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| image from Wikia |
About a month ago, I decided it was high time that I get caught up with my manga reading. When the manga publication companies went on hiatus for the holidays last year, I never got back around to reading again once they returned. So, I found myself with twenty plus chapters each to catch up on with the major titles in my reading list.
Working my way through the list over the course of a couple of weeks led to my discovery that The World God Only Knows or Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai had concluded its run while I wasn’t paying attention.
Katsuragi Keima is a dating sim otaku, earning the title “God of Conquest” in the video game world, but the less respectable title of “otamegane” among his schoolmates in the real world. The former title would lead him to more trouble than he thought when he was asked via his console to help conquer girls. Little did he know that agreeing to the contract would lead to a collar that would literally blow up his head if he failed in his mission. It also meant that he now had a partner in the form of demon Elsie, a member of the Runaway Spirit Squad from Hell. Keima is given the nightmare tasks of conquering real girls, or 3D girls as he calls them, who have loose souls residing in their hearts. And the best way to evict the soul so Elsie can capture them is to fill the hole in the girls’ hearts by making them fall for him.
I discovered The World God Only Knows as an anime series. Not knowing that there was going to be a second season, I decided to follow the exploits of Keima and Elsie in the original manga series that the anime was adapted from. I had originally pegged The World God Only Knows as a purely comedic series, albeit with a fantasy core. I wouldn’t even say it falls traditionally under the harem genre, since the girls apparently lose their memories of Keima and his efforts to court them after the loose soul has been removed from their hearts.
In truth, The World God Only Knows features a wonderful blend of different genres. While elements that make up the series seem familiar, the puns were never tiring and what little cliches that could be found in the story are actually used well. It’s easy to just peg the series as a harem or comedy title, but over the course of its few major arcs, you realize that other genres are also well-represented. While the drama is kept to a minimum, it does legitimize the underlying seriousness of young women with loose souls residing in their hearts. Adventure, and action to a lesser extent, plays a part in the series, with Keima and Elsie finding stronger loose souls to contend with as the series progresses, and even other antagonists who have a vested interest in destroying the peace that New Hell is trying to achieve.
At the center of everything is Keima, who found himself burdened with actually interacting with 3D girls and finding ways to make them fall for him. Keima is a flawed character and he knows that in the real world he possesses many undesirable traits, though he does not care about his real life or RL reputation. Yet, he tempers those traits with more positive ones. Despite his complaints regarding his new role, he actually exercises a measure of kindness and compassion in his actions towards the girls. While he might be creating situations to make the girls fall for him, it never crosses the line to feeling manipulative.
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| image from Wikipedia |
It’s a good thing that Keima is an interesting character, because you need him to anchor your reading (and viewing) of The World God Only Knows. The bevy of supporting female characters, both human and demon in nature, is quite a large number and, while mangaka Tamiki Wakaki ensures that each one has a distinguishing trait or characteristic, it can be easy to forget past conquests as the series progressed. I wasn’t sure what the end game in sight for The World God Only Knows was when Keima was only focused on making girls fall for him as quickly as he can so he could get back to playing video games.
Then the Jupiter Sisters were introduced. The manga began an arc that revealed that not all of the conquered girls forgot Keima nor the feelings that they developed for him. The complications for Keima, as well as the impact of their existence in the struggle to keep New Hell in order, made the series a more compelling read. The situations that arose from the arc would force Keima to reassess his actions and his intentions time and again, forcing character growth and mature realizations that’s actually grounded in real life. The Jupiter Sisters arc would transform The World God Only Knows from a light and fun read to a great piece of adventure fiction.
I would be the first to admit, though, that the series was far from perfect. While the manga continued its improvement until its conclusion, the pacing was uneven. There are parts that felt overly long and would have benefited from a more concise telling. And on the other end of the spectrum, certain vital elements felt rushed when more details would have better served the story. This is all the more apparent in the series’s conclusion. After spending so much time reading about Keima’s struggles to connect the girls’ past with the present timeline, so that the Jupiter Sisters can fulfill their future duty of helping save New Hell, I suddenly found myself reading about how Elsie, who had to suffer through as a minor background presence for more than half of the series, was actually a powerful presence. The stilted conclusion also offered little explanation, or at least one that seemed clear to me, to Keima’s eventual choice about his future that didn’t just involve playing his video games. I mean, I understood his choice eventually, but I wondered if everyone who read it would.
While I might gripe about the pacing, The World God Only Knows proved to be more than just entertaining. Despite my initial conclusion that Keima was the only interesting character to pay attention to, the series later served up some memorable female characters after all. The Jupiter Sisters and their hosts would be an obvious choice, considering that they have become staples in the latter arcs of the manga series. But there’s also Elsie’s fellow Runaway Spirit Squad member Haqua du Lot Herminium and their chief Dokuro Skull. While relegated to the role of supporting character in the beginning, Dokuro would turn out to be one of the most interesting personas in the series, evolving from a funny side character to one who, with her mysterious powers and knowledge, would be vital in the success of Keima’s efforts.
My reading of The World God Only Knows has its ups and downs, but I’m at least happy to say that the highs outnumber its lows. The manga series is only Tamiki Wakaki‘s second title, so I’m wishing him the best in his next publication endeavors.
Though I hope the next one he writes has fewer characters to keep up with.
Happy reading!!
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