Back to HeroGema's Profile HeroGema's Profile

Jun Maeda is a Japanese writer mainly known for his work on Angel beats and Clannad, at least when it comes to anime. After being met with success early in his career because of the influential shows he wrote, and for pioneering the Nakige genre, people began to become more "critical" of his later work. This probably sounds like a story you've heard time and time again, a young visionary writer becomes successful and then compromises on the things that made them great... but this type of sentiment in my personal opinion shouldn't be applied to Jun Maeda's work, because Maeda's work has never gone ... down in quality, and I hope to illustrate that point with this review.

Before I get into the meat of this review, I want to really explain how this show's reception has affected Jun Maeda, and how absolutely unfair it is. Jun Maeda ended up getting harassed relentlessly for writing this show, and it negatively affected him so badly, that he ended up leaving the internet. It really annoys me that people reacted this way, considering this show is pretty good all things considered. It isn't perfect, it has flaws (which I'll get into) but it isn't the mess that people think it is.

I realize I've been saying "this show" a lot without explaining what show I'm talking about. The series I'm discussing is Kamisama ni Natta Hi, also known as The Day I Became a God. The premise is simple; An eccentric young girl named Hina Satou declares that she is the god "Odin'' and that the world will be coming to an end in 30 days. Hina ends up meeting our protagonist Youta Narukami, a high school student with big hopes for his future. After the 2 of them meet, Hina begins to foretell events before they've happened, Hina and Youta's lives get intertwined, and comedic antics ensue with the threat of the "end" looming over them.

Not sure if that was the greatest summary, but I tried. With a premise like this the series is able to accomplish quite a few great comedic beats and even some very emotional beats, it is the perfect Nakige in many ways. It embraces the tropes of this style of story telling, while still doing a lot unique to stand out from the rest of the genre.

Something that no one can take away from "The Day I Became A God" is that it's memorable. So many anime series come and go, without really having a lasting impact on me regardless of their quality, I feel like this (much like most other of Maeda's work) will stay with me. The setting, the characters, the comedy... it all feels so familiar yet so fresh, it's very much like talking to a friend you haven't seen in years, you get a warm fuzzy feeling of nostalgia, while still getting surprised by how much has changed.

Hina is an extremely lovable character, and while I personally feel like the rest of the cast can’t live up to her, which is a shame, she does a great job at carrying the show on her back. Both the english and japanese VA’s do a great job at making Hina’s eccentricity come to life. Anytime Hina was on screen I was having a great time, she completely demands your attention as a viewer of the series, and I was very happy to give it to her. Everything from her design to her personality makes her a very memorable, fun character.

I think “Angel Beats” “Charlotte” and “The day I became a god” are a perfect trilogy of shows, that all excel in their own ways while still having a lot in common. If you enjoyed Angel Beats or Charlotte, then what are you waiting for? Watch this series immediately, you’ll love it.

I’m going to get into the more in depth spoiler section of the review, so if this show sounds at all interesting, then try it. If you go into it with an open mind, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. I highly recommend it.

<Getting into spoilers>

This series really starts getting good when it begins to get darker in the last third of the show. Out of all the emotional sections in any of Maeda’s works, I think this series has the hardest hitting one. Seeing Hina, a character that the show has put all it’s effort into making you love thus far in such a dire, broken state is heartbreaking. And her absence can really be felt when she’s gone, the show feels wrong, it feels empty, so much like Youta, when we the viewer get to see Hina again, we’re excited… only to feel the same despair he does when she doesn’t recognize him, and he tries everything to get her to remember him.

I honestly wish the show got darker sooner, since I really enjoyed the tension in every “post surgery section”. Every time Youta yells in frustration, I cringed and felt the pain and helplessness with him. This show pulls off a really bittersweet ending, and I feel like it pulls it off very successfully.

Now that I’ve sung the show’s praises, I’ll acknowledge it’s biggest faults. The show relies way too much on Hina, and none of it would work without her. Izanami’s plotline kinda goes nowhere, and it really sucks not seeing a payoff to Youta and Izanami’s “romance”. We’re given a huge cast of characters, but very few of them get enough screen time or characterization to leave much of an impact(The exceptions would be Hina, Suzuki, Youta and Ashura). I know these flaws seem detrimental, but when you’re watching the show it really doesn’t feel that way. The show is such a consistently fun and engaging rollercoaster, that I don’t mind a few bumps along the way.

I’m getting ready to wrap this review up, but I would be remiss to not mention Suzuki. Suzuki is one of the character’s responsible for Hina’s eventual fate, but the show does a good job at making you feel for him (being an abused child who is used as a tool), and does a lot to redeem his actions in the latter half of the show. In my opinion he is the *only* character in the series who even comes close to matching Hina’s screen presence, and I would really love to see more of him. Seriously, I could see another show starring Suzuki being great.

The art and sound in this show aren’t spectacular or anything, but they’re about industry standard. The opening is very nice, while it isn’t quite as good as let’s say Charlotte’s opening, it still has a charm to it.

I hope I did a good job at convincing you all that this is a series at the very least is worth giving a chance to. It may not be your cup of tea, but it is undeniable that this show has a charm to it, and is far better than people give it credit for.

8/10

I've decided that I want to review every Re:Zero related piece of animation on MAL, and I'm going to start with this short(?)

For those of you unaware, this short is just a small reminder to be respectful to others while the movie "Re:Zero- Memory snow" is playing in theaters. Obviously their really isn't much substantial content here, and to be quite frank with you the only reason I watched it was to add it to my mal account. With all of that being said though, this short does have the main VAs reprising their roles as each of the main characters, which is more effort ... than I was expecting from this, so there's that.

You can easily find both of the "Manner Movies" on youtube, and they each only run for about 3 minutes. They're decent fun, even if they are honestly pointless to watch.

Lastly, something interesting to note, is that both Re:Zero movies each have their own little short "Manner Movie", and that they're actually different from each other. I was honestly expecting both "Manner Movies" to be exactly the same, but this one(The memory snow one) features the main cast of the series, while the Hyouketsu no Kizuna one, features Betelgeuse.