“That made my heart skip…”
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:
Keima Katsurugi you player. Watching a man ‘conquer’ five girls in the space of one day is A. depressing, and B. hilarious. When I watched episode one of the first season my only thought was ‘how is this guy going to deal with all these relationships?’ and then of course the amnesia enducing kiss was revealed and I felt a bit sad… just a bit though. Now we have the Goddesses Arc, Keima’s chance to get a girlfriend without having to worry about them forgetting him!… and he’s already almost f*cking it up. Yui is on to you man! Just kiss her and forget about the others!… but wait, Kanon… So many girls! Keima…!
The episode is very formulaic, Keima planning out his conquests and using the skills learnt from previous conquests (and galge!) to make sure that the girl fall in love with him… a part from Yui who’s only intention is to make Keima A. wear a a girls school uniform and B. get Keima to fall in love with her. Watching Keima move from girl to girl is funny in the sense that he’s a “player” (as stated by the ever inciteful Yui) but it’s also quite sad because we as viewers though that it’s unlikely that he’ll end up with any of these girls. Personally, I’m rooting for Yui but that is in and of itself unlikely because of the type of character that she is. She doesn’t fit into the ‘protagonists significant other’ mould and… well, that makes me sad. If a lifetime of watching anime has taught me anything, it’s that Keima will end up with the first girl that we see, a.k.a Ellie… then again, I think they might play it safer and put him with Yokkyun, his one true love.
True loves aside, every conquest is unique and I think that’s the appeal. Every girl has their own personality and that’s why every viewer tends to grow attached to at least one of them. Of course, with the missing out of arcs, some of the best conquests in the entire series were missed out and therefore some of the best girls, but I digress, in the Goddesses arc itself we’ve been treated with a slew of girls, each catering to every anime viewers preference and tastes. Shiori, the innocent library girl, Tsukiyo, the cute loli, Ayumi and Chihiro, tsundere extraordinaire(s) and the list goes on. You get the picture.
And I guess that takes me to my next point: episode 3 was amazing because even though they crammed so much in, it didn’t feel rushed. It was done perfectly. And, when it did feel rushed, the viewer didn’t tend to notice because it felt almost like it was meant to be that way. Keima is hurrying to save Kanon’s life. If he’s sitting around doing nothing every episode I think people would complain more. Just saying.
Ultimately however, what made episode 3 great was it’s characters. The World God Only Knows excels at story telling and, more importantly, developing characters. Remember when we first met Chihiro? She ‘hated’ Keima and went out of her way to be mean to him. Look at her now. She’s having calm, collected conversations with him, conversations that would really only occur between friends. And I guess that’s what makes me think that she’s a Goddess, she’s different around Katsuragi… then again, what if it’s Keima who’s changed? He used to be socially awkward and rather introverted, but now… he goes out every other week to conquer a girl here and there and he thinks nothing of it. Keima is more comfortable with people know and his class mates are being to see that and their beginning to reciprocate those feelings.
But what if that’s the problem. What if one of these girls doesn’t have a Goddess inside of them and is actually falling in love with Keima for real? I’d love to see it happen, the drama as Keima makes a choice would be amazing.
Drama. That’s what this episode was missing. Now of course not every episode can be action packed with stabbings and confessions of love, but if anything, The World God Only Knows thrives when it’s creating a dramatic scene or a dramatic encounter. The Goddesses Arc is full of them and, well… I’m really f*cking looking forward to seeing some of me favorite scenes from the manga coming to life in anime form… just thought I’d through that out there.
Nora… just what is she doing at Keima’s house? Sure she says she came to tell Ellie about the Goddesses but… I’m not buying it! Don’t they have email in Hell? I don’t know, it just doesn’t feel right, y’know? Her just appearing out of nowhere and then nonchalantly drinking tea with everyone’s favorite God of Conquest… nope. Nuh-uh. I call B.S.
And of course we do still have the underlying issue that is Kanon. Fun and games aside, Kanon is dying up in that room and Keima knows it. It’s a joyous thing to see Keima get so serious of a girl. When he started ranting about his games and how life should be like them (a running gag throughout all three series) I thought it was brilliant to see Keima have a reality check. Life isn’t a game. Not at the moment anyway. In order to save Kanon, Keima is willing to do anything… even date four girls in the hope that at least three of them have Goddesses hidden within them so that he can explain… ah, shit. Poor guy.
To conclude, The World God Only Knows is getting better with each episode. So far, this has been my favorite episode of the series, encompassing all of the best bits from the first two series into one 25 minute episode. That said, I’m hoping there’s more drama next episode so that we can see the Goddesses arc as it was meant to be seen, the most serious arc in The World God Only Knows so far… I’m rooting for you Yui! Go get him!
Preview: