The World God Only Knows

The World God Only Knows
The cover of The World God Only Knows volume 3 as published by Shogakukan
神のみぞ知るセカイ (Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai)
Genre	Romantic comedy, Parody, Fantasy, Harem
Manga
Written by	Tamiki Wakaki
Published by	Shogakukan
Demographic	Shōnen
Magazine	Weekly Shōnen Sunday
Original run	April 9, 2008 – ongoing
Volumes	21
Light novel
Written by	Mamizu Arisawa
Illustrated by	Tamiki Wakaki
Published by	Shogakukan
Demographic	Male
Imprint	Gagaga Bunko
Published	May 19, 2009
Anime television series
Directed by	Shigehito Takayanagi
Written by	Hideyuki Kurata
Music by	Hayato Matsuo
Studio	Manglobe
Licensed by	AUS Madman Entertainment NA Sentai Filmworks UK Manga Entertainment
Network	TV Tokyo, Anime Network
Original run	October 6, 2010 – December 22, 2010
Episodes	12 + 1 preview OVA (September 2010)
Anime television series
The World God Only Knows II
Directed by	Shigehito Takayanagi
Written by	Hideyuki Kurata
Music by	Hayato Matsuo
Studio	Manglobe
Licensed by	AUS Madman Entertainment NA Sentai Filmworks
Network	TV Tokyo, Anime Network
Original run	April 12, 2011 – June 28, 2011
Episodes	12
Original video animation
The World God Only Knows: 4 Girls and an Idol
Directed by	Shigehito Takayanagi
Written by	Hideyuki Kurata
Music by	Hayato Matsuo
Studio	Manglobe
Released	September 16, 2011
Runtime	30 minutes
Original video animation
The World God Only Knows: Tenri Arc
Directed by	Shigehito Takayanagi
Written by	Hideyuki Kurata
Music by	Hayato Matsuo
Studio	Manglobe
Released	October 16, 2012 – December 18, 2012
Episodes	2
Anime television series
The World God Only Knows: Goddesses Arc
Original run	July 2013 – ongoing

The World God Only Knows (神のみぞ知るセカイ^?, Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai), abbreviated as Kaminomi (神のみ^?), is a manga series written and illustrated by Tamiki Wakaki. The manga has been serialized in the Weekly Shōnen Sunday magazine by Shogakukan since April 9, 2008, with individual chapters collected into nineteen tankōbon volumes as of August 2012. The prototype version of the story was first featured as a one-shot in Weekly Shōnen Sunday on its 2007 Issue 32 release, and was titled "Koishite!? Kami-sama!!" (恋して!? 神様^?). The 2010 Issue #19 of Weekly Shōnen Sunday announced an anime adaptation. The anime aired on October 6, 2010 to December 22, 2010. A second season aired from April 12, 2011 to June 28, 2011. A third season has been greenlit and will air from July 2013.

Plot

Main article: List of The World God Only Knows characters

Keima Katsuragi, a second-year high school student, is an avid bishōjo game player. He is known on the Internet as "The God of Conquests" (落とし神, Otoshi-gami) for his legendary skills to be able to "conquer" any 2D girl in games. However, in his actual school life, Keima is known as otamegane (オタメガネ^?), a derogatory portmanteau of the two words otaku (オタク^?) and megane (メガネ^?, "glasses"), and is considered nothing but an intelligent yet gloomy geek with glasses.

At the start of the series, Keima receives an e-mail offering him a contract to "conquer" girls. When he accepts it, thinking it is an invitation to a game challenge, a cute demon from Hell named Elsie appears: a Spirit Hunter. She asks for his cooperation to help her in catching the evil spirits that have escaped to the Human Realm: the "Loose Souls", which were once Old Demons from Hell. These evil spirits hide themselves inside the hearts of people (in their case, girls), feeding off the hosts' negative emotions to replenish their power and strength, in becoming whole demons once again (which in turn, the host becomes an empty shell of a person). Elsie suggests that the only method to force the evil spirits out is by "conquering" the girls hearts, making them fall in love with him and filling up the gaps which the escaped evil spirits hide in, in which she is then able to capture them. Interested only in video game girls, however, Keima is appalled by the idea, and refuses the assignment as he has no romantic real life experiences whatsoever. Nevertheless, with the contract already agreed, Keima has no choice but to help Elsie no matter what, as they will be beheaded by an invisible (to others) red collar around their necks if they fail.

After winning the hearts of several girls (and capturing the spirits residing in them), Keima and Elsie are given an even greater mission: to awake the six goddesses who are daughters of the god Jupiter, the "Jupiter Sisters". Each sister is dormant in the heart of a girl among those they have previously helped, thus Keima must locate them and conquer their hearts a second time, as all girls had their memories of falling in love with him erased. However, the time for Keima to awaken and assemble all goddesses is limited as he must do so to prevent an imminent invasion of the human realm by a rebellious group of demons called "Vintage".

After Vintage's plans are thwarted, Keima starts seeing visions of a child who is somewhat familiar to him, and the goddesses send Keima and Elsie to the past with the task of helping her. According to them, the future of the entire world depends on their success, although they were fed with little to no information about the nature of their mission. Upon arriving there, they team up with a mysterious girl who apparently has some connection with Dokurou, Elsie's superior in the underworld, and Keima discovers that several features in the past are different from what he remembers, leading to a tragic chain of events that he must avert to ensure that the present stays unaltered.

Aside from focusing on Keima and Elsie's adventures, the series also makes fun of and parodies common, and popular cliches about dating sims, anime character stereotypes, and pop culture.

Media

Manga

Main article: List of The World God Only Knows chapters

The World God Only Knows is written and illustrated by Tamiki Wakaki, serialized in the Japanese manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Sunday since April 9, 2008. Wakaki created a prototype version of the story which debuted as a one-shot in Weekly Shōnen Sunday 2007 Issue 32 and was titled, "Koishite!? Kami-sama!!" (恋して!? 神様!!). Publication is ongoing in Japan by Shogakukan; the first tankōbon was released on July 11, 2008, and as of March 2012, sixteen volumes have been released.

The series is licensed in South Korea by Haksan Culture Company, and the first two volumes of the series has been simultaneously released on August 2009 with limited edition supplement for each.

Light novel

A light novel entitled The World God Only Knows―God and the Devil and an Angel (神のみぞ知るセカイ―神と悪魔と天使, Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai Kami to Akuma to Tenshi), written by Mamizu Arisawa and illustrated by Tamiki Wakaki, was released on May 19, 2009, published by Shogakukan under their GAGAGA Bunko label. The novel features a completely original story, disparate from the series, with original novel characters.

A second light novel entitled The World God Only Knows 2 Prayer and Curse and Miracle (神のみぞ知るセカイ 2 祈りと呪いとキセキ, Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai Inori to Noroi to Kiseki ) was released on May 18, 2010.

Anime

Main article: List of The World God Only Knows episodes

The anime adaptation was officially announced in Shogakukan's Weekly Shōnen Sunday 2010 Issue #19. It was announced that script writer Hideyuki Kurata, character designer Watanabe Akio, and director Shigehito Takayanagi would be working on the project. The studio in charge of the animation is Manglobe. A prologue OVA episode was released and bundled together with the tenth manga volume on September 17, 2010. On September 18, 2010, Crunchyroll announced the anime would be streaming online on their site. The anime began airing on TV Tokyo from October 6, 2010 to December 22, 2010, with the second season airing from April 11, 2011 to June 28, 2011. A second OVA was released and bundled together with the fourteen manga volume on September 16, 2011. At Anime Weekend Atlanta 2011, Sentai Filmworks announced that they have licensed both seasons of the anime in North America and will release the first season on DVD and Blu-ray in January 2012. In July 2012, it was announced via the cover of volume 17 of the manga that production on a new anime OVA featuring the character Tenri had been green-lit. A third season of the anime and a spinoff OVA based on the character Kanon was announced in the 2nd/3rd issue of Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine. The third season is set to air from July 2013 and will be called The World God Only Knows: Goddesses Arc (神のみぞ知るセカイ 女神篇, Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai Megami-Hen).

Reception

The third volume of The World God Only Knows was the fourth highest-selling tankōbon in Japan on the Oricon Comic Chart for the week of January 13 and January 19, 2009, with over 50,500 copies sold that week. The following week, it was the twenty-first highest-selling manga volume in Japan, having sold 30,600 copies the week of January 20 and January 26, 2009. As of January 2009, the third manga volume have sold about 81,100 copies.

Carlo Santos of Anime News Network reviewed the anime's first season and gave it a B where he was surprised how much he enjoyed the great storyline despite its plot description alone might be off putting to some saying, "By most expectations, anything involving ditzy demon girls and gaming-obsessed geekboys and a rotating lineup of high school beauties should have been the stuff of critical derision. Yet the show's sharp sense of humor, honest emotions, and polished production values prove that working with familiar clichés doesn't have to result in a clichéd product. With the right prodding and poking, any anime series can indeed become greater than the sum of its parts."

External links

• The World God Only Knows (manga) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
• The World That Only God Knows at Websunday.net (Japanese)
• The World That God Only Knows Anime - Official Site (Japanese)