Kamierabi

KamiErabi God.app — the successor to derided, full-on 3DCG shows like Ex-Arm and Tesla Note...and being a high-stakes battle royale conceived from one of the game industry's most beloved icons? I am shooketh. Even if you don't play video games, the pellucid name of Yoko Taro should be no stranger to anyone, for his Drakengard (and its subsequent spin-off NieR) franchise of games has become quite the phenomenon that's widely accepted as one of the cult classic games that have gained quite the notoriety amongst fans. And now, he's back with an all-star team to create one of Fall 2023's most divisive anime of the season:the high-stakes, battle royale death game that is KamiErabi GOD.app. As Ajin and Sidonia no Kishi a.k.a Knights of Sidonia director Hiroyuki Seshita puts it, KamiErabi is not just a mere imitation of famed mangaka Sakae Esuno's Mirai Nikki a.k.a Future Diary, but to quote his words, “I mean, it really is crazy. The world we’re in is already crazy. I mean, it’s super crazy. And what we’re doing is basically matching perfectly the world that we’re living in. From the very beginning, we were saying, ‘Okay, let’s make it so that [the anime feels like] there’s weird going on from the get-go. And every single time we worked on this, we tried to make sure that we infused it with some craziness because that matches our world.” Furthermore, despite being a death-game-themed premise, it actually fits more appropriately into the fantasy genre. This then brings us to the show's creation, which just so casually happened between Yoko Taro and Hiroyuki Seshita over drinks and praising the former's works, though the latter opted that the former should be credited for the work, and as Yoko Taro puts it, “We were all kind of doing things in our separate ways. After we all got together and really joined forces, it all kind of came together in a kind of miraculous way.” Next, it's adding the eponymous people to the project: Enen no Shouboutai a.k.a Fire Force creator Atsushi Ookubo on character design and the homonymous series composer Jin, who's composed for many series, one of which was the Kagerou Project a.k.a Kagerou Days, which would shape the anime and make it work, quoting "put 100% of his being into creating something “really bold and daring” that would surprise people," push his limits while working on the anime to ensure that it would meet both his and his fellow creators’ expectations. It's the same for said manga creator, quoted: “For me, working on the anime was actually this feeling of total irresponsibility. Like, literally, I didn’t feel the pressure of responsibility at all. It was just pure fun. But if we didn’t have the ass-whipper [Hiroyuki Seshita] to be responsible and get the team whipped into shape, it wouldn’t have happened.” But the series is best left said and taken in such a way as Jin puts it: “The thing is that even if someone in Japan says to you, ‘Okay, do whatever you want, right? Anything goes. Anything is fine.’ They usually don’t mean it. However, in my case, I literally took them at their word. I said, ‘literally anything goes. I’m gonna do whatever I want. And when I did, I was told by the director and the producer that they were kind of surprised, saying ‘Wow, this is kind of sugoi.’ The momentum [as a whole] that we had as a team plus the individual characteristics that we brought, I think, is what made this successful." Back to the anime, we've pretty much seen every similarity and/or common fidelity to this genre, from Summer 2021's Deatte 5-byou de Battle a.k.a Battle Game in 5 Seconds, to Spring 2022's Tomodachi Game. As contemporaries of the psychological high-stakes themes set in a fantasy genre, it almost looks as if the base concept is nothing special, of high school students fighting each other in a battle royale for the chance to become God. But what makes or breaks the anime is how flaccid and unpredictable director Hiroyuki Seshita wants to envision the entire show's vision and make sure that "two wrongs (or rather, the many differences between high-profile people) will make a right," going as unhinged as possible so that everything still makes sense by the end of it. And at the very least for Season 1 here, it's only half the battle won, and I did make some sense out of all of the madness that KamiErabi GOD.app has to offer before its eventual return for Season 2 sometime next year. That said, Atsushi Ookubo's character designs which are adapted into the anime, of which the main characters of Goro Ono (with his devil assistant Lall) and his many classmates (of Honoka Sawa, Yutaka Akitsu, Koki Ama, Mitsuko Okino, Chika Nojima and Iyo Futana) each having quite the eccentricity about themselves to understand that some entity is playing with their lives in the never-ending quest to "make a wish" to become God and rewrite the world, the biggest benefactor would have to been the one who first noticed the changes: Goro himself, being the typical nobody character before facing his crush (of Honoka) who attacks him out of nowhere, only to win and gain a power that builds from the sacrifices of his other fine details in life. It'd be pretty hard to imagine if the show took on full-on traditional 2D drawing, because the 3D models here were definitely purpose-built for a CG series such as this. However, what would define KamiErabi, is ultimately the decision to go full-on 3DCG, based on Hiroyuki Seshita's experience with the no-name studio that is UNEND's production...I can tell you that out of all of the fully-created 3DCG works since the horrendous days of Winter 2021's Ex-Arm, KamiErabi feels the most polished within the AniManga industry, finally understanding the wane of the former's colossal failure in almost 3 years, though it still looks like ass from time to time, which isn't so much a nitpick if I do say so myself. The music is surprisingly upbeat and whimsical, as if series composer Jin had put his all into the creation of the OST as well, which, considering the effort he put into Kagerou Days, he certainly did. As for the theme songs, ELAIZA's OP song certainly is one bizarre debut of a decent song, while Alisa had some experience working on her first theme songs for Carole & Tuesday before working on the ED song, which, as expected, is fine and nothing all that special (apart from the song being in English). Despite all of the community's views about this show, it's ridonculously clear that Yoko Taro had intended KamiErabi GOD.app to be not just a battle royale death game that has the quote, unquote "edgy" theme going for it. Like Winter 2020's Darwin's Game, it too has its fantasy and psychological elements that work as if you're playing either one of his games, and while the ultimate takeaway is a show that either makes you bored or messes with your brain, the unhinge nature of Yoko Taro's vision for this still remains to be seen if it's ever effective at all to be on the same level of either Drakengard or NieR. Take this show as you wish, putting yourself in the shoes of Yoko Taro, and imagine that score based on personal experience, at least for this 1st half here. I can't quite speak for all, but it's best if you try at least one episode to see if the show is for you.

This anime is very good ngl, the power system really interest me although I dont have the problem with 3D animation but I can understand why others may not like it. Now how about the story? for me I think the story is pretty good for an original anime, but it depends on those who watch it, at the start you'll prob get the feelings that its not gonna be good since its 3D but for me its enjoyable and i love how they try to explore more to the world of 3D so its pretty cool. For voice acting I dont really haveany comments on it but it fits the character. The plot is great but man it gets so interesting especially in the last eps so watch out 👀

It's so bad, but in being bad it's weirdly profound. From the beginning, the show, and writer whom I love, Yoko Taro, states this is a bunch of nonsense. A story with no meaning, one with an ending that makes no sense, and was reached without making sense. A show about nothing important. A commentary on senseless violence, about being put in a situation where violence is the only answer, a kid steps in to sacrifice himself for no reason. Gorou Ono is put in a battle royale which is as cliché'd as it can be. The show knows it's cliché'd at this point, it doesn't hideit, the show relishes in being a cliché'd piece of nothing. The characters can change elements of the entire world just from their powers, but it all ultimately means nothing but endless, empty suffering from those with the powers. Not even mentioning the CG animation which isn't that bad, the show is weirdly good, in a bad way. Weirdly bad, in a good way. Something which I can't hate, I can't say it's terrible, but I know for real that it objectively is. If the author planned to make something that makes no sense, then why does the story speak so much about being the best you can be, for people who'll never appreciate it? The anime itself, and its existence, feels like a middle finger to conventional productions. Every character who isn't important is literally a silhouette. The conflicts are resolved with bullshit pulled out of the ass, characters enter, and stay weirdly on the centre, and it all somehow works to tell a compelling bad story that is compelling nonetheless. I've never watched a show which directly challenges the fact that it exists to such a degree, not from animation. You see this in film, small video games, music, but not an anime, because its existence USUALLY needs an incredible amount of justification because it's one of the hardest things to create. The story will talk about senseless violence for empty desires. The grand always relating to the small. Battles for the world will be started and fought for those with selfish ideals. The one who wants everybody's happiness will suffer, but maybe it was worth it. Agency, iron will, friendship, and finding small happiness in that. Yoko Taro creates a new critique on violence with a high schooler in the most basic plot, but maybe the second season will give me the real reason as to the why. Why was this created? 4/10. I really liked watching this.

This anime could have been good, but it isn't. The story is kind of boring; the the only salvation to this anime is the last two episodes and the soundtrack. Everything else is horrible in my opinion. The art is 3D. So is the animation. So it's bad. So scoring 2/10. The characters... The background characters don't have faces. They couldn't be bothered to do the faces. That's why I scored low. And the character development? Is mediocre. However, it is kind of unique. It was a boring watch. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. Not even to my worst enemy.

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