Category: Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai

「地区長、誇りを取り戻す」 (Chikuchou, Hokori wo Torimodosu)
“The District Chief Regains Her Honor”

The only thing I can think of at this moment is how amazing Elsie looks without her hair tied back. It’s amazing how the entire momentum of the plot, story, and general conflict of the episode was canceled out in the single moment Elsie’s hair decided to do that “flick” movement.

「地区長、来たる。」 (Chikuchou, Kitaru)
“The District Chief Arrives”

I can honestly say that I haven’t been this excited after an episode of Kami Nomi in a while. After the first two episodes this season, I was a little nervous that I would lose interest in this show — but I’m overjoyed that whatever they did this week really worked for me.

「一挙落着」 (Ikkyo Rakuchaku)
“Problem Solved by the Fist”

I’d rather not say it, but I wasn’t quite sure how to feel after such a quick capture. While I wasn’t a hundred percent sure about what was going to happen, I had a pretty good idea in my mind. As the episode did a pretty good job foreshadowing it last week, the idea of trying to expel a certain part of yourself in an effort to become a stronger you sounds as ridiculous as it was to type it out.

「おしまいの日」 (Oshimai no Hi)
“The Last Day”

Books, books, and more books. They may have been a mere plot device to drive Shiori’s arc, but they were used impeccably to give off a surreal conclusion to it as well. Compared to the previous two episodes, a surprising amount of detail went into the mountain of books in the background too, making this week’s one a notch above in terms of production value.

「あたしの中の……」 (Atashi no Naka no……)
“The Inner Me……”

Visually, Shiori’s arc is undoubtedly the slowest and most uneventful one thus far. However, despite the absolute dearth of things happening on screen, I still find myself amused by how long Keima will stand quietly in front of her, trying to figure out what she’s thinking, only for her to eventually walk off without a word.

「大きな壁の中と外」 (Ookina Kabe no Naka to Soto)
“Inside and Outside the Large Wall”

If there’s a book girl that needs to be played, Hanazawa Kana is poised for the task regardless of whether or not the series is titled Bungaku Shoujo. For this first episode of Shiomiya Shiori’s arc, we didn’t really get to see too much of the girl behind that quiet, intellectual, and shy exterior though. In lieu, there was a fair bit of spillover from Elsie’s episode last time, which I rather enjoyed given all of her quirky interactions with Keima.

「Coupling with with with with」

As an interesting change of pace, this week’s episode doesn’t start a new girl’s arc and focuses on Elsie instead. We can never have too much Elsie can we? I know I can’t, not when she’s adorable as “hell” even when she’s upset about Keima hating her cooking. Evidently, the whole “it doesn’t taste nearly as bad as it looks” reaction he had when she force-fed him doesn’t mean much when his lunch has tons of eyeballs and is squirming about.

「Shining Star」

After three episodes, Kanon’s arc finally comes to a close. Given its progression, I question whether three episodes was really necessary to begin with though. Looking back, they probably reiterated her insecurities a lot more than they had to to get that point across, and also took the better portion of an entire episode to show how Keima was being supportive of her — something that Ayumi’s arc managed to do just as well in a single episode.