In a world abandoned by God, how do people survive when there’s no more death? Or birth?
What They Say:
In a world abandoned by God, the bodies of the dead will continue to walk unless they are buried by one of the mysterious Gravekeepers. Ai, one of the last children in a world where no more can be born, becomes her small village’s Gravekeeper when her mother, the previous Gravekeeper, passes on… but the arrival of a pale gun-wielding stranger destroys her village and what little remained of Ai’s old existence. Is this seemingly immortal man possibly an important figure from Ai’s past?
Uncertain of what else to do, Ai finds herself compelled to set forth on a mission to learn the secrets of this strange world without proper death, unravel the mysteries of her own past, and, hopefully, find a way to put the dead permanently to rest!
Contains episodes 1-13.
The Review:
Audio:
The audio presentation for this release is pretty straightforward as we get the original Japanese language track in stereo as well as the English language mix, both of which are encoded using the DTS-HD MA lossless codec. The series is not one that has a lot of action to it, though it does have its small and controlled bursts, so the majority of it is rather dialogue-driven. Or instrumental-driven as there are some nice pauses to reflect on landscapes and other visuals. The bulk of the show has a fairly expected full sound with some center channel placement at times as well as a few nods here and there beyond that. It’s not a mix that stands out or does anything surprising, but it handles and serves the material well and competently in order to engage the viewer in the series. It’s a solid track with no problems that come across clean and clear through regular playback.
Video:
Originally airing in 2013, the transfer for this TV series and OVA is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.78:1 in 1080p using the AVC codec. The show is spread across two discs with nine on the first and three episodes and the OVA on the second. Animated by Madhouse, the series has a great visual design to it with a lot of otherworldly moments and fantastic color design to give it a rich and warm life. So many scenes draw you in simply because of the landscape shots, but it’s also because of the richness of the colors that makes it so much more engaging. Normally shows that spends a lot of time doing panning sequences can get boring but the combination with the music and the visuals make it work here. There’s a good amount of detail to these shots, and to the characters themselves, that the whole thing holds together really well and makes for a great viewing session on a big screen because it has such open vistas in a lot of scenes. The colors are rich, solid, and full of pop, and there’s no line noise issues to be had and the details hold together very well.
Packaging:
The packaging for this release is done up in a standard-sized Blu-ray case that holds both discs against the interior walls. As with other recent re-releases, this edition comes with a new cover and it’s definitely a big plus. As much as I liked the original and its key visual design, this one places our leading character mixed into the flowers in a way that’s really appealing, going bright and colorful while drawing you to her expressive face. The back cover is a bit of a darker affair with what it does as we get a subdued background that lets the shots from the show stand out across the middle as it uses some very vibrant pieces to work with. The premise is kept above it as it details the basics while we also get the extras, which is a bit harder to read with the color combinations picked out there. The rest is given over to the usual round of production credits and technical information that’s covered cleanly and accurately. No show-related inserts are included nor is there a reversible cover.
Menu:
The menu design for this release goes with a touch of class and elegance about it that plays to the religious side in a nice way with all of its detail and layout. The left side has the navigation strip that works as the pop-up menu as well, and it uses some good marble green, and purple colors while having a lot of inlaid pieces to it that give it a feeling of something sculpted that looks really well. The bulk of the screen is given over to the static imagery though, with the first disc showing off the main cast together in a brighter than expected piece with a lot of purple hues to it with a bright white light showing on them. It’s not a gloomy image, but you can sense some of that within it. Submenus load quickly and easily and the breakdown works nicely for getting around without any issues.
The only extras on this release are the clean versions of the opening and closing sequences.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Known as Kami-sama no Inai Nichiyōbi, or Kaminai, Sunday Without God is a twelve-episode series based on the light novel and manga by Kimihito Irie and is animated by Madhouse. The show was one that I had seen as a simulcast when it came out and then the 2014 home video release for. It’s otherwise been just sitting quietly in Sentai’s catalog since then, so a slightly priced-down re-release is welcome (and better than bargain pricing it and devaluing the release) with some new artwork hits a sweet spot for me. With the light novels having run since 2010 and concluding a year after the broadcast ended with nine total, there was more than enough material to work with here, since light novels typically aren’t written in the same way as manga, though there are certainly some similarities.
The show revolves around Ai, a twelve-year-old girl who five years earlier took on the role of gravekeeper in her village after her mother died. While that was a difficult moment itself, the situation has certainly changed in interesting ways since that event changed her life. While she took on the role, nobody has died since then in the village. Ai continues on with what she’s supposed to do, digging graves of course, but they haven’t been filled in years. For her, she’s been alone all this time and doing dark work, but she’s also managed to keep a surprisingly positive attitude about her and has managed to keep moving forward in her own light, friendly and amusing way as she spends her days doing god’s work. It’s very easy to believe in god in this world as they did go through an event fifteen years prior where god spoke through to the world, saying that the other side is all full up and that he’s failed, that the human world will come to a standstill soon.
All that helps are the gravekeepers who seemingly do have the ability to help people move on to the other side through their interactions, hence Ai taking it very seriously and trying to do her best. That all starts to change though when a man named Hampnie Hambart arrives and runs into her, threatening her with his gun at first, but then just questioning her about who she is before moving on. Amusingly, he makes up his name but it turns out the name he uses is her father’s name, which of course is just a super coincidence. His arrival seemingly coincides with a tragic event in the village itself as everyone has seemingly died, except for one guy who tries to kill Ai, only to be taken down himself by Hambert. It sets an interesting stage as we see Ai having to deal with the situation, which recalls her own past with all of those that she lived with, and sets it against a beautiful if tragic atmosphere.
The nature of this series is one that’s definitely interesting as it progresses from this as we largely get four different main arcs going on as short story pieces. Ai getting involved with Hambart is important because he’s the one that helps to draw her out of her village and into the world, which connects her with a couple of other curious people. That has her meeting Scar, another rather introverted gravekeeper, and Yuri, a man who lost his family to being deceased, which ended up killing him inside in a way. There’s an interesting neo-family that gets built because of Hambart’s arrival, but I also love that the show/book took the chance it did by killing him by the third episode. With him being cursed to be immortal in this world, looking for a way to die takes on a whole lot more meaning since there will come a time when there are no more people anymore. Tying that into meeting a daughter he never knew he had, which in turn reveals that Ai is half human and half gravekeeper, just makes her a lot more variable in what she can be.
Where it goes from there is where it’s a mixed bag as we get a couple of different stories that run about three episodes or so on average. The first arc is one that really goes into some of the meaning about the way the world works as we get to visit the major city of Ortus, which is a city exclusively for the Deceased, those that have died but cannot pass on because of what God did. Ortus is almost like a festival city in some ways, but it has its mysteries with the way people keep things close to themselves and hide their faces. Ai ends up really curious about the place and spends time with its ruler, a really mysterious young girl close to her age that’s bandaged up and wears heavy darkened glasses in order to deal with her issues. It’s a curious arc overall as it delves into some of the feelings of those who willingly become deceased, but it also makes it clear that as interesting and intriguing as the ideas of the world really are, it’s not able to really get down and dirty into it, which keeps it from truly resonating in a meaningful way.
The show works through a couple of arcs from there, but I’ll admit they kind of frustrated me on a level when I watched the simulcast because it felt like it was hewing too much towards school mysteries. With the way the world has changed, schools have been closing down left and right because as each grade graduates, there’s nobody to fill the ranks after awhile. Elementary schools are gone and middle schools are dwindling and then there will be none. So having a school that kidnaps kids and forces them through the system has its moments, but it turns into an escape story with some of them and Ai gets caught up in it after getting kidnapped herself. It’s a really bland arc in itself, but it introduces us to Alice, a young man who is trying to orchestrate the escape, and a ghost girl named Dee that has real feelings for him.
Those two become the focus of the final arc that involves what happened to them in their own school in an event some years in the past, which in itself is a pretty decent mystery story, but again it feels like in a world with so much potential and possibility, we shouldn’t be reading high school stories. Ai becomes less the main character as the show goes on, which is doubly unfortunate since she is a gravekeeper and there’s so much to explore there. We get a taste of it when we see some other gravekeepers, and learn that some are made up of seemingly huge clans of identical people while others are individuals, but that kind of meaty story isn’t delved into and explored. The same can be said when it comes to the supporting cast. Yuri has some great but small moments about his family and how they became Deceased, and Scar seems like she’s tacked on more than anything else, a support system needed for when the group acquires a baby named Celica that has no real use during the episodes. It may work for the book in the larger stories there, but here it’s just seemingly pointless.
In Summary:
Sunday Without God is filled with immense potential but ends up coming across as a series that just wants to tap and touch the surface without scratching it. We get a look at it and an idea of what it is it can explore, but it doesn’t delve into the matters. Ai is a difficult character to work with as a young girl being thrust into this world with the position of power she has as a gravekeeper, but it’s not something that ever feels real because she’s kept so protected and at arm’s length from most real threats. There’s a fascinating amount of ideas that can be explored here, but there’s no real will to explore it. But even with these problems, I have to give props to it as that rare series that really touches on the concept of religion, the afterlife, and an almighty because few shows really do that outside of some of the usual bland daily life aspects or just another series taking place in a girl’s religious school.
This one wants to ask the hard questions and poses them in awkward ways, but it doesn’t want to sift for the answers. Instead, it’ll give us some beautiful visuals, some very cinematic moments, and some decent character material, but you want to shake it the other half of the time and demand that it start reaching its potential. Sometimes that frustration can make for a fantastic experience. Other times it can make you too frustrated to deal with it. Between the simulcasts and this marathon session, I’m somewhere in the middle on it because I’ve accepted what it is, but still wish it was more and I’m definitely glad it’s getting some new attention with this release. Sentai treated it well with its first release with a solid dub and a strong cast and hopefully people will discover this that might have missed it before.
Features:
Japanese DTS-HD MA 2.0 Language, English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Language, English Subtitles, Clean Opening, Clean Closing
Content Grade: B-
Audio Grade: B+
Video Grade: B+
Packaging Grade: B+
Menu Grade: B
Extras Grade: B-
Released By: Sentai Filmworks
Release Date: April 6th, 2021
MSRP: $59.98
Running Time: 325 Minutes
Video Encoding: 1080p AVC
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Widescreen
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Sony PlayStation3 Blu-ray player via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
