However, Kamigami no Asobi manages to pull it off a lot better than most.
To begin with, the story: it manages to bring together the plot in the first episode quite well. There are a few plot holes or things that weren't explained to the finest, but those are issues that can be overlooked because the series was so short to begin with. In addition to this, it's important to note that the series was mainly episodic. A character was chosen to be the focus and then elaborated upon for an episode or so. I'll come back to this when we talk about characters. The overarching plot was about the Gods learning to understand humanity, and the show does a pretty good job of displaying it, even if it was a pretty cheesy representation.
The art was great! I enjoyed how the characters were drawn (very easily distinguishable, but at the same time, not outlandish and crazy like the characters of Amnesia), and the backgrounds were pretty as well. I loved the night sky portrayals. It's also important to note that the God forms of the main characters were very detailed and beautiful, along with their specifically cultured dorm rooms.
The sound was fine. I was a big fan of any of the music, but at least all the voice actors were pretty good and none pissed me off, which is a feat, cuz I get annoyed almost too easily.
Getting back to the characters-- there's nine main characters. The heroine and human, Yui, is the central focus of our harem. From Greek Mythology, we have Apollon (was it supposed to be Apollo?) who gets a pretty deep tragic past that's a variation of a true myth. He gets enough development that he's fun to watch, but his motivations aren't always clear and his dialogue and actions are pretty cheesy and bland. He reminds me a lot of Tamaki from Ouran. The, from Greece, we also have Dionysus and Hades, who get little to no screen time, and whenever they do, they're used as comic relief. Personally, I wish they got more development, but I guess they were meant to be background characters and the series was too short anyhow. On the other hand, we have our Gods from Japan, Tsukito and Takeru. Both have their own episode to themselves, so they're developed well enough, though they're shoved aside in the finale for Apollon and the Norse Gods.
The Norse Gods finish off the series with a bang. Loki, Balder, and Thor were barely present in the first part of the series, but slowly began to make the scene until Loki and Balder were the main focus. Despite being close with them, Thor was ignored, and that made me a little sad because he had some real potential as a character. I enjoyed the Loki and Balder sequence (mainly cuz I ship them... a lot) so it was a pretty nice finale. I would like to say I was disappointed by Yui as a whole though. I know I shouldn't expect much from anime heroines at this point (especially in a reverse harem video game based shoujo anime) but I couldn't help myself. When she talked about swordsmanship, I got excited because I'm a martial artist myself, so I hoped that her character would be kickass and get the Gods off of their high and mighty thrones, but instead, the swordsmanship was used as a plot device to lure Takeru into the group and then abolished afterwards. I wish they had given her a little more umph, because she really did stand a chance at first. I didn't find her particularly annoying, but honestly, it wouldn't have made any different if she wasn't there.
As much as I liked Apollon, I also wish that Yui hadn't basically been paired up with him from the start. I liked him and Cassandra better, and I honestly think that Yui with perhaps Tsukito or Takeru might've been alright, if she had to have a pairing, though I don't think it was needed at all. This is coming from a person who loves shipping more than anything!! I just didn't feel the chemistry between any of the characters except Loki and Balder, if I'm being honest.
I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would, to be honest. The humor was pretty good (I have a strange sense of humor, and it definitely catered to it) and the plot interesting enough that I could follow through with watching it without getting bored. All in all, a good watch!
I would recommend if: you like mythology, you enjoy reverse-harems, you like it when a ton of boys fight over a girl, you like 'school anime' without traditional school troubles.
I would NOT recommend if: you're looking for something dark or angsty, you want a lot of character development, you're not a fan of reverse-harems or love triangles, you don't like mythology or mythical Gods, anime about friendship and sunshine and rainbows bore you.
Have a great day everyone!
P.S. In twelve, episodes, Thoth boxed Yui into a wall 11 times. Eleven times. Only once was it even needed. Just saying.
