Category: Kamisama Hajimemashita

This show didn’t turn out as what I expected it to be. With Akitaro Daichi behind the direction I was expecting a lot of hyperactive comedy here, but this episode yet again took a step back in terms of pacing. The way this episode progressed also quite surprised me.

To be honest, the first half of this episode had me wonder whether I perhaps overestimated this series. The set-up was basic with Nanami running into this snake familiar who suddenly decided that he was going to marry her against her will. It was a very cliched set-up, especially with Tomoe joining the school as a student. But as the episode went along it just kept getting better and better.

It did suddenly get quite dramatic, but what seemed forced at first turned out to be surprisingly genuine. First with the story about the snake familiar who has created an entire dimension to protect the memory of his deceased master, and afterwards Tomoe realizing that the same might happen to him and Nanami. And inbetween Nanami just walked around brightly and took a lot of those worries away. The drama here is simple, but really effective, especially with that ED. Because of how well these episodes are told, this still is my favorite shoujo of the season, even in terms of drama. Sukitte Ii na Yo is also good, but it comes across quite forced in comparison.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

It is great to finally see such a likable shoujo lead female again. Don’t get me wrong: the leads in Tonari no Kaibatsu-kun and Sukitte Ii na yo are good too with the focus on their flaws, but the energy and optimism that she has finally are done right again. After watching so many dull and bland female leads, this is so refreshing! For once we have a lead again who isn’t bound by angst, but rather by optimism.

Her flaw, her naivety is also used quite well. Rather than using it for her to run into all sorts of trouble, the creators use it to get her try try out things, even though they might not be the smartest. She actually does things herself, rather than wanting to be protected all the time or having males fight all over her.

The humour in this episode was different from the previous episodes. Strangely enough, it lacked the hyperactivity and instead was more conventionally paced, or a bit more conventional than usual for this series’ standards. It still was full of well-timed jokes though, and the way in which it portrays the emotions of its characters still rocked and was hilarious to watch.

The story of this episode seemed nothing special, just a random love story. There are a few interesting things to say about it though. First of all it used its own simplicity quite well. It’s not as good as in the first episode, but the way in which it combined humour and drama together still was excellent. It’s to the point where you don’t know what to expect and where it’ll move to, wihch is the sign of a great direction. Also the ending of the episode worked really well. Instead of the usual cheesy aftermath, the creators decided to end with just a push in the right direction. Nothing really got resolved, but we could all see where it was going and there was no need to show more of it. Plus, the ED works brilliant for these conclusions.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

This is something I could only dream of: two Akitaro Daichi series airing at the same time. For those of you who don’t know: he’s pretty much my favorite comedy director. For the past years he has only worked on short series with 5-minute episodes (or 2 minutes, in Poyopoyo’s case), but finally it’s time again for him to handle a full fledged show.

And yeah, this season has a lot of comedy and a lot of romance. And in those areas, it just stands out as the best. It’s a simple show, but what it does it does really well. Akitaro Daichi’s style also is more than obvious: the way he uses his cameras to simulate movement when people are running, and the way he creates energy by having characters talk really fast and get right to the point are just awesome, and here it’s no different. The voice acting is also excellent and the voice actors manage to deliver in quite a few different ranges.

By far the best part of this show is the chemistry between the different characters. This is utterly hilarious in the way they just keep teasing each other. But also, this series knows when it goes too far. What I really liked about this episode for example was that when Tomoe went too far with his pranks, they talked with each other to sort things out.

Now, this episode was not as good as the first episode, which really did go all out. What I did like is how it subverted the “bad boy” cliche: you know, the bishie who is abusive and yet somehow the lead female starts falling for him. In this case, she didn’t and very clearly dumped him because of that behavior. And of course, this guy also meant to poke fun at a lot of other stereotypes, which worked quite well. It’s really good to finally see a show that makes idols look completely ridiculous.

And well, first there were Lupin and Zetman, now Kamisama Hajimemashita. TMS are really busy reinventing themselves in this year. I mean, they were behind some of the series with the most unique direction this year, which is especially impressive considering they clearly don’t have a big budget, or cleanly polished animators. Kamisama Hajimemashita is helped with Akitaro Daichi’s direction, but even taking that into account the poses of the different characters are full of creativity, rather than having the characters move the same over and over again. It may not be the best looking series of the series by a loooong shot, but on the other hand, this show tends to ignore a lot of conventions when it comes to animation, which is nevertheless quite refreshing.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)