Fall 2020 Anime: The Day I Became a God

Synopsis

While playing basketball in hot summer days, Youta Narukami meets a strange girl who dubbed herself as a god named “Odin”. Of course, Youta didn’t believe it at first. However, the girl correctly predicts many things, from the weather, traffic jam, to the winning horse in the horse race. Other than that, the girl also made a bold statement: in 30 days, the world will meet its end and there’s nothing they can do. What does she even mean?

Comments

Jun Maeda is clearly someone who needs no introduction. For those who don’t know him yet, though, he is a writer whose writing style is notorious because they share many similarities. The most famous one is probably his affinity for baseball scenes. It always happens in his anime, even though it sometimes feels unnatural in the overall narrative. His narrative structure also shares similar beats. His stories usually start as a normal, lighthearted series before a specific event happens (usually foreshadowed in the early episode) and the story turns into a melodrama that involves death. It’s not that it’s bad. In fact, some visual novel creators cite his works in KEY’s visual novel as influence (Including Higurashi‘s writer Ryushiki07). It’s just when many similar things happen in multiple stories, some people can’t help but to notice and make fun of them.

So rather than its writing, let’s focus on The Day I Became a God’s other defining aspect. One of the things that I notice from the first episode is that it’s extremely funny. Most of the jokes come from the banter between the two main leads. Yota and Odin (aka Hina)’s dialogues are really entertaining and thanks to superb editing, those jokes land really hard. Personally, I think The Day I Became a God could be one of the best comedies this season.

The other aspect that stands out is the visual design. P.A Works is known for creating anime with stunning visuals and The Day I Became God clearly shows that. The character animation is great (which also helps elevate its comedy). Background arts are superb and the CG blends really well in the environment. At first, I thought that Kazuki Higashiji, the art director who works for P.A Works in many of their projects, is involved in this project again after last collaborating with them in Lull of the Sea. But it turns out that the art director is Kurumi Suzuki who previously works for P.A works in Irozuku Sekai no Ashita. Honestly, The Day I Became God won’t disappoint you if you’re looking for eye-candy visual.

In the end, it’s still a Jun Maeda’s anime so the end result could probably be divisive. I remember the early episodes of Charlotte was received well by fans before Maeda’s usual mood switch turned that good reception into bad reviews. Many also remember Angel Beats! as a lovable series but I know some people hate it for its inconsistent dramatic tension. Really, Jun Maeda’s anime could be the reminder of why we shouldn’t treat the first impression as gospel. I still recommend this anime for its superb comedy. Just remember that The Day I Became a God probably still has something hidden in its sleeves.

Facts and Figures

Screenshots and Trailer

The Indonesian Anime Times