to find out yourself due to the spoiler).

Something that is criticized in this anime next is its "lack of work" in the main characters, although it seems wrong to think that The Day I Became a God need characters with a strong past as if they were Angel Beats. The idea in characters like Yota is that we worry about their present and the future, not about some past event. Also, his lack of past seems justifiable and probably a genius. Now the typical character who has a dark past is very normal so that he seems to us a strong-minded hero who does not let the darkness of his it consume him, but here Yota does not have to be a hero, the author created him with the purpose that it reminds you and your friends. To be frank, few people have a past like Batman's. If the average life that Yota has seems great to me, it is because it breaks that continuous clichéd need of the authors of having to create a character with a bad past so that we consider the idea that he is not perfect and that has led him to what is now, the problem with this is that characters with a murky past are not so identifiable. And if you think that identifying with an anime character is silly; I am not going to force you to believe otherwise, but identifying yourself is possible in every area.

The animation and soundtrack have received criticism, but I find them pleasant, the only moment that I found a bit tedious on the part of the soundtrack was in chapter 9 when they play a piano version of the opening song repeatedly, although everything is fixed in the following chapters; the soundtrack seems to take more force than in all the others.

In chapters 10 and 11 the protagonist has been criticized for his behavior, and I agree with feeling angry about what he did in 10, but in 11 it was not difficult for me to understand his behavior. Just pay attention to the anime and savor all that essence. I do not want to make a section of spoilers in this review to release my expressions and thus make you empathize with this protagonist more easily. I'm just going to say that I wouldn't behave differently from Yota if I felt the same fear of losing something so precious, it must even be difficult to convince yourself of what happens. Those of us who saw this anime perhaps sympathize with the characters of it, but we only look at the story, Yota is the one who is living it.

I'm sure it's an anime that needs to be given a chance in this fall 2020 season, if you manage to open up enough to his story, it won't be difficult for you to "enjoy."

Edit:

I have read the above several times and I have noticed that I am missing a bit of everything in the review, the more I read it the more I want to continue showing that this series is not mediocre.

The anime industry is full of people of all kinds. There are those who just seem to enjoy the complexity of one, there are those who lose persistence when looking at a review and blindly trust a person they do not know. "Love is blind" is human nature and one of the messages that we can squeeze out of any anime and it never deteriorates. "Nobody has the absolute truth" said the person who did not have the absolute truth.

"Does this anime deserve a lower score than it already has?" The only thing I could answer for that is that each person will have a different answer on that question. For a certain part; I do not care about the score an anime gets on this website, in the end I consider myself persistent enough to see how much I will like an anime that few manage to enjoy and blatantly boast of that privilege. On the other hand; I feel like a lot of people fail in trying to figure out why this anime has a low rating, even though it's just my own judgment. The real problem is that many watch this anime under the criteria of others and lose the virtue of what could be their own experience.

"How easy is it to catch a person at your own criteria?" If my eyes are not lying, it is as easy as writing the chronology of an anime and simplifying its story. It is as easy as describing each character and deconstructing her components to explain her purposes and, with it, making a pseudo-demonstration that she is mediocre.

The Day I Became a God is not an anime with as many components as Angel Beats. Angel Beats has a plot that tends to capture more the attention of its viewers and more characters to develop, but it is completely different from what The Day I Became a God is. The one with the little angels has all the cards to form very well developed characters from the beginning without seeming unreal, something that the one with the Goddess lacks. In one the plot follows the characters after death, who had a previous life not dissimilar to Yota's. In another the characters are still alive, so the realistic past of the average Japanese is totally believable. The only thing that Jun maintains are some of the things from his script that characterize him, but the starting point is something else that has not previously been seen of him.

Some characters within the cast only work for comedy and little else, but it is somewhat seer and I find it unoriginal to criticize this. The characters have average goals from the beginning, and this works very well to give more punch to the internal dialogue of the final episode. The ending is predictable if you have seen Maeda's previous works, I do not see it as a mistake, nor does it spoil your experience watching this anime. This anime has holes and could have been improved, but there is no reason to be arrogant and ask for more; the author focused on only one thing when he created his story.

This is a work with a lighter story than the previous ones, it has a simple story where it encompasses more realism at the same time as fantasy and surrealism that do not collide. I'm sure Maeda didn't create this for the sole enjoyment of a teenage audience, on the contrary, there seem to be things that only the most experienced are able to notice.

"The world will end (and surpass) in 30 days...in a common figure of empty, draining and manipulative-feeling rhetoric and hyperbolic sense." What happened to you Jun Maeda, the "god" that could do no wrong (well, Strike 1 for Charlotte)?

Jun Maeda: The Day I Became a "emotionally-pulling heartstrings" God. If you recognize this name even in an inkling of coincidence, he's the one who has produced instant classics of Kanon, Air, Clannad and few others. Amongst them all, the prolific ones are the 5-year-gap collaborations with himself, Na-Ga, Aniplex and P.A. Works, with the massively popular Angel Beats! in 2010, and the somewhat controversial love-hate relationship ... of Charlotte in 2015. Now, in 2020, after suffering from Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM) and recovering from a heart transplant in 2016, this human "god" is back with his 3rd collab project: implanting recurring themes of magical realism in a reality-fantasy dichotomy setting, and adding the "god" complex to present us this show: Kamisama ni Natta Hi, directed by none other than Charlotte director Yoshiyuki Asai (and wary people will have already speculated massive red flags at the ready).

If you know anything about how Jun Maeda's works go, always expect the shows to go ham at an unorthodox approach of similar and instaneously recognizable themes, and Kamisama is no different: whiplash-inducing tonal shifts between joyful times of (say) playing baseball or sad, depressing family bonds (with a piano), you name it, this show has similar references to fall back to the usual style of storytelling...albeit in a linear fashion of activities, comedic reliefs of jokes and gags to evoke the sense of oxymorons to seemingly unrelated series of events pertaining to the main plot. It's like this show is trying to be a Steins;Gate time mechanism-thingie but just couldn't pull it off, much less gracefully. This was the result of Charlotte's divisive ending episode that took everyone by surprise (at the time of its airing), but THANK GOD both the creator himself and Yoshiyuki Asai somehow learnt his lessons for this show...or was it?

The plot of this show, let it be known: everything about it is just as what you recollect of Charlotte, just pictured in a diverse setting of "The World's End": a group of characters just whisking their ordinary everyday lives, until this Odin "god" of a character shows up out of left field and exclaims that "You only have 30 days to live. And I possess the evidence to endorse my claim: my omniscience!" Imagine if someone told you that in real life, you'd be scrambling to have a plan to live out your last days, but this character cast just took that proclamation, throw it out of the window and said: "OK, we'll merely embark on our daily lives even if you tell us so, because that ain't gonna happen to us." And O My God, it doesn't take a stubborn mind to know that this will not be the case, and they REALLY "scramble" to do mundane stuff that could cost days or even up to a week max, because EVERYTHING IS RELEVANT and we wanna "celebrate" the passing of the world before the time of oblivion comes, happy or sad. Would you know it; everything is just an endless spiral of paradoxes pertaining to the lack of congruence and inconsistency of the former. Even if they managed to ace the landing, it's only a by-product of what potential this show could've had, it just had a very rocky story from start to finish.

For the love of God, we all know how much Jun Maeda has delivered his high impact rate upon the anime community since 2006 with the remastered Kanon series, and spawning his Key VN anime adaptations since then. The idea really worked well in the late 2000s and even onto the early 2010s, culminating with Angel Beats!, which was at the time, unlike anything ever seen in anime form before. The passion of the entire character cast and embracing each other like a team of comrades down to the final episode, it was magnifique bliss to see that each and everyone has a meaning and sole reason to live among the MCs, and everything was there for a reason. Charlotte on the other hand, was the start of Jun Maeda's downward spiral "black sheep" scriptwriting abilities, and stacked with Yoshiyuki Asai's lack of directorial experience (of which this was his debut directorial show), it was a recipe for disaster awaiting to eventually happen. And if Kamisama's anything of noteworthy, it's just a direct carbon copy of Charlotte, just only handled "decently" than the last.

You want to know what's been kept from Charlotte? OH YES, the one-dimensional, shallow, personality-devoid character archetypes are back. Right from the beginning, take everything about the characters in that show, and Ctrl-C-V into here:
- Youta Narukami is Yuu Otosaka, not like both characters are any better counterparts of their own show, and are more at times, an annoyance in and of themselves. A worse circumstance of the typical nervous self-absorbed tunnel-visioned wreck.
- Hina Sato is Nao Tomori, same personality, same features, same everything. The girl who has a personality akin to a raging female dog and the self-righteous kind...YEAH.
- Ashura Kokuhou is Joujirou Takajou, the sports-obsessed guy who always likes to show off and be a broski.
- Kyouko Izanami is Yusa Nishimori, the same one-faced innocent and popular girl whom is the ire of the MC's romantic "advances", and is just for show. There's no significance of the romantic sub-plot anyways.
- Sora Narukami is Ayumi Otosaka, the caring Imouto of the MC and while both characters are different pertaining to their roles in their show, it's just the innocent and stubborn personality that is a constant cop-out.
- Kako Tengan is a lawyer, and one in name only. She's a brute mahjong supporter instead, and is also just another character for show.
- Hiroto Suzuki is Takehito Kumagami, the background "helper" in discerning plot twists in their respective shows, and are simultaneously plot devices as well. Also, adult abuse is prevalent in the former's life.
Others are batshit, nothing noteworthy to be said: plot-for-plot, when you show up, you do your role as told on the script. Trust me, once they're gone from their scenes, I can't remember one doggone shit about which character(s) surfaces from time to time, and always having to pander the character list to identify who's who. So, so bad.

The formulaic model of Jun Maeda's saving grace will always be both in the art/animation and music, because that is the only thing that he does best now. First off, how can you criticize shows made by P.A. Works on the spectrums of magical realism levels of fantasy? Just look at Iroduku and Maquia, and tell me if those shows aren't high-calibre stunning productions of the studio in recent times. Kamisama is no different here with great visuals and vivid backgrounds that are more alike to Iroduku (in that regard). The same results continue with the music that he purposefully composed with Nagi Yanagi for this show's OST, and all the songs from the opening, ending to insert songs feels delicately made and warm-feeling to the hear with cozy feelings of nostalgia.

The Godfather of Manga, Osamu Tezuka, once said: "A good story can save poor animation, whereas good animation cannot save a poor story." and this is VERY true, even to this day. Sadly, the Jun Maeda of today is unsustainable, even if he came back from his heart transplant to concoct this story based on his real-life circumstances. We might as well call him: Jun Maeda: The Day I (finally failed) Becoming an "emotional tonal shift" God. The worst of the 3 collab projects, by a very long shot.

We've expected better, Jun Maeda, but this is just plain distasteful.

Infuriating. When I consider every aspect of this anime, that is the first word that comes to mind: The infuriating characters, plot, dialogue, music, art, and acting. It's fascinating. I never thought I'd actually find an anime so blatantly terrible that I cannot stand even a single second of it.

For some background, this is Jun Maeda's third original anime—if you're familiar with Charlotte and Angel Beats, you'll know his writing formula. His stories begin as comedy/slice-of-life centered around high school students; in the second half, an incident occurs. Everything becomes melodramatic—with a supernatural twist. In Charlotte, it was superpowers. In Angel Beats, it was the ... afterlife. In The Day I Became God, it was the end of the world. Like his prior anime, the story is much more complicated than just a gimmick. If you noticed the 1/10 score, you could guess this is his worst one yet. Maeda’s tropes and cliches were passable in 2010, nowadays this anime is a relic. It has the same sappy soundtrack, copy-pasted character designs, and sterile background art. It is like a knock-off version of Clannad your grandma would buy for you at a flea market.

Unless the character writing in this anime is a failed attempt at satire, I cannot fathom why they're so insanely stupid; their actions make no sense whatsoever. The protagonist is so blind to his narcissism that all his motivations and goals seem downright appalling and impossible. We don't really get to know anyone else past their surface-level problems or issues. It doesn’t help that the tone immediately switches from fun, upbeat, and childish to depressing and melodramatic cry porn that only a 12-year-old would think is profound. And on top of everything else, after not one but TWO mind-numbingly stupid "twists" (that aren't really twists since you can see them coming a mile away), it tries to shoehorn in cringe-worthy pedophilic romance. Because why not? Just throw more matches on this monstrous dumpster fire. To fully unpack what went wrong, we need to start from the beginning.

One hot summer day Youta met a girl dressed like a nun calling herself Odin. No questions asked, I have never wanted to punt a character down a flight of stairs more since I saw this gremlin. Odin proclaims the world will end in 30 days because she can see the future. She talks like an annoying brat, yet she acts condescending because of her supernatural abilities. Soon enough, she proves her powers are real by predicting the winner of a horse race. Twice. Youta quickly takes advantage of her powers by getting her advice on how to win over his crush, Kyouko. Since the world is ending, Odin tells him to confidently confess his feelings. He gets flatly rejected because Kyouko has no feelings for him. Inevitably Odin's advice doesn't work right away. Her powers only seem to work when the plot decides it. The conflict of the show seems to be convincing Kyouko to fall in love with Youta. He tries to impress her in a variety of ways, playing in a mahjong tournament, assisting with a dying business, and in general helping his friends achieve their goals and aspirations. It reaches a point where he becomes their messiah, at least that's what the show wants us to think. The truth is, the one who does most of the work is Odin, with her abilities to see the future. Her name is actually Hina, but she calls herself Odin because she's quirky. She also talks like a Shakespeare caricature to seem cute, but it just makes her sound desperate for attention.

Do you know that one guy who acts like they're the center of the universe? That's Youta. If one of his friends is going through a rough patch, he's not the first one who comforts them. But his friends are always there for him when he needs help. Whether it be studying, working on a project, or advice. The few times he emotionally supports a friend, he does it to satisfy his own ends. He only helps Kyouko so she will accept his advances. While his friend is going through life-altering trauma, he just monologues, "I thought she loved me, but this proves she probably doesn't." It's like he forgets he's the only one with problems. When one of his friends is suffering (and sensitive to loud noises), he yells, screams, and tries to shake them. When they're depressed, he'll get upset. Not because he's emotionally drained from supporting them, but because he misses getting attention from them. I wanted to reach through the screen and pimp-slap him for being such a tool.

The only reason why he has so many friends is that they're not real people. It's like they're programmed to like him. No one calls him out for being annoying. If he was a kid, I could've understood his childish personality, but he isn't. Youta is 18 years old, but he has the emotional maturity of a middle schooler. Youta isn't a person—he's a Generic Male Protagonist; He can't do anything wrong, he has a supportive male best friend, his love internist is nearly non-verbal, he has a bizarre crush on his little sister, and a quirky girl hangs around him.

One would assume doing acts of kindness would make him a better person. This is not the case. His development is stagnant because he never realizes how to properly treat his friends. Whenever they're in need, emotionally, he isn't there unless he has something to gain. He doesn't learn why his romantic advances keep failing, even though it is abundantly evident to us. Youta loudly proclaims his frustration in his shrill, annoying voice. Their whole relationship, and Youta's development, fall apart due to incompetent, ham-fisted writing. Watching Youta's desperate attempts to win over Kyouko, despite his repeated rejections, is infuriating.

Meanwhile, Kyouko is going through drama in her personal life, which Youta doesn't seem to care about. Their relationship was staler than a month old loaf of wonderbread. It was like watching two planks of wood stare longingly at each other, all the while we're being subjected to painfully unfunny humor. He's firmly set on making her love him—without really considering what she wants. At worst, he attempts to manipulate her for attention. Once, he fooled her into believing she was on the phone with her deceased mother when it was really just Odin faking her voice. It's fucked up, but don't worry, the show thinks this is cute! Thanks for that, Maeda.

I hoped Kyouko would've realized how much of an asshole Youta is, but of course, she did not. Her brief backstory was a nakedly obvious attempt to manipulate our emotions, but I felt nothing. We're forced to witness, I kid you not, a montage of cute photos with Kyouko and her dead mother on screen. I laughed my ass off. Why did we need this? For character development? No, that would be too easy. Kyouko suffers from a lifetime of depression due to being unable to reconcile her mother's death, and she summarizes it as just "low spirits." It's not. You're suffering from chronic depression, please seek help. Jun Maeda really should've talked to someone who actually has depression. Kyouko's entire being is unfathomably shallow. She is a trope, not a believable person.

Youta says all the time that he's in love with Izanami, but when it comes down to it, he doesn't seem to notice when she's sad unless someone tells him. Does he really care about her, or is he just attracted to her? When they finally talk, the show cuts away to something else because their relationship is suddenly unimportant. It never mattered. In short, the early show is wasted on pointless episodic slice-of-life comedy; it's not funny it's just tedious.

I assume Maeda also noticed Youta's lack of development and agitating personality because his "character arc" becomes irrelevant. As the days ticked by, marked by a calendar at the end of each episode, nothing developed. The dramatic stakes never rose. All we get are a few minor hints Hina is hiding her true identity. In the eighth episode, the entire three-act structure resets. A new conflict begins, revolving around Hina. The whole plot beforehand becomes irrelevant. The mysterious clues boil over, and there it is—the twist! This one singular moment throws all logic out of the window. This has to be the WORST twist I have seen in a big-budget anime all year. Once the final arc began, everything took a turn for the worst.

Suddenly the focus is shifted to a new character! Just what we needed! He’s a edge-lord nerd who isn’t around long enough for me to care about him. His backstory is meant to be taken seriously, but it is melodramatic and torturous to watch. I cannot understate this part; his voice acting is AWFUL. Listening to him speak, literally at any moment, sounds like nails scraping on a chalkboard. When he yells, it feels like needles are being jabbed into my eardrums. He is almost entirely irrelevant. It's obvious they shoehorned him in at the last minute, but why? More kindling on the dumpster fire.

I had hoped the second half would have some levity or humor to off-set the inevitable major tragedy (like Fruits Basket or Houseki no Kuni, which are already great works of art). Nope. This is cry porn—wallowing in its own crocodile tears. This is an anime studio taking what is at best an offensively LAZY script—the proof of this is that we don't get to know Youta really at all before the plot suddenly jumps the shark. Instead, we are told to feel empathy for him through the magic of cliched music and terrible voice acting. These are professional actors, but the writing sucks so much they became worse. For most of them, this will be the worst job of their careers. It's honestly such a horrible script that had I been an editor for it, I would've used it to prank Jun Maeda with the old "burning bag of poop on the porch" gag. Actually, that's offensive to poop.

Every time it attempts to be "deep," the dialogue sounds so saccharine and cringey. Reading the subtitles felt like Maeda ripped up a dozen Hallmark birthday cards and pasted them in his script. This anime is morally bankrupt because it takes trauma that people suffer through every day, then uses it as a cheap plot device to distract us from the shoddy writing. It wants us to relate to its suffering characters, but it doesn't make a dramatic effort to earn our sentiment. Instead, it chooses disgraceful emotional manipulation. I am both concerned and depressed that human beings could be tricked into liking this anime. It has no redeeming value, no artistic integrity, zero thought-provoking moments, and nothing that could be called unique or creative. The word original never crossed Jun Maeda's mind when he wrote this.

I could continue to go on about all the issues in this anime, but I will leave it at this. Please, people, I am begging you, don't keep the bar so low. We can encourage some fantastic, inspirational, beautiful, cathartic anime. They exist. This is not one of them. If you don't believe me, see it for yourself. You will realize this is an emotionless hack-job funded by investors who sold out for a quick paycheck. I cannot think of any constructive criticism for Jun Maeda, aside from renaming this anime to The Day I Became a Sell Out.

PISS OFF.

Okay, so hear me out. This is gonna be my first and last review on this site.

I've watched, read and witnessed all Key works up to this point. So far, my favourites always have been the stories that have been conceptualized and written down by Jun Maeda - long, developing tales that really make the characters grow to you and that make you feel things that you thought were uncapable of. That was the power of Jun Maeda.

Unfortunately, with the recent development of Angel Beats, Charlotte and Kamisama ni natta Hi, there is no longer the money and determination of having a proper setup ... for Jun Maeda's story. 13 episodes doesn't cut it, but hey, you could smartly arrange it and come up with an emotional impactful and fulfilling story, if you handle it smartly.

Guess what? Kamisama fails in all regards. The once genius Jun Maeda that was able to tell emotional and investing stories? No more. The only thing left that he's good at is music composition (he still is a god in that regard, don't get me wrong). I'm rather disappointed than angry about the show, because it could have been so much more. The first 10 minutes of episode 11 showed you, what the potential was - a gritty, close-to-life dramatic tale about a girl who tries her best in life. You keep this promise and thoroughly build upon it, boom, a solid 7/10. Good job Jun Maeda.

Once again, unfortunately, the first 10 episodes are completely wasted on characters that noone cares about, on plot points that seem random and keep being random just for the sake of being random, the same unfunny and completely mood-ruining jokes that noone cared about, plot points about characters who never appear again, different plot lines that are never built upon...

You get the idea right? If this were a visual novel with different routes and a true, final ending, this could have been very, very good. But nope! We just get over-rushed nonsense on top of non-sense that feels like 5 different Jun Maeda stories, accumulated into a single one and stripped by 95% of its content.

The only redeeming thing? The music tbh. The opening is very good, the ending acceptable, and everything in between is Jun Maeda - easy and memorable, not bad at all. It's wasted on this show. Utterly, wasted. Even the parts where it tries to be serious with itself, it completely fails by just pulling everything into comical territory. Tonal consistence is obviously an unheard concept nowadays. Charlotte was miles better than this, and even Charlotte was bad, don't get me wrong.

So, I can continue rambling on and on about how this is the most disappointing show I ever watched. And you know why I keep on watching it? Because every episode keeps surprising me and makes me cry with how bad it turns out to be. I'm not trying to be extra edgy or salty here, those are my honest feelings. I cannot fathom how any company decided to put forward a considerable budget and ressources in order to realize this project, the concept and execution seemed doomed from the very first episode.

I literally had a Jun Maeda bingo going on from the first episode, and we figured out the plot twist and the emotional climaxes of the story by the end of the first episode (!!!).
It's okay if you repeat your story ideas and concepts, Jun Maeda. Just please, don't do it just for the sake of doing it - apply them to the context of the story and have them make sense in-universe. Otherwise you're just ridiculing yourself and us viewers. I hope your next project will be something better, I still believe in the power and magic of your work. I truly believe and pray that you reach the magic again, that you showed us in Clannad After-Story. God bless

edit: typo

The best time to watch this show, is right now while it's airing.

Original shows typically have an unique innate advantage over adapted source material, firstly and less significantly we don't have those people, (you know who they are) that like to prod around saying things like "I've read/am reading the manga" and even worse "I'm reading the Light Novel" like literally anyone cares at all. But more importantly, we have no clue what's going to happen as of now, and that can be exciting. I've seen many theories floating around and being explored to the likes of Hina being the God that is controlling this ... world to live out her dream before she dies. Very Jun Maeda. But that is really only the surface. Speculation and discussion on how this innocent work will end up turning is ingrained in the show's culture, but only now.

See, even if in the future you consume this without really having knowledge on what happens, are you still going in spoiler-free? Whether we like it or not, spoilers exist in shows' reputation and legacy, even if we do our best to conceal them. I mean, just acknowledging the existence of a "spoiler" in a show automatically shapes our expectations.

So watch this now. Involve yourself as an entertainer of some of the fan theories floating around on how this thing is going to end. As of now, we know 1 thing. This is a Jun Maeda show being done by P.A. Works. Either this thing is gonna be "a life-changing experience" or "melodramatic trash" either way, the build up/speculation may be more worth more then the the actual show, and maybe that isn't such a bad thing.

ATTENTION POTENTIAL WATCHERS, PLS READ THIS REVIEW!✓✓✓

So for a starters, after finishing the last EP up until now. I feel satisfied to a good extent, because not only was it jovial ending, but my heart was filled with filicity, I felt as if I had a door leading to freedom opened. To be blatant, each episode was performed and executed brilliantly, each episode always had a pinch of amusement lingering around, and each episode was just overall cromulent. The scenery-superb, the sound and music-outstanding, and the characters themselves including the respectable voice actors was peerless. I feel that the anime didn't jolt numerous characters ... at us and kept it at a good number. This indeed, gives each one of them a acceptable amount of screen time, allowing the audience to grasp their personality and to see any potential character development.

I can't spit out in words how I really enjoyed and connected with this anime, as each EP finished ,my thirst for satisfaction grew and needed to be quenched. The anime immediately kindled my sense of humour and let it burn furiously. I suppose I might be in love. Anyways, what really hooked my eye was just the characters and the way they acted, for a starters I really admired ,but despised izanami distate for social Interaction. But then the chain wrapped around her heart was loosened, resulting in a new and obscure character. I guess I'm at my potential now, I really hope you've read so far, and pls give this gem a go. One more thing, I urge you to disregard the negative comments and watch the anime as fresh as possible, that way you might enjoy it better. Thank you and enjoy the rest of your day.

I don't understand why this show doesn't have 'Comedy' in its genre list because this is by far one of the funniest anime of the season.

The whole story is about a self proclaimed god in the form of a little girl warning the
protagonist that the world will end in 30 days.
So she grants him what seems to be supernatural luck and help until then. This ends up becoming the root of the comedy within the show with our guy getting into peculiar situations and the banter between the two is so well written that it always gives me a laugh.

This is one of ... the most enjoyable comedy anime I've seen in a while so no surprise that I very much recommend it.

I’m not going to stand for this; shame on you, Jun Maeda. Shame on you for using the mentally disabled as a way to get your audience’s empathy. Of all of the possible story routes you could’ve went through, this is the most vile, most sickening ways you could’ve made this story end.

Story:

In front of Narukami Youta stands a small girl named Hina wearing a nun outfit who claims herself to be Odin or some form of god. She comes bearing a warning: “The World will end in 30 days”. And she has come to him hoping that perhaps he can help stop that from ... happening before his last summer break as a high schooler can end.

Given the absolute trainwreck that was Charlotte’s second half and especially its finale episode, I’m legitimately surprised that P.A. works gave Jun Maeda a second chance to make yet another show with Ayane Sakura voicing the main character. To put it simply, this show has very little understanding of how to structure or pace itself that I’m surprised this was greenlit in the first place. Despite the overarching threat of ‘the world ending in 30 days’, more than half of the show is devoted to never hurrying up or figuring out why or how the world is ending, and instead focuses on random bullshit that only pertains to the confines of a single episode before going onto something else that also has nothing to do with the world ending. Shit like Uno Mahjong, Ramen, and making movies takes precedence over the looming threat of the end of the world apparently. The absurdity of these episodic subplots takes away any and all tension that the show could’ve had and legitimately don’t make any sense as to what kind of rhyme or reason they’re doing any of it in the first place; they just kind of happen. As a result, a majority of this show feels like filler. Filler that goes on for so long that the last three episodes end up feeling like a completely different show that only tangentially makes sense in context to what we’ve seen before, but feel wholly disconnected because the whiplash from watching everything else prior makes connecting the two parts feel like putting a square peg in a round hole.

And it’s because of this kind of stuff that both the pacing and the worldbuilding of the show extraordinarily suffers. So little of the show is actually devoted to the climax or explaining the bigger picture of why this little girl has omniscience or why the ‘world is going to end’ that it ends up feeling like a cop out when things are actually explained. Cause it’s all done in these massive info dumps that end up feeling like they don’t matter because neither the plot or the characters are interested in understanding why things are happening, just what is happening. Which feels pointless because it begs the question of, “Why even bother trying to explain it in the first place?”

This problem extends further to side characters as more time the show doesn’t have is invested into creating backstories for the side characters that are only mildly important to the plot at the time. The show is only 12 episodes. Fitting things like that alongside 8 episodes of episodic slice and life, about 2 episodes of info-dumping, about 3 episodes of proper climax to finish off the series’ story and the forced romantic subplot only constrains the show even more than it already is. And personally, I think that’s where the problem lies. Kamisama ni Natta hi feels like it tries to do so much in so little time, acting as a Frankenstein’s Monster of Jun Maeda’s previous works as it takes bits and parts of Charlotte, Little Busters, and Rewrite’s stories in order to create something that ultimately crumbles under the weight of what it tries to achieve. Sporting an entire subplot of saving a ramen shop from bankruptcy takes away from the complexity of Hina’s condition and the further ramifications behind it since there’s even more stuff in regards to it happening even further behind the scenes.

Had the show been drastically cut down to get rid of all of its extraordinary and unbelievable elements and simplify it to a linear story that didn’t try to raise up stakes by bringing up the fucking United Nations, there’s a chance that this story could’ve survived as a digestible piece that could’ve narratively made sense. But as it is, the show would’ve needed at least twice the amount of time the show actually had in order to tell its story in any meaningful fashion. By the end of it, no part of the story much less its conclusion feels earned in any way, and while Jun Maeda is standing over this crumbling pile patting himself on the back for all of the risks and narrative genius/emotion he’s managed to get out of the story, I’m just sitting here wondering what went wrong and in what universe this could be considered competent storytelling.

Characters:

Hina feels kind of out of place. While she is the focal point of the show in some respect, going so far as to kick off the show by proclaiming the the world is going to end and calls herself ‘God’, the most she really does in the series is give a good kick to the plot in order to get it to happen, and then comment on the sidelines, letting her omniscience take over. She’s admittedly kind of a fun character given how she’s just this hyperactive brat that draws everyone’s attention to her (Like Haruhi Suzumiya in a way), but loses a couple points because the story kind of forces her to go along with the ebb and flow of the narrative. Going so far as to inject a romantic subplot regarding her which is only one of the dumber narrative choices this series has made given how she is factually one of the youngest members in the cast by about five years at least. As a character, she never really takes a spotlight until the plot needs her to, in which case it’s all hands on deck for the ‘deeper’ parts of the series with information dumps and an unearned climax that end up stripping her of anything interesting that she had before. Which is the greatest disservice to a character because what you end up with is character sympathy that comes from purposely gutting everything they were to become something else.

Youta by contrast feels like a visual novel protagonist with very few positive traits to go along with him. Aside from his initial affections for his childhood friend and a love for basketball, his character is almost entirely wrapped around the movement of the story where they push him from Point A to Point B in order to keep the story going. He has very little autonomy in the story, only having those moments whenever he acts on instinct and the story needs a moment of tension or drama in order to show the audience that ‘now is when things get serious’. All of this ends up making him a wholly unlikeable protagonist that similar to everyone else in this godforsaken show, just kind of goes along with whatever is happening since the story is the only driving force in this show.

The rest of the cast from its antagonists to its supplementary side characters and the ‘Friends we made along the way” end up filling a roster that only serve to move the plot along whether or not it be episodic subplots or to serve as antagonistic forces that serve as the supposed ‘end of the world’. There’s not really a lot to talk about them since their involvement with the story is dictated only if the story needs them to show up, and even then it’s more of a slideshow of all of the people that’ve been featured over the thirty day period, which feels incredibly superficial given how it makes the characters feel more like a collection than actual characters.

Aesthetics:

Well, if there’s anything that I can give P.A. Works, it’s the art. And I’m glad the show at least looks good. Yeah it’s the same style the the company uses, but it’s nice to see care put into the visuals of the series down to the smallest details like eggs being broken. Because that scene did not need to look as good as it did. The absurdity of the series also having a bunch of side plots also factors into this by giving the show a surprising amount of visual variance as a greater majority of the show has Hina’s omniscience portrayed in wacky and overly bombastic ways that neither had anything to do with the situation nor needed to really be there. But was appreciated since it took my mind off for a second until I realized exactly what I was watching.

Similarly, the music of the show also deserves some praise. “Kimi to lu Shinwa” made by a joint effort of our very own Jun Maeda and Nagi Yanagi is a genuinely good song that evokes the energy and emotional beats that I assume the story was supposed to try and hit. It’s a worthwhile listen to in my opinion, and I think it paints a nicer picture of the show at least at first glance. My only gripe with this song is the fact that there’s also a music box version, which is played during some of the more ’emotional’ parts of the show. And is played so frequently that it loses a lot of its luster and the scenes it’s played in aren’t nearly as emotional as I think Jun Maeda thinks it is. Same for the rest of the OST because the way it’s composed makes it sound like it only belongs in really emotional and important scenes.

“Goodbye Seven Seas” by the same duo hits similar notes and emotional points that its OP sister attempts to hit. And I think to a slightly lesser degree, it succeeds. And it’s for these reasons that I’m actually a little sad, because it’s kind of an unfortunate how these pretty songs are unfortunately tied to this show of all things.

Final Thoughts:

Given who was working on this show and the studio involved, I steeled myself for the almost guaranteed possibility that this show was going to end up being a narrative flop. Which is ironic given how I actually kind of like Charlotte until that series shot itself in the foot at the very end due to some scarily similar reasons as with what we see here with Kamisama ni Natta hi. I was prepared to be disappointed, but I legitimately didn’t think that it was going to go in such a way that would anger and frustrate me with its narrative choices.

This show is emotionally manipulative, trying so hard to make the audience feel sympathy amidst a whole host of other emotions in order to get the audience to feel invested in a plot that doesn’t even understand what it’s supposed to be. Every little backstory that the show sprinkles in is riddled with tragedy in order to make the audience sympathize with whatever plight the character may have, going so far as to do it for a character we just met like an episode ago in order to fold them into the larger narrative. It’s almost like the show is yelling at the audience to get/feel sad because this is an emotional show, when all it’s really doing is providing situational whiplash that I want nothing to do with because just last episode we were making movie references and stepping on their copyright. All to wrap it up in a supposedly bittersweet bow that pushes the narrative of ‘good memories’ to its height as if we’re supposed to forget that the only reason why we even have that as a narrative point was because you intentionally shot the series in the foot at the very end in order to force us to be sad and feel emotionally invested in these characters with at best superficial traits.

This heavy-handed storytelling alongside the show’s obsessive need to be complex and have completely baffling magical/extraordinary reasons in order to make the stakes of the situation have any kind of impact is my biggest gripe with the show and ultimately why I think it fails. You literally could’ve achieved the same kind of show climax by letting Hina get hit by a semi, but no, you had to create a completely new syndrome and bring hackers and the United Nations into this shit because that was clearly the most important thing that this show needed when it came to its narrative. All of this not even touching the fact that all of this needed to be set up, explained, given a climax to, and resolved in the span of about five hours and an in-universe time frame that ended up speeding through about two entire seasons in the year in around twelve minutes.

No part of me wants to remember that this show even exists, and the same part abhors from even thinking about recommending this to anyone. Jun Maeda and Key may have made a name for themselves in the early 2000’s, but I feel like at this point they’re just recycling narratives and running on empty on ways to produce any kind of story. It’s clear that Kamisama ni Natta hi was made with a larger timeframe in mind due to just how much content it tried to squeeze in such a small timeframe, and the fact that they even greenlit this idea baffles me further because I genuinely don’t know what they expected an audience reception of this show to be like given how strongly the show suffocates the audience with different reasons to feel bad about what these people are going through.

And if you’re just trying to force your audience to give a shit without a reason why, they won’t.

(Mild spoilers)
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Story: 3
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Art: 7
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Sound: 7
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Characters: 5
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... Watching the first few episodes of this anime was pretty enjoying, It was looking as if it was going to be a nice little anime for laughs but I already had some sense that it might turn into some sort of drama from the opening.

There's nothing wrong with a drama anime. I actually really enjoy the drama genre of anime a lot. It's the execution of the anime's drama plot. Like I have stated, I really enjoyed the comedic aspect of the anime but I believe it caused the anime to suffer when it started to become more dramatic. The first three episodes are purely comedic in my opinion. Yes, there was the idea of the world ending soon, but they did the typical, YOLO do whatever we want and it was hilarious. We're then introduced to our "antagonist" whose tracking down Hina (our female main character) and the "drama" starts. My problem is that it was so abrupt, so random. I audibly went "wtf is going on right now" while watching the introduction of Hiroto and his part of the plot. It was such a random switch from funny to serious that it was confusing. I'm not saying that there's no way an anime can be comedic and dramatic at the same time. There are anime that are able to balance comedy and drama like Oregairu. Kami-sama ni Natta hi did not achieve that. The drama plot was seriously all over the place.

My other complaint is that this is a ROMANCE drama anime. It would've been acceptable if the romance plot continued with Narukami and Izunami because everything was set up. Narukami already has a crush on Izunami, Izunami doesn't have feelings until Narukami helps her amend things with her father and their relationship builds from there. That's how it could've gone. Did it go that way? No- no it did not. It was heading that way but, it didn't. Why? That's because Narukami who's our main male character is in love with Hina. Someone who looks like a child and has been portrayed as a child for the 10 episodes I endured. Keep in mind that Narukami is a high school student. Not only is Hina supposedly a child, she was thought to be as Narukami's relative for around 8 episodes. That is HELLA WEIRD. Due to these two reasons, when they confessed to each other during the "climax", I absolute lost it and decided right there that I was dropping it. It would have been so much better if some sort of brother-sister dynamic or best friend dynamic was pushed instead of this romantic agenda. It actually felt that way for half of the anime until the episode where Hina randomly gets jealous of Izunami. Unlike the Narukami-Izunami relationship, Hina and Narukami's relationship was like the plot, very random. Like I said, they had a brother-sister dynamic and all of a sudden, Hina likes Youta..... Like what...?

To end off, I believe that it should have stayed a comedy anime or at least the execution of the drama plot could've been A LOT smoother. Maybe I'm judging it too soon. There are still 2 episodes left in the season when I'm writing this and I don't think I will be watching it. Though, if somehow and some reason, their little confession was them saying that they love each other unromantically then the writers have proved me wrong and I shouldn't have judged so soon. If not- well... whatever floats your boat. If you, the reader, didn't mind spoilers and are interested in watching this. If anything I spoke of doesn't seem to be a problem to you, then I recommend watching it because it's still very funny.

Look, I’m an anime fan, I like my melodrama as much as the next guy. You give me some Clannad: After Story, Violet Evergarden, or Bunny Girl Senpai and I’ll get teary-eyed along side you.

But the problem with melodrama in general is that it falls apart very quickly if the fails to make you feel emotion. This is ultimately the downfall of The Day I Became a God.

As you all know, this anime was created by Jun Maeda, the creator of many melodramatic hits like the Clannad series, Angel Beats, and Chrolette. Say what you will about these anime, but there is no denying their ... popularity and recognition within the anime community. However, the problems in these anime are only magnified within The Day I Became a God and their good aspects feel stale and uninspired.

The Day I Became a God follows high school senior (Youta) as he meets a girl with incredible predictive powers (Hina) over summer break, who claims that the world will end in 30 days. Over the course of this anime, we follow Youta and the self-proclaimed god as they engage in summer activities and unravel the truth behind Hina’s ultimate prediction.

There is a lot of interesting places that this anime could go with that premise. Add onto that some great art/animation, good voice acting (with some exceptions), and solid music, you have the makings of another Jun Maeda hit. But all of this promise falls to the wayside thanks to a bad script.

The goal of melodramatic anime is to get the viewer to feel sadness and sentiment. This is most often achieved through extraordinary circumstances and compelling, relatable characters. While this anime definitely has some extraordinary circumstances, the characters fail to make me care about their struggles.

Youta is a self-centered dumbass that never takes anyone’s feelings into consideration and just does whatever he wants to do. Any compassionate action that he does for others is not out of selflessness, but out of his own personal desire. For example, the first 6 episode of this anime is all about Youta using Hina’s abilities to try and get his childhood crush (Izanami) to fall in love with him. At one point, she is going through some really heavy stuff and Youta tries to solve this problem not because he truly cares about her, but because he thinks this will get her to love him.

If I could describe Youta’s relationship to the other characters, it would be how we treat NPCs in RPGs. You do things for the NPCs not because you care about them, but because they may give you what you want if you do. But the funny thing is that all of the characters in this anime aside from Youta and Hina are best described as NPCs. They have 1 or 2 quirks (if even that) and are at Youta’s beck-and-call whenever he needs them to do some mundane task.

Hina is not much better than these side characters, but she does at least undergo some changes throughout the anime’s episodes. However, she is just loud and self-centered for the majority of that time, which makes her hard to like. This doesn’t seem to be a problem for the characters though, as they all love her for some unknown reason and Youta actually seems to fall in love with her.

Now, just to remind you, Youta is a high school senior (18 years old) and Hina is a young girl (around 12 years old) so this relationship feels very uncomfortable. Some have claimed that they love each other in a sibling way, but this development only starts to happen as Youta begins to stop pursing Izanami, which leads me to believe that this is a romantic love. This disturbing relationship only distracts from the melodrama and does not make me care about the characters any more than the little I already did.

The characters are not the only poorly written aspect though, as the actual plot is all over the place. While Youta and Hina are doing their summer shenanigans, we get a subplot with a character that I only referred to as Hackerman that feels largely disjointed from the rest of the anime. He is introduced abruptly and is given way too much screentime for how little he actually interacts with the main characters. His struggles are completely separate from that of the main characters, so it all just feels pointless and like a waste of time.

As I stated previously, this anime does have some extraordinary circumstances in an attempt to heighten the melodrama and the emotional impact of the viewer. But including this is a double-edged sword, because if the anime does not produce an emotional effect, then the narrative is opened up to plot holes and criticism. If I am not busy feeling sad or sentimental, then the illusion is shattered and I notice how much of the story makes no sense at all.

The Day I Became a God suffers the most from these poor writing choices that ultimately ruined all potential that this anime had. Even though it looks good, sounds good, and the voice actors are doing the best with what they are given, none of it is enough to make up for poorly written characters and a story that fails to emotionally affect its audience.

It’s a solid 3

Gaijin being Gaijin, Id give this a Ten! Jun Maeda always had passion, Even came back to write Music for his Stories again!

Story as a Storywriter, does not follow a textbook format, people may say he uses same format all the time, but he is one of the few people to use this in the world.

Art was the same as it was for his previous works, but with more of a modern detail. Rendering of light and advancements in digital workshops, were taken advantage of, not causing people to be lazy. The director seems to be new and if I can guess Jun Maeda hand ... picked him.

Sound. Thank you again for Bringing out your Original Passion Jun Maeda!

Characters, Memorable within the context of Story, sadly not enough time to flesh out.

Thank you so much! Hope you keep writing! Glad your passion for music is still alive!

I probably should have noticed from a mile away. Its "interesting" premise of a mysterious girl followed by slice-of-life episodic episodes until its big twist and pandering for a few episodes until the story gets wrapped up quickly to its “emotional end.” But instead of an enjoyable experience, all you get is a bad taste in your mouth because you realize, what was the point of this show?

Oh, is this another Charlotte?

This was probably the one show that I REALLY wanted to like this season, and at the same time, the largest disappointment this season. Everyone already knows the creator behind this anime, Jun Maeda, ... his other works such as Clannad, Angel Beats!, and Charlotte, and even the formula he uses to create his material: the first half of a show is to introduce the characters, the premise, and exploring the premise in interesting ways. Then in the second half, pull off its twist and end with its climax scene to get the audience emotionally invested in the show.

Even though this worked for shows like Clannad and Angel Beats! because of the setting and slowly builds up the setting over time with a natural progression into its twist, for shows like Charlotte and his newest work, Kamisama ni Natta Hi, or, The Day I Became A God, doesn’t have this clear “natural progression” and forcibly takes us from the first half of the show into the second half of the show while interesting characters lose their initial traits and ends with a poorly executed twist because of how poorly the buildup to that climax was written.

As said before, the first half of the show is dedicated to introducing all its characters, explaining the premise, and exploring the premise in new and interesting ways.

To start off with Kamisama, the premise is nothing we haven’t seen before. We get introduced to our generic protagonist boy who acts as our stand-in character and our mysterious girl, in this case, Hina Sato, a self-proclaimed God “Odin.” And this mysterious girl, just like other mysterious girls we’ve seen in other anime, has the supernatural power of predicting pretty much anything correctly. We follow their two adventures with other introduced characters such as the boy’s childhood friend, his crush, his little sister, some horny TV host, but more interestingly, Hacker.

But unlike Maeda’s other works where even the episodic nature of the first half of the show was interesting and brought up interesting points about its premise (even if one of the shows, Charlotte, pulls off its awkward twist that disregards the first half of the show), Kamisama had almost none of that, and at times, the episodic plot doesn’t align correctly with its premise.

Even if some of the episodes were somewhat entertaining and stupidly hilarious at the same time, such as the beginning episode with the horseracing and the shogi episode, the one episode, and probably the most “popular” episodic, that didn’t make sense was the sixth episode where we get the protagonist’s crush and she manages to make contact with her mother through some makeshift telephone that has access to the afterlife and ends with a discount Violet Evergarden episode where the father and the daughter get together and watch a series of video tapes at certain times as a “farewell” message before she passes away.

At this point of the show, we should already be convinced that Hina definitely has some supernatural powers and can even be considered to be a “god” because this is utterly impossible because it surpasses the realm of possibility. However, we learn later on with the show’s “twist” that she was just sick and her grandfather implemented a supercomputer that allows her to make insane calculations in her head. Although the horseracing episode and the shogi episode make sense because they have bases in statistical probability and calculations, this doesn’t make sense. No supercomputer, no matter how powerful, can contact the dead. And if the writers expect me to believe that this was a “super-duper” powerful supercomputer that can do anything, oh please, there’s better plot consistency in The God of High School because at least I’m expecting everyone to have supernatural powers even though it’s not explained at all.

Even though the first half of the show was very hit or miss because of its plot consistency and its general entertainment value, in Maeda fashion, everything falls apart in the second half of the show. Our “big twist” is that Hina was suffering from a deadly terminal illness and her grandfather implemented a supercomputer inside her to keep her alive. A large corporation soon learned of this technology in Hina’s brain and decided to capture her and surgically remove the computer into her brain. The protagonist tries to open up to her and finally does in its “emotional end” bada-bing bada boom the end.

Although I’ll appreciate the transition was a little smoother than Charlotte’s transition (but is that even an achievement?) because we get a few episodes revealing Hina’s secret, the worst part was that all the characters, in true Maeda fashion, lose all their character traits and plot relevancy in the second half of the show minus the protagonist and Hina. The supporting cast are all irrelevant to the point of calling the protagonist at the end to supporting cheers of “never give up!” and “please bring back Hina!”

But probably the worst of them all is the most promising character of the bunch, Hacker. He was introduced as almost a “rival” to Hina and his small bits at the end of each episode we learn that he is a genius and a supercomputer himself, just not as powerful as Hina. He spends time trying to discover the grandfather’s secret and his work and discovers Hina and her powers. But at the end, all we get is a sob-story of how he was mistreated and abused as a kid and ended up simply being a stepping stone for the protagonist to go meet Hina in the hospital. After that, he loses all plot relevancy and we never see him again.

Even the protagonist himself ends up becoming really annoying during his hospital stay as he tries to “open up” to Hina. He never learns or accepts that Hina is in a terrible mental state because he keeps physically harassing her and yelling at her to do something that ends up with Hina screaming for help. Like please, someone told you that she distrusts men now because of her mental state, so why are you attacking her and trying to force yourself onto her while she clearly doesn’t remember who you are?

In the end, Kamisama ended up being another tragically painful work from Jin Maeda and P.A Works. Although it had spectacular visual art and animation that rivals any other P.A Works anime to date, along with its great audio design to try to make the emotional scenes impactful, overall, this show was a mess from start to finish with its contradictory plot holes, painful characters, and a painfully obvious climax given Maeda’s other works.

I’m honestly a fan of this kind of formulaic writing because it can bring some truly impactful moments with its climax, but Maeda missed yet again with Kamisama. Hopefully, he will bring his A-game in his next work and give us something that will truly be an unforgettable experience.

As of finishing the tenth episode everything has gone down hill and fast. As always in Yoshiyuki Asai fashion the last few episodes try and bring about a predictable and forced sad ending that ruins the main plot of the story due to its contrived and rushed nature.
The story is episodic with silly and fun antics based around the two main characters and the one's power to predict the future. This episodic nature is fine as it sprinkles a deeper narrative throughout allowing for the build up of a "sad" ending.

The side plot on the other hand involves some smart computer wise with the ... standard tragic backstory being forced to do a job that he should be able to leave whenever he wants but can't for plot reasons that aren't fully explained.

So many of the side characters should be in jail rather than taking the actions that they do especially for someone who is only a kid.

Art is standard and nothing to special compared to there better looking shows of this season and time of release.

Sound is good too as it comes from Satoki Iida.

Main characters have some plot and character development but not much and the side characters are one off for each of the shenanigans and don't get developed past that point.

I was enjoying the show but after the 9th and 10th episode it dropped heavily.

Overall I would give this show a 3 for its overall lackluster storytelling and characters that really drag the show down. I wanted to like this show but I just can't. Its another Charlotte.

Please note that this review is intended to be ready by those that have finished watching The Day I become a God and while care has been taken to minimize spoilers there may still be spoilers present within character analysis. You have been warned.

Based on an original idea by PA works Kamisama ni Natta Hi which is better known to western fans as The Day I Become a God is a Drama and fantasy genre anime that gives us the unique opportunity to see what will happen if one day during the last summer vacation of the year before the dreaded college entrance exams ... that in the midst of the frantic preparation for it that Youta our little hero was to one day after enjoying a game of basketball with his best friend Ashura was to encounter a mysterious young girl named Hina who proclaims to him that the world will end in 30 days’ time. Though sceptical beyond measure and ready to label this odd little girl as a classic oddball Hina for some reason had decided to stick with Youta despite his attempts to peel her off and as they spent time together and Youta was able to bear witness to the miracles that she was able to create for the situations that the two encounters Youta’s opinion of this girl gradually began to change becoming convinced that they were the real deal.

However, while Hina’s miracles had allowed Youta to deepen his bonds with his friends and family while also allowing him to forge bonds with people that he seldom had the chance to meet and create a summer that they will never forget unknown to them this also created a storm that will bring to the fore a sinister conspiracy that’s determined to erase the sense of happiness and memories that have been formed between Hina and Youta and each of his friends and family as a result of their time together. But alas no matter who or what stands in their way Youta and his friends will do what they can in order to protect the cherished friend that Hina was to them.
Traditionally the genre’s of drama, fantasy, and comedy are ones that thanks to their unique synergy with each other have proven to be excellent foundations for countless anime that have aired over the years either as a primary genre or as a secondary set of genre’s that backed up the primary genre’s. In the case of The Day I Become a God I felt that this set of genres really served to resonate well with the modern-day setting that this series takes place in as it allowed us to not only see the kind of unique pressure that people within the modern world suffer from both physically and mentally but also how strong and yet how fleeting the sense of happiness and bonds that are forged between others can be if not cherished and fought for. The first episode of the series I felt was an interesting one that while serving well to introduce the character of Hina and Youta also did well to showcase the kind of abilities that she had and her skill at both foretelling and striking critical blows to Youta. More than anything this ep I felt really served to introduce us to Hina’s unique manners and speech patterns that as the series went on really went on to define her as a character and in combination with her chemistry with Youta and the sense of mystery that sprung from her meeting with Youta really served to keep me coming back to see how this tale progresses a decision that I felt was justly rewarded.

Youta

Youta Narukami portrayed by veteran voice actor Hanae Natsuki of Aldnoah Zero and Kimetsu No Yaiba fame is one of the main characters of the series and is the main protagonist of the series. A high school senior that’s in the midst of his final summer holiday before entering the fierce battleground that is Japan’s infamous college entrance exams Youta in his initial appearance’s was shown to be a kind, calm and polite person by nature that was diligent with his studies and gentle and responsible to a fault. Though a calm and logical person by nature Youta like most boys his age was also one that was infinitely curious about topics that interest him without taking into account the toes that he steps on which unfortunately had the habit of causing him to trigger others at times as seen in his numerous arguments with Hina. Though a logical and highly intelligent person Youta was someone that was also noted to be quick-witted and while he doesn’t like to deceive others, he can understand the core necessity of such actions relative to the events that require it as shown in his handling of the crisis that enveloped Hikari’s mother's shop. In particular, this arc while showing well his ability to use deception sparingly also shows well Youta’s surprising ability to not only create a new persona but also act that out by displaying mannerisms and emotions that are typically not seen within the base Youta which showed well not only his sense of determination to help others in need but also his resourcefulness as well. This aspect in particular I felt resonated well with his amusing preference for overreacting when his weaknesses is exposed by others notably in the revelation of his crush on his childhood friend. Though a logical and intelligent person by nature at the beginning of the series Youta like the majority of those around him was someone that was extremely sceptical of the impending end of the world that he lives in as prothesized by Hina as well as the fact that she was actually a god a fact that soon started his unintentional pokes at her regarding this. However, as the series progresses this rather unremarkable and harmless act between the two would later serve to be the defining spark that served to ignite the relationship between the two of them and create a nigh unbreakable bond that will prove their bulwark when the darkness of the conspiracy appears in front of them.

As the series progresses and we get to see more of Youta’s personality as his bond with Hina and his friends grow his personality gradually begins to change as he bears witnesses not only to the miracles that Hina brings but also to the effects that this has on not only himself but his friends and family as well. At the beginning of the series, Youta’s relationship with Hina was shown to be a rather unique one on account of both the fact that she was both a mysterious girl that had a rather determined belief that she was a goddess and secondly, she was also apparently a distant relative of his family facts that served to create for Youta no small amount of stress which within the series is shown well in his endless arguments with her that while stressful to him was also incredibly entertaining to us. However, as the two gradually overcome trial after trial and forge strong bonds with one another through not just the trials but also the various experiences that they partake in during summer vacation this bond gradually becomes one of mutual respect and friendship which is exemplified in the fact that while Youta still believed her goddess role to be fake he was still willing to indulge her by taking part in her plans. However, as their bond gradually improved to the point of becoming almost inseparable this also created within Youta a sense of insecurity borne from the fear that one day Hina might as a new day arrives suddenly vanish from his life and in the process take away all the sense of fun and joy that came from being in her presence fears that served as a potent source of motivation for Youta in the latter part of the series to not only strive to treasure the moments that they spend together both by themselves and with their friends but also muster up his courage and tell her the feelings that have been building up within his heart and vowing to protect her from any threats that will dare come for her.

Overall the character of Youta Narukami I felt was an interesting one that was both well designed and developed with both his personality development and his emotional development being especially well done. While by himself Youta was someone that while certainly quick-witted and able to adapt to new situations quickly was someone that was relatively unremarkable in the grand scheme of things this is a different story when he was used in parallel with his friends and his fellow partner and dear friend Hina Satou for when he’s in close company with his friends the strong sense of both strong bonds of friendship and character chemistry really serve to make each of their interactions between them that much more entertaining and heartwarming to see an impact that was reinforced greatly by the series excellent OST.

Hina

Hina Satou portrayed by veteran seiyuu Ayane Sakura of Charlotte and Kancolle fame is one of the main characters of the series and is the main heroine of the series. A mysterious girl that shows up in front of Youta Narukami one day and proclaiming that she was not only a god but also that the world will be ending in 30 days’ time Hina’s initial showcase was not just unexpected but also amusingly shocking as well a fact that was reinforced by her immediate argument with both Youta and Ashura in the first moments of their meeting. In her initial appearances, Hina was shown to be a positive, energetic, and friendly person by nature whose main notable trait aside from her self-declaration of being a goddess was the fact that she communicated to others in not only perfect Japanese but also one that was inlaid with an extremely curious accent and one that made a surprising large use of the 3rd person viewpoint. While a friendly, mischievous and tenacious person for someone her age she was also someone that was shown to have a rather short temper which when combined with her suspicion of strangers and her susceptibility to the meaning behind names made her a difficult person to keep calm at times as shown in her reactions to Youta and Sora’s names within the series. However while certainly a troublesome goddess for Youta and friends to take care of Hina in her initial state was someone that can be surprisingly understanding and perceptive at times a fact that she seems to reserve for use at the most critical of junctures within the series a fact that I felt paired off well with her initial nature that served to make her that much more endearing to Youta and friends in the beginning and create the first instances of the bond that will eventually form between them.

As the series progresses and Hina’s character is expanded upon her personality and nature gradually starts to change as a result of not only meeting Youta but also getting the opportunity to experience all the fun, happiness, and positivity that comes from interacting with and enjoying life with people that you both respect and have forged strong bonds with. At the beginning due largely to her self-confident and arrogant nature Hina was someone that was liable to act before thinking things over which often ended up causing trouble for Youta at times. However, these experiences while certainly painful ones for both her and Youta also served well to showcase the sense of childlike curiosity that had remained hidden behind her confident nature which when combined with her quick backtracks that she had learned to use served to add much charm to her character. This aspect when combined with the fact that while she identifies herself as a god that is aware of most things present within the modern world and yet know very little about the little moments that exist within human society as well as her tendency to overreact with violence followed by a rapid recovery of wits I felt really served to make Hina that much more endearing as a character pairing her god-like powers with a sense of fragility that had the effect of endowing her with the knowledge of human culture that she had long forgotten and allowing her to enjoy the moments of peace, fun and tranquillity that she as a result of her upbringing had been forced to forfeit and in the process show a side of her that’s much more relevant to her age. Within the series arguably the greatest bond that Hina has forged within it was the relationship that she had forged with Youta Narukami. Though the two of them had the most unfortunate of first encounters that served to make them temporarily enemies as the relationship between the two of them gradually stabilized and both got to know each other they gradually began to realize that while they were of different personalities that often rubbed each other the wrong way that there are many things within the world that both do not know and indeed can learn from each other an understanding that served to become the lynchpin of their relationship as not goddess and servant as she would have liked but as equals of friends instead. While on the surface the relationship between them can be seen as a fiery one on account of Hina’s often lacklustre plans, Youta’s performances that fail as a result of this, and her subsequent punishment of him for berating her godlike powers I felt that rather this being a sign of them not being in sync it’s rather the opposite in that while both may lament that both are idiots that deep down both actually want each other to succeed in their given plans and works hard in order to make this a reality which is shown in the great faith that both have in each other.

Overall as a character Hina I felt was one that was both well designed and developed with her gradual development from a self-confident, arrogant, and a rather childish girl who while having powers that were capable of causing miracles was largely unaware of the little intricacies that existed within human society to someone that not only rediscovered the kind of power that trust, friendships, and bonds can have on one's life but also the kind of power that it can impart in someone’s heart a power that’s not only powerful enough to unfreeze someone’s long closed-off heart but also be enough to create a turn of events that’s also a miracle of life in their own right. Like the character of Youta before her Hina as a character while powerful in her own right with her unmatched processing and analytical abilities was someone that to modern-day society was one that was largely irrelevant as a result of her lack of interpersonal skills and ability to form bonds with others easily. However, when paired with Youta I felt that these flaws of hers actually served to become a boon of sorts to her as her unmatched analytical and processing abilities not only allow her to work well with Youta’s innate perceptiveness, determination, and ability to adapt on the fly but also allow her to in the process of their many plans also get the opportunity to learn something from the performance that Youta is enacting while following her plan a relationship that I felt was pretty special and serve to allow both to gradually mature as individuals as the series progresses.


AMV

In terms of animation, I felt that the character designs for the series were both well designed and developed with Hina’s, Kyouko’s, Hikari’s, and Sora’s designs being especially so. In particular, Hina’s design that combined the use of a unique outfit that made use of contrasting colors with eyes of differing colors I felt really resonated well with her unique dialect and god-like persona that served to really bring the Hina the goddess persona to live. Facial expressions as well as clearness of the overall animation within the series I felt was also excellent with the clarity, in particular, helping greatly in enhancing the environments that were featured within the series while also allowing the enhancement of specific emotional moments within the series as demonstrated within ep8 in the train ride that Hina and Youta take. In terms of environmental design while the series as a whole did not make use of too many locations the ones that the cast visited in the course of their adventure I felt were ones that were both deeply connected to the series overall theme of rediscovering the experience of having fun with one's friends yet also ones that provoke a sense of adventure to both the cast and the audience as well as shown in the festivals and events that Youta and Hina take part in as well as in the visualization of the digital world that Suzuki perceives as. At the same time, I also felt that the series also made some creative use of camera angles and scenes that served to enhance specific events that the cast encounter within the series which is best shown in the mahjong tournament in ep4. The closeups of the tiles themselves, as well as Hina’s own explanation of the moves that are subsequently played by Youta I felt really served to both, make the scene that much more easily understood for the audience while also enhancing the sense of entertainment that we get from seeing the moves unfold before our eyes.

Music-wise the series made use of one opening and ending theme which was Kimi to Iu Shinwa (Your Myth) and Goodbye Seven Seas which was both performed by veteran singer Nagi Yanagi. Both of these songs while excellent ones I felt conveyed a different sense of emotions and feelings to me when listened too with the former giving the feeling of a chance encounter with someone that will have the effect of not only allowing you to rediscover the smaller aspects of life that had been overlooked as a result of the pressures of modern life but also allow you to reforge and enhance the bonds that you have with the people around you and in the process discover something that will serve to change your perception of the world forever. In the case of the latter, I felt that this song while certainly upbeat and positive was also one that had a faint sense of sadness as if lamenting the loss of a dear friend and the memories of them in which they had great fun together as they enjoyed life to their heart's content. Voice acting-wise I felt that overall the series main voice cast all did an excellent job at portraying their assigned characters with Natsuki Hanae and Ayane Sakura both doing an impressive job at not only portraying their characters on the surface level but also infusing an excellent sense of chemistry between them in the process that served to make the relationship between Youta and Hina that much more heartfelt. With regards to the supporting cast, while I didn’t feature them within the review, I felt that Yui Ishikawa, Yuuki Kuwahara, Haruka Terui also did an excellent job of portraying the characters of Kyouko, Sora, and Hikari respectively. The OST for the series I felt was also beautifully designed and did well to inject and reinforce the sense of emotions that through noteworthy scenes within the series especially when used in conjunction with the numerous insert songs within the series.

Overall conclusion

In overall The day I become a god I felt was an excellent anime that had among its main strong points a unique premise, excellent story. Characters, voice acting, animation, OST as well as an interesting look at the kind of bonds that can be forged between human beings when they take the time to appreciate the little moments that lie in the hearts of those around them and use them in order to learn more about them but also in the process learn how to use them to improve your own flaws as well and become a better person to not only yourself but to your friends and allies as well.

As an animation studio PA works are world-renowned for their works that incorporate not only unique settings and scenarios but also pair this with a weave of both human bonds and the emotions and feelings that this serves to create within the hearts of their characters that it uses to great effect in its series and provoking us to invest emotionally in the struggles that each of them faces within their respective series. To me, their most notable works were Angel Beats and Hanasaku Iroha. In the case of this series The day I Become a God I felt that in addition to their usual MO the studio also sought to inject additional elements into it that served to weave the concept of bonds, friendships, and time together and combine it with the genres of comedy and drama that resonated well with the series core theme of finding a path that will bring happiness to not only yourself but also your friends and allies within the fast-moving modern world as well a path that may be downright impossible at times but yet one that has a slimmer of a chance of succeeding.

However, while the core story of the series was one that I really enjoyed I did feel that the series balancing of the two main genre’s of drama and comedy was slightly unbalanced in relation to the latter and I felt that the series spent a tad too much time in creating episodes that only served to make us laugh but not enough to advance the plot and in the process reducing the time for expansion on some of the characters within the series regardless of their role within the overall story with the character of Hiroto Suzuki being perhaps the best example.

Overall I felt that despite its flaws The Day I become a God was an interesting anime that made an excellent usage of not only Hina’s unique nature but also her gradual development as she opened her heart and eyes to the beauty that can be borne of this world if one were to simply stop and take notice of the people around you that care about you and bonded with over many a shared experience. When used in combination with the series focus on bonds established between people of differing social circles and classes and PA works mastery of weaving emotions, feelings and story together this I felt served to create a tale that was truly heartwarming and impressive. If there’s one thing that humanity needs in this modern and fast-moving society that we live in when the power of life is ever so fragile it is the hope that comes from encountering, bonding and the forging of friendships between people that will serve to make each new day a brand-new experience that will allow all to enjoy the happiness and joy that comes from being alive with friends that you can trust even when living in a world that views mysterious powers with suspicion. In terms of the final score, I would say that The Day I Become a God deserves a final score of 9/10.