Right as I got to the end of ep11 with this anime, I realized I had never downloaded ep12. Given my recent bandwidth crisis, I went to CrunchyRoll for it instead of getting a copy myself. It's funny how bad my experience was, given that I was watching HorribleSubs to begin with.
This was one of the anime I was watching from Summer 2011 that I didn't blog about. I ended up not particularly hating it or liking it much; it was a little funny, but there was no big draw. It was really just an average comedy that didn't employ strong themes like sex or violence. In the long run, it's just going to fade into the background for me.
Animation
I don't have much to say about the animation style of this anime. It had smooth lines and shiny skin; it did remind me of ecchi drawing styles, and random screens for commercial breaks made me wonder if the original work of this anime wasn't actually ecchi. In terms of character designs, I was a little disappointed. Despite having a concept such as "gods", the designs were pretty simple and boring. Coming off of Natsume Yuujinchou San, the humanoid gods with ears and tails was pretty uninspiring. Another anime that portrayed goddesses, Aa! Megami-sama!, did a much better job with making intricate characters. (Not that I'm comparing this anime to either of those two; there's nothing much that's similar.)
Setting
The overall story is evident from the start - Mayu, a Nekogami ("cat god") was banished to Earth and is currently staying with Yuzu at her home (the Nekogami Yaoyorozu). Various other gods drop by, drawn in by either Mayu or Yuzu's charms. It's not just the lone male character (Gonta) that's used for romantic humour; Mayu herself has two goddesses chasing after her (both females themselves). There was more added to the story in the form of flashbacks about halfway through the season, but it seemed as though it was more to fill airtime rather than add more depth. By the end, not everything about the overall story was really explained, so it felt like the plot was devised on the go (like with Bleach, let's say).
Story Presentation
One very interesting method this anime utilized was the old-school way of having the ending of the current episode more or less connect directly to the next episode. I'm not talking about a specific cliffhanger (although that was pretty much what was achieved); it's more like the next story is briefly introduced (such as with that god's arrival into the city) before the episode ends. I remember it being used frequently years back, and then it went away. It was good to see it here. Other than that, I also liked each episode due to its quick pacing. This meant that there was no extra fodder, other than whatever was used for comedy, which kept me from being bored. An anime like Natsume Yuujinchou can be slow-paced, because I love the story and the characters. With something like this, which doesn't present in-depth views of either, it'd be pretty hard to adjust to slower episodes.
Characters
The characters were really around to service each episode - not even the story, but actually the entire ambiance created with each episode. With that in mind, they were given various traits that best served the point at hand - for example, Shamo's introduction episode involved her wreaking poverty-related havoc wherever she went. However, at a later time, she announced that she had better control over her powers that something so low. So...? In later episodes - such as those previously mentioned flashbacks - there was minor amounts of growth for the characters, but it didn't really stick or matter too much. Basic questions like who Yuzu's father really was (other than a distinguished man) were left unanswered, which kind of left a bad taste in my mouth.
Final Words
Despite all the bad points I had to say about this anime, I still watched it over the course of one day. It was on the pleasant side; the jokes were not particularly that funny but not lame either, and I was intrigued in what would happen next on a "watch that spider make a web" level of intrigue. This anime's description in the Summer 2011 Preview Post was pretty right; it's about gods at play everyday. I'd suggest the first episode to test it out; the rest of the series essentially doesn't change.
Scoring - [5.25/10]
I had to create a new level just for this anime. It was better than a [5/10], but it lost its [5.5/10] rating with the episode regarding Yuzu's past. Let's just say that I hated the art dealer and the way things turned out with him (stupid "let's not call the police because I caught you so no real harm was done" ways...). I cared about it, but only just a little bit.
~Aaro
This was one of the anime I was watching from Summer 2011 that I didn't blog about. I ended up not particularly hating it or liking it much; it was a little funny, but there was no big draw. It was really just an average comedy that didn't employ strong themes like sex or violence. In the long run, it's just going to fade into the background for me.
 |
| Far more ecchi than anything in the show. |
Animation
I don't have much to say about the animation style of this anime. It had smooth lines and shiny skin; it did remind me of ecchi drawing styles, and random screens for commercial breaks made me wonder if the original work of this anime wasn't actually ecchi. In terms of character designs, I was a little disappointed. Despite having a concept such as "gods", the designs were pretty simple and boring. Coming off of Natsume Yuujinchou San, the humanoid gods with ears and tails was pretty uninspiring. Another anime that portrayed goddesses, Aa! Megami-sama!, did a much better job with making intricate characters. (Not that I'm comparing this anime to either of those two; there's nothing much that's similar.)
 |
| I hated Yuzu's weird green dress. |
Setting
The overall story is evident from the start - Mayu, a Nekogami ("cat god") was banished to Earth and is currently staying with Yuzu at her home (the Nekogami Yaoyorozu). Various other gods drop by, drawn in by either Mayu or Yuzu's charms. It's not just the lone male character (Gonta) that's used for romantic humour; Mayu herself has two goddesses chasing after her (both females themselves). There was more added to the story in the form of flashbacks about halfway through the season, but it seemed as though it was more to fill airtime rather than add more depth. By the end, not everything about the overall story was really explained, so it felt like the plot was devised on the go (like with Bleach, let's say).
 |
| ...the elves! The elves! |
Story Presentation
One very interesting method this anime utilized was the old-school way of having the ending of the current episode more or less connect directly to the next episode. I'm not talking about a specific cliffhanger (although that was pretty much what was achieved); it's more like the next story is briefly introduced (such as with that god's arrival into the city) before the episode ends. I remember it being used frequently years back, and then it went away. It was good to see it here. Other than that, I also liked each episode due to its quick pacing. This meant that there was no extra fodder, other than whatever was used for comedy, which kept me from being bored. An anime like Natsume Yuujinchou can be slow-paced, because I love the story and the characters. With something like this, which doesn't present in-depth views of either, it'd be pretty hard to adjust to slower episodes.
 |
| Shamo was easily the best character for me. |
Characters
The characters were really around to service each episode - not even the story, but actually the entire ambiance created with each episode. With that in mind, they were given various traits that best served the point at hand - for example, Shamo's introduction episode involved her wreaking poverty-related havoc wherever she went. However, at a later time, she announced that she had better control over her powers that something so low. So...? In later episodes - such as those previously mentioned flashbacks - there was minor amounts of growth for the characters, but it didn't really stick or matter too much. Basic questions like who Yuzu's father really was (other than a distinguished man) were left unanswered, which kind of left a bad taste in my mouth.
 |
| The story-within-story concept was a little amusing. |
Final Words
Despite all the bad points I had to say about this anime, I still watched it over the course of one day. It was on the pleasant side; the jokes were not particularly that funny but not lame either, and I was intrigued in what would happen next on a "watch that spider make a web" level of intrigue. This anime's description in the Summer 2011 Preview Post was pretty right; it's about gods at play everyday. I'd suggest the first episode to test it out; the rest of the series essentially doesn't change.
 |
| Obviously it's Amazon, but I wonder why there's those extra letters at the beginning. |
Scoring - [5.25/10]
I had to create a new level just for this anime. It was better than a [5/10], but it lost its [5.5/10] rating with the episode regarding Yuzu's past. Let's just say that I hated the art dealer and the way things turned out with him (stupid "let's not call the police because I caught you so no real harm was done" ways...). I cared about it, but only just a little bit.
~Aaro
