Kamisama Dolls: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		2.5

Kamisama Dolls: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

Where are Ken and Barbie when you really need them?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 12, 2013

One would assume that there isn’t an overwhelmingly huge Jewish population in Japan, but I couldn’t help but wonder if the creative minds behind Kamisama Dolls had some knowledge of a creature out of Jewish folklore, the golem. Golems are a bit like ancient versions of Frankenstein’s monster, beings animated from dead matter, in most versions elements like clay which are brought to life through magical incantations. In many of these hoary tales, the golems are monsters of destruction who (again rather like Frankenstein’s monster) escape the control of their creator to wreak havoc on the general populace. (There’s actually a rather sweet animated musical available on DVD called Aaron’s Magic Village, based on stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer, that deals with golems, and which includes a score by Michel Legrand and Fiddler on the Roof lyricist Sheldon Harnick.) Kamisama Dolls’ creatures aren’t exactly anthropomorphic as most golems usually are, but even if they more closely resemble mechas, they are still summoned magically and they do not always automatically follow the direction of those who are supposedly in control of them.

Probably due to nothing other than coincidence, Sentai Filmworks is releasing another anime in tandem with Kamisama Dolls, Battle Girls Time Paradox: Complete Collection, and I mentioned in my review that I considered the series a lost opportunity, one with a rather interesting premise that its creative staff seemed almost willfully to undermine. Now, Kamisama Dolls is at least a marginally better series than Battle Girls, but some may feel exactly the same way about this strange amalgamation of ideas and approaches. Is this supposed to be yet another shōnen outing? Or something akin to a mecha series? Or is it in fact a murder mystery? Or something else entirely?

What is the point of Kamisama Dolls, anyway? We’re introduced to Kyohei Kuga, a young man who has left his stultifying village for the big city of Tokyo. But this soon is revealed to be not just a case of wanderlust and the desire to see the world, but perhaps something more sinister. After a night of heavy drinking, Kyohei wakes up in the lap of Hibino Shiba, a beautiful young girl on whom Kyohei obviously has a crush. The two get up to leave but are greeted with a bloody corpse in an elevator. That disturbing event in turn leads to yet another whiplash inducing plot arc, the arrival of Kyohei’s manic little sister, Utao, who shows up with her own quasi-golem in tow, wreaking considerable havoc in the process.

Golem is of course the wrong term to describe the strange hi-tech looking “device” named Kukuri whom Utao is able to control (more or less, anyway) with her mind. Kind of half way between a mutant bunny (shades of Donnie Darko) and a more traditional mecha looking unit, Kukuri is able to be summoned to do Utao’s will, and it soon turns out that Kukuri used to be belong to Kyohei himself. In fact the brother and sister are both what is known as a seki, a preternaturally powerful being able to bring wooden God dolls (called kakashi) to life —hence Kukuri.

Utao is insistent that the dead body found in the elevator was a victim of another seki from Kyohei and Utao’s old village. And in fact a silver haired young man named Aki is soon in the fray, with his own kakashi, and the battle lines are drawn. At this point, Kamisama Dolls devolves into a more or less rote mecha battle series, albeit with some high falutin’ concepts flying around in the background. But the problem is, by this time many audience members will either be confused by the crazy quilt of approaches this series has already taken, or, more likely, they simply will have ceased to care.

There are certain elements hinted at early in Kamisama Dolls that seem to hint at what could have been a really interesting series. In fact, Kyohei’s “escape” from his village, and some of the information about his background that later are revealed, are almost reminiscent of that old Patrick McGoohan series The Prisoner. But this plot point, as so many others in Kamisama Dolls, is just kind of introduced and then left by the wayside as the series careens on to some new shiny object, which in turn holds sway for a few moments before it, too, is jettisoned.

Kamisama Dolls still manages to work in dribs and drabs, though quite tellingly some of its most effective moments tend to be the loonier comedic elements featuring Utao, who has a somewhat unhealthy obsessive quality when it comes to her older brother. Unfortunately, not even occasional laughs can outweigh the overall feeling that this series was cobbled together by a team that either didn’t know what they wanted to accomplish or had no idea how to bring too many disparate ideas together into a cohesive series.

Kamisama Dolls: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Kamisama Dolls: Complete Collection is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Sentai Filmworks with an AVC 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. Kamisama Dolls isn't the most visually engaging anime in recent memory, but it still pops relatively well on this new Blu-ray set, with few if any huge problems resulting from its interlaced presentation. There are some very minor stability issues in fast moving sequences but no real combing artifacts are on display. Very minor banding is also in evidence. The animation style here is kind of strangely bifurcated. A lot of the "normal" day to day sequences look quite sharp, while perhaps unexpectedly some of the kakashi and battle elements have a noticeably softer appearance. Colors are generally well saturated and line detail is reasonably sharp as well.

Kamisama Dolls: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Kamisama Dolls: Complete Collection features lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mixes in both the original Japanese language as well as English dub. While the two mixes are relatively similar in terms of overall mix, the Japanese track is noticeably boxier sounding than the English dub. Fidelity is excellent, with dialogue and effects cleanly presented and well prioritized. The series also has a better than average score, including nice sounding opening and closing themes, and those sound fine as well.

Kamisama Dolls: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Shorts include:

  Hibino Works Out in Her Swimsuit – Kamisama Diet! (1080i; 1:58)

  A Date With Utao ( ; 2:02)

  Mahiru's Private Lesson – Mistress, Please Stop! (1080i; 2:07)

  Utao Cosplay Photo Session (1080i; 1:59)

  Utao Shows You Around Tokyo In Her Swimsuit (1080i; 2:30)

  A Yukata-Clad Mahiru at the Fireworks Display (1080i; 2:26)

• Japanese Promos (1080i; 5:08)


• Japanese Commercials (1080i; 1:06)


• Clean Opening Animation (1080i; 1:32)


• Clean Closing Animations (1080i; 1:32)

Kamisama Dolls: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Kamisama Dolls never quite knows where it wants to go, and that makes getting there (wherever "there" is) a rather confusing set of detours quite a bit of the time. The series actually starts out fairly strongly, but by the time we're ensconced in the middle arc of the show, things have become so unfocused that it becomes increasingly hard to care for the characters or what happens to any of them. There's probably enough here to engage those who just want a little easy time killing entertainment, but this series really could have been considerably more compelling. The series ends with a set up for a sequel, one which would seem to be a no holds barred battle showdown between Kyohei and Aki. At least that series would seem to have a central focus, as boring and old hat as it may be, something that this series never really coherently attains.