Kamigami no Asobi – 05

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Yui is probably lucky that she didn’t inherit the eyeless gene from her family.

(If that even if a relative.) …Though it’s hard to tell if that’s the eyeless gene or if he’s just emulating the Gendo Ikari look. Perhaps Yui is just lucky that she’s not angst ridden and tasked with using a giant robot to save the world. She already has enough problems with religious icons.

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…They really need to try something different with Thoth’s character. Surely his hand must hurt now from how many times he’s slammed it against the wall in a dramatic fashion. The same goes for Zeus and his asshattery. I suppose having him be unreasonable all the time is a good way to have a sort of antagonist for the series. At the same time, his double standards are getting kind of tiresome (and if Hades is right, he’s totally doing this on purpose as well). Yui falls off a cliff? Lol who cares. Takeru accidentally recovers his powers? Instant teleportation! Though hopefully Zeus has learned a thing or two after the events of this episode. And even if he hasn’t learned anything here, it’s great that Yui told him off. I had forgotten that otome game heroines were even capable of shouting in anime. Or showing any emotion other than generic happiness and the occasional phase of being worried.

Yui hasn’t quite broken out of the typical heroine stereotype. She immediately turned kind of meek after she was done yelling at Zeus and she was in distress yet again in falling off the cliff. She also totally lost the sword fight with Takeru. To be fair, Takeru has been around for a great deal longer than Yui has and has more combat experience. It just seems like in every single instance of an otome game heroine being able to fight (even outside of the series that have been animated), the storyline normally has her become inexplicably terrible at fighting at some point (I guess Japan likes their weak heroines)… You can’t hate Yui though, because she tries SO hard all the time. I guess trying hard is also a typical trait. Not so much in recent otome characters (the Amnesia heroine barely even attempted to not drown/fall off a building/die in general), but in shoujo heroines it’s normally a common trait. However, you have to admit that having the storyline involving Yui’s character actively helps a lot. Yui seems to accomplish so much, and her gathering harem members friends here actually makes sense, since it seems like she’s earning their relationships as opposed to them happening magically just because the plot decided that things should be this way.

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On to what the episode was mostly about, I attempted to find out what the actual story was for Susanoo pushing some goddess off a cliff, but I came up with nothing besides him being kind of an ass to Amaterasu. And even then, there was never any mention of ever shoving her off a cliff at any point. It sounds like the KamiAso plot trying to justify Susanoo killing someone who didn’t quite deserve it in the original Japanese mythology, but as far as I’m aware, the whole event could just be Broccoli making things up again.

Takeru wasn’t as obviously tsundere as I was hoping he would be, but maybe that will come later. The episode was more about dealing with his trust issues (especially in the second half) as opposed to having him act tsun/dere around Yui. Though the progression with getting him to trust her was good and not too rushed. …I guess that’s kind of a change from tsun to dere, but still not quite what I was looking for. OTL They kind of forgot about Hades too, with the section after the ED being the only mention of his misfortune. But hey, at least he hangs around the others now. Seeing how the next episode is titled something or other to do with the moon, Tsukito should be up next. I guess they are going to go through the characters in groupings, though if they immediately go into the Norse gods, that only takes the plot to episode 8. I suppose that gives time to build up to whatever the battle in the first episode was in order to justify throwing it in there in the first place.

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At least the training montage seems to have paid off

Yeah, things are still going pretty well. At this point, I’d say that it’s (probably) safe to say that things will stay good at least until the build up to the ending. They’ve laid off the ┌(┌ ^o^)┐ホモオ for the most part in favour of having Yui run around doing things minus a few questionable scenes here and there.  Haruka was pretty involved in her series too (sometimes), but for some reason, KamiAso even seems less ┌(┌ ^o^)┐ホモオ than UtaPri ever was in terms of the amount of implied BL tension between the characters. Especially in what the 2nd season of UtaPri did with Cecil’s character. Though I guess there’s still time to throw in the bromance when it gets to Loki’s issues (if he even has any) and him joining the group. …And maybe as a long shot, if this anime does well enough, maybe Broccoli will finally learn to leave the otoge genre separate and maybe make that BL game that they’ve been dying to write.

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Hopefully this reaction means more dere in the future.

About

University student and the one at Metanorn who's known for wearing glasses. Likes blood, insanity and plot twists, but also plays otome games and adores cute romance anime. It balances out... somehow.
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17 Responses to “Kamigami no Asobi – 05”

  1. Highway says:

    I think, like you, I’m finally relaxing about how this show is going to keep going. The way they’ve had Yui be so interactive and important as character, not just as a Mcguffin to pass around amongst the guys, seems to be consistent and not going away. Sure, it’s a little formulaic when it’s “Guy has a problem, Yui reaches out to him, shows stick-to-it-iveness to overcome their cynicism / loneliness / anti-social attitude, and is backed up in the pinch by Apollo, Tsukito, Dionysus, and Balder” but given the way all the other otome adaptations have gone, this one is way out in the lead.

    I wasn’t really bothered by Yui losing the sword match. It was a lot more realistic than having her win: Guy vs. Girl is a big factor and, as she stated, her discipline isn’t fighting, it’s iaido, which is more about drawing, striking, and returning the sword to scabbard. That she could do even that well in what was basically a kendo match is what impressed Takeru, as well as her unflinching bravery.

    Zeus and Thoth are just being jerks at this point. They *could* support Yui and help her out, but noooooo, just wanting to be jackasses.

    • Karakuri says:

      Ahaha given the track record of other anime, derailment was definitely a possibility. xD

      I wasn’t bothered by it either (maybe I sounded bothered above). It just is a bit of a tiresome trend in pretty much everything I’ve played. …Though now that I think about it, Fel in Arcana Famiglia got through the entire game without losing a fight (if you were going for the best ending). It was the anime that screwed that one up. Though there’s a reason I have Arcana Famiglia as my favourite otome game ever.

      Maybe Thoth just needs better glasses. …Zeus needs to remove whatever stick he has shoved up his ass. xD

  2. zztop says:

    I attempted to find out what the actual story was for Susanoo pushing some goddess off a cliff…

    Shinto myth states that Susanoo killed one of Amaterasu’s attendants during one of his tantrums.
    A Kamiaso game blog I read recently says that this part of the myth is mentioned in Susanoo/Takeru’s route, when he confesses to Yui that he accidentally killed a goddess once, thus earning the ire of the other gods.
    The falling part isn’t mentioned there, so this must be an anime-only thing.
    The myths state that Susanoo was of a wild, impulsive nature, which probably explains Takeru’s tsundereness.
    The part about a mother figure also make sense, considering Susanoo and his siblings had no mother, but were washed out from creator god Izanagi’s body as he purified himself.Susanoo was born from Izanagi washing his nose, while Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu came from his right and left eyes respectively.

    I guess that’s kind of a change from tsun to dere, but still not quite what I was looking for. OTL

    What exactly were you looking for, may I ask? ^-^

    PS. What exactly does your ┌(┌ ^o^)┐ホモオ emoji mean, btw?

    • Highway says:

      The kana reads ‘homo’, it’s that BL tones that she was mentioning throughout.

    • Karakuri says:

      Ah, all I could find on it was that he was kind of a jerk to young horses (or some symbol animal of Amaterasu) or something.

      I’m a fan of the traditional tsundere. The “I-i-it’s not like I made this bento for you! I just had extra food today! D-don’t get the wrong idea!” kind. Though really any kind of tsun to dere transition is good. Takeru wasn’t as obviously dere as I was hoping for.

      And yeah, Highway explained it. Basically it’s the kaomoji for BL tones.

  3. Hazou says:

    Kamigami is probably the better of the terrible terrible harem animes I have seen as of late.

    La Cordia de Familia, where’s the plot again?

    Diabolik Lovers, this is basically vampire porn and rape. Main character had a bit of a personality, but once again plot?

    Amnesia, I hate this one with a passion don’t get me started on this anime because it was the most deplorable reverse harem I have ever seen.

    Kini no Corda Blue Sky, the MC is just terrible. She has no emotions of her own. And she is always a debbie downer about everything. I don’t expect someone to be happy, but fix this MC.

    I feel like Kamigami is right up there with the original Kini no Corda with Hino as a MC, Fruits Basket.

    I think the only Real Good Harem so far, is probably Shinsegumi Hakouki Kitan. How hard is it to write an MC with a personality and her own emotions?

    And I hate the excuse, “it came from a otome game blah blah”

    Don’t care, if you’re adapting it to an anime, the heroine is the MC and she has to be written with an MC touch.

    She cannot just stand their looking like an idiot. She can, I just lose interest quickly.

    I just think Thoth needs bifocals, let’s donate some to him.

    • Namika says:

      Golden words <3
      Is writing an inverted harem so difficult, I wonder? Cuz everyone keeps messing it up pretty badly xD

      • Highway says:

        It’s probably more that there aren’t as many reverse harem anime, so the lack of good ones is just more evident. I mean, every season we have two or more girl harems, but it’s about 50% whether there’s even one boy harem show every season. And a lot of the girl harem shows are really terrible as well, with bad MC’s who don’t say anything and girls who just have no reason for their actions.

      • d-LaN says:

        Eroge/Galge adaptation is not safe frm bad adaptation either so its really depend on the writers competency and source material.

        • Karakuri says:

          No kidding. They ruined 11eyes and Shuffle! wasn’t that good either compared to the game. …Though other than those two, I haven’t really played much eroge. Maybe other anime in existence are better in comparison.

      • Karakuri says:

        I dunno. Absolutely every otoge show that I’ve ever seen in anime form is far worse than the game versions ever were. I’ve kind of given up at this point on ever hoping for a “good” one. Though I have yet to play KamiAso. Apparently they’ve improved Yui in the anime, so maybe this might just be the first anime to surpass the game.

  4. zztop says:

    There’s a Kamigami OVA scheduled for the series, but no other info released yet.

    Poster from PASH magazine:
    https://www.facebook.com/Kamigamianime/photos/a.217155135130660.1073741827.217152258464281/257756631070510/?type=1

    2014 Kazuki Yone sketch from her Twitter account of Yui:
    http://37.media.tumblr.com/1d38f3756a4db00162f1b2b668c9ea04/tumblr_n4se37HO0E1qkonr7o1_400.jpg

    • Karakuri says:

      An OVA wouldn’t be bad. I’ve recently been following Yone on twitter, and still can’t stop laughing about how someone sent her a picture of a ┌(┌^o^)┐snowman. Between this and Hakuouki, I guess she’s illustrated for a few otoge with BL vibes. xD

  5. Namika says:

    When Toth invaded Yui’s personal space again I actually laughed. It’s just too ridiculous.
    All in all I’m quite impressed with how nice this show is, actually. I’m trying not to think about the mythology and how accurate the show is according to it. Other than that(and Thot’s personality issues) it’s quite enjoyable to watch, a lot more than I would have expected.
    And on a mindless fangirl sidenote – Takeru looked incredible in his godly attire. O//////O

    • zztop says:

      It’s the semi-shirtlessness and bare feet, isn’t it? 😀

    • Karakuri says:

      I laughed too. He really needs better glasses. Or to learn what personal space is.

      I’m really surprised too. I figured that it would be another train wreak under the guise of selling a not-so-fantastic game, but the anime definitely has worth on it’s own.

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