The World God Only Knows: Goddesses Arc - 1

'WHAT HAVE THEY DONE???'

My scream resounded throughout the house. I'll tell you what. They haven't done much, other than completely axe two major arcs in the seasonal transition, skipping to the penultimate goddess arc. I thought I'd missed a season by accident! To have a simple analogy, that's like the chief directors of Naruto deciding to entirely cut the Fourth Shinobi War (and I hope they actually cut SOME of it). As I've said in one of my previous reviews, I'm an avid fan of TWGOK, and am still quite glad to see the franchise making it's return. Talk about a prodigal son.

Welcome back Keima, we missed you too, bro

Though I haven't made things clear, Kanon Nagekawa is by far my favourite girl. So when this episode focused on her, I decided to let go of the fact it really hurt getting a recap to storylines we never saw, or will ever see. Even if the arcs were rushed, I was hoping that a few would get one or two episode arcs, but it would seem that was an impossible request. At the end of the day, I'd prefer an anime that doesn't have an ending as rushed as Angel Beats, so it's a bit understandable considering the Goddesses arc spans an incredible length. You'll know how good it is in general if you read the manga, but you'd also be aware of how important it is to have most of the girls get their time to shine onscreen. In fact, for anime viewers who don’t read the manga, this arc premiere is almost a slap in the face, though invariably people are at least directed to the original source material. Life is unfair, and some of the girls are cruelly given a few teasing minutes of reflection. Quite upsetting that anime viewers will never really get to appreciate their arcs (some of the best in the series too...) on screen, but just be glad we got a third season.

Tsukiyo Arc Summarised: Pedophila taken to new extreme

To surmise, a Goddess stirs within Kanon, awakening the memories she'd lost after the loose soul was exorcised. Though that would be the main focus of this episode, some of it dawdles on Tenri/Diana explaining to Keima the situation which lead to the current cirumstance. That is to say the reason why the Goddesses were initially sealed, the fact there was more than one, and the reason for their release. Just as Diana asks for Keima’s reluctant help in finding her sisters, Kanon finds herself stalked by a hooded figure, and to Keima’s horror, she remembers everything about her conquest and confesses to him in front of the entire class. What a classical moment. Before he can do anything, however, she is stabbed by Lune, a Vintage delegate while Apollo is in control of her body. Thus Megami-hen officially begins, heralding the return of a much loved series in anime.

You'd have to be an stone cold, heartless jerk to turn this down

In any case, as an introductory episode to the arc, this premiere does a good job; as a continuation to the series however, I can’t get over my disappointment, even though all the characters I missed so much are back. If Manglobe still manage to mess up the pacing with all this spare time accrued through axing arcs, I might find it difficult to merely let them off with a scolding, and would probably greatly dislike them from the bottom of my heart. Other than that, if they manage to turn this into a success story, I'll forgive them for all these misgivings.

KAAAAAANNOOOOONNN!!!