It’s time to get back into the game.
What They Say:
Keima, a high school student, is an avid player of romantic simulation games. He is known on the Internet as the “Divine Capturer” for his legendary skills to “capture” any 2D girl in games. In his real school life, Keima is considered nothing but a gloomy geek with thick glasses.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
After two very fun seasons, flaws and all, The World God Only Knows returns with a new season, and one that does something fairly radical by leaping ahead about twelve volumes or so in the manga to focus on a particular arc. The Goddesses Arc is a lot more current for fans of the manga and certainly more appealing there, though it remains to be seen if there are things that are lost in translation because of the volumes skipped. But with so many shows and manga, this one included, where you could skip character stories and not have any significant things lost in terms of story progress, I can’t find myself being all too concerned about it. In the end, it’s all back to Keima and his fun of being caught in this little situation.
Thankfully, we do see some nods to past storylines that haven’t been adapted yet and they’re done as cute film reel flashbacks that help to deal with some smaller aspects of things that have gone on with other women that he’s had to deal with. In the end, we do discover that Elsie and Keima have managed to deal with fourteen lost souls, which frustrates the hell out of Haqua. Elsie is fantastically lucky with who she managed to partner with since Keima, resistant as he is to helping her deal with lost souls, is able to do the job very well and there is a thrill to it that he does feel. Haqua’s partner is a study in contrasts since it’s a middle aged woman who seems barely ambulatory.
With this opening episode, we get these kinds of bits throughout, but also more of the large stage setting that’s going on as we reconnect with these characters. Kanon seems to be a bit on the crazy side these days as she’s carrying on conversations with a more outgoing version of herself in the mirror and Tenri, who has moved in next door to Keima, has a higher power that shows itself through her to him and makes it clear what she’s doing and that he damn well better treat her better. The conversation with Tenri on the way to school opens up a lot of what’s going to go on in this season where she makes it clear that what he’s been doing with the lost souls may have opened up something else as there’s the possibility that within the girls who hosted the lost souls, a goddess may have existed as well, and they may be free at this point, which could be what’s causing some of the local area problems they’ve been having.
In Summary:
Not too surprisingly, there’s a good bit of an info dump spread across the episode and it’s given to Tenri to handle it. It gets to be a little much at times, but it provides the kind of look we needed to set the stage for what this season is going to be about when it comes to the goddesses. It also works Kanon into the story well here as we see her going through a minor personality collapse as she’s struggling with what’s inside her that’s trying to twist and mess with her, which is what becomes Keima’s first encounter with a goddess and what it means for him. Mostly, the show is a bit denser than I would have expected and not quite as much fun as some of the past episodes in terms of setup, but I like the more serious approach for a bit and what it may be working towards, which it offers up in a few ways here that are certainly intriguing.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
