Kamisama Hajimemashita - 01

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I thought the winner of this Fall season's shojo anime was decided when Brain's Base decided to adapt Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun, but it seems like Kamisama Hajimemashita won't be going down without a fight.

[Note]: Yet another anime I might blog after seeing how good the first episode was.

I went into this anime with a little scepticism. It looked like Inu x Boku SS, the manga read like Nurarihyon no Mago and at times Natsume Yuujin-chou thus leaving me worried that there would be a catastrophic clash of themes. It certainly didn't help that the opening sequence showed the cast of the reverse harem making this series look like a otome game adaptation instead of a supernatural shojo romantic comedy. That was all at the beginning.

The first episode reminded me of Natsume Yuujin-chou with the way the story was introduced. Alongside a few plot similarities, the situation that the main character finds herself in and the interactions with the demon fox bear some resemblance to Nyanko and Natsume. Of course it should be said that the tone of both the series is completely different and that's how the Kamisama Hajimemashita did well. My fear of what was going to be done with the story was immediately addressed and even more than that, it was very enjoyable. Sure the comedy isn't clever or underrated but it's obvious and makes you laugh most times.

As the episode progressed I grew more and more fond of Kamisama Hajimemashita. The biggest selling point was the balance between comedy and the very little focus on romance. It's not often you get a romantic comedy that doesn't actually feel like a romantic comedy and if there wasn't a line in the episode that said "Don't worry this is not a tragedy but a romantic comedy" I could have gone weeks thinking that Kamisama Hajimemashita was a fantasy series with romance on the side as opposed to the opposite.

Undoubtedly since this is a romantic comedy the romance will have to come in at some point. I'd love to see something more a la Ouran Host Club then every other shoujo romance/romcom, which I think fair to assume considering a reverse harem has already been implied. There still is some confusion as to what will actually occur in the plot and it could go either way, but I'm still interested enough to give it a shot.

Final verdict: quite nice. I wasn't expecting it to be so enjoyable since I didn't like the few chapters of the manga but that just shows you how a good anime can change your mind. This series isn't exactly one to look out for yet but it has a certain charm that'll keep me watching it for at least a few more episode.