Anime: Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai II 204b65

This is a review for both Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai and Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai II, 12+12 = 24 episodes in total.

Story
The premise of the story is that demons spirits who have escaped from hell have used the vacuum created by some negativity like loneliness in a girl to take up residence in her heart. Katsuragi (the hero's) role is to make her fall in love with him so that the demon can be pushed out. Once out in the open, the good demon who has hired Katsuragi can then easily catch that bad demon.

Though the premise seems as if Katsuragi is cheating/manipulating the girls, its actually not. Katsuragi is really serious about his games. To him its just like basketball or boxing. When he is forced to interact with the real girls its very clear how honest and empathetic he really is. And since the girls that he needs to exorcise are people who already know him as a looser otaku, he has quite a difficult job in getting to know and overcome the negative impression they have of him. Its also a little sad, because the moment a demon is exorcised, the girl looses the memories that had lead up to it, so Katsuragi is never rewarded for his efforts. Ofcourse, they move on to the next girl, so its not that sad, but still....

In 24 episodes they exorcise some 8 girls, so its like 8 animes stuffed into 1. Somehow its quite satisfying.

Animation, sound, editing
Its a modern anime, so this is all upto par. Nothing more, nothing less.

Character, Value and Enjoyment
Life is worth living only because of the love we feel. And that is the consistent theme of this anime (most anime infact). Each character in the story is a different kind of person each person's life is analysed in an empathetic way to understand how Katsuragi can reach out to them. This is the main value and enjoyment in this anime.

There is also a lot of comedy.

A lot of reviews say its a little cliched. To be frank, what is not? Real people are clichéd. Real life too is cliched 7 billion times. Animes are kind and idealistic. And thats why we enjoy them.

Check out 2 or 3 episodes, to see if its to your taste.

If you have a successful formula, then you don't need to change it. This pretty much sums up the approach to The World God Only Knows 2. You take the same premise and main characters from the first season and add in four more girls to "harvest". In this season you get a macho/tsundere, a demon (not Elsie), a plain girl, and a teacher. If you haven't seen the first series, it's pretty much a prerequisite as the background information is pretty critical (and you'll miss the cameo appearances of first season girls).

In the World God Only Knows, we see a "God" of dating sims who is forced (by some extra-ordinary circumstances involving demons) to use his courting "experience" to win the hearts of real girls. These specific girls have their hearts infested by bad demons; the girls can only be saved by having their heart filled by something else, namely Kami-sama. This premise from the first series continues here, and if you enjoyed the first season then you'll be pleased with this season.

Animation:
The animation quality is exactly the same as the first season. The drawing style is crisp and colors are a pleasant saturation. Character designs are cute and facial animations are well done. There is a good use of lighting to reflect different moods. Certain events are not exactly realistic (getting run over by hoards of people) but the primary realism here is in relationships, not physics. There is some CGI use but it isn't distracting. And like the first season, this is a relationship-based series that has a very high kiss to other-ecchi ratio.

Sound:
The OP continues the butchered-English approach of the OP in the first season. It's a decent tune but not as focused as the original OP. The ED is also reminiscent of the original ED, and likewise not as good as the one in season 1. The BGM is of the same tone as the original series, light but ive. Continuing the sameness trend, the main VA cast returns as well as new VAs for the lead "target girls" including Ami Koshimizu and Saori Hayami! The VAs do a great job in their critical role in this relationship-focused series.

Story:
Whereas the first season had the dual goals of introducing the premise and then presenting the target girls, in the second season we start immediately with arc one of four. In of the actual driving plot, there isn't much to add to the first season save some tidbits that Haqua divulges in the second arc. This season is much more focused on relationships in each of the four arcs, with some brief break episodes that can be seen as light filler exploring Kami-sama's love of visual novel games and his belief that the real world is just a really bad game. Really the standout category for this season is definitely in the characters.

Character:
Personalities are definitely the highlight in this show. You have the somewhat slow but ever cute Elsie working with the unfailingly idealistic Kami-sama to win the hearts of very different girls. The season creatively adds new target girls that are significantly different from those previously seen in the first season. Most interestingly a fellow demon and a plain girl, the latter being so hard to figure out that Kami-sama's "flags" don't fire; i.e. real girls are not so simple as to be treated with flags. In any case, watching Kami sama enchant girls with his idealistic personality and ridiculously sub-par physique never gets tiring. If you like shows where characters develop these things called feelings for others, this is definitely a good one.

Value:
This was a great mix of romantic development and humor, both direct humor and indirect humor at Kami-sama's idealisms. It's a great add-on for those who liked the original, and sets the stage for a season three (I'm betting the four girls in the end credits of the last episode serve as a teaser for what's coming).

I can already see the ending... It's going to be AMAZING!

The second season has the same look and feel of the first season as our "Capture God" Keima continue hunting for lost souls with Elsea. The duo goes after 3 girls this season: A tsundere sporty, a cooldere classmate, and finally a student teacher! This season certainly poses bigger challenge for our heroes.
Then, there is the second girl demon. With exposition not needed this season, two whole episodes and a filler dedicated to introduce her.

Once again, Keima's game logic is put to test in real life. The absurdity of his value is still funny as ever, and the animation and sound do not disappoint in delivering the comedy.

Visually, it has not changed much from last season. The art in this series is generic style drawn to perfection, and characters are as visually pleasing as they could possibly be. The level of detail, especially the eyes and lighting, may even have improved. Camera movements are dynamic in action scenes, and there is not a moment of boredom.

OP song this season has lost the epic sense of the first season, but still accompanied by jaw-dropping overproduced opening animation that's nothing short of amazing. Voicing once again is right on, and perfect sound mixing with appropriate BGM playing on every scene.

The second season got off to a slow start with Kusunoki, the lone member and captain of girl's karate club. Her arc turned out to be very corny, but the 'Dragon Quest' recap in the first episode was absolutely magnificent. I would say it was a sign that the production staff has plenty of creativity left in store.

Next up is Haqua, Elsea's former classmate. Instead of going after a set target, Keima helps her track down a loose soul she failed to capture. Haqua's character was rather dull, generic clumsy type, but this arc goes on to explain the consequence of letting loose soul grow, and further emphasizes the importance of what the main characters have been doing.

Chihiro arc is similar to Shiori arc from the last season, with slow, bittersweet youth drama. The direction in this arc was by far the best this season, and once again, they went with a different pattern. Instead of straightforward "conquering" her, Keima helps her conquer another guy. The ending was obvious, but I liked how they changed things up so this series doesn't feel as repetitive as it could've been.

Finally, Jun's arc was the conquering of a teacher in training. The teacher is a stereotype teacher in popular TV dorama like '3-B Kinpachi-sensei' or 'Gokusen', with high ideals about tough-love and trust, but things doesn't go like dorama for her. This arc had the best character development and a positive message.

The second season is not quite as good as the first, but it shows Keima and Elsea tackling the problems using different approaches. After two seasons, this series still feels fresh. A sequel is not announced in the finale this time, but I'll definitely see it to the end if it ever happens.