Here’s the summary of the film as I reproduced it for The Japanese Learner:

A young man, Teppei Kaneko, has been accused of groping a woman on a crowded train in Tokyo.  He is arrested and forced to sign a false confession.  If he chooses to fight the charges, he will be held for three weeks just for the investigation. If he is prosecuted, the case will take up to a year in court. An indictment of Japan’s troublingly labyrinthine legal system, in which defendants are often coerced into signing confessions and criminal cases go on for years, this film was Japan’s official 2007 submission for Best Foreign Language Film for the Academy Awards.

The story itself is, as I expected, a social commentary on Japan’s criminal justice system. The film starts with a scene of an older salaryman getting caught red-handed groping on a different train. The victim manages to grab his hand by the wrist and holds onto him firmly, confirming his guilt for the audience. He is brought to the police station where he is very aggressively questioned and then has a large, clear adhesive strip placed over his hand. The police claim that with this they might find fibers from the victim’s underwear which would be decisive evidence. At this point the salaryman prostrates himself and begs for forgiveness.

At around the same time, in a different place, Teppei is shuffling through his rucksack looking for something. Not finding it and hearing the chime of the train doors about to close, he rushes to get onto the train and is pushed in by a station worker. His jacket becomes caught in the door and he tries to free it using his right hand; his left hand is carrying his rucksack. Partly by the sway of the train and partly by the person to his left, he’s pushed into a woman on his right, who gives him a dirty look. He apologizes to her and glances at his jacket to indicate what he’s trying to do. Later, just before the train doors open at his station, the meek voice of a school girl pleads “stop that.” After he has exited the train, she grabs onto his sleeve and accuses him of groping her. Another man corroborates the story as a station guard takes everyone to the office to discuss the matter and calls in the authorities.

Teppei denies the allegations quite strongly as the police attempt to coerce a confession out of him and he initally calls for the “public defender”, a lawyer who offers his services pro bono to clients who have never before needed a defense attorney. The lawyer very strongly suggests a plea bargain but Teppei refuses to confess to a crime that he didn’t commit, even if doing so would be easier in the short run.

“I Just Didn’t Do It” is one of the most subtly powerful films I’ve seen in a long time. The actor who plays Teppei does an excellent job of portraying the desperation and determination of a man fighting to prove his innocence. Even in scenes that might appear to be incidental, like being shuffled between one place and another for questioning, Teppei’s face shows an indignant expression. While the transitions are subtle, there is a great deal of emotional range in the character.

The film makes some interesting points about the legal system. During a cross-examination the defense asks a detective called as a witness if he has ever successfully obtained evidence of a groping crime by using the aforementioned large, clear adhesive tape. He admits that he has not, which is an implicit admission that the whole thing is just for show, another tactic to coerce confessions out of the not-necessarily-guilty.

The man who is shown begging for forgiveness at the beginning of the film is released within hours after agreeing to pay a summary fine, while Teppei engages in a legal battle that spans over a year with twelve public hearings. A couple of characters (including Teppei himself) comment on this point, that the real gropers are confessing, paying a summary fine, and going free again. Groping cases are presented as a critical weakness of the justice system, a peculiar scenario in which the innocent face (much) greater or equal punishment as the guilty.

And the last point that the film drives is that judges have some very good reasons to be very, very careful about every acquittal. If the state presses charges and the defendant is found to be innocent, this means that the prosecution (including the police) did not properly investigate the case and they would lose face. At one point during Teppei’s trial, the case is actually handed over to another judge. To push the point further, the new judge appears very agreeable to the prosecution; a few times when the defense raises an objection or asks for a piece of evidence, the prosecution claims that they don’t see why it’s necessary and the judge immediately agrees and denies the request (even when the request/objection seemed very reasonable).

If you’re interested in knowing how the trial ultimately turned out, I highly recommend you see the film. It is excellently executed, intelligent, and intensely engrossing.

The Girls of Amagami SS (Rihoko, Tsukasa, Sae, Kaoru, Haruka, Ai)

I’ve been holding off on doing this one because Amagami SS isn’t technically a Fall 2010 series; it started in Spring 2010 and is continuing its run this season. But I still like this show enough to give it a nod and, unlike many other shows, you don’t necessarily have to start at the beginning to enjoy it because of its particular format.

Amagami SS is based on Amagami, a PS2 dating sim produced by Enterbrain in 2009. If you liked KimiKiss Pure Rouge, you’ll like this one too since Enterbrain also produced the KimiKiss game. My review comes with a bit of context: I’ve played at least one route in both games as well as watched both series (though Amagami SS isn’t finished its run quite yet). So now that I’ve proven to you beyond shadow of a doubt that I’m otaku through and through, let’s talk about Amagami SS!

Synopsis

Junichi Tachibana hasn’t been the luckiest in love, though that may be in part because he has been scared of it since he was stood up for a date on Christmas Eve two years ago.

To give some context, Christmas Eve in Japan could probably be considered more romantic than Valentine’s Day. While Valentine’s Day in Japan is pretty much a fabrication by Japanese chocolate companies to drive domestic sales (seriously), Christmas Eve is considered a holiday for couples rather than for family… couples and cake.

Junichi was really looking forward to this date, she never showed up, and he thinks that she must have actually hated him and decided not to come. He drifts along and broods for the next two years — sometimes shutting himself into a closet that he has drawn stars and planets on the inside of with glow-in-the-dark markers — supported by his little sister Miya (who can be all kinds of trouble when she tries) and Masayoshi Umehara, who is the stereotypical odd-and-slightly-perverted best friend character from every dating sim ever (can you think of a dating sim game that doesn’t have one of these? I can’t).

Two years after that fateful Christmas Eve, Masayoshi convinces Junichi that maybe he should give the whole love thing another shot and find himself a date for Christmas Eve. Of all of the girls in his life, who will Junichi spend his next Christmas Eve with? Will she actually show up this time?

What I like about it

Amagami SS is cute and adorable without also being incredibly over the top. That’s fairly standard for dating sim adaptations, particularly ones with a normal high school setting. But what makes Amagami SS stand out is the format that the producers have decided to use to tell the story.

The game has a route for each of the six girls pictured above. Haruka is the “main” one but you can, of course, choose to go after a different girl instead or replay the game over and over to see all of the endings. There are even multiple endings for each girl, depending on the relationships you build and choices you make throughout the game. Usually, dating sim adaptations pick one route and ending or tell a story that kinda integrates elements of a couple of routes into one plot but still uses one ending for one character (or some ending of its own creation to support the mish-mashing of elements from the game). The other girls show up, but they end up as supporting characters rather than as the heroines they are in their respective game routes. They get a nod and then they bow out so the main relationship that the writers want to focus on can bloom.

Amagami SS is told in an “omnibus format” and includes arcs for all six girls from the game. Each arc is four episodes, so that makes 24 episodes, standard for a two-season run. Though some fans may disagree, I personally like this style. It gives a chance for each of the girls to shine in their own way instead of just focusing on the main one like many dating-sim-turned-anime shows do.

Compared to KimiKiss Pure Rouge, I feel like the characters are more compelling and less cliché. They each have their own peculiar quirks rather than being entirely flat stereotypes. For example Rihoko is Junichi’s ditzy childhood friend who often tries to go on diets but can never seem to reach her weight loss goals. She’s a member of the Tea Ceremony Club and although her arc hasn’t ended in the anime yet, in the game she becomes an idol and there’s a hint that she might aspire to become one in the anime as well. I’d say she has much more flavour than KimiKiss’ childhood friend character, Mao Mizusawa.

There are neat touches in each arc where another of the six girls shows up and you get a glimpse of what she’s currently up to, which is an interesting analogue to how events sometimes unfold in the game.

What I don’t like about it

Like many dating sim heroes, Junichi doesn’t have much of a personality and can sometimes be annoyingly vacant. There are a couple of episodes where he’s actually interesting in his own right but most of the time I just want to throw something at him. He can also be rather perverted (also standard for dating sim heroes), which makes some parts of the series very awkward. This is another show that you’ll probably want to watch either by yourself or with friends who appreciate the genre.

The omnibus format has its advantages, which I outlined above, but it’s not without disadvantages. It’s difficult to tell a very complex story in just four episodes, so the story is definitely distilled compared to the game. If you’re not particularly interested in an arc it’s over soon enough, but if you’re really interested in an arc it can feel like it finishes way too soon.

Sometimes the writers have chosen to take elements from other endings from the game for the same girl and mix them in. They usually end with the “best” ending from the game with a few exceptions (described in this page of TV tropes). I didn’t find this jarring but if you’re a hardcore fan of the game, you might. It basically suffers from the usual problems of a dating sim adaptation, only this time repeated over many smaller stories.

Summary

If you like dating sims, see this one. As mentioned before, you don’t need to see it from the beginning because each arc is completely independent of the others. The arcs that have currently aired are (in order): Haruka, Kaoru, Sae, Ai, and Rihoko (currently 3 of 4 episodes aired). Of those, I really liked Ai’s and Kaoru’s, and Rihoko’s is looking very good so far as well. Haruka’s arc is a good start but I find her to be way too childish for my tastes (which is ironic, since she’s actually the oldest of the six).

For today’s post, I’m going to describe these three generations that I’ve observed and explain their characteristics and the gaps that exist between them. This is not to say that these are clear-cut categories and there may be some people who fall between them. They are also based on nothing more reliable than my own observations as a fan of anime for over a decade.

The Old School

These guys first saw anime in the 70′s or 80′s (possibly earlier!) when it was either in the high culture domain of independent/foreign films or on television where every effort was made to mask its origin. These guys remember the crazy days of fansubbing on VHS, where you had to take care not to buy a tape that had been copied too many times because a little quality was lost with each copy. Digital fansubbing simply didn’t exist in this generation and some probably see the newer generations as either spoiled or unwashed.

Shows that this generation loves: Astro Boy, Speed Racer, Mobile Suit Gundam (the classic series), Mazinger Z, Space Battleship Yamato, Macross (the classic series), Wings of Honneamise, Galaxy Express 999, Sailor Moon (early seasons), and many of Hayao Miyazaki’s earlier works.

How you’ll spot them: They’re hard not to spot these days. If you see a person aged in the 40′s or 50′s who isn’t attending just to chaperone their children, you’ve probably bumped into The Old School. This generation is usually running conventions because they have been since there was an anime fandom in North America.

The Digital Generation

I will refer to this generation as “we” because I consider myself to be part of this generation. We may vaguely remember fansubs on VHS but probably don’t own any, because the major paradigm shift that defines our generation of fandom is digital fansubbing and scanlation and the rise of BitTorrent. This breakthrough in fan translation and distribution ultimately made it possible to follow anime and manga as they were released in Japan, and many of our generation are fans of Japanese rather than North American ones.

We’re also the first generation to see official releases of anime on DVD, putting the “dubs vs. subs” quandary to rest by allowing us to buy both in the same package. During our time, more shows have aired on TV as well, though we might not have watched them. We may have looked at some of those broadcasts in disgust (*coughCardCaptorscough*).

We may or may not be fans of some of the shows that the current generation is currently obsessed with, such as Naruto and Bleach. Those of us who aren’t snub our noses at them while buying up merchandise for our favourite shows from the 90′s and early 2000′s.

Shows we love: Neon Genesis Evangelion, Ranma 1/2 (and Maison Ikkoku?), Fushigi Yuugi, Ghost in the Shell, Akira, Slayers, most Gundam series, most Macross series, Irresponsible Captain Taylor, Bubblegum Crisis, Serial Experiments Lain, Cowboy Bebop, Card Captor Sakura, most Miyazaki and Tezuka works. Honestly, one of you will probably kill me for leaving your favourite show off the list. Know this: I did my best. We experienced a “boom” of anime production and our tastes are all over the place.

How you’ll spot us: We’re young, but still old enough to drink. We’re probably not running conventions but chances are you’ll find us in the volunteer staff. Rather than stalking down North American voices for their autographs, we’re more inclined to check out the Japanese guests or to be milling about the dealers and fan artists who are selling their illustrations. Many of us are dedicated cosplayers.

The Kids

I apologize if this label seems derogatory, but to the rest of us that’s what you are.

This generation is in their teens or even tweens. Most of their exposure to anime has happened within the last 5 or so years via TV and official DVD/Blu-ray releases. This generation’s exposure to manga is probably largely from the shelves of major bookstores though some may also be following their favourites via the Internet.

This generation is growing; in fact, they are quickly becoming the majority at Anime North, much to the chagrin of some young men from our generation who wish they could talk to the cute girl dressed up as Saber from Fate/Stay Night without having to worry about getting apprehended by security and possibly charged with a felony. These kids aren’t always with their parents.  =P

While we experienced a boom in fan distribution of Japanese releases, this generation has experienced a boom in official North American releases, many of which now come very close on the heels of the original Japanese. That’s not to say that this generation doesn’t follow anime/manga via the Internet and BitTorrent but that may be the exception rather than the norm.

Shows that this generation loves: Naruto, Bleach, Dragonball Z, Pokemon, When They Cry (or as we may know it, Higurashi ga Naku Koro Ni), The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Fate/Stay Night, Code Geass, Ergo Proxy, and many more shows from the early-to-late 2000′s.

How you’ll spot them: Sometimes with their parents. If not, exercise caution when flirting with girls at anime conventions as they may not be as mature as they look. You may find some of them offering free hugs or yelling/cheering at cars passing by out of mischief and/or boredom. The easier-to-spot of this generation are much more engaged with the North American side of the industry, so they’ll be chasing the voice actor/actress guests. The really-easy-to-spot members of this generation have tastes that don’t extend very much beyond the first three or four titles in the list above.

Conclusion

And there you have it, my analysis of the three distinct generations of anime fandom. Again, I apologize if the stereotypes are laid on thick but I assure you that they are for illustrative purposes only.  =)

I was visiting a friend who offered to show me around Koriyama city, where she was working as an ALT for the JET programme. I would need to take the bullet train from Ueno to Koriyama station and then catch a cab to get to her place. I made my way to Ueno station, luggage and all, JR train pass ready to show. As I stood in the long line-up, I practiced in my head over and over again the words I would use to ask for the ticket. It made me a bit nervous actually. Using the local lines was much easier since I could just show my pass and walk through, but here I would need to worry about setting the departure time, expressing my preference for a non-smoking car, and ensuring that I’m asking for a seat that doesn’t require extra money — JR train passes do not give access to all bullet trains or all cars within any particular train (read the terms on your pass carefully!).

When I finally got to the counter, I recited my opening line, “I’d like to buy a ticket on the shinkansen to Koriyama station.” What came next, no phrase book in the world could have prepared me for:

“It’s not running right now.”

I understood exactly what he said, but even so I was totally taken aback. After all, this was the shinkansen. What were the chances that it would be experiencing troubles on the very first day that I needed to use it during my trip? I collected myself and managed a reply.

“Do you know when it’ll be running again?”

“We don’t know when it’ll be running again.”

I thanked him and walked away dumbfounded. I had rented a mobile phone to use while I was in Japan, so I pulled that out and called my friend to let her know that I could not take the train and that I didn’t know how long the wait would be. There were many other tourists who were also confused but I decided that maybe I could get a bit more information. I looked at the sign showing arrivals and departures and found a ticker displaying a message: the line I needed to take was experiencing signal troubles between Ueno and the next station over.

Well, that’s a perfectly good reason to stop any train, especially one that travels at super-high speeds. I was getting a bit hungry so I decided to make the best of where I was and walked in to the Hard Rock Café.

Yes, there’s a Hard Rock Café at Ueno station and they’ve got all of the trappings of one too, including the classic rock memorabilia. But Japan always finds a way to do it differently. I ordered a hot dog.

I don’t think any Hard Rock Café in North America sells those. Hamburgers, yes, but not hot dogs. It seemed more like a rather thin sausage but it was still tasty. I killed a bit of time there before checking again: still no resolution to the signal troubles but it looked as though they had an estimate on when they’d be up and going again. I had a couple more hours to kill.

I gave my friend an update, put my luggage into a coin locker, and then used my pass to board a local JR line circling around the city to make a short trip to (you guessed it) Akihabara. What can I say? To a computing and anime geek like myself it’s one of Tokyo’s greatest attractions. After that, I headed back to Ueno station to try and purchase my ticket again. This time it went pretty smoothly and I was on my way to Koriyama city. I arrived without further incident.

I wonder how I would have handled that situation differently if I didn’t know as much Japanese as I now do. It’s difficult to imagine. Would I have panicked? Would I have started approaching the tourists milling about in the station with their large suitcases to ask if they knew what was going on? How much more awkward would the situation at the ticket counter have been, trying to flip through a phrase book for something that probably no book would have contained?

It was another one of those moments that made me appreciate all of the effort I have put into studying Japanese. But conversationally, I wouldn’t hit my stride until at least a couple of days later, when I took the bullet train west to Kyoto for the second half of my trip.

There are a couple of different ways to translate the title of this cute up-and-comer from the Fall 2010 anime season. Since the title is super long, I’m going to abbreviate it similarly to how I did KamiNozo and call it OreImo. However you find it and whatever it has been translated to, it is one of my top recommendations for this season.

OreImo is another series that gives a nod to the otaku in a very novel and tasteful way. As I usually do, let’s get right to the premise:

Kyousuke and his sister Kirino don’t get along very well at all and he often feels like he’s in her shadow. She gets excellent marks in school, she does part-time jobs to pay her way, she’s (usually) very polite and cheerful, and most of all she’s incredibly cute. But one day, after accidentally bumping into her in the hallway of their typical Japanese-turned-Western-style home, he finds a DVD for a magical girl anime. Even worse, he looks inside and the wrong disc is in the case — the disc seems to be a 18+ visual novel/dating sim game.

It couldn’t be hers… could it?

One day, Kyousuke catches his sister snooping around in his room. She was looking for the disc after all and very quickly snaps it away from him before storming out of the room. Unfortunately for him, that wasn’t the end of it.

In the middle of the night he’s woken up with a slap to the face. His little sister would like to talk to him about something and she hopes that he won’t judge her harshly when she’s finished. It turns out that the disc was hers and is part of a large collection that she’s been hiding in her room.

Her money from modelling jobs has been going to, among other things, anime box sets, collector edition 18+ games, figurines, manga, and light novels. Kirino is secretly an otaku! Weirder still, she seems to have a fixation for the “little sister” genre but insists that it’s just because she thinks the heroines are cute.

Kyousuke is blown away but true to his promise he doesn’t judge her harshly (though admittedly her obsession with “little sister” games does creep him out a bit). And so starts a series of episodes in which, in her own catty way, Kirino asks for guidance and advice on troubles in her “second life”. As her older brother and the only other person who knows her secret, it’s quite a burden for him. Can he bear it?

What I like about it

As I wrote above, the show once again gives otaku a nod in a very novel and tasteful way. Considering the recent deluge of “moeblobs” targeting the same market, OreImo is a breath of fresh air. The character designs are really good and Kirino is super cute. The message that otaku come from many different places is endearing and the show treats some topics regarding how society sees otaku and how they see themselves.

What I don’t like about it

I’m just as creeped out as Kyousuke is sometimes, and find myself thinking “is this really happening” every single time Kirino’s relationship with her older brother and her “little sister” games fandom are juxtaposed. The show remains tasteful but every so often it skirts the line.

In summary

Strongly recommended, particularly if you like otaku stuff but have gotten tired of moeblobs and harem shows. Unlike KamiNozo, OreImo is less focused on particular clichés and tropes of otakudom and more focused on the bigger picture.

The Fall 2010 anime season has come with a couple of very odd shows and Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt might prove to be the weirdest of the bunch. It is also not entirely what you might think it is.

Panty and Stocking are angels who have been kicked out of Heaven for behaving badly. They are put to work in Daten City, a city on the fault line between Heaven and Hell, by Reverend Garterbelt. Their job? To exorcize the “Ghosts” that occasionally terrorize the city and collect the “Heaven” coins that they drop to gain readmission to Heaven. They are joined by a small green, Invader-Zim-esque dog Chuck and get around the city in their pink Humvee, “See-Through”.

Panty is a sexy blonde with an insatiable hunger for sex. True to her name, her panties become a pistol named “Backless” (wait, what?) that fires ordinance which is very effective on Ghosts. She can get rather rude and violent when crossed, loves spicy things, and hates sweet things.

Stocking is a goth loli with long, dark hair and a pair of striped stockings that turn into two swords, named “Stripes I & II”, that slice through Ghosts like a knife through warm butter. She tends to be the more moderate, intelligent, and responsible one. She loves sweet things and hates spicy stuff.

I think this transformation sequence (WARNING: NSFW!) says pretty much all else that could be said of these sister angels. But odder still, that’s actually not typical of the animation style at all.

Panty & Stocking is what would happen if a whole bunch of people at Gainax watched the entire line-up of Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim and said “we could do that.” The series borrows and parodies a lot of clichés from Western animation and mashes them all together with Gainax’s trademark kookiness to create a unique and edgy comedy blend.

What I like about it

Just about everything. Panty & Stocking is brilliant in its execution. Gainax has basically beaten Western animation at its own game, creating an incredibly dark comedy with some racy scenes and all sorts of oddities and touches that will never fail to surprise and delight.

I refuse to say more for fear of spoiling this show. Just watch it. Really.

What I don’t like about it

It’s pretty much brain candy. There’s almost no depth to the episodic story-telling whatsoever. If you were looking for something to really make you think or evoke deep emotions, Panty & Stocking isn’t it. Look elsewhere.

Also, it does get pretty racy, which makes it somewhat difficult to show to friends whose sense of humour isn’t as dark as my own. It really isn’t for everybody, but I think that can be said of everything Gainax has ever done.

In summary

See it if only for the experience of having your mind blown in a very unique way. While not the most ridiculous thing Gainax has ever done, it’s up there.

In my other blog (which at some point was a podcast), I wrote about a particular moment in a very recent anime series that made me really appreciate that I’d taken up learning Japanese. I mentioned there that I’d be writing about the shows in the new season that I like… and then forgot about it. Well, I’ve finally seen enough of the new season that I can start writing about some of the stuff that I’ve been following.

I actually explained the premise of the show pretty well on The Japanese Learner, so I’m just going to quote it here:

The premise is that a demon in Hell lures a young boy who dubs himself “The God of Conquest” into a contract to help her exorcise “loose souls”, souls which have come up from Hell to the surface world to continue doing ill deeds by hiding in the hearts of humans. Particularly, girls.

His job is to take the place of the loose soul in their hearts by making them fall in love with him, driving the soul out so that the demon can capture it. Conveniently, the girl forgets that it happened afterward, avoiding a lot of awkwardness. (You know, because dating sims never deal with all of that icky “relationship” junk.)

Unfortunately for everyone involved, the boy has really only mastered the art of winning the hearts of girls in dating sims and his claim to notoriety is that he has played through 10,000 dating sim endings. He spends most of his days either playing dating sims on his PFP (heh), or posting advice to others on forums and by e-mail as “The God of Conquest”. He has not even so much as held a real girl’s hand in his life!

But the contract between them has already been arranged and neither can back out now; a collar on each of their necks threatens to remove their heads if they do! So to make the best of a bad situation, the boy applies what he has learned from dating sims to real love, with a little help from his demon partner.

The demon is, of course, a really cute girl with a skull accessory in her hair, a rather odd straw broom that she carries everywhere, and a fluffy ribbon that floats around her and which affords her some special powers.

What I like about it

After reading the premise, you might wonder why there has never been an anime like this before. After all, dating sim games have been a staple of Japanese video gaming for a long time. But thinking back over all of the series that I know of, I can say with confidence that this particular concept has never been done before. KamiNozo (short form of the title based on the Japanese title) scores serious points for novelty in an industry currently dominated by “moeblob” and “me-too” shows.

Not only is the premise novel but the way it is executed makes it delightfully funny. Otaku may identify slightly with the hero’s obsession with dating sim games and their various clichés and tropes, as well as a few parody references to real games thrown in for good measure (for example, a sign and poster for “LoveMinus” displayed in the background). Non-otaku can cringe and laugh at the hero’s awkwardness in being forced to apply those principles of dating sim games to real life.

It’s cute, romantic, awkward, well-animated, and makes a subtle statement about Japanese society (in particular, otaku). In short, it’s a combination of many things that I like in other series.

What I don’t like about it

The pacing confused me a bit. In the first episode, the basic elements are put in place and the hero even manages to draw out one loose soul for capture. The second episode spends half of its time on developing the relationship between the hero and demon girl and then starts a hunt for a second loose soul that isn’t completed until the end of the third episode. The fourth episode is entirely spent on an unrelated story about the hero’s obsessive quest to finish a game that everyone else has given on because of the hundreds of bugs that cause the game to glitch out and go into infinite loops.

I realized later that there are only five (?) girls excluding the demon in the credits, so it looks like they’ll all be spread out throughout the episodes.

Sometimes, watching the hero pull a rather dramatic gesture right out of a dating sim and the girl actually falling for it seems like it’s making a statement that girls are rather simplistic and shallow. In short, this series suffers from the usual subtle sexism that pervades anime aimed at a largely male demographic. However, there is considerably less fan service than a lot of shows out there, so KamiNozo manages to remain tasteful, in my opinion.

In summary

Novel concept, pretty funny, can appeal to a wide audience, but is sometimes ever-so-slightly sexist. Still, definitely a must-see for the Fall 2010 season.