There may have been some doubts about the hackneyed premise that began the second season of The World God Only Knows—tough martial arts girl secretly likes cute things!—but with Episode 2, all those doubts are swept away. The excellent conclusion to the Kusunoki Kasuga arc sees our hard-nosed heroine going on the World's Most Awkward Date with smug, game-obsessed protagonist Keima Katsuragi. Granted, this charade is simply an attempt to make Kusunoki confront her "weak" side and force out the "loose soul" that's bothering her, but the laughs just keep coming: Keima's unabashed selfishness at the game store, an overly physical round of whack-a-mole (or rather, lobster), even a hilariously uncomfortable moment in the purikura booth. The genius is in seeing all these dating-sim clichés subverted by two completely unwilling participants.
And that's just the halfway point. The real payoff comes when our uneasy couple engages in the ultimate display of sentimental romantic goop—a shared ice cream cone—and the loose soul pops out to battle Kusunoki, switching from comedy spoof to pure action in seconds. Then comes the emotional punch: Keima, Elsie and Kusunoki launch into a passionate, thoughtful discussion about how to accept different sides of one's personality—and finally resolve it in a heartfelt way only this series can pull off so well.
Between the great genre send-up, the slickly animated hand-to-hand combat, and a heartwarming turnabout in the final act, this episode shows incredible storytelling range. And that's not including all the little things it does right: Elsie's background sight gags, color schemes that shift to match the mood, rich background music that walks a careful line between spoof and seriousness. It doesn't even have to throw around otaku in-jokes at this point—instead it relies charming characters, pitch-perfect comedy, and a lot of heart to tell its story. A story that'll be well worth watching, all the way to the end.
Originally posted by Carlos Santos of animenewsnetwork.com
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