Gorilla no Kami kara Kago sareta Reijou wa Ouritsu Kishidan de Kawaigarareru

I didn’t know what to expect with such a peculiar title like The Gorilla God's Go-To Girl, but to my surprise, I found a light fantasy story with an unexpectedly well-executed romance.

I had my doubts about watching this anime because I’m not a fan of stories where humans transform into animals. I can tolerate it to a certain extent (like in Fruits Basket), so I was worried about how the concept of blessings would be handled here. Thankfully, most characters keep their human form. Only one character actually transforms, and no, it’s not the female lead.

The plot is fairly typical, an insecure girl suddenly gains ... immense power and everyone around her starts to take an interest in her. Despite that, it was surprisingly engaging. It’s not a reverse harem, which I appreciated a lot, the main character, Sophia, only shows interest in the male lead, Louis, and never wavers or plays around with others. That alone was refreshing, especially because I’m tired of unnecessary love triangles. On the downside, some conflicts were resolved way too quickly or in an unconvincing way, like the bullying toward Sophia, which was handled far too lightly.

If there’s one thing worth highlighting, it’s the development of the romance between Sophia and Louis. It felt natural and is a great example of how a romance can be well-developed in just 12 episodes. I was genuinely surprised, especially for a shoujo, and it was nice to see a couple come together halfway through the story instead of in the last minutes of the final episode.

That said, Sophia’s character was a bit frustrating at first. As a protagonist, she was too passive, always trying to go unnoticed or hide things, especially in the earlier episodes. Thankfully, she improves a bit by the end, and I have hope she’ll continue growing if we get a second season. I’m not familiar with the manga, so I don’t know how the story progresses there.

As for the animation, it’s pretty basic, but honestly, it’s rare to find a shoujo anime with high production quality, so I wasn’t expecting much to begin with.

Lastly, if you’re expecting constant battles just because Sophia joins the knights, you might be disappointed. The anime is more laid-back, with just enough action to support the story. But if what you’re really looking for is a solid romance with cute moments between the leads, a bit of comedy, and some fantasy sprinkled in, this could be a nice pick to relax with.

It’s not a groundbreaking story, and it doesn’t have the best visuals, but it stands out for offering a sweet and drama-free romance between the main couple, and sometimes, that’s more than enough.

I really wanted to like this show. It started off with a decent premise; unfortunately, the main character never really grows throughout the season. She starts out as a girl scared of her power and ends up accepting her power, but never grows a backbone. Even when the BBEG is beating up her love interest right in front of her, she doesn't grow a spine. Even when he grabs her and kisses her full on the mouth, the worst she does it bite him.

The writing is rather poor as well. For example, in the final episode, the main ... bad guy is fast enough to dodge/block bullets, but not fast enough to dodge a falling chandelier. Gorilla and main bad guy lock fingers as part of a fight scene - which is ridiculous enough, but then in the next scene, she's let go of him. She's stronger, but he's faster, like seriously, if you're locking fingers, just hold on for dear life and beat the shit out of him with your other limbs - that would have been the way to handle that.

Sadly, poor writing and utter and complete lack of character growth on the MC's part make this a lackluster show. The side characters (Mean Girls, as in the movie) are the only ones with any real growth. If this was about them, it might have made for a decent show.

The Gorilla God's Go-To Girl — Girl Power be amplified to the max...to then be the harem hotspot magnet of suitors? This is just too plain...

With every passing seasonal roundabout of shows that are a series of hits and misses, there is one VERY particular genre where I feel that it's more than the sole works themselves that create this lingering problem that is the "rise and fall" of their anime adaptations, which their niche target audience marketed to the rest of the world doesn't seem to come off as any bit legit at all. And my friends, that would be the classic Shoujo demographic, ... which has seen quite the dying trend of works that try to mimic every bit as possible like its Shonen counterpart, but that its rather limited vision portraying much to the fantasy and rom-com genres only exacerbates it being this "cheesy" puppy love that's all sorts of uncomfortable. And this is most likely the case for mangaka Shirohi's Gorilla no Kami kara Kago sareta Reijou wa Ouritsu Kishidan de Kawaigarareru a.k.a The Gorilla God's Go-To Girl, one slice of the typical Shoujo pie, that just plays it TOO safe and ends up appealing to barely anyone.

The only thing going for Gorilla no Kami, I'll admit, is in its setting, which is actually quite unique and never done before, where in the not-so-unique but generically average world, everyone is born with a blessing from an animal god that gives them powers unique to the animal that they're representative of. And this is what we get with the female MC of Sophia Reeler, where her animal blessing is one that's rare and unheard of: the aforementioned Gorilla god, which grants her super strength, speed, and agility. It's already very unusual to choose a Card of such luck, much more so that it's a young woman bearing that name while the others pick everything else that's common. This, however, becomes a problem when she's scouted by her kingdom's Royal Knights to become an apprentice knight, halting her supposed peaceful school life to a standstill, and becomes the centre of attention due to the Gorilla God's power between the aspiring knights who'll become part of the kingdom's forces.

That, in and of itself, creates the space for Sophia to meet her potential friends along the way, from the likes of the kingdom's prince, Louis Scarrel, as well as candidates-turned-close friends Isaac Sheehan and Eddie Pheles. Naturally, as you would expect of a Shoujo work, there are multiple instances of flirting moments between Sophia and the guys, but the issues are quite the systemic problem, starting with Sophia herself. You would expect your Shoujo female MC to have at least a spine (which is largely like Fruits Basket's Tohru Honda) to do the things they deem are appropriate and do them right, but you can tell the mark of a rookie writer like Shirohi when the female lead does not think straight, wanders and panders back and forth like a deer, and, most critically, doesn't have a sense of purpose enough to stand for her own values, much less averting to the damsel-in-distress character that needs other people to take her hint and do all of the processing. Sadly, for all that Sophia has going for her, she instead is being led by the very circumstances of the good and bad Prince Charming influences around her, hoping that some guy who fancies her will take her gist. It's a goddamn harem, for crying out loud, and not one of the best executions at that.

If you're wondering where this unknown studio of Kachigarasu came from, not to worry, it's the usual happenstance of corporate rebranding, of which this used to be under Encourage Films before the change in December 2023. For the 3rd-rate studio to go without any project since Winter 2023's Kaiko sareta Ankoku Heishi (30-dai) no Slow na Second Life a.k.a Chillin' in My 30s after Getting Fired from the Demon King's Army, it's quite the dry period for a studio that doesn't see itself being as active as compared to pre-COVID levels, though I'd assume it's the work of producers trying to avoid bringing a bad name to their shows by avoiding less-than-stellar studios, of which Encourage Films used to be one of a handful.

Still, it's the cheap-looking quality of the anime that you can't disguise even with the name change that's being obvious enough. And like it, the music is just plain mediocre at best, with Shugo Nakamura's OP being at the very least decent and acceptable, though I can't say the same for Megumi Ogata's ED, which is just too overcomposed for its own good, alongside the PowerPoint-esque visuals.

In truth, Gorilla no Kami is just your average molasses story that's just about the most Shoujo of Shoujos it can be. And while most of what's presented here aspires to be as Fruits Basket-y as possible, it always somehow ends up backfiring in that there's not much of substance going for it; only the lovey-dovey and flirting moments do make the count, and that's all.

Once again, another Shoujo work that belongs to the trash heap of pieces, adding to the count of increasingly bad series that misrepresent the greatness of the Shoujo demographic. How pathetic…