Kamierabi

Right from the start, Kamierabi received a remarkably low score by the website's standard. And we can presume that this occurred mostly due to the full CGI animation, in addition to the somewhat fast pace of the first episode. Computer-generated imagery (CGI) do not have a good reputation in the anime community, because of shows like Ex-Arm and Berserk (2016). Therefore, it makes sense that most of us thought that Kamierabi would turn out just like them, But, fortunately, I dont think that was the case, even though the score hasnt changed much since then.

Initially, since the animation is a bit of a controversial topic ... in this case, I think its appropriate to discuss that right away.

(Animation/Art)
As you may see on this page, the main responsible for the production of Kamierabi is the studio Unend. And, as you may also discover though this website, Unend is brand new and it doesnt have any projects before Kamierabi. Naturally, this begs the question: In the other hand, is the staff experienced? Well, as director, we have Seshita Hiroyuki, who directed other CGI animes such as Ajin and Sidonia no Kishi; it was probably his decision to make Kamierabi with CGI. And, by coincidence or not, the art director of Ajin Part 2, Yoshikatsu Matsumoto, and the art director of Sidonia no Kishi, Mitsuo Yoshino, are also here. Regardless, the staff is relatively small and it doesnt have any "big names" that might indicate the quality of the animation.
After watching the anime, I can say that, objectively, the animation is good. If you compare it with the usual CGI used in anime, you can really notice the positive difference and the movements look quite natural. But, of course, this is an objective point of view; in reality, you might take some time to get completely familiar with the animation, maybe 3 episodes or close to it. And you may also be picky, if you have already watched shows like the ones made by studio Orange, which have the best CGI anime has to offer.
So, if you end up not enjoying the CGI in any way, notice that the studio is fairly meticulous with its background art; it kind of just catches your attention sometimes. For example, in the first episode, while the protagonist, Gorou Ono, enters his room and lays down on his bed, you get a good view of the place and you see, on the walls, a lot of posters of "Iyo Futana" (an idol the protagonist is very much obsessed with), and on the ground, a cardboard box with an open cup noodles on top of it, some clothes laying around, as well as an absurd amount of plastic bottles; you may even ask yourself "why so many plastic bottles?". It is quite telling on his lifestyle.
Also in the first episode, when Gorou gets suddenly attacked by a god candidate, the surrounding area gets dark, the buildings seem to turn into flesh and their outlines acquire a bright red color; Im not sure if this is literal or just an artistic choice, but it sure gave a nice touch to the scene.

(Music)
In the making of the soundtrack, we have studio MONACA, lead by Keichii Okabe, who is usually involved with Yoko Taro's projects. Okabe and his team are mostly knows for their works in games, like NieR, Final Fantasy, Tekken, and anime, such as many arcs from the Monogatari series.
I think that the most notable part of the soundtrack is the eletronic music and the opera, the latter being frequently used in dramatic moments, and the former, in action scenes or when a character activates his/her power. The two genres are vastly different and wouldnt normally be used at the same time but I guess thats one thing that gives a wacky vibe to the anime.
The opening theme song is sung by Elaiza and she isnt involved in any other anime related music, as far as me and this website is concerned. While listening to it, the main impression I have, considering the instruments and the lyrics, is that it is a rather chaotic song. And this is actually a good thing, since the anime also has a sort of ludicrous approach to its story.
Meanwhile, the ending theme song is sung by Alisa, who is also a fairly unknown name in the anime community. The lyrics dont have much to do with the story, but its a very catchy romantic song.
Both songs are accompanied by scenes of the anime, which are edited a bit and transition according to the rythm. In other words, the visuals are not original but they are fitting somewhat.
And, for the record, I like the silly dance the protagonist does by the end of the opening.

(Story)
Unfortunately, the premise of the story isnt unique; its about a battle royale between "god candidates", in which the one who turns out to be the last remaining gets to be "god". You may have seen something similar before, like Platinum End or Mirai Nikki. Besides, the so called "GOD.app" resembles Darwin's Game mechanics a bit.
Some may argue that the first episode was too fast-paced. As a matter of fact, in only one episode, a cat was run over by a car and died, the protagonist gets chosen as a god candidate, he also gets suspended from school for accidentally publishing a video in which he and his friend Akitsu make fun of suicide, then, he turns on a tv and comes across porn that Akitsu was supposedly watching, and by the end of the episode, Gorou gets chased down by a god candidate and almost dies. Nevertheless, I thought the episode was good because it showed exactly what type of events you should expect if you continue watching the show.
In general, just like I said some paragraphs above, the story feels ludicrous, wacky and maybe even edgy (because it constantly depicts heavy/sensitive themes, sometimes in a not so mature manner), it doesnt take itself very seriously and, as a result, we get some funny and/or interesting scenes.
About half of the season consists of random encounters the protagonist has with the many other characters, which is fun for the most part, but its structure can get kind of repetitive. Then, it all leads to a few entertaining final episodes, in which they even hint at plot pieces that should be explored further in the next season. The ending isnt conclusive and it leaves you on a cliff hanger.

(Characters)
The design of the characters, made by Atsushi Ookubo (aka fire force and soul eater's creator), is very simple but also appealing. To each of the main characters, a certain color or a set of colors was adressed, such that you can easily recognize the characters. Its a surprisingly effective way to make them stand out in the scenes.
On the other hand, personality-wise, I think all the characters stick out in their own way too. However, the ones that I see people liking the most are Yutaka Akitsu, who is the definition of a chaotic good character, and Chika Nojima, whose love for science has led her to meet the protagonist and try to convince him on joining the science club, which is currently lacking any members; she acts in a very extroverted way and seems to be a nice person.
The protagonist, Gorou Ono, is also a fairly amusing character himself. Hes a dense, kind of antisocial, weeb teenager, who doesnt seem to have friends besides Akitsu but is a honest and sympathetic person on the inside. It is a very worn-out character trope but I think that the execution here was well done. Gorou gets involved in a lot of unusual situations and its funny to see his reactions most of time. Also, his relationships with Akitsu and Lall are quite compelling.
Including Gorou, basically all the god candidates have some sort of internal conflict that makes them wish for something in their lives to change. Then, in addition to becoming god, the one who manages to win the battle also gets their wish fulfilled.
In order to win the battle, every god candidate has its own unique power, which, I assume, has something to do with their past, their personality or even their goals. One of the clearest examples is Tatsuya Amano's power. Hes bullied at school and, as a consequence, grows vengeful thoughts towards people in general, wishing that they would change and be just like he wants them to be. Then, when he happens to "awaken to a mysterious power", this power is one to fully control the actions of a person, given certain conditions; pretty straightforward, right?

In any case, its good to emphasize a phrase said right at the start of the first episode: "Be forewarned that whats to come isnt a very pleasant story, there are no heroes, [...], its just a bunch of nonsense, so I hope you at least laugh it off". From that, you get to know what to expect from this anime: it shows the very worst of humanity, while hinting at a faint sight of hope and also getting some clowning here and there. To me, because of that, it resembles other works of Yoko Taro, namely, Drakengard 1 and 3. If, somehow, this sounds good to you, I do recommend you to give it a try and see what you think.

Besides, we shall wait and see whats to come in the second season!

Darwins Lame.

Despite having some incredible names behind its creation such as NieR: Automata creator, Yoko Taro and Soul Eater/ Fire Force mangaka and character designer, Ookubo, KamiErabi GOD.app was a massive disappointment. It is another edgy death game battle royale anime about chosen depressed teenagers receiving supernatural powers via their smartphones and trying to kill each other so they can become “God”… whatever that means, it’s never explained. It’s not enough that there seems to be an over-saturation of death game anime out there which all bend around people killing each other for the title of “God”, but KamiErabi doesn't do anything to shake ... up the formula in fact, it sticks to it like glue.

As abiding with the formula you have your insufferably indecisive and dense protagonist, Gorou who is constantly fighting against the story and has a ridiculously overpowered ability that can immediately end any conflict after he finally decides to face the reality of the situation he's in.
Death being the ultimate punishment for losing means there are no realistic stakes for Gorou as he's protected by the plot. He literally can’t die or the story will end or he can die but the story will bend over backwards to bring him back to life so there is no tension. In fact, by the end of episode one, he brings his first victim back to life, somehow(?), so I guess death doesn’t matter.
You also have your typical weapon-wielding yandere and the quirky best friend who is the only one with an actual personality yet you shouldn’t get too attached to them for obvious reasons.

I don’t want to rag on the CGI too much. I’m not the kind of baby anime watcher who has a tantrum every time they see a bit of CGI animation in their Japanese cartoons and whilst the CGI isn’t great, there are moments where moments in the action where it shines. I get what the show’s general aesthetic is going for with its minimalist art style in its backgrounds and background character designs that put focus and emphasis on the main players. However, there’s something about this show that feels unfinished. Even the OP gives off this feeling that the production has been rushed due to it seemingly being a compilation of random scenes from the show to show off the characters which is a weirdly inappropriate song that doesn’t set the anime’s tone.

Despite Ookubo's status as a character designer, you wouldn’t have thought he was a part of the project if not for Yutaka who has that classic Soul or Shinra character design from his other famous works because of how bland and safe they all are. My personal pet peeve with the designs is the sleeveless shirts and braces school uniform. They look ridiculous.
If there is something I will give the show credit for it’s the designs of the individual powers (except Gorou’s which is a book and a Navi character that can do anything the plot needs of them). One character has the power to control time which isn’t very original, but the design the character goes under gives them this mechanical angel-like presence. It looks cool. Also, I like the sword that needs to consume meat for power and the higher the quality of the meat the more powerful it gets.

Overall KamiErabi GOD.app is not good. It’s pretty bad. At its worst, it’s a poorly written exercise in frustration and annoyance. At its best, it’s another edgy death game battle royale anime that doesn't do anything you haven’t seen before.

2/10 Bad.

KamiErabi God.app — the successor to derided, full-on 3DCG shows like Ex-Arm and Tesla Note...and being a high-stakes battle royale conceived from one of the game industry's most beloved icons? I am shooketh.

Even if you don't play video games, the pellucid name of Yoko Taro should be no stranger to anyone, for his Drakengard (and its subsequent spin-off NieR) franchise of games has become quite the phenomenon that's widely accepted as one of the cult classic games that have gained quite the notoriety amongst fans. And now, he's back with an all-star team to create one of Fall 2023's most divisive anime of the season: ... the high-stakes, battle royale death game that is KamiErabi GOD.app. 

As Ajin and Sidonia no Kishi a.k.a Knights of Sidonia director Hiroyuki Seshita puts it, KamiErabi is not just a mere imitation of famed mangaka Sakae Esuno's Mirai Nikki a.k.a Future Diary, but to quote his words, “I mean, it really is crazy. The world we’re in is already crazy. I mean, it’s super crazy. And what we’re doing is basically matching perfectly the world that we’re living in. From the very beginning, we were saying, ‘Okay, let’s make it so that [the anime feels like] there’s weird going on from the get-go. And every single time we worked on this, we tried to make sure that we infused it with some craziness because that matches our world.” Furthermore, despite being a death-game-themed premise, it actually fits more appropriately into the fantasy genre.

This then brings us to the show's creation, which just so casually happened between Yoko Taro and Hiroyuki Seshita over drinks and praising the former's works, though the latter opted that the former should be credited for the work, and as Yoko Taro puts it, “We were all kind of doing things in our separate ways. After we all got together and really joined forces, it all kind of came together in a kind of miraculous way.” Next, it's adding the eponymous people to the project: Enen no Shouboutai a.k.a Fire Force creator Atsushi Ookubo on character design and the homonymous series composer Jin, who's composed for many series, one of which was the Kagerou Project a.k.a Kagerou Days, which would shape the anime and make it work, quoting "put 100% of his being into creating something “really bold and daring” that would surprise people," push his limits while working on the anime to ensure that it would meet both his and his fellow creators’ expectations. It's the same for said manga creator, quoted: “For me, working on the anime was actually this feeling of total irresponsibility. Like, literally, I didn’t feel the pressure of responsibility at all. It was just pure fun. But if we didn’t have the ass-whipper [Hiroyuki Seshita] to be responsible and get the team whipped into shape, it wouldn’t have happened.”

But the series is best left said and taken in such a way as Jin puts it: “The thing is that even if someone in Japan says to you, ‘Okay, do whatever you want, right? Anything goes. Anything is fine.’ They usually don’t mean it. However, in my case, I literally took them at their word. I said, ‘literally anything goes. I’m gonna do whatever I want. And when I did, I was told by the director and the producer that they were kind of surprised, saying ‘Wow, this is kind of sugoi.’ The momentum [as a whole] that we had as a team plus the individual characteristics that we brought, I think, is what made this successful."

Back to the anime, we've pretty much seen every similarity and/or common fidelity to this genre, from Summer 2021's Deatte 5-byou de Battle a.k.a Battle Game in 5 Seconds, to Spring 2022's Tomodachi Game. As contemporaries of the psychological high-stakes themes set in a fantasy genre, it almost looks as if the base concept is nothing special, of high school students fighting each other in a battle royale for the chance to become God. But what makes or breaks the anime is how flaccid and unpredictable director Hiroyuki Seshita wants to envision the entire show's vision and make sure that "two wrongs (or rather, the many differences between high-profile people) will make a right," going as unhinged as possible so that everything still makes sense by the end of it. And at the very least for Season 1 here, it's only half the battle won, and I did make some sense out of all of the madness that KamiErabi GOD.app has to offer before its eventual return for Season 2 sometime next year.

That said, Atsushi Ookubo's character designs which are adapted into the anime, of which the main characters of Goro Ono (with his devil assistant Lall) and his many classmates (of Honoka Sawa, Yutaka Akitsu, Koki Ama, Mitsuko Okino, Chika Nojima and Iyo Futana) each having quite the eccentricity about themselves to understand that some entity is playing with their lives in the never-ending quest to "make a wish" to become God and rewrite the world, the biggest benefactor would have to been the one who first noticed the changes: Goro himself, being the typical nobody character before facing his crush (of Honoka) who attacks him out of nowhere, only to win and gain a power that builds from the sacrifices of his other fine details in life. It'd be pretty hard to imagine if the show took on full-on traditional 2D drawing, because the 3D models here were definitely purpose-built for a CG series such as this.

However, what would define KamiErabi, is ultimately the decision to go full-on 3DCG, based on Hiroyuki Seshita's experience with the no-name studio that is UNEND's production...I can tell you that out of all of the fully-created 3DCG works since the horrendous days of Winter 2021's Ex-Arm, KamiErabi feels the most polished within the AniManga industry, finally understanding the wane of the former's colossal failure in almost 3 years, though it still looks like ass from time to time, which isn't so much a nitpick if I do say so myself.

The music is surprisingly upbeat and whimsical, as if series composer Jin had put his all into the creation of the OST as well, which, considering the effort he put into Kagerou Days, he certainly did. As for the theme songs, ELAIZA's OP song certainly is one bizarre debut of a decent song, while Alisa had some experience working on her first theme songs for Carole & Tuesday before working on the ED song, which, as expected, is fine and nothing all that special (apart from the song being in English).

Despite all of the community's views about this show, it's ridonculously clear that Yoko Taro had intended KamiErabi GOD.app to be not just a battle royale death game that has the quote, unquote "edgy" theme going for it. Like Winter 2020's Darwin's Game, it too has its fantasy and psychological elements that work as if you're playing either one of his games, and while the ultimate takeaway is a show that either makes you bored or messes with your brain, the unhinge nature of Yoko Taro's vision for this still remains to be seen if it's ever effective at all to be on the same level of either Drakengard or NieR.

Take this show as you wish, putting yourself in the shoes of Yoko Taro, and imagine that score based on personal experience, at least for this 1st half here. I can't quite speak for all, but it's best if you try at least one episode to see if the show is for you.

This is the biggest example of a "mixed feelings" anime i could ever think of.
If someone could enjoy this anime really depends from person to person. I would personally rate it much higher than the average score, around 7.5, but at the same time I think that the low score is understandable.
Good thing is that the first episode is enough to understand if this anime could be enjoyed or not.
I would raccommend to watch the first episode even for just see this unique example of this anime, not necessarely to enjoy it, but to find something new.

It has two important two very important names ... behind it: Ookubo, character designer behind Soul Eater/Fire Force and Yoko Taro, director of the Nier and Drakengard series.
I know almost nothing about Ookubo other than his fame, but I am a huge Yoko Taro fan.
Despite what some people say, you can really feel Yoko Taro was behind this anime, like the tragic characters and the feeling that everything will go wrong.
If you enjoyed Taro's games before Nier Automata was a thing, like Drakengard 1 and 3, and the first version of Nier, the story story of this anime is something that you could enjoy.

But there is a huge problem: the animation and producion value.
Every person that says that animation in anime is not important lies, animation is INCREDIBLY important. Animation is essential to convey a story, and as much as the story could be good on paper, the animation feels so unfinished that the story suffers from it.
I don't know what happened, this anime is a mistery worth of a documentary, but this anime feels still in its alpha stage.
The animation is not bad by itself, it could become something good if it would be worked on, but it's unfinished.
Only the main characters are animated, it's like the memes of "average anime protagonist VS MHA protagonist" that was around some time ago, where the main characters were easily distinguishable from the others, but taken to the extreme.
And not made in a stylish way like with for example Sarazanmai, in this anime the faceless "NPCs" are annoying.
It doesn't help that even secondary recurrent characters like the protagonist's mother are not designed, and it feels less of a stylistic choice and more of an obligation made by a serious lack of budget.

In conclusion, this anime feels like the first Drakengard, where a great story was trapped behind a terrible gameplay. Only difference is that, being an anime, you could still watch it without being stucked by the unbilanced difficulty of a stage.
The rating, is only my personal score, if this anime could be an enjoyable experience really depends from person to person.

The CGI animation looks fine; it is not so bad that it's unbearable to watch, nor is it so good that it should be praised. In some scenes, however, the animation is not that great, but it's easy to overlook that. The action scenes have some pretty good animation that deserves praise though. The character designs look good and the characters themselves are memorable (in the first episode, something weird happens, but apart from that, as the story progresses, the characters seem normal). The soundtracks are good, although they are usually very subtle. It is not anything memorable, but it's not bad either.
I went into ... this anime by only watching the 30-second PV and nothing else. I just now (while I am writing this review) read the synopsis on MAL and that seems like a minor spoiler, so it's better that you don't read the synopsis on MAL for this anime. Initially, I wasn't really into the story, but after watching a few episodes, I am genuinely interested to know what happens next.

This anime is very good ngl, the power system really interest me although I dont have the problem with 3D animation but I can understand why others may not like it. Now how about the story? for me I think the story is pretty good for an original anime, but it depends on those who watch it, at the start you'll prob get the feelings that its not gonna be good since its 3D but for me its enjoyable and i love how they try to explore more to the world of 3D so its pretty cool. For voice acting I dont really have ... any comments on it but it fits the character. The plot is great but man it gets so interesting especially in the last eps so watch out 👀

This anime could have been good, but it isn't. The story is kind of boring; the the only salvation to this anime is the last two episodes and the soundtrack. Everything else is horrible in my opinion.

The art is 3D. So is the animation. So it's bad. So scoring 2/10.

The characters... The background characters don't have faces. They couldn't be bothered to do the faces. That's why I scored low. And the character development? Is mediocre. However, it is kind of unique.

It was a boring watch. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. Not even to my worst enemy.

Kamierabi is like Mirai Nikki if it was boring, looked like Ajin and had none of the charm.

Kamierabi is pretentious all the way through, the art-style, the character design, the writing and the plot - NONE of it is ever developed within these 12 episodes, the anime makes heavy use of flashbacks to go through characters' backstories but it never actually shows more than "he was normal until he wasn't" and sometimes not even that little is given, outside of flashbacks development is never carried out at all.

The art style is atrocious, I don't mean that as in "CGI is le bad" I've watched very ... few shows in that style so I can't comment strongly on how well the 3D is used, but the fact they brought in an experienced director and it still looks bad at times and mediocre at best is confusing, I'm not sure about the production that went into this anime but it seems it was made under the name of a studio with no information behind it (and as such calling it a studio at all might be wrong); character designs are also horrible, it's like it exists to attract cosplayers and makes characters wear their personalities on their sleeves and that's not something that can be explained away as budget issues.

I gave this anime a try at release having heard that it was "the Yoko Taro anime that isn't Nier" and I was disappointed, watching this felt like an actual chore that came every week between all the good releases of this season, sure it feels like it was writing by Yoko Taro but is Yoko Taro that much of a hack? I've never played nor watched Nier and I can't even mention something else he worked in so I'm at a loss as to which this result should be obvious or not, all I got was subpar writing and philosophical takes on God that would make the average philosopher/theologian vomit.

With all that said and much more left unsaid, what propelled me into writing this review was the announcement of season 2, which feels weird as the whole 12 episodes now feel like nothing more than setup, not 50% of a whole story but purely setup, naturally anyone would rather watch the whole thing then waiting for months to decide whether to leave it at that or give the Yoko Taro anime a second chance, but if you ask yourself this question and for whatever reason decided to read this review after watching Kamierabi (part 1) then hear me out: this anime is neither entretaining nor gripping, something that is a death sentence to 'High Stake Games' anime; Mirai Nikki grips you instantly with the characters, Death Parade does the philosophical stuff much better while having a great atmosphere, Kakegurui is just a beast of it's own (Kaiji for coomers), Kaiji which is entretaining all the way with a unique art-style, even mediocre anime like Deadman Wonderland, Btoom! and Darwin's Game have redeemable qualities but Kamierabi has not a single good quality.

With all that said it's all the more frustrating in retrospect, these 4 hours I wasted over 3 months of weekly releases left me sourer than I did watching actual bad anime because this is the work of a bunch of experienced people and it does nothing right most of the time.

Oh man, how I had hope this could somehow surprise us and be a good show, but alas, I was wrong.


plot:
Goro is your standard virgin high school coward boy who has a crush on a girl named Honoka, one day he gets a text message he thinks is spam, says he wants to fool around with Honoka, and to his surprise Honoka than asks him out the next day. However, Honoka really just wants to kill him because they're part of a death game now.


This show is really boring, which for a death game genre, is not good. overlooking the obvious, the CGI isn't ... actually that bad, but it still looks weird enough to break viewers immersion. That's not my main problem with the show, I just feel nothing for any of the characters. Goro's a coward who doesn't want to kill, despite everyone trying to kill him. Honoka is just annoying, feels more like a "I'm only helping you for my personal gain" character with nothing else about her. Akitsu (Goro's friend) is actually the only character I liked, he's unique compared to most characters in this show.

Overall, if I had to describe this show in one sentence it'd be "a Future Diary/Darwin's Game collab done in the most boring way possible."

The date I wrote this review is on around episode 3 of season 2 of the show,this is the first review that I've ever wrote,and I feel like this is a review that I should write before the series keeps on going.

What is the most charming thing about Original Anime? There are no source materials,No spoilers,No pre-established fanbase,all there is for original anime is that no one but the staff members of the anime knows what's coming next.

Binge watching original anime and following through original anime are two completely different experiences,and to me KamiErabi is a show that perfectly embodies the unknown aspect of following ... through a original anime.

I was one of the first few people that saw KamiErabi's teaser trailer,being attracted by the people working on the show like Yoko Taro,the creator of Nier Automata and the Drakengard series,Jin,who was behind Kagerou Project and Atsushi Ohkubo,author of Soul Eater and Fire force,with it's interesting 3D look to it I had a feeling this show had a potential to be a unknown gem.

When the first episode dropped,I went into the show with excitement and shortly after finishing it... I don't know what to feel.

The deal with KamiErabi is pretty simple at first glance: A game where you fight till the end, and the winner of the game becomes god.

Pretty simple stuff,battle royale type anime should be familiar enough for people that watch anime,but then as I went on with KamiErabi weekly,there is this energy that the show had that despite feeling lost and mixed on what is happening,there is some sort of weird energy that just motivates me wanting more of it.

The show itself is pretty weird,in fact I think the choice of using CGI actually helped establishing the vibe as well,sure I bet traditional 2D animation could better capture Ohkubo's artstyle and more free with it's battles,but the CGI while not being the best,is very expressive,and the effects it had is also really interesting,in fact I think it's because of the disadvantages of CGI in most anime being pretty wonky,added that extra bit of weirdness that KamiErabi had.

I tried to figure out what is this feeling that I felt watching this show,and till so far with S2 of it airing,I still don't have a single clue on how to describe it,and that's when I started to realize just how great the staff behind the anime is with using a anime original format.

KamiErabi felt like taking large names in the community,and throw in the most limited amount of resources to test the limit of how much can they do,and with my weekly experience,it definitely felt that KamiErabi has done far more than what people expect of it at first glance.

This is a experience that only people who were there weekly can feel about.

Because let's be real,KamiErabi most likely wouldn't be that first choice of a show to choose to binge watch,because to anime fans standards,the only real attractions of KamiErabi would probably be just for the staff members behind it,truth be said: KamiErabi is designed for people who were there for it.

I have no clue as to if KamiErabi's ending in season 2 will letdown what it's done or take the show to become a hidden gem,but that is also what made watching KamiErabi so engaging,because it is a show that is designed for people who truly loves original anime,who truly likes the feeling of gambling for what's next for it.

I completely relate to people who hate CGI animation. Especially if it's cheap.

But this anime is 100% of overly stylized and expensive CGI kind, is proud of being like that, and to my personal taste such boldness is remarkable. May be my tastes suck, but I'm enjoying its feeling of 'style over substance', 3D camera tricks, and creepy shading effects. Also, for that reason it's strongly reminiscent of a weird circus show with eye-burning spotlights and a loud brass band.

Speaking about story and characters, it's unoriginal. A very standard battle royale between teenagers, who have personalities not too well written neither mediocre, more like somewhat ... stock. Single cour, so no real development, but fast enough to not being boring.

But I still recommend for its style.

An edgy anime that falls into uncanny valley while it fails to impress.

Characters:
They're fine, I guess. If you listen to the story rather than watch it, they come off a little better.

Character design:
Nothing special.

Animation:
Bad. Not because it's 3D necessarily, but because the movements are all wrong. Uncanny. It takes away from the story telling. An unwelcome distraction. Simply put, the characters are animated poorly.
...
Soundtrack:
Alright. Nothing too memorable.

Voice acting (original):
About the only saving grace of this series was the voice acting, but even then, I don't know how many times I fell asleep, having to rewatch to find where I trailed off.

I was about to join the other haters, saying this anime is incomplete, incoherent, and just plain unoriginal, but then it hit me. This is just one of those anime you're not supposed to take seriously. You can judge all you'd like on how the plot is barebones and the cgi is unnatural at best, but if you're able to just keep it in the background, laugh at the few jokes, and look at the honestly kinda sick visuals when there's a fight, you have yourself a good distraction for a couple hours. Don't watch this if you want a serious killing anime. Go watch ... Mirai Nikki instead, but if you want some mindless violence and ooh ahhh visuals, well just keep an open mind. It's of course not a good anime, but that doesn't mean it deserves to be ridiculed to the ground. Take this anime like it takes itself: not seriously. That's all