Shinigami no Ballad.

"Shinigami no Ballad" also known as Momo the god girl of death I can confidently say it is an absolute masterpiece. This show is a hidden gem that deserves much more attention than it gets.

The story revolves around Momo a kind hearted shinigami. Each episode is a standalone tale that explores themes of life, death, love, and regret.
It’s one of those rare shows that make you reflect on your own life and the lives of those around you.

Art style & Animation is simple but charming , I personally love 20's animation style. Music is okay but not that outstanding

Don’t miss out on ... this remarkable piece of storytelling !

Shinigami no Ballad was created by light novelist, Hasegawa Keisuke. The series gained an anime adaptation in 2006 from Group TAC, who you may remember as the studio behind the Arashi no Yoru ni film as well as several other works such as Those Who Hunt Elves and the Street Fighter anime. Really, this could go either way based on their works I've seen. So let's look at Shinigami no Ballad and see.

Shinigami no Ballad doesn't have an over-arcing story. Instead, each episode is its own story. They're connected by the theme of moving on after a brush with death, usually due to the loss ... of a loved one. Each story involves a different person learning to cope with some assistance from a shinigami named Momo and her winged cat named Daniel. This concept could have been really interesting. The big problem is that too many of the episodes cover the same basic thing with the same resolution. Seriously, half of the episodes involve the person moving on because... love and that's the major contributing factor for them, aside from Momo's meddling. It was kind of stupid the first time they did it and the second two barely improve on the idea. Not only that, but it just gets repetitive and that should never be an issue with a series that only has six episodes. Here's the thing, there are a lot of ways to cope with death and move on. Narrowing the scope that much betrays either a lack of imagination or laziness. I'm a bit curious as to whether or not the light novels get that repetitive or they just chose those situations for the anime because Group TAC just thought they were that good. A big part of the problem is just that the length doesn't lend itself to romance. They have roughly twenty minutes to establish the situation, the focus character for the episode, Momo's role and put in their romantic sub-plot. As a result, the romance always ends up being pretty rushed and cliche.

Then we have the characters. The focus characters are actually really well done, except for that one guy from the second episode. I can't be bothered to remember his name as he was very dull. They seem like real people. The love interests, in contrast, are very bland and rely on tired archetypes. Momo and Daniel have a good dynamic, but they really could use more development since they tend to have side roles.

The art in this is decent. The biggest issue is that the focus meanders. A lot of scenes will have people talking, but the art will show random objects in the background. Which may let them show off their ability to draw aquariums and other such things, but it makes the art feel unfocused.

The voice acting is pretty well handled. Kobayashi Akiko and Shimizu Ai do well in the roles of Momo and Daniel and they get some pretty good performances from the other characters, when there's something to them. The music is decent enough and manages to do its job.

The yuri factor is a 1/10. This doesn't have any yuri.

And that's Shinigami no Ballad. It's... decent. The concept is good and the episodes that don't lose their focus with gratuitous romance are pretty good. For the record, those are the first, fifth and final episodes. But it's held back by some questionable art decisions and too many cliche romantic sub-plots. The final rating is a 6/10.

No Spoiler Review:
The series is a collection of short stories told over the course of 6 episodes. The show comes off lackluster with it's presentation and the soundtrack used was awful. The bumper music used to transition from the first half of the episode to the second half of the episode is like listening to nails to a chalkboard. Tons of synching issues with sound and the characters talking as well. Very distracting. The choice of characters that were being followed was a bit odd as well. I can't go to into the details about the previous statement but with this show diving into the ... supernatural you could've shown different instances of life and death from ALL walks of life. The anime tries its hardest to come off as a comfy, bitter sweet series that the animation failed to meet. Overall, the show is very short animation and can be viewed in one go. There are certainly interesting premises done with the death god (Momo). The idea of characters finding their own reason to keep moving and finding purpose has its' own charm. Melancholic but with technical issues throughout the show, it is not recommended but does have its moments.