The World God Only Knows: Goddesses Arc – 02
It’s Survivor: KamiNomi! Who will be voted off Keima’s harem next week?
 The third season of The World God Only Knows started with more of a whimper than with a bang, but at least it ended with a nice cliffhanger. The second episode picked up right where that left off, setting up the arc with Keima’s most difficult challenge yet, as he’s forced to revisit many of his previous captures while also keeping everyone oblivious of each other and of Kanon’s disappearance. That along with the return of girl-on-Keima violence made this one a much more fun episode to watch. |
Chihiro may be a little plain, but at least she likes to physically hurt Keima.
You’ll have to excuse me while I swoon over Ayumi and her most wonderful legs.
Now that was more like the KamiNomi I remembered: Keima acting like a pompous douche while getting beaten every which way by girls he’s trying to court. Even the tired accidentally-walking-in-on-a-bath bit was amusing, thanks to his stone cold demeanor. And it looks like the “capture” plot pattern is back, with the twist that he has to tackle the 5-girl harem route and also do it within a week. Things just don’t get any easier for the poor fellow, does it? But unlike the regular captures from prior seasons, Keima is actually motivated, as noted by Haqua. Before, he was fighting for his own survival, being dragged along by Elsie, but now that he’s fighting for Kanon’s, he’s taking charge. It’s actually making me take a liking to the insufferable son of a bitch.
Keima managed to narrow down the list of candidates surprisingly fast, and this is where I thought the quick pacing of the adaptation hurt the show a bit. He made some blatant leaps in logic that left me scratching my head. First, how does he know that all the goddesses are anywhere near him? Earth is a big place, and is there any reason to believe that all the goddesses ended up in the same country, much less the exact same school? Next, how does he know that all the goddesses are hiding within his prior captures? Again, no good reason to presume that. Perhaps his speculation that he was selected because the goddesses would appear near him for him to save has some truth to it. This being a story of gods and demons, some convenient fate would fit right in. And finally, how did he narrow down the list to those closest to him? Yet again, no good reason. He did investigate a lot of individuals, but he also threw out plenty of candidates for not being in his grade. Yeah, he needs to take some shortcuts due to the time limit, but I would have liked at least some handwaving instead of evidence-free declarations.
New girl Tsukiyo elbows in.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Keima like this before. I can’t remember any such incidents off the top of my head, at least.
We can now see why 2 of the 3 girls appeared in that flashback montage. And seeing Yui and Tsukiyo in the spotlight again has me wondering about what I must have missed. Does Tsukiyo’s (apparent) passive aggressive response to Keima’s apology make sense given what we saw of her during her capture? What about Yui’s new more boyish image? That one caught Keima off guard, so I guess not. But was she as much of a Yamato Nadeshiko as the flashbacks made her appear?
I suppose those details are secondary, though. Tsukiyo seems a little too dry and passive, but hopefully she’ll get some chances to abuse Keima. Yui’s really awesome, though. Her mannish style of dress and speech and aggressive courting of Keima captured my heart immediately. But I’m most excited to see the return of Ayumi, Keima’s very first capture and my personal favorite of the girls. That athleticism combined with the short hair and hairband… Wow. Chihiro also satisfies my short hair preferences, and a really toned down Kana Asumi voice is a pleasure. Even if she really is rather an uninteresting girl. Shiori, I could do without. Kana Hanazawa, bless her beautiful voice, playing such a meek, shy, quiet character doesn’t do much for me. I didn’t really like her arc much last season.
Yes! Even Haqua gets in on the action!
Part of me hopes that Keima will be proven wrong in his list, and at least one of the goddesses will be in a girl he didn’t think of. Bonus points if it’s one he never even met before. Based on this episode, Chihiro and Shiori seem like safe bets, with Ayumi and Tsukiyo very strong maybes. The fact that Yui appeared to have forgotten Keima makes her the obvious odd one out, though that also ironically makes me think she has to be a match. Admittedly my confidence level is pretty low for all of these guesses, which is a good thing at this point. It leaves me looking forward to what will happen next week.
Preview:
I guess she’s not so bad when making faces like this.
About lvlln
A math/science geek and a self-dubbed cynical optimist. I don't care if it's deep, if it can make me feel something or laugh, it's fine in my book. @lvlln
POWUH: iLurker with 1 comments
[spoiler] According to manga, Keima deduced that the Goddesses are hidden in his previous conquests through his video game experience. Lame but surprisingly correct.
POWUH: Metanorn Lover with 167 comments
After Story segment of a Visual Novel the Goddess Arc represents.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Keima’s actually cool when he’s not acting like such a self centered, egotistical bastard. He should be in trouble more often. I was impressed with how narrowed down the potential hosts for the Goddesses. I’m sure one of them is in one of the girls he crossed paths with but they’re not yet strong enough to take over the host.
I think he believes the Goddesses are around him because they need love and apparently, he’s caused a lot of it so it might be enough to assume that is the reason why they’re drawn to him.
Excluding Elucia and Haqua who are demons, it’s amazing how these girls manage to have superhuman strength to keep thrashing the male protagonist around so violently. I’d very much like an explanation to this phenomenon one of these days.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I’m still liking the series, and I like the confidence Keima shows. It does seem a little facile to narrow it down to 4 out of only 5, but I almost think it could work out interestingly if he makes all 5 fall in love with him.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
You get points for the use of a French word, Highway. I’m to know there are some people here who know the language.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
Holy rush-a-thon! I don’t know the exact number (too lazy to go back and check) but one fellow manga reader says they crammed 9 chapter in it :O Count me worried.
Still, watching Keima getting abused and the Yui confession animated feels good. Too bad they skipped Yui arc but oh well.
POWUH: 700-799 and Parkouring Fanboy with 776 comments
Yeah, I read someone mention that it was 9 chapters. Which, looking back, I can definitely see; he interacts with a lot of girls, often shown for just a few seconds. But when I was watching, it felt like everything fit together nicely, so Manglobe did a good job. Unlike in episode 1 with the jarring flashback montage that felt more like teasing what I could have seen.
POWUH: 600-699 with 691 comments
the truth behind yui’s arrangement, is that during the time where he was supposed to capture her, they changed bodys…yep keima got yui’s body, so SHE had to capture his heart(and he even played girls games during that time…the one’s where the girl captures guys…), his assumption on the goddess come from the fact that both Tenri and Kanon are goddess, following that logic he decided that for some reason he’s the chosen one!
POWUH: 700-799 and Parkouring Fanboy with 776 comments
I see, so the loose soul was stuck in Yui’s body, thus necessitating Yui in Keima’s body to “capture” Keima in her own? Now I really wish they had produced it. That flashback in episode one really didn’t do it justice. And it does go a long way in explaining her behavior in this arc.