8thSin

I can already see the ending... It's going to be AMAZING! The second season has the same look and feel of the first season as our "Capture God" Keima continue hunting for lost souls with Elsea. The duo goes after 3 girls this season: A tsundere sporty, a cooldere classmate, and finally a student teacher! This season certainly poses bigger challenge for our heroes. Then, there is the second girl demon. With exposition not needed this season, two whole episodes and a filler dedicated to introduce her. Once again, Keima's game logic is put to test in real life. The absurdity of his value is still funny asever, and the animation and sound do not disappoint in delivering the comedy. Visually, it has not changed much from last season. The art in this series is generic style drawn to perfection, and characters are as visually pleasing as they could possibly be. The level of detail, especially the eyes and lighting, may even have improved. Camera movements are dynamic in action scenes, and there is not a moment of boredom. OP song this season has lost the epic sense of the first season, but still accompanied by jaw-dropping overproduced opening animation that's nothing short of amazing. Voicing once again is right on, and perfect sound mixing with appropriate BGM playing on every scene. The second season got off to a slow start with Kusunoki, the lone member and captain of girl's karate club. Her arc turned out to be very corny, but the 'Dragon Quest' recap in the first episode was absolutely magnificent. I would say it was a sign that the production staff has plenty of creativity left in store. Next up is Haqua, Elsea's former classmate. Instead of going after a set target, Keima helps her track down a loose soul she failed to capture. Haqua's character was rather dull, generic clumsy type, but this arc goes on to explain the consequence of letting loose soul grow, and further emphasizes the importance of what the main characters have been doing. Chihiro arc is similar to Shiori arc from the last season, with slow, bittersweet youth drama. The direction in this arc was by far the best this season, and once again, they went with a different pattern. Instead of straightforward "conquering" her, Keima helps her conquer another guy. The ending was obvious, but I liked how they changed things up so this series doesn't feel as repetitive as it could've been. Finally, Jun's arc was the conquering of a teacher in training. The teacher is a stereotype teacher in popular TV dorama like '3-B Kinpachi-sensei' or 'Gokusen', with high ideals about tough-love and trust, but things doesn't go like dorama for her. This arc had the best character development and a positive message. The second season is not quite as good as the first, but it shows Keima and Elsea tackling the problems using different approaches. After two seasons, this series still feels fresh. A sequel is not announced in the finale this time, but I'll definitely see it to the end if it ever happens.

SNchan

The World God Only Knows tells of the wacky adventures of Keima Katsurai, a kid who literally does almost nothing with his free time but play dating sims. Because he's so good as dating sims, he refers to himself as the “Capture God,” claiming that he can beat any gal game imaginable. Elsea, a demon from hell, mistakenly thinks that the specialty of the Capture God is to seduce real women, and enlists his help to retrieve lost souls; demons that hide in the hearts of women, and can only be retrieved by filling the emptiness in the woman's heart. Keima never actually *wants* tohelp retrieve the lost souls, but is forced to due to a contract that he has signed; if does not oblige to the contract, he dies. This all gives an interesting twist to the “Monster of the Week” dynamic, in that instead of having the main character fight monsters every week, the series has him seduce women. There's a nice mix of drama and comedy; most of the drama and serious aspects come from the emotional issues that the love interests face–whereas most of the comedy comes from the wacky personalities of Keima and Elsee. The transitions from dramatic to comedic scenes can be abrupt, but most of the time it doesn't feel too forced. During a comedic scene, the characters (particularly Keima and Elsee) often switch to a much more cartoony art style, which helps to add comedic affect. There's also a lot of shout outs to various media, which will probably warrant a chuckle or two if you manage to understand any of the references. The two protoganists of Keima and Elsee, although actually quite likable, come off as a bit one-dimensional. Keima is a genius boy wonder who considers reality “a shitty game,” and Elsee is an adorable demon who screws-up at everything…and there's not really much else to these characters, as there is barely any character development throughout the series. This is justifiable in that the anime only covers the first 40 chapters of the manga, which as of this writing is an ongoing series with 174 chapters released. So when watching this 24 episode series, think of it as the beginning of a larger story than it's own standalone thing. The level of enjoyment watching this sort of depends on how willing you are to suspend disbelief to the fact that Keima uses his knowledge to win the heart of a woman not once, but multiple times. The fact alone that Keima uses his knowledge of dating sims to win the heart of women will probably come as a little implausible. Nonetheless, it's interesting to see how Keima strategize, and to see *how* he uses his knowledge of gal games. With each story-arc by itself, each of the heroine's love for Keima doesn't really feel forced or unnatural–especially when you consider that these are women who have their emotional weaknesses amplified by an infesting demon. Each love interest is quite likable, and goes through a fair amount of character development; its somewhat remarkable considering that none of these characters get more than three episodes of screen time. Overall The World God Only Knows is a fun and enjoyable series, albeit one that might challenge your suspension of disbelief depending on how you look at it (although only a little.) It has a nice blend of drama and comedy, and manages to make good use of its premise. If you like romance-centered cartoons, you'll probably like this.