This third season follows Keima as he searches to find the goddesses who are residing in the hosts of his previous conquests, and has to make them fall in love with him all over again in order to bring out their power to fight back against Vintage, a group from Hell that wishes to revive Old Hell. The story is great, with the individual conquests mostly being very well done. The humor, drama, and romance from the previous seasons are back, and make the conquests as enjoyable as ever. This arc also really brings forward the lore that has slowly been presented through the last two seasons about Hell and presents an interesting tale involving it as well. The last conquest, the Mai High Festival Arc, is especially great, as it really raises the bar with a great story that unfolds, with interesting twists, higher stakes, and hilarious and heart-wrenching moments, as well as bringing about a great climax and resolving the Vintage conflict.
However, a couple of problems do arise from the way they decided to adapt this arc. For some reason they decided to adapt this arc without first adapting the remaining normal conquests in between the second and third season. They also expect you to have watched both OVAs (Tenri Arc and 2-B Pencils) beforehand. As such, it rushes the pacing on the two conquests based on girls not seen before, trying to cram in the details of the previous conquests, as well as it being a little confusing for those who haven't read the manga or seen the OVAs, although it isn't too big of a problem because most people should catch on fairly quickly. Another issue is that the amount of content they are trying to fit into 12 episodes some 80 chapters, while the previous seasons had nearly one chapter per episode. This does cause the pacing to be a little quick in the beginning, such as the prep for the Goddess arc as well as the two conquests mentioned previously. However, I do want to give props to the director Satoshi Osedo for being able to fit all this material and still make it fairly reasonably paced. Other than the issues mentioned before, this anime does very well with pacing, and did pretty well trying to work around the problems it had no control over (like the skipping of conquests). I think it is reasonable to say that it even has better pacing than the original series, which dragged on especially in some parts (the buggy game episode and Shiori's arc come to mind). Overall, these issues aren't really that big of an issue, but since I love this series so much I have to nitpick at a couple things. This issue really goes away after the Tsukiyo arc, as it doesn't even bother the Yui arc that badly, but it is there for a little while.
The characters are definitely one of the greatest things to come out of The World God Only Knows. Keima is awesome as always, but this series takes it even further than before. This arc really starts to develop and change his character, as the stakes are raised higher and he really starts to see the consequences of the way he goes about his conquests. He also starts to take things much more seriously, beginning to see that it's not a game anymore, most notably seen as how he is missing his iconic PFP for most of the season, and doesn't even really touch a game other than at the beginning and the very end. He starts to begin feeling the emotional consequences of the conquests on himself as well as on the girls. Besides Keima though, Haqua also receives decent development during this season as well, going from the naive, rule-abiding girl she is to a more mature and stronger leader, fighting back against Vintage. The other characters in this season are great as well, with seven of the better girls returning (or showing up for the first time) for Keima's conquests, as well as Tenri/Diana and the Hell members like Nora, Lune, and Elsie. All of them are pretty interesting and enjoyable to watch on screen. This cast of characters, alongside the star-studded voice cast, really is one of the greatest parts of this show.
The art of this show is pretty good but not as great as it could be. The character designs are great as always, but the animation quality doesn't always follow suit. Manglobe has never really been known for the best animation, so its expected that they aren't going to suddenly be on KyoAni level animation for this show, but it still is a little bothersome. By no means is it bad, it just isn't as great as it could have been, with a few blips in the art every once in a while. Other than that though, the art is pretty good. It's saying something when the weakest point isn't really all that weak. The music is well done as always. The soundtracks help to accent the mood in the moment, whether it be the climax of a conquest or a moment of despair. The opening is also probably one of my favorites this season, and probably ties with first season for the best TWGOK. Saori Hayami sings beautifully as always, and produces a great opening. The closing songs are pretty good as well, although not as good as the opening. "The Memory of My First Love" (Hajimete Koi wa Shita Kioku) is probably one of the best, as the lyrics really fit the mood of the last episode, and Saori Hayami's "With... You..." is a notable mention as well. Overall, the music and art of this season are pretty good, even with a few flaws.
If you couldn't tell, I really like this season of The World God Only Knows. Despite a few flaws, it is definitely my favorite of the three and would definitely recommend it to anyone who has seen the first two. In a way it is like The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, as you need to see the previous seasons for it to make sense, but it is the best of the them all. I enjoyed this show greatly, with a great story, humor, and characters, and it resparked my love of the series after the slow down in the manga (although it has picked up since then). Hopefully Manglobe will find some way to animate the missing conquests, but if not, so be it. This was a great season. Anyone who loves The World God Only Knows should check this show out, and for all fans, as Keima says:
"I Can See the Ending."
