「あいつは俺を知ってる」 (Aitsu wa Ore wo Shitteru)
“He Knows Me”

Yondaime’s group is planning a concert for their girls’ indie rock band, and they ask Narumi for help promoting the event. Of course, it’s not as simple as it sounds, as the band has issues with another Yakuza group. I’m not sure why they giving such important tasks to Narumi though, as he’s still mostly useless and gets walked all over like a doormat. He’s pretty good with computers and web design, I’ll give him that, but it doesn’t save him from being a really dull character overall. The only fresh aspect of this episode was Renji, an eccentric but skilled fighter who’s favorite thing in the world is going to Disneyland with someone else’s money. Narumi bails him out of a bar fight, and they agree to become friends. Friendship seems to become a recurring theme throughout the episode too, and my guess is that Renji will help out with the Yakuza problems that Narumi is running into again.

On the other hand, Alice’s main problem in this episode was doing the laundry, which apparently involves some life and death issues like fixing her stuffed animals or preventing Narumi from touching her clothes. Her high and mighty tsundere antics are getting a bit old, and the NEET detective should just focus on what she does best. They do ask for Alice’s help, but as I’ve previously complained about, she never reveals her logic and reasoning while working through mysteries, instead just ordering her team around then stamping a quick explanation and “case closed” at the conclusion of each case. The “follow along with the detective” aspect is usually one of the major draws of mystery and crime stories; its absence is disappointing to say the least, and I can’t help but wonder if it would have been better if this series was told from Alice’s point of view instead.

This episode by itself wasn’t terrible, but it’s not a good sign when the case fails to bring viewers back to see how it concludes. I’ve personally never been a big fan of J.C. Staff’s productions, with a few exceptions, and unfortunately that trend seems to continue as Kami-sama no Memo-chou has failed to develop into a show that I want to watch. The detectives + NEETs premise was promising, but the result here feels very mediocre overall. I may have been a bit biased when approaching this show, and perhaps it’s the fault of the source material, but with neither memorable characters nor an appealing story, I’m not coming back next time.

P.S. Did anyone else notice that random hip-hop insert song? I swear I heard “99 NEETs” in the lyrics.

 

Preview

32 Comments

  1. “This episode by itself wasn’t terrible, but it’s not a good sign when the case fails to bring viewers back to see how it concludes. I’ve personally never been a big fan of J.C. Staff’s productions”

    It’s funny how people can have different opinions. I’m the exact opposite of you, I’m a huge fan of J.C. Staff and I’m really enjoying Kamisama no Memochou. This episode was great in my opinion and I can’t wait to see the next one.

    André
  2. I agree with you, Prooof. While I don’t hate this show, if there are other shows I have to watch, I’ll always watch the other ones first. I think part of it, for me at least, is that there isn’t an over-arching plot, really. I feel like I could miss a few episodes and still be okay.

    1. Unfortunately, the bad news is that you’ll likely never see heavy doses of Alice. Unlike some stories where the main male character shares the spotlight with the main female lead(Shakugan no Shana for example), here Narumi is the lead. Everything revolves around him, and he doesn’t spend a lot of time time being NEET in Alice’s room.

      baubo
    1. If my memory hasn’t failed me, as it’s been a while since I read this volume, it should come at the end of the story arc. But it might be Narumi who lay down the smack instead. Can’t remember exactly.

      baubo
  3. Renji gives me the pseudo-villain vibe.

    J.C. Staff productions have been all of the map for me. Sometimes good, sometimes really bad, sometimes average. This one is somewhere between average and good for me. The main trouble I find with this series is that they are rushing everything. The scenes feel like they have been cut short to fit every element of the story in 12-13 episodes. If you watch carefully, you can notice the sudden scene changes, jumping to another scene that supposedly occur hours later that have no relation to the previous scene. It makes it hard to focus on the story. Instead I feel like I’m mostly watching the characters and their antics, while consciously/unconsciously trying to piece together the scenes to form a story in my head. I guess that might be somewhat how Alice feels in the story I guess. The anime does make me want to have a second look at the manga again though, since I dropped that after reading first couple of chapters of the manga, felt too slow and was not very interesting in my opinion.

    x
  4. As a huge fan of J.C. Staff productions, I came into this show with high expectations. However, none of the most recent episodes have been as good as the amazing double-length premiere episode so I kept holding out hope that the source material reaches the same heights it did back in episode one. And then I find out that the premiere episode was anime-original! I really enjoyed the dark turn the plot took in that episode, especially the matter-of-fact way they dealt with prostitution and suicide.

    The Thai girl plot was good I guess, but Min’s episode was just ridiculous (and not in a good way). This latest episode was enjoyable because seeing all the different interesting characters and the situations they get into reminded me of the amazing Durarara!!

    I also love tsunderes, but Alice just doesn’t do it for me. It might be because Alice’s “dere” side just comes off as immature and stupid while her “tsun” side comes from a completely unearned pride and arrogance. If you’re going to do a tsundere right, she has to have a justifiable reason to be tsun.

    Most importantly, I can’t believe I just heard a NEET version of Jay-Z’s “99 Problems.”

    longtimefirsttime
  5. Just when I thought this series was turning around with a yugioh cameo I find out it’ss just a punk with idiotic hair, not the king of games.
    I am trying my hardest to not drop this series.

    anon
  6. Wow, now all the sleeper series that at first I thought was useless is getting more interesting now. Blood-c, Kamisama doll, and also this. To think I was planning of getting rid of it. This episode is interesting enough for me to keep watching for more.

    lkaze

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