Story (7/10): God abandoned the world. A very interesting concept where he has "failed" the world, and closed off heaven due to it being full, and giving everyone immortality. Because god has gotten rid of the law of death, people are no longer able to die, have children, or grow older. That being said, when people sustain a life-threatening injury, their bodies don't recover. People in fact will grow corrupt and selfish as their bodies decay. On top of that, to counter that, God created the gravekeepers, who will sense any "deceased" person, and attempt to bury them in order to make them at peace. I'm not sure WHERE these people go, but screw it, it's anime. The story follows a girl by the name of Ai, the cute little protagonist of the story. Being born and raised in a sealed off village in the mountains, Ai is the town's gravekeeper, and is watched over by the villagers in the happy and wonderful world that she knows. That is, until a man by the name of Hampnie Hambart comes in and kills all the villagers. From then on, Ai sets off on a journey to save the world, whilst following the strange man that apparently murdered everyone she knew (logic). Though this comes off as an IMMENSELY original idea, there are many flaws with its execution. For starters, the story isn't about finding out why God abandoned the world. Regardless of how much that would've improved that story, they don't do that. In fact, what they do do, is show the audience, the effects of the abandonment. The anime features 3 different main arcs, each with different characters that show a new situation and mystery to Ai. While this is good on its own, it comes off to me as side stories while not focusing on the possible main plot point in the first place. However, it does bounce back on the complex idea of "alive" and "dead" in the anime, and shows quite a lot of diversity.
Characters (8/10): Rather then talking about several characters in the anime like I usually do in my reviews, I'll be going over only one, as revealing the identities of the rest of the cast, would be considered as a huge spoiler. Ai, as the main protagonist, is a 12 year old girl who is a gravekeeper. As a bright, optimistic, and cheery person, she hosts an extremely child-like personality, that would probably warm anyone's heart if they saw it. However, after the initial event of the first episode, she changes to the point that she wishes to save the world that God abandoned. Pretty bold for a 12 year old. As the story goes along, Ai doesn't actually change too much from what I can see, rather, she uses her experiences from without the story to combat the problem at hand. She's definitely not your average little girl. Apart from her, the rest of the main cast, including Hampnie Hambart, is shown to have a very large level of complexity which shows just how much time was spent into creating these characters. Bottom line, I LIKE THEM!
Art and Sound (9/10): For art, you gotta hand it to them. The art in this show is amazing. The characters can be compared to those of Angel Beats! where all the characters feature a wide array of light colors and a sort of godly looking look in their design. The backgrounds are very well detailed and I just love how good everything blends in with one another. As for sound, it's awesome. It's opening is amazing sounding with it's energetic opening showing the hope and despair that is in this new world. It sounds wonderful, and I listened to it every time I watched the show. As for the ending... I love it as well. It gives a very somber sounding feeling that gives a sort of calming closing, as if you were given peace. Overall, I loved them both and I wouldn't be surprised if anyone who decided to watch it after this review did too.
Personal enjoyment (8/10): From the general synopsis of reading it, I thought that this was going to be one of the best things I've ever watched. And I was right, mostly. From an individual arc standpoint, the anime does really great in terms of executing the individual arcs with well done characters featured in each one, which get influenced by Ai in some way. This is something I like. I'd probably give it a 9/10. However, looking at the anime as a whole, I don't see it as good. The transitions from one arc to another are very sudden and random, which feels kind of awkward. On top of that, the story did feel a bit rushed at times, and there were some plot points that felt uneeded and very stupid. There are 2 that I can think of in particular. The ending itself was a bit confusing as well, and leaves a bit of a cliffhanger, seeing as how it was quite obvious that the anime still needed to explain what the hell just happened. Aside that, there is still ONE moment that I would describe as my favorite/hated/heartfelt/story changing/important moment in this anime. And that is, the end of episode 3. For those of you who have seen it, you know what I'm talking about. This scene in particular is where I think the anime took a bit of a nosedive (like SAO). For me, I think it was both unnecessary, and necessary. It was both stupid, and brilliant. It was well done and- you get the point. Above all, Sunday without God is good with its individual story arcs, its aesthetics, and its characters. It falls flat on its overall cohesive story, and...that's about it really. If you want to watch something original and not based off of archtypes, I would highly recommend this.
