“I was happy being alone.”
Synopsis: During the simultaneous walk-home-from-school events, Keima is attacked by a wave of flying books. The books are being controlled by a small figure. Meanwhile, section chief Nora drops by the Katsuragi residence to see Elsie. It sounds like the Hell Bureau of Peace has issued an order to the loose soul team to search for residents of Heaven. Kanon/Apollo is currently at the Katsuragi residence. Is this a coincidence?
Impression:
I know I bring this up every time I make a review but… if you haven’t read the manga yet (or at least the chapters that weren’t animated), do it now. I’m being deadly serious. Today’s episode focused heavily on Tsukiyo, a girl who’s arc was never animated for the anime only viewers. Was this episode of The World God Only Knows good? Hell yeah. Would this episode be as good if I hadn’t read the manga? Probably, but, if I hadn’t read the manga I wouldn’t have made those connections with Tsukiyo’s character and felt the same way I did in this episode. For all I knew I’d never see Tsukiyo again, I mean, that was the way the show worked at the time. And then came along this big arc with actual plot and some pretty deep character development, things the show had been lacking since the end of the first arc.
But I digress, the point of my opening chapter was this: if you haven’t those ‘lost chapters‘, do it now, otherwise you’re going to miss out on all those feels. That aside, episode four of The World God Only Knows was great. I’m sorry happy they didn’t rush Tsukiyo’s part of the arc because, well, y’know, it means that (hopefully) every other girl will recieve the same treatment. An entire episode for themselves (yes, I realize that Tsukiyo only received the center of the episode… but still!), that is all I’m asking for (especially since episode five is Yui’s episode!).
So let’s talk about the exposition, everything that came before and after the Tsukiyo part of the episode. Shiori!… isn’t getting enough exposition! Obviously they can’t give her anymore than they are, I mean, they can only work with what the manga is giving them, but still… it’s sad not to see more of her cute face every episode, y’know? And I think that that was my main issue with the Goddesses arc (if there ever was one), the girls appear and disappear at random points and it begins to feel disjointed. I remember reading a few chapter, stopping, and then picking it up a day later and not knowing what the hell was going on. With a normal story arc it focuses on one girl and that’s all we get, one dedicated look into the life of a single girl and Keima’s journey into ‘fixing’ it. With the Goddesses arc we get this lovely bubbly clusterf*ck of joy that definitely won’t spend as much time looking at each girl. That’s the way the manga to anime conversion is going to to work I’m afraid…
But that doesn’t mean they’re doing a bad job! In fact all of the exposition in this episode was… surprising. Whilst it wasn’t a total deviation from the main story, it was different. Diana’s realization, Nora’s discovery and Shiori’s ever so slight development… yeah, they done pretty darn well. But there is one thing however that I’m not too ‘happy’ about. Kanon revival. Now I’m not saying that I wanted her to die, no in fact I wanted exactly the opposite, but, the whole appeal of this arc was the danger and desperation of the situation. We have this much time to do all this. It’s rather anticlimactic and it also means that the chances of us seeing a ‘serious Keima’ again are slim… very slim… I’ll miss him.
Let’s talk about Tsukiyo and all other things beautiful (such as myself). Out of all of Keima’s conquests, I think that this one was one of the most overlooked ones and this episode showed that. The conquest was somewhat shallow. Tsukiyo I need you to love me! Perhaps that would work if he’d known the girl for a year or so, but he knew her for a day or two and then he broke his promise and abandoned her. And then he appeared again, expecting her to love him? Geez Keima, I understand that you’re a player now but seriously! I liked this conquest, don’t get me wrong, The World God Only Knows presented the conquest in such a way that I almost didn’t realize! But nevertheless, it was hollow.
That being said (and yes, I know I keep using that prefix), Keima suffering for the girl he… ‘loves’ would convince anyone to give him a second chance! And that’s another thing! It annoys me sometimes that Keima is just leading all of these girls on. Obviously he’s doing it for the sake of the world and the sake of his nexk and I understand necessity, but still, when the girls could forget about him it was okay… but now it’s getting serious. They’re not going to forget about him and they’re going to continue wanting him in their lives. Is this the beginning of Keima’s harem?! Is the harem arc impending? Is it time?!
To conclude.
Episode 4. It was good. Exposition was good. Tsukiyo was alright. Keima is a player. Episode wasn’t rushed. All is okay in the world. Here’s to episode 5.
Preview:
I think you’re right that this episode of World God Only Knows is only good if you actually read the manga. I have absolutely zero interest in Tsukiyo because I haven’t read it, making the episode extremely boring.
Though I have to admit I don’t actually find this season that interesting.
Tsukiyo’s my least favorite among the Goddess hosts, but I still feel that she needs more than this >_<
I don't dislike this episode, but I'll be happier if they would be so kindly to animate some scenes of the first conquest, instead of having Keima explain it in words. After all, just words won't be enough to show the new / anime-only viewers what kind of character she is.. (￣Д)＝３
Even I have trouble remembering what kind of girl she is, moreover she didn't appear that much in the manga orz