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“Nanami Momozono suddenly becomes homeless after her dad disappeared and left a huge debt behind, which forced her to leave the apartment. On the street she rescues a strange man from a dog. To thank her, he gives her his house (and his status as an earth deity) which proves to be a run-down shrine, inhabited by a hostile fox-eared young man named Tomoe.” What to say about Kamisama Hajimemashita? It’s not very good. A thirteen episode long series dealing with the romance between a human turned deity and a fox-demon familiar as it awkwardly tries to throw in comedy; this series leaves a lot to be desired. What I watched was the Japanese version with English subs, so that’s the lens I’ll be judging it through. Be aware, that means the intended audience was the Japanese one. I just watched it all in one sitting and it’s fresh in my brain, so here we go. Starting with the intro song, this anime gives of a feeling of “ehh”. The song drags on in a sweet, hig-toned voice, with completely meaningless lyrics. It’s a huge contradiction to the actual show. This anime is fast-paced with an entire slew of jokes and gags thrown in. I suppose the song is fitting enough for the romance aspect of the anime, but that doesn’t take off until around the eighth episode mark. Keep in mind that, with thirteen episodes, episode eight is well past the half-way mark. When these scenes do show up, however, they are the standard for an anime. Slow and overly-dramatic with the pretty music you hear in every other romance playing in the background. The worst part, Nanami falls in love faster than a Disney princess and constantly puts her life in danger for a man. Lust and self-endangerment don’t help the romance argument, nor does the fact that within three minutes of the first episode the audience is told that it is a tale of romance. A tip for anyone who wants to go into any creative medium: If you have to tell your audience what genre they are watching, you have failed at your job. The comedy the series tries to have, isn’t funny. Some of the jokes can get a quick laugh, but most of the time the jokes are either lost in translation or become running gags with no punch to them. Remember Inuyasha and the “sit” command? That was funny, until they started over using it. This anime falls into that same trap. They often use a joke until it feels like they are beating a dead horse. I can’t fault the anime for this though. I’m sure that, to the original audience in Japan, the jokes may have been fine. What’s not okay though is that it tries to make the pacing a joke. Just because something is fast, even to an absurd degree, doesn’t mean it will automatically be funny. If your high school math teach rushed through her explanation of polynomials and long division, you wouldn’t be laughing. You would panic. Even worse, fast is the normal pace for the series, making quick become commonplace. That means the joke is lost before they even make it. Sorry, but aside from the rare joke every now and again, this show doesn’t have much to offer in the laughs department. The set up isn’t that great either. It’s commonplace, which isn’t bad, but that means they have to throw in something original to make them memorable. They fail to do that. I also dare you to guess who the romantic pairing is. I’ll give you a hint: It’s the two people who have their name in the description. It’s hard to understand why these two should even be in a relationship. Nanami has four emotions: anger, confusion, compassion, and blushing. Tomoe has two: anger and angst. At first, I thought this series would do something brilliant when they brought up that teenage girls with hormones going crazy can fall in love over some of the simplest things, and bring up that falling in love once doesn’t mean being in love forever. It’s a topic rarely touched upon in anime and leaves a lot of room for exploration. Maybe her love could conquer the problems it ends up facing proving that love can come from the simplest actions or maybe she realizes that love is more complicated than she thought at first. If it would have done that, it would have improved quite a bit. But, nope. It quickly drops that point an episode later in favor of the idea of love being pure and honest and infallible. Tomoe doesn’t even fall in love with her until after she confesses to him. In short, it’s not very funny, it’s hard to root for the romance, and the characters are lackluster. Is the series terrible? No. It’s just not good. I wouldn’t say it should be avoided, but it’s not something one should actively go out seeking. It’s not harmful, but it is rather forgettable. I wish I could say more, but even the series doesn’t quite know what it is. Thankfully, next week’s review will be of a much better show: [C]: Control - The Money of Soul and Possibility.
June_Lani · Tue Jul 02, 2013 @ 06:41am · 0 Comments |
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