If you’ve guessed my favorite heroine arc, you know exactly how I feel about this premiere.
I knew going in that a lot of the manga was getting cut this season, but there was one thing I didn’t quite factor in. I didn’t think they would cut every single girl between the end of last season and
Megami-hen, you see; I expected at least
a couple of the eight in question to get some modicum of spotlight before we hit the ground running. Even if the arcs were rushed, I was hoping that a few would get one or two episode arcs, but it seems even that was asking for too much. It’s a bit understandable, considering how much the Goddesses arc has to cover and how good it is in general, but if you read the manga, you’re aware of how important it is to have all the girls (or most of them) get their time in the sun. In fact, for anime viewers who don’t read the manga, this arc premiere is almost a slap in the face, though it does at least direct them to read the original source material. It doesn’t feel fair that those
girls get mentioned (and some cruelly even given a few teasing minutes of reflection) and that anime viewers will never really get to appreciate their arcs (some of the best in the series) on screen. But this isn’t Manglobe’s first time doing this, and to be fair, we were warned, slighted though some of us may feel.
Still, we wanted
Kaminomi and we got
Kaminomi. Seeing Keima and Elsie back in action is always a treat, and to add on to the cast of friendly faces we get Haqua and her adorable
middle-aged Buddy, along with the fantastic
Nazuka Kaori voicing Tenri and Diana. Kanon too takes a spotlight once again as a Goddess-carrier for Apollo, the deity of music and art. A good deal of this episode is spent on exposition about the nature of the Goddesses and how they were sealed away and again released (for more detail, consult
Tenri-hen, an important OVA in the chronology of the series), as well as on Kanon’s predicament. Just as Diana asks for Keima’s reluctant help in finding her sisters, Kanon finds herself
stalked by a hooded figure, and to Keima’s horror, she remembers everything about her conquest and confesses to him in front of the entire class. Before he can do anything, however, she is stabbed while Apollo is in control of her body, and
Megami-hen officially begins.
In any case, as an introductory episode to the arc, this premiere does a good job; as a continuation to the series, however, I can’t get over my disappointment even though all the
characters I missed so much are back. There’s a lot to cover from here on out, this is true, but couldn’t they have taken their time adapting that? Was it really so hard to include some of the 8 slighted heroines? Just how close of an adaptation is this planning to be? Also, why do I love these OPs so much? Why is Elsie so cute when she prays to Diana? When is it Monday again?
I happen to love all of the OP's for this series, each one is brilliant and one of the reasons I look forward to a new season!
ReplyDeleteI have not read the manga, so I can't really comment on what was skipped. I knew that stuff was going to be skipped, and I figured that they would do a flashback sort of thing, like they did. I would have loved to see those arcs animated, but when you only have 12 episodes to tell the Goddess Arc, which I understand is incredibly long, some things have to be shortened.
If they only did 2 of the girls, that could still take up about half of the series running time, which would make them shorten the Goddess Arc even more.
As for the actual contents of this episode, I enjoyed it quite greatly. It was nice to see all the characters back in action once again. I really have missed them! I'm looking forward to watching more of this show, it's shaping up quite nicely! (Of course I'm going to read the manga for the skipped arcs... Which could have been part of their marketing now that I think about it...)
Plus, the scene between Kanon and Keima was adorable, which kind of took me by surprise.
See, the problem with skipping is that several of those arcs are instrumental to the Goddess Arc. Most of those girls will come back in some shape or form this arc, and they will be inexplicably linked to Keima by this point. Those arcs also help shape up the mystery of this arc, "of all the girls he's conquered, which ones will remember?". In skipping those girls, it's easier to guess which are which, taking from some of the allure of the arc in the first place. There is also a special girl, not saying which, who has huge bearing on what's going on and is something of an anomaly, which was also skipped.
ReplyDeleteIn skipping those girls, therefore, they affect the Goddess Arc; in fact, they already changed some of it in order to account for those effects.
I wish the seasons were longer. If each were 24 episodes or so, they could have covered all of them. But, it all comes down to budget. Apparently the studio contacted the original mangaka when they were making the anime, and gave him the option to either have a lower budgeted long running series, or a higher quality shorter series.
ReplyDeleteI'm always up for more TWGOK though! But, I can understand your hesitations about this season in particular.
Not just budget, Kaminomi does poorly on sales when it comes to anime. People prefer the tone of the manga in general, so the studio couldn't afford to waste money another season before getting to the blockbuster arc. It's not like I don't get why the decision was made, it just makes me sad that that's the way it is.
DeleteThat being said, I'm still happy the Goddess Arc is getting an adaptation, and I'm happy to see the Capturing God back in action as it is. I was just hoping a couple of those girls got at least one-episode arcs, like Ayumi did. But alas, it is not to be.