Here we are again. Maeda Jun, renown for his famous works such as Clannad and Angel Beats, is back with the brand new anime original Kamisama ni Natta Hi or also known as The Day I Became a God.
His most recent anime product Charlotte on the other hand wasn't received well for the most part, so this was a chance for him to redeem himself as well. Angel Beats has its fair share of criticisms, but I last watched it many years ago, so I can't give a proper verdict on it.
Anyways, you'd think Maeda Jun would've learned a thing or two after how Charlotte turned out with its disastrous "let's pack the entire plot in the last 2-3 episodes together" story, but to make this review short, no he didn't.
Kamisama ni Natta Hi isn't very different in its early episodes, which give a more slice-of-life vibe and are used to introduce the entire cast. The premise is interesting as we have the self proclaimed god Hina, who suddenly turns up in Yota's life, our main character, out of nowhere and showcases her ability by fixing Yota's surrounding people's problems one by one. I can actually confidently say that I enjoyed these slice-of-life episodes. They were entertaining and served as a good way to give us a good feeling of what all these characters were like. Especially after watching the episode centered on Izanami, I felt this anime had a lot of potential to show.
However, things quickly went downhill afterwards. With the introduction of our hackerman, whose name I can't even remember because he's that forgettable as a character, the story beings to make some progress. To summarize it short, Hina was born with an illness, which kept her pretty much in a vegetative state and her grandfather, a skilled researcher, developed this super chip and installed it in her brain. It turns out this super technology can become dangerous in the wrong hands, so some unknown people with power want this technology forbidden and Hina is hunted down to get this chip removed with the help of our hackerman and all the characters related to him.
Our hackerman actually gets some background story, so I guess we were supposed to sympathize for him a little bit, but wait he's also the one who gets Hina hunted down with this super hacking skills, which is portrayed as some AR game, in which he fights against digital fishes hahahaahha. Anyways, so after that are we supposed to hate him now? Well, actually he happens to regret his actions afterwards and actually helps brining Yota to Hina (no chip version) and then he...fucks off...alongside the entire plot point about the super technology and is never mentioned again. All the time they spent telling hackerman's past and explaining the super technology practically gone to waste. In the end, you're not even sure if this part of the plot was even necessary and it looks more like Maeda Jun tried to make the plot look special and fancy.
The same story could've been told in a way that Hina was involved in an accident which made her forget everything instead of having this superficially complex-looking plot, which is thrown out of the window after episode 10. Hackerman and all the characters related to him could've been pretty much spared this way and the wasted time could've been spent on something else.
In the final episode we get a giga forced tear-jerking scene which resolves everything and things return to normal and that's how the anime ends. I don't even know what to make of the apparently romantic relationship between Yota and Hina. I saw them more befitting as a sibling, so I really didn't like the sudden confession scene in episode 9 as well.
My apologies that the review turned out more like a rant, but this was another awful anime.
However, I would like to give some positive points for its consistent visuals (good job P.A. Works) and nice opening. The first half or so wasn't that bad either, so I think it deserves something like 30.
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