6.9 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Anime | 100% |
Foreign | 94% |
Comedy | 25% |
Romance | 23% |
Comic book | 21% |
Supernatural | 10% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Japanese: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (2 BDs)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Any parent with boys will tell you there is an almost atavistic allure emanating from videogames that seems to speak to some deep level of the adolescent male brain. When I was growing up, the major fascination was girls, now it appears to be videogames and other online gaming franchises. The fear of teenage pregnancy has been replaced by one of severe carpal tunnel syndrome. The attraction of the opposite sex is actually wound up within the world of videogames in the ingratiating if occasionally annoying anime series The World God Only Knows, as the series’ hero, Keima, is more or less addicted to Dating Sims games. While these particular types of games don’t seem to be quite as popular in the United States (perhaps due to the over-sexualized world of pop culture generally in this country), in Japan they’re extremely popular. The player moves through various romance scenarios and is able in some of the games at least to work through various storylines depending on how he (or she, frankly) decides to respond to various questions or plot point forks in the road. As strange as it may sound, you can indeed “win” a Dating Sims game, and Keima creates a lot of his identity and even self-esteem due to his ability to quickly get to the endgame (so to speak) of virtually any Dating Sims environment. This ability has made him something of an internet legend, though as is so often the case, it turns out the “real life” Keima is significantly different than his gaming persona. That difference plays into one of the central plot arcs of The World God Only Knows, for as was discussed in the review of the series’ first season, Keima is contacted by a denizen of Hell named Elsie, who, having assumed that Keima’s online abilities match his real life ones, wants to team up with the nerdy young boy to catch “loose souls”, spectral spirits that are lost in a kind of Earthly purgatory and need to be captured by Elsie to return them to their proper place in the otherwordly hierarchy.
While there's no huge difference between this second season's AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1, courtesy of Sentai Filmworks, and that of the first season, there's just enough of an uptick in animation quality to deserve an extra half point in the video score. As with the first season, while the overall look of the series isn't anything incredibly special, there are some very nice graphical elements and good use of CGI which help to elevate the overall appearance of The World God Only Knows. Line detail and color saturation both continue to be very strong, and in fact this second season seems to indulge a bit more in bright, vivid color schemes than the first season did. The kind of bizarre but highly enjoyable "melting" of the worlds between Keima's real life and his videogame existence is also handled very smartly from a design and presentation standpoint, with characters looking completely different in the videogame world and those sequences between presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio.
As with the first season of The World God Only Knows, two lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mixes are offered, one in Japanese and the other in English. Even more so than in the first season, the English dub is mixed considerably more aggressively than is the Japanese, with not just greater amplitude but much punchier lows and midrange frequencies. Music and sound effects are also noticeably more vivid in the English dub, and voicework is also considerably more present than in the Japanese language version. The series has some of the goofiest theme music, with the opening theme especially seeming to careen around changes and oddly pronounced English until finally settling down into something at least relatively "normal" sounding, but that only adds to the weird allure of this sometimes quite strange little series.
The World God Only Knows actually grew on me a bit this season, not due to its rehashing of capturing the seemingly bottomless pit of loose souls, but more because of its totally bizarre wrap up, where the line between reality and the videogame world become blurred to the point where it's virtually erased. As I mentioned in my review of the first season, there's really nothing new or very exciting here, but at least this second season occasionally goes off into unexpected tangents which add a little spice to the proceedings. The video quality is also just a tad better in this second season, while the English dub continues to provide a considerably more boisterous sonic experience than the Japanese language track does. Only the supplemental features continue to be on the slight side with this otherwise enjoyable release. Recommended.
2010
2011-2013
Season 3
2012
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2010
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2008-2009
2007-2008
2008-2009
2011
2010
2008
Suzumiya Haruhi no shôshitsu / 涼宮ハルヒの消失
2010
2010
Essentials
2010
Standard Edition
2011
けいおん!!
2010
2007
2008
さくら荘のペットな彼女 / Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo
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ソウルイーター
2008-2009
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2011-2012
2009
Limited Edition
2010