Kamigami no Asobi – 07
Because everything is Yui’s fault, always.
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I want to like Balder just because he’s voiced by Kamiyan, but I don’t know… I think at this point, I’d be happy if he was friendzoned. Loki is looking like the slightly more appealing of the two, and he’s the one who made the episode painful to sit through. …This pain which actually has nothing to do with this post being later than normal. I was just busy all weekend at a convention (I got to meet Asakawa Yuu~). |
Aaaaand Loki goes from wingman to the complete opposite of one. I’m not saying that I want Balder and Yui to be the OTP, but there seems to be a very thin line between “stay away from my best friend” and “stop seducing my life partner away from me” here. Couldn’t we have gone the entire season without these BL intonations? This was going so well with them. Sure they threw in random male frolicking/skinship, but it never really interfered with the plot or Yui’s interactions with the characters. It wouldn’t seem so BL-ish if Loki had a problem with Balder hanging out with the male characters as well, but he seemed perfectly okay with everyone beforehand. …Actually, he seemed okay about Yui too, minus that one incident at the beginning.
So maybe the problem here isn’t Loki’s attitude about Balder and Yui, but the suddenness of it. Loki seemed like he was doing okay with becoming friends with the others before this, even with Balder showing some concern towards Yui being friendly with other characters. This event was kind of oddly placed, since Loki seems to only be angry because the story is focusing on this now. There was the first episode, but no other signs of him being concerned about anyone taking Balder away from him.
Where Thor fails at having a personality, he sure is handy for exposition.
Though maybe this has a reasonable explanation too. Loki probably just didn’t notice that Balder was so interested in Yui before, and it’s really only this episode where Balder doubled his efforts to be around Yui. …Which also seems kind of weirdly placed. Tsukito was one thing because the plot obviously pointed out the lovers aspect out to everyone from the beginning, but Balder seems to be concerned about Yui hanging out with everyone. Where was this the episode that Yui hung out with Takeru? Or Hades? I suppose he might not have been as concerned with Yui hanging out with them because she was just trying to help everyone graduate, but he showed absolutely no concern whatsoever of Yui smiling with others in those episodes.
The whole scenario is just tedious in general. Balder wants to become closer to Yui because she’s close to the other gods, and Loki is placing himself closer to Yui because he wants her away from Balder. It’s a vicious cycle. Though the suddenness aside, Loki’s issue here does make sense. If he only had one friend (Thor aside) for all of his life, of course he doesn’t want anyone to take that friend away. Sure, Balder has plenty of friends because of his magnetism, but Yui is the first one Balder seems genuinely interested in.
I always thought that Balder would make a good yandere, and what do you know. Er, or at least as close to a yandere as you can get in a Cero B (ages 12 and up) rated game. Is there an actual explanation as to how Yui resists Balder’s god powers/whatever, or is this just another typical “the main character is special because she’s the main character” type things? Balder’s personality seems like it has a reasonable explanation though, since he’s so used to absolutely everything going his way. He probably has no idea what to do with someone like Yui, who doesn’t automatically fawn over him or act the way he wants her to. With that attitude, it seems kind of obvious that he’s not really OTP material. He probably doesn’t see the real Yui, and seems interested in her only because she’s different. Though now that I think about it, Apollon kind of has a similar issue (it’s not exactly the same and of course, the storyline hasn’t gotten into it yet). I think they can probably turn around Apollon’s issues into something that works though, where with Balder, there’s probably not enough time. …Though they can just as easily turn Apollon’s issue into why romance doesn’t work, leading into an overall friendship ending for everyone.
Yui’s dialogue variation kind of took a dive here, since she could never really tell Balder “no” properly or really deal with Loki. Though having her not react to Loki maliciously trying to seduce her and instead be stuck on being friends/graduating was nice. It can be painful if the heroine is ignorant about everything romance all the time, but here it just worked well with Yui’s character and how she manages to get along with everyone. If she had reacted, that probably would have just made Loki’s actions worse. Even if it was totally by accident this time, Zeus seems to have picked the right girl to get along with everyone here. Given Zeus’s attitude though, who knows if he even put any thought into picking Yui. Maybe this is coincidence too.
I’m not saying that this was all bad. Thoth’s usual lecture position was actually kind of humorous this episode. …Probably because he never actually said anything. Plus there seems to be a reasonable explanation to why Loki is suddenly concerned with Balder’s love life. As poorly placed this event is, it is the first change in Balder’s actions towards Yui that we’ve really seen. Plus maybe they can turn this whole thing around in episode 8. This is the first episode that we’re really mixing two gods problems and having Yui deal with both of them at once. Maybe the game did this too, since Balder and Loki’s issues seem to be intertwined-ish (I mean, unless there’s absolutely horrid writing/character continuity, I don’t see Yui managing her way through Balder’s route without Loki trying the same thing he did here), but this adds some variation to the plot at least, right?
…Yep. I’ve decided that the best way to deal with this turn of events is by completely filtering out any BL-ish content and to live my life in denial. Loki is only concerned about Balder as friends as far as I’m concerned. In any case, it should be interesting to see how Yui solves this. …And if this 2 episode issue counts as Loki’s episode, this is a little disappointing. Everyone else had episodes that improved their character or at least didn’t have them acting like a jerk to Yui. Unless they manage something in the next episode, they’ve completely missed the opportunity for cute moments. Er, I mentioned Loki specifically here, but this applies to Balder too. He’s gone from being clumsy to being… kind of creepy. Yandere tendencies would normally be a positive thing (or I find them entertaining anyways), but that’s not exactly endearing the character to the viewers, like what they did in with the characters before this.
Yes, what wonderful… friendship. Just look at those friends and their friendly friendship.
About Karakuri
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.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Man, both Balder and Loki really shot up the creeper chart this time. And to be honest, I kinda had that feeling coming from Balder the whole time, that while Apollon was the earnest and genuine one, Balder had something different going on under the surface, even though they acted somewhat similar. His selfish “You have to spend all this time with me!” including dragging her around, and not listening to her at all gives you that squicky feeling about him (I still think “NTR God” applies, since he’s half doing the “well, I’m gonna monopolize you so you can’t be with anyone else”).
To me, Loki seemed more like the bro who’s lost his bro. I really didn’t mind the ‘deeper’ concerns about their relationship, I mean, if that’s what Loki wants, he should go for it.
I’m hopeful that the way the show has gone so far, with trying to make the other gods realize how their individual attitudes before encountering Yui need to change, will do something similar for both Balder and Loki, and they’ll both change a little bit, or at least gain some perspective.
Also, this storyline did answer one of my questions about the ED: Why did Tsukito, Apollon, Hades, and Takeru have their own two lines in the ED, but Loki and Balder are singing a duet.
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
Balder’s personality seems like it has a reasonable explanation though, since he’s so used to absolutely everything going his way.
Viking myth says that as the god of light and purity, Balder was loved and adored by all; ‘the fairest-spoken and most gracious’. He was also largely invulnerable to harm from most things, due to his mother Frigg making all things in creation swear never to hurt him (she did overlook ONE thing from taking the promise though).
So your statement isn’t too surprising there.
Yes, what wonderful… friendship. Just look at those friends and their friendly friendship.
And you’ll be seeing even more obvious friendly friendships when Free! Season 2 starts!(- -‘)
I thought watching that show prepared you to face these kinds of friendships.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
I don’t mind BL-ish action in those shows like Free!, just keep it away from the otome game genre.
Or actually, I don’t even care if there’s small bits in my otome games, but when writers turn an entire route into a character’s homo angst and completely ignore the heroine, I have issues. If I wanted to play a BL game, I would be playing a BL game. I bought an otome one, so I’d kind of like to see some otome romance. OTL Er, translate that into anime terms.
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
It’s so funny that the one thing that can harm him, is the one thing that’s most around at Christmas time. And they just so happen to be having a Christmas festival…
And, Loki just so happens to be the god in mythology who killed Balder using that specific one thing…..
Hmmm, things aren’t looking too good…
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Well, yeah. Ever since he got concerned about Yui and the flying horse, I knew something was up with Balder. …Er, plus the fact that I’ve been spoiled on his character thanks to friends.
Loki and Balder seem to be closely linked as characters, that’s for sure.
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
Because everything is Yui’s fault, always.
The Yui-Thoth relationship is much like Snape and Harry, although the 2nd case never had Snape & Harry wall-pushing.
(- -“)
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
I agree. Does he have a thing for her? It’s not normal for ANY kind of teacher to push female students on walls and you know, tower over them. Think about the reverse harem setting and your head is really going where it shouldn’t.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
….Though, uh, I don’t think Thoth had a thing for Yui’s mother. xD Though if he did, that might translate well into a route or something. I’ve encountered that kind of set up in games before.
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Kara, it’s impossible to UNSEE the BL. Srsly. Totally unexpected.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
SHHH, let me live in my fantasy world of denial. I can do it if I try hard enough.
That’s what every shounen show ever (minus maybe HxH) has taught me.POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Ahahaaa. I’m pretty sure dj artists have already gone crazy.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
Okay, Yandere(ish) Balder was quite a surprise. O_O
And the BL, too.
But I’ve watched the 8th episode already. O_O Show ▼
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
And I started to like the fact that the series itself is actually making fun of Thot’s unfortunate habit 😀
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
It’s been I while. Catching up on my shows, I loved this episode. Balder making such a 180 and Loki getting more screen time. I did feel though that Yui was a little too passive this episode, especially since she’s been doing so well thus far. Come on, girl! You told the king of the Greek goods to piss off, but you can’t tell the dainty god of the Norse realm to back off?
I was fascinated that they actually put the background of Frigga making everything in all the realms swear not to harm her son. Everything that is…except mistletoe.
And of course it’s time for a Christmas festival, with mistletoe being show here and there innocently in the background. With the mythological killer of Balder angry at him right now…
Well, let’s see how they fix this situation.