First things first. Kami-inai is adapted from a series of light novels, all of which are practically self contained stories revolving around the protagonist, Ai, and the various people she meets along her journey through the world. And as a result, the anime follows an arc structure, with the characters, settings, and events of each arc barely ever appearing again beyond their few episodes. This brings us to deceptive point number one: Ai is the only main character; everyone else, even if they are listed as such, is a supporting character who will not appear again once their arc has concluded.
While the arcs are self contained, they all take place in this world which has supposedly been forsaken by God; and here's deceptive point number two. Kami-inai is very, very light on actual theological substance. The focus of its title, and arguably the main draw of the show for newcomers, is really nothing more than a plot device to allow for the plots of each individual arc. But that's not to say that this makes the show bad. Rather, it allows Kami-inai to explore a range of themes across its widely diverse and compelling settings, even if they're not particularly innovative. In fact, it's the settings of Kami-inai that are its true strength, more than making up for the disappointment of the title being mere bait. Of the show's four arcs, two take place in settings tied closely to the arc's theme; and of course, they're both evocative and entirely unpredictable, the latter due on no small part to the arc structure of the series. So at the very least, you'll be kept entertained by the fresh content that comes by every few episodes.
Another place where Kami-inai really excels is in emotional impact. Again, because each arc is a self contained story, they all end with very emotional scenes; and given how difficult it is to write a good emotional scene, Kami-inai has me more than a little impressed. This is no Clannad, but that doesn’t stop it from being good nonetheless. However, as is the case with all good emotional scenes, there’s always quite a bit of plot beforehand that’s needed to build up all the impact later on, and here’s where viewers might get turned off the show. The plot sections, for the most part, do a brilliant job of exploring the arc’s setting with an appropriate air of mystery; but when it’s not doing that, the viewers are left seeing the characters interact with one another as they do what they have to do. And this usually means seeing Ai being what she is: a loli. I personally have nothing against these segments, but there are those who find Ai annoying as a character and the things she does ridiculous; and certainly there is merit to that view. Not only that, but the show shifts from serious to comedic in tone to accompany Ai’s loli acts, and sometimes the change is so jarring it’s simply not welcome. But since Kami-inai always remedies these annoyances with the emotional parts that follow afterward, they’re not really that much of a problem.
For all the good that Kami-inai does with its emotional scenes, the said scenes are unfortunately also used at times to cover up gaping plot holes at the end of each arc. Or maybe it’d be better to say that gaping plot holes exist where the writers decided to kick reason to the curb in favour of writing scenes that would make viewers cry, for maximum audience appeal; and of course, this has the neat upshot of making said viewers less likely to notice the plot holes. If you’re the sort of person who can’t stand a shoddily-made plot then you won’t like it when it happens; but thankfully, there is only one real plot hole in the series. So it’s not so bad.
I realise I’ve been praising the arc structure quite a bit in this review. Once you get over the idea that there is no single plot connecting the stories, Kami-inai’s structure actually makes for a pretty good meta-plot, because each arc is as a consequence sharply focused, with zero filler. But that’s within the arcs. So it kind of sucks when the third arc, episodes 7 and 8, is total filler; and what makes it even worse is that characters who are carried over to the next arc are developed here, so you can’t just skip it and move on. You can’t just blame Madhouse for it either – believe me, I wanted to – because they were just faithfully adapting volume 3 of the light novel series. They actually cut it shorter than a standard three-episode arc; but even so, those two episodes alone take Kami-inai and drag it down from something amazing into something merely great.
Now enough of the plot. Kami-inai is a beautifully drawn and animated series; my only complaint is the slight overuse of CGI in the early few episodes, not because they look bad but simply because they don’t fit in with the rest of the animation. But CGI usage peters out beyond those two or three episodes, so it’s not really a problem. The art is bright and colourful, with a slight fantastical tint that sets the world apart from the normal world (or what passes for it in anime); and while the art style sometimes has the characters looking a little flat when viewed front-on, they’re still very detailed and very well drawn. Light and shadow is also used very well, often to great dramatic effect. Simply put, Kami-inai is beautiful.
And it’s not just easy on the eyes, too. The music is awesome, creating with ease the spooky, mysterious, and heartrendingly beautiful atmospheres that pervade the show. A lot of the emotional impact (and not just the crying scenes) is built on the background music, which should give you an idea of how good they are. Acting, for Ai and her main supporting cast, is consistently good, and all the characters come off as real and believable. And of course, mention must be made to the OP and ED songs, respectively ‘Birth’, sung by Kitamura Eri, and ‘Owaranai Melody wo Utaidashimashita.’, sung by Komatsu Mikako (yes, I’m writing the names inverted by English rules. Deal with it). The OP song is catchy and fun song to listen to, if standard JPop fare; but the ED’s is downright amazing. By itself it contributes to a great deal of the emotional impact I mentioned earlier; and even better, Madhouse plays with its ED so that the song will start before the credits roll, and sometimes the whole ED is cut in favour of just letting the credits and song play across what’s going on – and the emotional impact of those moments is then magnified, pardon my exaggeration, a few hundredfold. It should say a great deal that while I really looked forward to the start of the episode when it aired every Sunday, I looked forward to the end even more.
So there you have it. If you want good plot Kami-inai’s got it. If you want good setting Kami-inai’s got it, and by the bucketloads. If you want themes Kami-inai’s got it. If you want good characters Kami-inai’s aren’t half bad. And if you want good music Kami-inai’s is damn amazing. So if you’ve haven’t watched this series before or quit at the start because of how stupid it seemed, keep watching and get past the show’s deceptive shallowness to reach the wealth of greatness it has to offer. It’s well worth it.
