Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai

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There comes that one manga you find at the corner of your eye to where you can enjoy it whether you like the genre it consists of or not, all in the essence of parody and satire. It can be a challenging comedic flavor to pull off correctly. Writers have to analyze the aspects of the things they are trying to parody in the first place, but they have to make all of the things that make good comedy work. These things include great comedic timing, sharp jokes that don't feel forced, and excellent pacing in-between comedy segments. It can be quite a difficult task ... for a manga focused on comedy, but luckily with manga, you can go buck wild with the stroke of your drawing utensil and think of what works best. It takes a man like Tamiki Wakaki to make it seem like an absolute cakewalk to envision a perfect parody with The World God Only Knows.

The two things that best describe how the parody works in The World God Only Knows come down to the writing and the actual artwork that Tamiki has within his talent. The jokes all span out, dealing with familiar otaku tropes that are funny and sometimes insightful. They pick apart. Other times it pokes fun at it, almost mocking it without being too clever with its jokes, and they all add great humor. The artwork comes into play with the dialogue's comedy because Tamiki's drawing style has a very wacky ascetic to his character designs that look magnificent. Similar to how you see chibi-style formats in something like Aria whenever a comedic moment happens, The World God Only Knows plays with the same formula and never loses its steam throughout the manga.

Although the manga is generally a comedy, it does have its vast share of drama mixed in. That is not to say it still pulls in satirical themes into those segments, at least in the first arc of the story. In the beginning, we follow Keima and his partner in crime, Elsie, as they try to collect "Loose Souls" from within their psyche. It is very straightforward and generally formulaic at face value. Still, it is just how tongue-in-cheek the character interactions are and the dialogue involving how Keima plans his tactics based on his gaming otaku logic. Even when it is being dramatic in the arc, it still doesn't lose focus of what it originally intended to be: a parody of dating sims where you get to the confession scenes in those games. It is a rare instance where good drama and wacky humor feel close to a home together in one great package.

As the story goes on to the 2nd arc, where Keima has to awaken the five goddesses, we are quickly put into a scenario with a minimal formulaic structure than beforehand. Like I said before, the comedy is still hilarious throughout the entire manga, with memorable scenes that all go down into straight-up hilarity. The story is still active and even emotional in some places, introducing a heartwarming romance between Chihiro and Keima and great chemistry between Haqua and Keima when they both become buddies for the time being. But then, after that plot arc was done and we got to the last two arcs, it all went a slight downhill in terms of pacing and comprehension. I have the feeling that Tamiki didn't know where he wanted the story to go, so he pulls up random plot conveniences that don't add up once you sit back and think about it for a second. Though the later plot arcs were not terrible, the new characters were still funny, and they do not follow up as anything other than weak.

For a story that wants to be self-absurd with an atmosphere that wants to be fun and energetic in its humor, characters should be the one characteristic that should reign most important. The World God Only Knows us a wide range of characters that exceed way above 20+ of the main cast. They give everyone the significant development and personality to make them equally memorable. Usually, a story that attempts to bring a sizeable main form has a habit of not having an equal amount of focus for some characters, making them forgettable in the long run. While someone could make the case that the manga does that in the later arcs, where we're mainly following the other central girls in Keima's conquest, that shouldn't be a negative in the sense that we've already had enough development for those characters from the very beginning where the writer introduced them.

Here's why The World God Only Knows sets its greatness to new heights is lovable but also hated in a few cases, the protagonist, Keima Katsuragi. With great clarity and logical precision in how Keima was written, he is one of the best harem protagonists due to his role's sheer value of heart. Even when there are moments where Keima might act irrationally against what many would consider typical attitudes toward how romance is like, we still want him to succeed in his conquest. One main reason this is so is that Tamiki writes his dialogue in ridiculous ways that make him so full of charm and wit in how he grows as a character, both in a comedic and general one.

As for Keima's main sidekick, Elsie, she has excellent chemistry with Keima with her cutesy personality that manages to stay consistent and not overbearing to the point where she becomes a nuisance after several chapters. The other soul-capturing buddy is the hilarious tsundere devil, Haqua. Almost as equally lovable as Elsie, but with a different twist: She's more intelligent on the level of Keima's intellect. For that reason, Keima and Haqua prove to have a little better chemistry with one another than Elsie because Haqua still becomes the bumbling sidekick despite her intellectual stature compared to Elsie's.

This manga is one of those instances where even if you are not a fan of the harem genre in general or if you love it to death, there are still many elements to The World God Only Knows that can be looked at by anyone with great enthusiasm on either side. Its wonderful characters leave an excellent joy ride into hilarity thanks to the fact that they all have their unique characteristics to enhance their significant presence in the story. Plus, its satirical nature adds so much depth to the layer of comedy that can be conceived in this manga, even though the plot never reaches that same level of greatness as one could've hoped for with the first arc building up so much potential. Nevertheless, there is still plenty of wonderful humor in The World God Only Knows, all in the name of the God of Conquest.

Grade: A-

TL;DR: Started off great but unwrapped plot points and rushed ending ruined the experience for me.

First and foremost, this is the first-ever review that I have made that does not recommend the piece of media. With that said, this review is going to be split into two parts, one part a spoiler-free review of the series as a whole, the other being a rant on the myriad of plot holes shown in the series which will most definitely spoil everything. Read it at your own risk.

The world god only knows is truly a world that only god knows about, this is because, the massive amounts ... of plot holes and storylines that are left incomplete, leaving a very sour taste in my mouth.

It truly pains me to do this as the first half of this series was so enjoyable to read. Watching Katsuragi conquer the girls with his extensive knowledge of dating sims was such a unique premise that it kept me hooked. Additionally, the fresh humor and strange comedic circumstances provided a truly enjoyable experience in tandem with the unique story. Throughout the first half of the series, character development was at an all-time high, providing an interesting backstory and context to why the characters acted in a certain way, giving reason to their strange mannerisms, while simultaneously trying to fix the characters’ biggest flaws and help them overcome whatever obstacles that they were currently facing. It would be great if the review stopped there, considering only the first half of things, I would’ve rated this series a solid 7/10, maybe even an 8/10.

However, this is where the fun ends. Starting with the latter half of the series, roughly when the Jupiter sisters arc begins, all reason is thrown out of the window, a confusing conglomeration of chapter after chapter throws at the reader a bunch of different concepts and ideas with no justification whatsoever as to why things are the way they are. This problem became increasingly obvious as I progressed in the story, with each chapter feeling increasingly rushed, culminating with the final volume being a complete and utter mess of an ending that failed to wrap up some important plot points. Additionally, it felt as if the author had no grand vision of the direction he wanted his story to go in, introducing major plot points without any foreshadowing preceding it. It truly felt as if the author just wrote what he felt like writing on a day-to-day basis, changing the entire story on a whim without any previous build-up.

Overall, if one were to read this series, I would stick to reading only the first half, maybe even to the point where vintage is defeated but no more than that.

Spoilers:
This is the point where I’ll be going on a little rant trying to point out the myriad of plot holes and unjustified actions, read at your own risk. I’ll also additionally be pointing out which girl “won” so please don’t continue reading if you don’t want to be spoiled.

- You pretty much never hear from the other girls that Katsuragi conquered that weren’t the hosts of the Jupiter sisters. Giving a maximum of a panel or one line to justify where they are.

- Akari is one of the characters with the most plot holes in them. It is never revealed why the spirit sensor detected a presence inside of her when she didn’t harbor one. Her quest in order to create the “perfect being” is never justified and never comes to fruition (I was thinking that she would create a kick-ass robot). It is later revealed that she was actually the sister figure (not the actual sister, I know) of Elucia and was working in collaboration with the homeroom teacher (who we’ll talk more about later), which begs the question, why didn’t Elucia recognize the sister that she idolized so much, or at least had some minor foreshadowing ex: hmmm that person looks strangely familiar. Rimyuel (Akari was Rimyuel’s alter ego) then 10 years in the past literally bashes her sister (Elucia) as she was flying through the sky without any previous explanation whatsoever Elucia just brushes it off as if it was nothing and it didn’t occur. Like what?

- In the latter half of the story, Katsuragi literally teleports to the past, and no reason as to how this happened or why it happened immediately after the group defeated Vintage.

- There is an event when Katsuragi teleports to the past and tries to go into his school and it just so happens that the school has a “magical gate” preventing the people not from the school to enter it. Due to this, Dokuro’s clone (?) (Who also happens to be Katsuragi’s homeroom teacher) isn’t able to enter the school premises. But then, as that arc is finishing up, Dokuro just sees Katsuragi, rips apart the “magical gate” and enters the school. Like what in the actual fuck? The best part is that the only explanation that she gives is that she “didn’t want to interfere with Katsuragi” and he just accepts that without batting an eye. I’m sorry what? How does that make any sense?

- It is revealed that Tenri knew about the events of the future but it was never foreshadowed beforehand

- Where the hell did Urara go? The author shows that Yui and Mio used to be her friends in kindergarten but when her grandfather appears (because Katsuragi changed the past yadda yadda yadda, don’t try to understand) there is literally zero mention of the girl.

- The parts where the group defeats the MAIN ANTAGONISTS both Vintage and Satyr conclude their battles in two pages. I’m sorry you just don’t have that sort of build-up while also having one of the most anticlimactic endings possible.

- Haqua is shown to harbor romantic feelings towards Katsuragi but that never gets resolved.

- In the end the homeroom teacher, Also happens to be Dokuro, is hinted to have romantic feelings towards Katsuragi, this is also completely out of the blue and left hanging

- You never get to see what happens to Fiore after she is captured inside the bottle.

- Hell is shown to be in the midst of an energy crisis but that never gets resolved.

- At the end of the series, it is hinted that Nora and Haqua, have to rebuild hell from the ground up. While this is technically not really a plot hole I would’ve at least liked to see hell fixed.

- Heaven feels like it’s only comprised of the Jupiter sisters as they are the only heavenly beings that we see in the series, even though we know that other heavenly beings exist. We never get to see any other angelic figures or even what heaven looks like.

- It is revealed in the end that Katsuragi likes Chihiro, this confession comes out of the blue, with the author only giving one line explaining why he chose her instead of The six Jupiter sisters which, by the way, are deep in love with the guy. Like seriously, you chose the one person who he said was the literal definition of normal and boring instead of the six Jupiter sisters who are so unique. A guy with such high standards relegates himself to 2nd place. This action was completely out of character, which such little justification that it made me die inside.

- Around the first quarter of the series you see hints that Elucia might harbor romantic feelings for Katsuragi, however, later on, nothing is ever shown.

- There is no explanation as to why the Jupiter sisters chose to inhabit inside of the hosts that they chose. It is an inference that Katsuragi based it upon a whim with no real reason behind it. Katsuragi says that the Jupiter sisters must have chosen a conquest target that was near to Katsuragi (meaning that they were in the near vicinity to him, for some reason they couldn’t have chosen someone older or younger than him or someone far away from him.

- Now where do I even start with Elucia? Her character has more plot holes than Swiss cheese. To begin with, why has she been chosen as the buddy to Katsuragi? It is shown time and time again that she is completely incompetent only really being useful because of her magical cloak and her cleaning abilities, something that I’m sure that other people in the spirit squad could’ve been of much greater help to Katsuragi. Additionally, it is showing that she just happens to be the big bad boss at the end of the story, and the reason why she didn’t go on killing everybody was because she had been reborn multiple times under Dokoro who trained her to become a kind-hearted spirit and whatnot, which again is shown in one line. This isn’t even the worst part upon returning to the present Katsuragi finds out that Elucia just so happens to become his actual sister and somehow erases the memories of both Haqua and Nora.

I think that this list is just about every single plot hole that is shown in the series, and my god is it extensive.

PS: Best girl Yui Goidou

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.