Kamisama Kazoku (God's family)

[ureshii]

Plot summary from Anime News Networkedited)
Kamiyama is not just an average somophore high-scholl boy, the truth is that he is the son of god, his mother is a godess and his sisters are candidates to become godesses. They are living in the human world, because they want their boy to learn about the human customs and the habits of the creature that they are protecting, so that Kami will become a better god. But the change apears in his life along side with the joining of a new student in his class-Kumiko. He falls in love with her and from now on, things will be a lott more different for him. His decision of making her fall in love with him without using his powers will put him in troble.
This summary seems to forget mentioning Tenko-a guardian angel, a living-in maid at God's house, and of course Samatarou Kamiyama's childhood friend. So as you can see there'll be a quite generic love triangle (but judging from many aspects the winner looks obvious)-enough reason to be put off. And there's this too colorful character design (blue, red hair, and overall the color is just too bright for me). I picked it up while waiting for other series like Ouran and Saiunkoku, more than ready to delete the 1st episode right after watching ut the OP totally sold me. It is stylish, childish, well-paced, and the music is just right for the mood. The 1st ep is a nice mix of comedic and emotional/cute moments, very solid and promises for more. For a series based on light seinen novel, it is modest in fanservice (thank God!). The premise, while not surprisingly creative, still has its own traits in providing us a dysfunctional "God family", in which God is a crazy funny old man, God's wife is just as crazy a goddess, and God's daughters-candidates for Goddess-are quirky and lovely. Tenko's rival, Kumiko, seems intrigued too, and many have suspected that if shes not a goddess she must be at least a devil!
Im not sure if it continues to be solid like its start but anyway you should give it a try. At least neither Tenko nor Kumiko is annoying ^^

[soundchazer]

What I loved the most was the character design. It had a sketchy feel to it at times, and the face expressions are nicely done.

The story itself is generic really, the comedy off at times, but the characters are fun to watch.

[ureshii]

I used the wrong word its just the color that puts me off (too bright), the design is ok.
Now Im like playing the OP over and over again, oh my Kamisama T_T It has run to ep 3 or 4 raw, hope that the subbing group wont stop their great work
One of the character's seiyuu is the one who voiced Nina in Mai Otome-will that be able to draw more attention from fans?

[Rove]

Originally Posted by ureshii

The 1st ep is a nice mix of comedic and emotional/cute moments, very solid and promises for more.

Originally Posted by Soundchazer

The story itself is generic really, the comedy off at times, but the characters are fun to watch.

Those two sentences are pretty much what I thought after watching the first episode. Sure, the love triangle and the high school situation is generic, the comedy is a hit or miss (was I the only one reminded of FLCL in a few scenes?) but you know what? Samatarou and Tenko are what sold the show for me. This episode managed to play with the comedy and touching moments so well while giving a glimpse about the setting and the whole god-situation in 23 minutes. I still don't get why the main characters (including Tenko) get a tiny version of themselves when they were arguing at the beginning of the episode yet Tenko cannot do the same thing when Samatarou didn't want to eat dinner.

Also:

Spoiler, highlight to read:

How can Tenko be so enthusiastic about helping Samatarou get the new girl if she is the one that likes him? Sure, she is his guardian angel, but it did seem that she liked him more than just a high school "like him". I guess they would run out of steam early on if all the romantic bits were established from episode one.

Kamisama Kazoku in a nutshell: Ah! My Goddess meets KareKano.

Too far off?

[ureshii]

I think at the end of ep 1, Tenko was appalled to see Samatarou's red face when Kumiko came into the class. I dont know about later eps but that moment I think she suddenly realized (in horror) that she is no longer the only girl in his life I suppose if she ever gets excited about Samatarou's 1st love, its because shes glad that finally he is determined to do sth w/o his father's power, which is wat Tenko always tries to make him do.

Spoiler, highlight to read:

And the dinner scene, perhaps Tenko thinks his sisters would persuade him better than her?

[Javer]

Originally Posted by Rove

Kamisabu in a nutshell: Ah! My Goddess meets KareKano.

Too far off?

Sounds about right.

Especially the character roles. I found them very archetypal for some reason. :\

[Rove]

Originally Posted by Javer

Sounds about right.

Especially the character roles. I found them very archetypal for some reason. :\

Hum, well the characters are (so far) quite standard. You have the tsundere female protagonist, the spineless male lead, the parents are the carbon copy of Yukino's (KareKano) carefree parents (with the godly twist, of course), the older sister is similar in personality to Ah! My Goddess' Urd (they even have the same seiyuu!) and the younger sister looks like a gothic-ish version of Momo from Shinigami no Ballad; so the archetypes are there, but hopefully they will get their own set of characteristics that will set them appart from the other shows. I have my money on Tenko though, I'm hoping that she will be the next Yukino in terms of female leads in high school romantic comedies.

A little bit of information: For those thinking that the the character designs in Kamisama Kazuko resemble those from Eureka Seven, well there is an explanation. They share Hideaki Maniwa, who was the animation director for E7.

And because Ureshii cannot post links I will add them (to avoid unnecessary questions):
Official Site
ANN Link

[Rove]

Episode 2:

This one focused more on the comedy with occasional fanservice (nothing too raunchy anyways) and for the most part the comedy worked. Samatarou whines quite a lot but he is also a very likable character, weird combination. And just when I thought the only focus of this episode was going to be the comedy they pulled another touching moment at the end of it. Overall, the comedy was better than in ep 1 but it had far less "romantic" moments.

[ureshii]

Not only a touching moment-Kumiko's mysterious glance promises sth else, I think (or is it just that I want sth to happen? )
In this episode I like Tenko even more. She's a tad typical yet memorable; if the show goes bad I'd still follow through, just for her!
*Just noticed until now: Kamisabu is the nickname of the person who single-handedly subbing Kamisama Kazoku. I thought it was the short name for the series, too.

[Rove]

Originally Posted by ureshii

*Just noticed until now: Kamisa** is the nickname of the person who single-handedly subbing Kamisama Kazoku. I thought it was the short name for the series, too.

I found out about it later myself too, apparently the short name for Kamisama Kazoku is KamiKazo, which bears quite a resemblance to the word Kamikaze, so I'll just call it by its full name from now on.

BTW, it seems the person that released the first two eps will not sub the others so we are now left with one fairly new group that is no stranger to dropping projects. Hopefully Kamisama Kazoku will not have that problem.

[ureshii]

Ep 3 offers a nice twist (actually the twist will be in ep 4, as seen in the preview) Im glad this series is still going strong ^^ not everyone's material, but still...

[Rove]

Originally Posted by ureshii

Ep 3 offers a nice twist (actually the twist will be in ep 4, as seen in the preview) Im glad this series is still going strong ^^ not everyone's material, but still...

The third episode was the weakest of the three for me so far. Samatarou being even more whinny than usual and a jerk for making Tenko cry (note that I'm not saying why...so not so much of a spoiler), this episode didn't make the cut for me.

Ep 3 Spoiler, highlight to read:

The fact that most of this episode revolves around Meme's roulette to control the puppet Kumiko has made that joke stale. And to think that the next episode will not have Tenko as we know and love her makes me slightly sad as well. My guess for the next episode is that it should make Samatarou realize how important Tenko is in his life, and that is he decides to become a full time human he will loose her. Knowing Samatarou, that lesson will take several episodes to be learned for good. Or not.

[ureshii]

Ep 4 left me with so many "why"s, yet I think there were some really nice scenes (flying motorbike, gift-giving scene...) For the 1st time in 4 eps Samatarou looks fairly cool

[Rove]

Originally Posted by Me

It's so great to be proven wrong! This episode was simply amazing, I think I've seen the flying-bike scene at least five times now and I'm nowhere near at getting tired of it.

Ep 4 + fangirl question flood Spoiler, highlight to read:

I'm actually surprised they didn't keep the whole "Samatarou wants to be human" plot twist for a few more episodes, and instead decided to advance the plot as a whole. Great choice. Like you said Ureshii, this episode left a lot of "why"s. For one, Samatarou's Dad said that becoming a human was irreversible, but Samatarou does become a god again before the episode ends. Second, why was Samatarou so confident during the bike-scene? He probably decided there and then to become a god again, and a god with actual powers finally. There's also the possibility that it was all a scheme by the family to make him believe he had turned human and they chose to not answer to him when he was calling them from the school's gym (but that doesn't explain the human version of Tenko to begin, so that hypothesis might be a little flawed). I think the most likely thing is that even if becoming a human is irreversible, Samatarou is a god! So there's no such thing as an impossible thing (that explanation could pretty much solve any possible plot holes in the future as well). Now, on to the love triangle, Samatarou picked Tenko (he did give her the music box, which was meant to be given to the person most important to him) or he is just happy to have her back? I'm questioning this because of the way the Kumiko situation was solved, and that very odd episode preview at the end. Not to mention that Kumiko shares as much time as Tenko in the OP, so solving the love triangle so early in the game doesn't make much sense, what are they going to do for the next episodes then? One thing they could do is bring Kumiko back and keep the love triangle a little longer (bad idea) or develop Tenko and Samatarou's relationship ala KareKano (excellent idea) or bring a whole new thing that is not related to what has happened so far (example, those evil-looking characters in the OP and the flying pig thing/mascot from the OP as well). So many questions! ^_^

The only thing I didn't like about this episode was during the two most 'dramatic' scenes they picked horrible background music, it was waaay too melodramatic for it's own good; I was half-laughing everytime they played when I was supposed to be concerned by the characters. Way to over the top with that one.

[ureshii]

I was wondering if we're the only two watching this anime ^^ Kamikazo isnt actually one of the "A+" contenders of this season, but it deserves more attention than it gets. While eagerly graving for new Haruhi-s (yeah, both ^^), I still find myself look forward to seeing more of Tenko. This kind of show is so easy to mess itself up, and just the fact that it gets interesting with each ep earns it my point (sadly not other fans'points ).
I think now that Samatarou has grown up a bit, we're in for some dramatic treat (like...

Spoiler, highlight to read:

Kumiko comes back and reveals hersels as a devil/angel's enemy or something?