The World God Only Knows: Goddesses Episode 2: Scrambled Formation

“Indeed, this isn’t a game”

Synopsis: Third season of The World God Only Knows. To save the lives of Kanon and Apollo, Keima starts searching for the remaining goddesses.

Impression:

 Now before I begin I’d like to say this: I don’t hate Season 3 (this season) of The World God Only Knows because it skipped out on all those other arcs. Sure I’m slightly pissed off about the whole thing, but what can you do? I love The World God Only Knows, it’s probably one of the shows that convinced me to watch anime on a regular basis, I just… you know? Missing out several arcs for the sake of getting to another ‘better‘ arc is just… well A, it’s lazy and B, it’s a way for them to provide a ‘better‘ story for viewers… that being said, I don’t like how rushed this feels, especially since I’ve read the manga. And maybe that’s why it seems so rushed, I mean, I did read the manga at my own pace after all, my ‘manga reading pace’ being very fast.

 But I would like to praise the director for the way he’s handled this fast paced story line, it’s controlled and whilst some of the funnier moments from the manga are missed out in an attempt to move the story forwards, there’s still enough content to keep the fans appeased. I just wished that hadn’t cut out the Jun visit… or the Yui arc… I really loved the Yui arc, y’know?

 Let’s talk about the episode… Apollo! Kanon! WHY?! Whilst I’m glad to see Keima finally getting passionate about something did it have to be Kanon? She’d only just been reintroduced! Why do we have to go without her for so much longer… oh well, I guess we have Yui to tide us over until she reawakens… Even Elsie is gone now! Although I have to admit, I almost went off on a rant when I saw her approach Kanon’s manager with black hair. Here’s to the use to deceptive magic! But I digress, Keima is getting serious, even Haqua admitted it. Let’s be honest though, he is doing it to save someones life and I’m sure Keima was get just as serious for any of the other girls (excluding that creepy robot girl… ain’t no one getting passionate about that her…), that’s just the kind of guy he is.

 Speaking of the kind of guy Keima is… what a man whore! Conquering five girls at a time? Jesus Keima, that’s a tall order, even for you my God of Conquest… what’s this? You’re no longer the God of Conquest because you said so? I would disagree my good man… But I digress… again. I think one of the main issues Keima is going to face is that all of the conquests are going to be taking place in and around school… where all the girls are located. The Yui and Shiori incident depicted in the episode will probably become commonplace among the other girls and I think Keima’s going to have a hard time trying to ‘reconquer’ his lost loves… especially since all of them now hate him… even Shiori, it would appear…

 And just how are the reconquest’s going so far? No Keima might care to disagree with me here but… they’re going terribly. Sure, Keima may have whittled the amount of girls down to five but he only needs four. If he makes the mistake of alienating a girl who has a goddess within her… I wonder what happens if a girl falls out of love with Keima? Considering a Goddesses power is based solely around love ‘n all… would they just die? Or would they force the girl to find another attachment from somewhere else? Who knows…

 On the opposite end of the spectrum, what if Keima attempts to romance someone who doesn’t have a Goddess within them? What will Keima do? It’s not like he can tell that girl that he did it in the name of Goddess hunting and it’s not like he can make her forget (unless he uses rohyphnol…) so… what will Keima do? Is Keima Katsurugi asshole enough to blow off a girl who genuinely falls for him? Or will he finally be forced to choose a girl? Find out next time on… huh? We’re not done with this review? Fair enough.

 On the comedy side of things, The World God Only Knows shines again. Like I said in my opening paragraphs, a lot of the comical exposition has been missed out in the name of plot and storytelling but that doesn’t mean that the comedy part of the show has been removed entirely. It’s still there. It’s still awesome. The Goddesses Arc however, has taken a more serious tone, an air of death (literally) hanging over Kanon. It’s the underlying theme and a compelling one at that.

 One week to save a girl who’s in love with you otherwise she dies?

 I like it! Ever since the first season of The World God Only Knows aired all those years ago (and by that I mean three years ago) I’ve been waiting for an ‘important’ arc to make the show great. This is that arc. An enticing story line that brings together everyone’s favorite girls (a part from those who don’t have Goddesses within them… don’t think we’re ever going to see them again…) for one large arc full of comedy, adventure and The World God Only Knows fun? Yeah, this is the shit! You know, that saying ‘it’s the shit’ isn’t actually that good a saying. How can anything that’s shit be good? Let’s change it to: ‘this is the sex!’… yeah, all better.

 And (before I say this I’d like to point out that anyone who hasn’t read the manga or doesn’t want to be spoiled in ANY way shouldn’t read this next paragraph… it’s a minuscule spoiler, one barely worth noting but…) has anyone else noticed that they spoil who all six Goddesses are in the opening? For anyone perceptive enough to see it that’s got to be a real dick slap to the face… takes away half the fun you know? I think that’s what I found so good about this arc, the mystery element to it…

 To conclude, this was a pretty darn good episode of The World God Only Knows. Whilst it’s very obvious that they’re going through material in a breeze, I think it’s being handled in such away that it’s normally not that noticeable and, whilst I’d like to see more the comedy thrown back in, I’m excited to see how well they’ll handle this ‘plot centric’ style to animating the series later on when things start ‘slowing down’, so to speak.

Preview: