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
