Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai

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The World God Only Knows (fuck Kami Nomi, get that weeb shit outta here) follows Keima Katusragi, a dweeb who, in real life, would be one of the ugliest fat motherfuckers out there (or either really skinny) and a socially incompetent (or at least, antisocial) doofus (which is actually true in the pilot chapter, funnily enough), is the God of Conquests. He has played so many VNs (the gal games, you know, the one where you pick the girl) and mastered so many routes that one day, he is selected by Hell to free girls (and only girls, yeah, we'll get to that) from being ... possessed by spirits and is given an assistant to help him. Unfortunately, said assistant, Elsie, is dumber than a rock. But it's OK, because she can be competent sometimes. And so begins Keima's adventure of a lifetime. By exorcising spirits. Using lines from the VNs he plays. Which somehow work. Multiple times. For some reason.

Alright, let's get this out of the way, there's the premise. Exorcising spirits unlike stuff you'd see in The Exorcist would be pretty interesting. This isn't one of them. There's the obvious problem with Keima using lines from fucking VNs to woo girls. Instead of, y'know, getting to know them better by being yourself. Even considering the tone, this really stretches the realm of believability. I'd buy it if it only happened a few times, but he successfully exorcises spirits using these methods most of the time. And it doesn't help matters is that the manga later states that there's other methods to exorcising spirits. And in one chapter showing one of those methods, the method was shown to actually work. So why haven't Keima and Elsie tried another method?

Considering Keima's personality, you'd think there'd be a chapter dedicated to him trying out a new method, but that doesn't even happen. Or hell, a short moment where he thinks it probably wouldn't work and, as much as he hates to admit it, the one he's using is perfectly fine would've worked just as well. And really, the more I think about it, Elsie herself said that Keima has to conquer girls' hearts with love. Where did she get that idea? I know she's dumb but if she never knew, then how would she know how to do her job? It couldn't be her boss who gave her the idea, she's far more competent than Elsie.

And speaking of Elsie, I don't think they ever give an explanation on why Hell sends her to help Keima. There's clearly other, more competent people who could do her job far better as we see later on. Hell, I don't even think there's a mention of her needing experience and having her grow as a Spirit Hunter or something like that. Of course, I could be wrong, but still.

I'll give credit where credit's due, Keima using the VN method doesn't work in other times, and it's more like Keima teaches the girls to accept a part of themselves they've repressed, but he still uses the goddamn VN lines even then. But it is refreshing when he isn't using the VN methods and just be himself around the girls. For example, near the end of the Kanon arc, the aforementioned target flirts with Keima, who loses his cool, and eventually pats her head. This was a cute moment which actually made me smile a little.

On to the other bad parts, there's the fact that if Keima doesn't help in exorcising the spirits, he gets beheaded. Along with Elsie. What the fuck? I get that if left too long, the spirits possessing the girls would turn them into empty shells and cause massive damage, but Jesus Christ. These are the good guys and they're punishing this guy who didn't know any better (and would you blame him?) by death. Along with his assistant too. And they can never take it off unless they capture a huge amount of spirits (about 6000). So Keima has to live the rest of his life with a collar that could kill him at any moment. Fun, fun, fun! I wouldn't complain so much if it wasn't so inconsistent with the tone.

The manga's humor is chuckleworthy at best and well, just not funny at worst. So it's not terribly unfunny nor is it a laughfest. Except for the illegitimate daughter bit. I'll admit, that was pretty funny. The art's pretty good. Character designs are varied and easily identifiable and they look good too. Backgrounds are nice and the manga makes good use of shading. Overall, the art is pretty good, but it's nothing outstanding. Character-wise, it's actually not too bad. They're pretty cookie-cutter for the most part, but I did like Keima's and Kanon's development. With that said though, it does ask too much to forgive a character's flaws sometimes.

In the Jun Nagase arc, said target (who is a 20-year old college student, btw. And even kisses Keima, who is a minor, on the lips. Ech) who works at Keima's school for a while as an assistant teacher. It turns out that she closed down the basketball club because everyone else just didn't have the same enthusiasm she has. And that's the only explanation, btw. The team didn't gradually get worse or anything like that. She just closed it down because everyone else wasn't feeling it like she did in the court.

Story-wise, it's not too bad. It used an episodic structure, which worked perfectly fine for this series. And despite the rather jarring punishment given to Keima and Elsie, the manga does stay true to its tone most of the time and tries to keep the melodrama to a minimum......And then, the Jupiter Sisters arc comes and shits all over the perfectly fine, harmless story. It was laughable and dumb when the manga showed Keima's homeroom teacher to be some sort of badass who could do demon ass-kickings, but then, it tries to get serious. For example, one of the earlier targets, Kanon, almost gets KILLED. By a knife. IN THE MANGA ABOUT A GUY EXORCISING SPIRITS WITH VN METHODS. And of course, they gotta go through all this melodramatic bullshit, about who Keima has to choose and blah, blah, blah. Said arc also has Keima trying to save the world.

And the worst part is, the humor is still there, but with this sudden shift in tone, it just feels jarring after the moment where there's a crazed bitch trying to KILL the protagonists. Really, the entire arc is awful. Which is saying something when the final arc is WORSE. Especially with that ending. So, you know those Satyr guys who are the main antagonists? They're defeated offscreen. OFFSCREEN. After TWO goddamn bullshit arcs of being the main antagonists, they're defeated offscreen. And it turns out Elsie is a powerful demon who can stop time. How? I DON'T FUCKING KNOW! Ask the goddamn writer who clearly pulled this out of his ass.

Finally, about the ending, so, um, Elsie? Why did you remove Haqua, your best friend's, memories of you? Doesn't that go against your character? Also, fuck that twist about Elsie's boss actually being Keima's teacher all this time through time travel bullshit! And another thing, Keima. You chose Chihiro? Really? Not the idol chick who'd totally ride your dick and loves even the real you and not your VN bullshit? You stupid motherfucker!

All in all, The World God Only Knows is harmless. You're not gonna get an orgasm of great writing from it nor will you be offended by how dumb it is, but it's harmless. Up until the moment the Jupiter Sisters arc starts. Quite frankly, just imagine a better ending for the manga that is completely in line with the tone pre-Jupiter Sisters arc. It'd be much better. Now, once the Jupiter Sisters arc starts, it becomes bad. Melodramatic bullshit, jarring tone shift and a bullshit way of building tension in a manga with such a light tone before. And that's not even getting into the final arc. Which is worse.

Tl;dr:TWGOK is harmless until the moment it tries to take itself seriously later on. Not recommended.

I've started reading TGWOK back when it was still going.
Revisiting it decade later was a mistake.
You can't enter same river twice, and you can't enjoy bad series when older.
As a kid, it was a silly time filler, and my taste in Japanese comic books was really bad apparently.

The story is that Keima, a young sociopath impassive in common life, just wanting to play his simpleton dating sims, bumps into Elsie - a bottom dreg demon from hell who's mentally challenged.
"Hilarity ensues" as the unconventional duo deals with shenanigans, dating "real women" (other teenage girls), and it just drags for ages instead of ending in a ... maybe 2 volumes as it should.

Art is is acceptable. Characters are not. Gags are gagging with how boring and formulaic they are.

It's a product of its times, back when harems were still "hot", so not worth reading if it isn't 2010s.