Let the conquering begin again!
What They Say:
The God of Conquests returns! The mission is to find legendary goddesses known as the “Jupiter Sisters” from a group of fourteen girls once conquered in the past. Now, Keima Katsuragi and Elsie will try to conquer the girls once again, this time with Haqua as their buddy. The mission is to find the five goddesses – the sisters of Diana, who awaits within Keima’s childhood friend Tenri. But they only have a week to do so, as Keima stands up again to protect a certain girl and the Human World in THE WORLD ONLY GOD KNOWS – GODDESSES!
The Review:
Audio:
The disk set is available in two formats using DTS-HD MA 2.0: Japanese with subtitles and English dub. Each version is equally optimised to acoustically display average conversations and the background noises found in a city. Although, it would have been nice if Sentai Entertainment used DTS-HD MA 5.1 for the episodes since Kanon does have some musicial numbers within the series. The use of DTS-HD MA 2.0 makes the songs sound flat and many of the higher frequencies and bass are lost.
Video:
The usage of the 16:9 widescreen format helps to showcase the metropolitan panoramic environments of the series. However, since this ratio is now the standard of most anime, it doesn’t add any appeal to the visuals as compared to any other similar collections in the genre.
Packaging:
Sentai Entertainment gave the disk case a standard cast art cover with an uncomplimentary white background and some pink accents. Compared to other sets of the genre, this colour compliment is stark and unappealing since nothing stands out. A few pretty girls on a box may get the average consumer to pick it up to see what the series is about, but unless they have seen the previous seasons, there is no enticing incentive to want to know more about it.
Menu:
The disk menus are very basic. Character artwork is used as the background and each episode is listed in a standard format so that they can be chosen to be played individually or in order. Although they may have changed the cursor to resemble a spirit hunter’s skull mask, nothing else is special about them.
Extras:
The extras on the disks are sorely lacking. It would have helped to have add some background information on the characters since this is the third season; unless the viewer is a loyal watcher and remembers their individual quirks, it is hard to understand what happened during the original hunt with Keima and how it relates to the present events. But instead, Sentai decided to only to show textless opening & closing animations and add some trailers for their other acquisitions. Extras are supposed to add to the content of a disk, not subtract from it by just tacking on non-essential materials.
The series picks up with Keima Katsuragi, once again isolated in his room doing his favourite thing, playing bishōjo games; he is known on the internet as The God of Conquest for his skills of being able to win over any girl in any dating sim. However, ironically, although he is intelligent and socially competent, he does not like real girls, thinking them as too much trouble. This prejudice is even for his childhood friend Tenri, who is inhabited by the goddess Diana; she needs her host to feel more love in order for her to gain more power, but Keima ignores her pleas, instead hastening to school for the mid-term finals.
The tests are important to someone else as well, Kanon Nakagawa, or better known as Kanon-chan! She is a well known pop idol who normally doesn’t attend school, but this time, she needs to come to take those exams. As she settles in, a strange voice echoes in her head, but she does her best to ignore it. Then Kanon sees him, Keima, and her memories come rushing back. Who is this boy and why does she remember him in such a romantic setting?
Hoping to compose herself in the bathroom, Kanon splashes some water on her face, but is stunned to see someone who looks like her, but not like her in the mirror. This was the voice she was hearing, a goddess who was living inside her named Apollo. She explains that she is weak now, but to regain her strength and the only way she can is for Kanon to confess her love for Keima! Flustered, she returns to class to try to finish the tests, but is soon overcome with emotions and interrupts the peace by rushing over to him and shouting aloud her love. Of course, he cannot believe what she said and they run out of the classroom to somewhere more private, the roof.
Once there, Kanon explains that she remembers everything from their date and she still has feelings for him. Keima realises that this can’t be true since all the memories of the conquest were supposed to be erased, so he just brushes her love for him as the ramblings of a confused girl. He coldly walks off and leaves her standing there, broken and confused. After the tests are over, Kanon walks home and sees that someone is following her, but it is too late; after a brief struggle, the attacker impales her with an ornate dagger, but thanks to Apollo, they manage to survive before releasing a mystical diagram into the sky. Soon afterwards, Keima discovers the body and takes her to his home.
With the help of Diana and the soul hunters Elsie and Haqua, they manage to stablise her, but the blade remains embedded within her chest. Haqua recognises it as a weapon belonging to an old faction in Hell called Vintage. Long ago, the world used to be divided into Heaven, where souls were replaced in humans, Earth, where the humans resided, and Hell, where the souls were cleansed of all sin. But, a group named Vintage wanted more and tempted some humans to greed so that they would be more corrupt, and thus, giving them more power when their souls were purified. However, Heaven heard of the plan and the divines defeated them by sealing the demons after sacrificing themselves. Those gods were called the Jupiter Sisters.
Diana and Apollo are two of the six Sisters who were reborn on Earth and their powers are now needed again if they wish to vanquish Vintage and save Kanon. But, they do not know who they are, aside from the fact that they will be within one of the fourteen girls that Keima dated before – and they will remember the event and everything else which lead up to it. So, in order to save Humanity and Apollo, Keima must re-conquer the girls and bring the goddesses forth … and did they forget to mention that he only has seven days in which to do all of this?
In Summary:
A bishōjo game, or dating sim, might be a staple of the Japanese gaming world, but for your average Westerner who has never played one, the basis for this series is missing. In short, the best way to relate to it is to think of the game as a Click ‘N’ Choose, but instead of fighting against an opponent, you are trying to win the heart of a girl; it typically starts with a menu of the available maidens and you are given a scenario through which you must answer various questions about their likes and dislikes. It becomes a branching tree diagram by which each answer you give relates to a set action or supporting answer and through these, you must give the most appropriate one to gain the best result, which is winning the girl. And then you repeat this with every one to gain all of them – in short, winning yourself a harem!
If someone saw the previous seasons, then maybe they might have liked this one better, but for a viewer who has not, this series is a loss. Since Keima is only interested in bishōjos, his social niceties are sorely lacking for girls his own age. As he so inappropriately points out, he is only interested in 2D girls, real ones are too much trouble. And so, throughout out the anime, as he is trying to re-conquer his girls, his actions are gauged by these games; Keima only thinks of how his response will trigger a new action or before that, how such a question and/or answer gain him the advantage. No wonder no one likes him!
It is this callousness and overly simplified logic which leads him to the most efficient method. And it is this same methodology which often causes him to sacrifice a girl’s feelings for him if he thinks he can win another who is a Goddess. Even after eliminating those who he thinks can’t be a divine by essentially quizzing them on facts about their date, he still has to weed out those that still meet the criteria. So what if someone gets hurt, as long as he gets the job done, that’s all that matters!
It is this overconfident, overbearing, unfeeling narcissist named Keima Katsuragi whom is the main character of The World God Only Knows. The only reason I didn’t give this show a lower grade was that it is the comedy aspect of the series which saves it. These same vulnerabilities in his character also make Keima an easy target for jokes: whether they be him dressing/acting like a girl or a prince or encouraging an aspiring writer – if it gains him a foothold, he will sacrifice it to win her back. This boy has a long way to go before he even considers himself a man if he still calls all of his previous dates conquests, and so does this show.
Features:
Japanese Language, English 2.0 Language, English Subtitles, Clean Opening, Clean Closing
Content Grade: C
Audio Grade: B
Video Grade: B
Packaging Grade: B
Menu Grade: B
Extras Grade: C
Released By: Sentai Filmworks
Release Date: March 10, 2015
MSRP: $59.98
Running Time: 300 Minutes
Video Encoding: 480i/p MPEG-2
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
Review Equipment:
Sharp LC-42LB261U 42” LED HDTV and Sony BDPS3200 Blu-ray player connected by HDMI
I still need to watch the second season. Bought the first on BD when it came out and enjoyed it but lost interest in the series not too long after that.
I like the show. It would have been nice to see Tsukiyo Kujyo and Yui Goido story. At least we got to see Tenri Ayukawa story in the ovas.
i enjoyed the first 2 episodes, but was reluctant to try this one because they skipped so much of the manga…
I still need to watch this show. It look pretty cool. I’ll pick it up if I have the chance.