Fall 2020 The Day I Became a God Discussion Thread

[Buckeye]

神様になった日

A show from Jun Maeda about a girl who has predicted the end of the world, setting the stage for an emotional roller coaster Key is known for.

Airs: Saturday, October 10, 2020

Studio: P.A. Works

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At the end of the last summer vacation of high school, Youta Narukami spends his days preparing for the university entrance exams, when a young girl named Hina suddenly appears, proclaiming herself as the "god of omniscience." Youta is confused and does not believe Hina when she tells him "The world will end in 30 days." After witnessing Hina's God-like predictive ability, Youta begins to believe her powers are real. Hina, who is innocent and childlike despite her supernatural powers, decides for some reason to stay at Youta's home. Thus begins the start of their lively summer before the end of the world.

Notes
As usual, please try to follow these two easy forum courtesy habits when replying:
1) If you're the first person to post about an episode in any given week, please indicate in the first line which episode you're posting about.
2) If someone has already posted about an episode before you, please quote that post (or a relevant reply to that post), or include the episode title in the first line. ("Re: Episode 1") Just make sure the episode is indicated.

For more guidelines please refer to this thread.

[Buckeye]

Episode 1

The end is near?

And it starts off with the obligatory baseball part that's a fixture in all Jun Maeda productions, though I didn't think it would happen this soon since Yota is a basketball player. But in order to get the girl he loves with only 30 days to live, he will have to show what he can do on the diamond. Hina's prophecies are right on the money with that pitch sequence, except that he didn't anticipate the umpire calling a borderline pitch a strike instead of a ball. Nevertheless, Hina is quite the loudmouth there as when she gets mad, she goes all-out and doesn't hold back. As for this world ending in 30 days, that's not exactly something anybody can take seriously, but seeing as she is a god the she knows something is up. Great way to start off this Key visual show as it starts out pretty lighthearted, but it should get all touchy, feely, and emotional pretty soon.

[Buckeye]

Episode 2

She's way out of his league.

As typical for a Jun Maeda show, there's a lot of hilariousness before things get super serious, and that's what is happening as for the most part, it's all about Yota desperate to fall in love with Inazaki, but she's out of reach no matter what Yota might do. And Hina decides to freeload at Yota's place, and while Yota's not so receptive of the idea, his family most definitely is. So a week after first meeting, things suddenly get serious there at the end, and it looks like things are going to be quite different in typical Key fashion.

[Buckeye]

Episode 3

Rethinking ramen.

Sora ends up collapsing after working at the ramen shop run by Hikari's family as the shop is behind on the rent, and with Hikari's mother feeling ill, Hikari needs to step in and keep the shop going to make ends meet, and she's really struggling. So Yota drops in pretending to be Sora's uncle to relay the information Hina told him about how to make the perfect ramen recipe needed to help get the restaurant trending, and it works as business is booming. And then there's the loan shark out to collect the exorbitant inyrtrdy and with the steps outlined, Yota manages to beat that guy into submission. Another amusing episode there as Hina is showing further proof that she is a god. But it looks like things are about to change with Suzuki entering the show and works for some corporate bigwigs who are up to something. It continues to be right in-line with something that Jun Kaeda typically does.

[Buckeye]

Episode 4

This is how a god plays mahjong.

More silly stuff here as Yota is forcefully entered into a mahjong tournament, and not only that but he has become an internet sensation, or at least his name is as Hina has been the one dominating the web. The hope is for Yota to get all lovey dovey with the mahjong superstar Kako Tengan, but that never really had a chance. Since Hina knew exactly what was coming that he hands Yota a script to follow, and just when it looked like he was going to finish in a distant last, he makes a huge comeback in the last round with a high-scoring hand that's incredibly difficult for anybody to pull off. Pretty funny stuff once again as this show is still in the lighthearted stage, though it shouldn't be too long before all the serious stuff happens seeing that the counter is ticking ever so close to the day of reckoning.

[Buckeye]

Episode 5

Believe in magic.

So after the first four episodes went the comedy route, this one goes the more emotional one that is typical for a Jun Maeda production, albeit not an all-out barrage that usually happens late, all while it still manages to sneak some bits of comedy in. This episode focuses on the Izanami family as they used to be a happy family, but everything changed when Kyoko's mother passed away and ever since then, Izanami doesn't smile while her father became a shut-in. But with a phone call from her mother in the afterlife made possible by Hina's god powers, and a pre-recorded video that Kyoko never saw until now about her researching magic, and those two are feeling better again. It's no wonder why Izanami seemed disinterested, but it's easy to see why.

[Buckeye]

Episode 6

Enjoy it while it lasts.

Summer just wouldn't be complete without the festival, and Hina wants to badly go to it even though she's still in her nun outfit rather than a yukata. The games there are just hilarious, especially the goldfish scooping one. And then Hina gets lost looking for a place to cool down, though being taken for a ride in a fridge truck wasn't exactly her idea of cooling down. It's a great thing Yota is resourceful or else Hina would have frozen to death. More fun that was, though with nine days left the big doomsday stuff is coming.

[Buckeye]

Episode 7

Lights, camera, world end!

And the silliness continues as Sora has completed her script as she's aspiring to become a movie director. While she has talent, unfortunately she doesn't have the actors as Yota and Hina are totally incompetent, and it doesn't help that Hina's singing is atrociously funny. But the movie does get made, and it looks like things are going to get serious next time that's in-line with Jun Maeda's style of storywriting as Hiroto nearly became recycled scraps trying to retrieve that memento that was taken out of the burned house and about to be recycled, and among the stuff he barely saved is a picture of Hina. Something big is about to go down, but it has been putting things off as stuff happening in the background.

[Buckeye]

Episode 8

Living the dream life.

And now, the truth about Hina is revealed as she's actually a girl diagnosed with Logos Syndrome, for where there is no treatment for. So that explains why her parents were shocked to see Hina appear the way she is. So it looks like the end of the world Hina was talking about is only the end of her world and when time is up, she will revert to the ill girl she was previously. Her father is a doctor, and has been trying to find a cure. It came later than I would have liked, but the cruel twist of fate that Jun Maeda is known for is finally happening.

[Buckeye]

Episode 9

The world ends with her.

A lot gets revealed here as the reason why Hina is acting as if nothing is wrong is because of a quantum chip that her grandfather puts into her brain. But its effects end soon, and thus the end of the world. Hina's world, that is. Why is Hina staying with Yota's family? That's because Yota's parents used to work under Hina's grandfather, a scientist who was doing everything he can to put an end to Logos Syndrome. Then there's Hiroto, and he's somebody who had the misfortune of having highly abusive parents and he had them killed. Then comes the big moment in the end as Yota confesses his love for Hina, but Hina gets taken away by the megacorporation. That was typical for something out of Jun Maeda as I was waiting for a moment like this that seemingly wasn't coming.

[Buckeye]

Episode 10

As time goes by...

Now that Hina has been taken away and that Hina's world is the said world that was coming to an end, it's back to daily life as Yota starts up school again, and then studies for entrance exams, all while things are just not the same as before. But then Hiroto transfers into school and it's to test Yota to see what the situation is, and he comes to the right conclusion that Hiroto killed the deity inside Hina. And as a reward, he takes Yota to see her during a busy time, and Hina was taken to a sanatorium as she's back to being the sickly girl she was before experiencing god mode for 30 days. And on top of that, Hina has become fearful of men. Quite a shock that was to come see her again only to find her this way.

[Buckeye]

Episode 11

That's why they play the games.

And now, Yota is trying to reach out to Hina through video games seeing that her godly self played like there's no tomorrow. Initially it looked like it was only adding fuel to the fire, but eventually Yota came up with the idea to level up this game that looks suspiciously similar to Dragon Quest, and she's starting to recall her time with Yota. Just when it looked like things were starting to look up, all of the sudden Yota is being kicked out of the facility even though he was promised that he could stay a bit longer. Seeing Hina in that state is depressing, but now Yota has bigger problems to deal with. One more episode left to go.

[Buckeye]

Episode 12 (Finale)

That's proof of her existence.

Just when it looked like Yota's trip was all for naught, at the last possible moment Hina calls Yota out by name, and as such she's brought back, although her old self that Yota knew during the summer will never come back. With Hina returning, the movie finally gets finished and is shown. So in all, Yota at least brought Hina back, though he will have to settle for the real version rather than the god. It didn't quite stick the ending there, but at least it was emotional. Not what I was hoping for from a Jun Maeda production, but at least it had the pieces in place that just weren't put together in the best of ways. Definitely nowhere as good as Angel Beats, and Charlotte is at least a better show that covers all the bases in the story, but at least it had some great moments even if the whole is less than the sum of its parts.

Overall, this show had all the makings of another great Key Visual show with nice animation, hilarious comedy, interesting characters, and emotional drama. However, the way this whole thing was put together was simply mishandled as the show's comedy parts dragged on way too long and that did not leave enough time for the serious stuff that defines a Jun Maeda production. In particular, not enough time was spent on this mysterious organization that is up to something big, and as a result the show ends up not being as fulfilling as it should, all while it spends time on pointless stuff like the mahjong tournament and the summer festival. So in all, the individual pieces were in place, but dragging the story is where things run into problems making this show a disappointment.

MAL Rating: