Anime Review: Kamisama Kazoku

Title: God Family / Kamisama Kazoku / Kamikazo / 神様家族 Anime Genre: Comedy, Romance Date of Airing: 18th May 2006 Date Concluded: n/a Current Episode: 8 No. of Episodes Watched: 6 "The Gods must be crazy." Phew, what a weekend it's been. Football, Formula One, more football, and a few new toys. I'll get into that later, hopefully. It's late (or really early...) and since I haven't done any blogging in the past 2 days, I thought I'd just post this little review I had typed up a week ago. The reason I didn't post this sooner was basically 'cos I was waiting for more fansubbed episodes of Kamisama Kazoku to watch before coming to a conclusion. Hell, I couldn't wait, so I watched the raws instead. I definitely got the gist of the story but sadly, I think I missed quite a few of the jokes, haha. But even with the raws, I do think my first opinion of the anime was quite accurate. Aww, ain't he cute? Samatarou and Tenko. If you didn't already know, Kamisama Kazoku is about a family of a god and goddesses living on earth. This is so God's son, Samatarou, gets a taste of 'human' life, and hopefully becomes a better God, or something. Nihon no Jesus? Sorry, I couldn't resist. =P Samatarou has a childhood friend slash guardian angel, Tenko, who takes care of him wherever he goes, whatever he does. I wish my mom and sisters did that for me. Wait a sec, no I don't! Kamisama Kazoku has got to be one of the most intriguing, yet riveting comedy/romance anime I have watched in recent times. It starts out really bright and colourful, with an especially catchy opening song, which you'll be humming to 2 episodes in, trust me. Mizuhashi Mai's rendition of Brand New Morning starts out with a few bars of snazzy electric guitar and builds up to a really nice chorus accompanied by just about the perfect animation for the opening. Anyway, after that we meet the cast, one by one, starting with Samatarou and Tenko. Samatarou is sort of laid-back, more like a typical jap anime teen than God's son. Tenko is the pink-haired bubbly childhood friend of Samatarou, who cares alot for him, and yeah, you guessed it, secretly likes him a whole lot. Unfortunately, Komori Kumiko, the shy, beautiful transfer student comes into Samatarou's life, and he falls in love with her. Making it that much harder on poor Tenko. Kumiko's being controlled here, so don't get your hopes up. =) Samatarou's family is a crazy mis-match of personalities. There's his dad, Osamu, God himself, who is really more clown-like than God-like. Zany in more ways than one. His mom, Venus, the somewhat exhibitionist and crazy goddess who loves Samatarou to the extremes. Meme-chan, his younger sister, who reminds me of that president girl in Onegai Twins!, you know the one who kept going "he,he,he". She's got that gothic look with the white hair and stuff, and is perfect for making a scene funny just by standing there, lol. And lastly, Misa, Samatarou's older sister, who hates men but doesn't seem to mind him. Misa. Hot and spicy version. Misa. Round and cute version! This is like watching Ah! My Goddess, School Rumble, and oh I dunno...something else really bright and colourful. It's supposed to be a comedy and romance hybrid, but from what I've seen, it's leaning more towards the romance part, what with Tenko's heartache, and Samatarou's love interest. The show is really easy to get into, starting off with a bang from the get-go, and following up with simple, bright, and solid animation which wouldn't put you off even if you hated these sort of shows. The storyline is your standard romantic comedy stereotype, but the show manages a really decent execution of it. It's really interesting to watch how Samatarou carries himself through the various romantic situations with Kumiko, or any other situation, considering he's God's son and all. Oh, I forgot to mention, he gets everything he even THINKS about, as his dad just makes it happen for him. I can't say it better than Osamu, so..."Kiseki!" Tenko left behind again. Poor girl. A kiss, and more hot pot action from Tenko. Tenko, who is surprisingly voiced by Koshimizu Ami of Gunslinger Girl and School Rumble fame, is also another interesting character. We see her obvious liking for Samatarou as the episodes progress, and this eases into her sadness and sometimes desperation when Samatarou falls in love with Kumiko and starts to drift away from her. Until somewhere in episode four, but that's for you to find out. =) Anyway, she does whatever she can to help Samatarou with his endeavours, but finds it hard to hide her feelings, which usually comes in the form of steam coming out of her head, hehe. Cute. They portray her as somewhat happy-go-lucky, with mood changes at a flick of a switch. She's really easy to like, and really easy to pity, but it's nice to see a variety of personalities in a show like this. Meme-chan, funny when serious. Err, yeah, something like that. I just liked this scene. Animation is bright and colourful. Pink hair, blue hair, brown hair, blonde hair, yellow hair, you name it, it's there. There are also many occasions where Samatarou and his family have to switch to these chibi/small and cute versions of themselves to communicate. Those sequences are definitely worth a laugh, for the animation and voices at least, if not for the jokes. Oh man, cuteness overload. Good god, I'm weird. LOL. That's right, Kamisama Kazoku falls short in the humour department, relying more on looney situations and an almost incestuous mother to provide the humour. While watching his mom and sisters in bloomers did provoke a smile, I found that the anime was crammed heavily (at least the first 3 episodes) with fan service and outrageously crazy sequences, obviously never making an attempt at jokes but providing the Mr. Bean sort of humour. It's not always a bad thing of course, but it would have been nice to hear punchlines or jokes rather than physical action all the time. The story does mature slightly from episode four, which is a nice touching episode. Episodes 5 and 6 were really entertaining too, but I'll have to watch the subs before making any substantial comments on those. Another gripe I have is that the anime is only slated to run for 13 episodes. If that is true, it would really be a waste. Of course, this should by no means be a deal-breaker. With a little pink paint, it'll be JUST like Tenko. ^^ Music is pleasant throughout. Like I said, the opening song is the bomb, and the ending is just as good. Although very 'pop-like', you'd only hate them if you're weird. ^^ The music is also cleverly used in touching or funny sequences in the show, providing more soul to this seemingly simple comedic romance. Trust me, it's more than that. Overall, besides over-trying on the humour part, I think Kamisama Kazoku is another diamond in the rough from spring. Don't dig too deep, or look too much into everything that happens, and you'll find that this is definitely an enjoyable anime. Light-hearted, yet deep enough to warrant a watch. While not the best (School Rumble takes that award), it's certainly better than most of the rest. =) *Out of 10* Animation (Quality of): 7 Story (Depth, twists, and extras): 7 Music (Songs, Suitability): 9 Characters (Dynamism, Background): 7 True to Genre?: 8 OVERALL RATING: 7.5/10 >>> Animania Tags: Animation, Anime, Japanese Animation, Manga, Kamisama Kazoku, God Family, Samatarou, Tenjou