The World God Only Knows: Goddesses Arc – 11

“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

AYUMI AND KEIMA ARE GETTING MARRIED! Also, let me make another shameless plug for FAPCast; last Friday’s episode, like the previous one, features Fosh and me on as guests, this time talking about the hot mess that is Psychic School Wars. Seriously, the guys at Desu ex Machina are great, a unique presence in the aniblog community, and definitely worth your time.

The best reaction faces are the ones that perfectly capture what you’re feeling.

There’s something nice about seeing Chihiro pulled into the world of demons and goddesses, the second of Keima’s marks to have done so after Tenri, I believe. Because of how darn similar her hair is to Keima’s, I always thought she looked like his sister. Certainly much more than LC does, anyway. At the same time, I still can’t get over just how quickly she came around after he broke her heart in the worst way. I thought she was becoming awesome when she spilled (some of) the beans to Ayumi halfway through this episode, but that was unfortunately untwisted 5 minutes later.

I think this is where we can see the story coming apart at the seams a bit. KamiNomi has always asked us to suspend a lot of disbelief, with its basic premise of a dating sim nerd romancing real girls, but I feel it’s begun to spin out of control as of late. The Goddesses Arc has him capturing the hearts of 4 girls in the span of just over a week, and this final capture has him jumping into the arms of one girl after she watched him crush her best friend not 24 hours prior. I can still swallow it, but it’s starting to leave a bad taste as it goes down.

Where did he get that horse in such short notice? And is he going to have to pay a penalty for losing it?

But as hard as it is to swallow Chihiro’s actions, could she have played it any better? She forced both Ayumi and Keima to confront their real feelings, leading to the proposal. I thought I was just a hopeless romantic, wanting to see Keima end up with the first girl he had to conquer, but looks like author Tamiki Wakaki and I might be on the same page here! Marriage! Now there’s something hard to reverse, even if Ayumi somehow loses her memory again. Though I’m still not counting out her dying next episode, since the continued success of the series kind of depends on Keima continuing to romance different girls.

But can Keima convince Ayumi of his genuine affection for her? He’s so accustomed to conning his way into girls’ hearts, one wonders how he’ll win the a girl who has learned of his deceptions. Perhaps this is what it means to be the final boss; to conquer her means to conquer his own feelings. The only way to convince her that he’s fallen for her is to actually fall for her. If you’re hearing a high pitched tone, that’s me squeeing like a schoolgirl. The idea of Keima truly falling for Ayumi as his real partner, the first girl he conned and the first girl he fell in love with, doesn’t seem so far fetched any more.

Interesting bit of trivia: Miyako’s voice actor Nozomi Chikamura has only played in that one role when it comes to anime.

I’m going to have to apologize to Nora for suspecting her. She was the unsung hero this episode with all her efforts to stop Vintage from getting in the way of Keima. Add on her interaction with Lune, and I’m convinced that she’s a good guy through and through (of course, now that I said that, next episode she’ll be revealed to have been playing the long con). I’m disappointed that the 3rd party, Yuri-sensei and Akari, is still a mystery. With just one episode left to go, I think it’s high time we got to see what they’ve been up to.

Speaking of which, I have no clue how they’ll wrap this all up in one episode. Keima has to conquer Ayumi, his demon buddies have to save the girls from Vintage and pull Kanon out of her watery dream, Yuri and Akari have to tell us what the hell is going on, and Keima and Ayumi have to go to Maijima city hall to get their marriage certificates. I’ve seen packed finales before, but all this feels like a few too many moving parts. If this season doesn’t end with Ayumi and Keima exchanging vows with the pissed off goddesses looking on – including a crying Tenri bemoaning her childhood friend status – fuck you, Japan.

Lucky bastard gets to enjoy getting kicked in the face by Ayumi every day for the rest of his life.

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