Review: Kamisama Dolls

Episode Reviewed In: Episode 104
Alternate Titles: None
Original Japanese Release Date: Summer 2011
Episode Length/Run-time: 12 Episodes
Summary:
Kamisama Dolls is the story of Kuga Kyouhei who moves to Tokyo to get away from his old hometown village.  The village has a history of creating and managing these “gods” called Kakashi and those who control these Kakashi are called Seki.  The town has a dark history and is very controlling of it’s villagers.  Think the village, Hinamizawa, from Higurashi.  It’s very similar to that.  Kyouhei leaves the village and abandons his role as a Seki after an unfortunate turn of events that leave many of the villagers dead.  Soon afterwards, a Seki and old friend of Kyouhei, Aki, whom was imprisoned within the village after the event, escapes and goes to Tokyo to find Kyouhei.  Soon after this, Utao leaves the village, and commanding Kyouhei’s old Kakashi, seeks to bring Aki back to the village.  He is apparently very dangerous.

Review:
This anime is directed by Seiji Kishi who was the director of the recent Angel Beats.  The production is done by Brain’s Base.  I’m not quite sure what else to say about the creation about the show.  The animation and art seemed pretty standard for current day anime and the show had good intro and outro themes, but that really isn’t the responsibility of the production team.

Kamisama Dolls isn’t a bad anime.  The action sequences, which always involve battles between two different Kakashi are sometimes pretty interesting and at times the story can be fairly intriguing.  The best part of the entire series are the couple of episodes that occur somewhere in the middle, where they give the back story about the events in the village.  To be honest, most of the present day events aren’t nearly as interesting.  There are a few moe type gags, some shallow love triangle action, a filler episode or two, and all in all the storyline of the present day events really does not amount to much.  It seems to have a difficult time finding direction. In summary, as far as the story goes, the back story gets a thumbs up, and the present action is just so-so.

The main issue that this anime has are the “mecha”, the Kakashi.  I felt that the designs of the Kakashi were not very interesting and unfortunately, they always make a really obnoxious singing noise which just drove me crazy.  Each Kakashi has it’s own unique tune that it sings and each is equally annoying.  They do it…all…the…time…

I sort of give this anime a pass, despite its actual plotline having not much direction because it was clear at the end that there will be a second season, which I assume will continue the story and hopefully get it moving.  I would cautiously recommend this anime to people who like sci-fi series and like some light “mecha” battles.