Life in Japan must be tough, as all kinds of weirdness happen to the point where the odd is the norm. We are in the future (same as it ever was) and for the past 30 years, there have been these ‘spacequakes’. The original one claimed the lives of at least 150 million people. Since then, smaller spacequakes plague the world on an irregular basis.

Shido Itsuka, a seemingly ordinary high schooler (the guy with the tie) comes across a mysterious girl at Ground Zero of a spacequake, Tohka Yatogami (purple at the far right) and learns she is one of the “Spirits” who are the real cause of these spacequakes that occur whenever they manifest themselves into the world. He also learns that his sister Kotori (the red demon at the left end) is the captain of the airship Fraxinus, crewed by the organization Ratatoskr, and is recruited to make use of his mysterious ability to seal the Spirits’ powers, thus stopping them from being a threat to mankind. However, there is a catch: to seal a Spirit, he must make her fall in love with him and kiss her. Not just any kiss, but the Kiss of True Love, Ariel….I mean….never mind.

However, things do not go smoothly, as Origami Tobiichi (silver hair to Tohka’s right) is part of an elite group of fighters, known as the AST, who fight the Spirits, but end up causing more collateral damage than actually removing the threat. Now, if trying to seal a Spirit wasn’t enough, and Origami is lurking about, just itching to put a thermal slug through one of them, MORE of them show up, so Shido has to make them all of them fall in love with him without looking like he’s a player and potentially mucking things up with uncontrolled emotions from the Spirits. Yoshino (rabbit girl) isn’t much more than a child and Kurumi Tokisaki (the other in red. If her eye looks funny, it’s a clock. The show explains it and it is a plot point) arrive to make things very interesting for Shido. Think of it like juggling chainsaws. On a tightrope. Above an alligator pit.

What happens is that Shido is basically walked through his dates with these ladies, earpiece in place, and the crew of the Fraxinus play this like it was a dating sim, as they ‘select’ the best choice for him to tell to his date to make them fall in love enough for him to kiss him and allow him to seal away their powers and save the world.

The only problem is “The World God Only Knows” did this much better and less confusing. Origami, beset with revenge, will do anything to kill a Spirit, even violate a direct order not to get involved. Kotori has Spirit powers, but we don’t know HOW she really got them. And we are all actually looking for Efreet, the true instigator of the spacequakes and the power behind the power.

It’s just that this show did not know what it wanted to be. Romantic comedy? Action drama? Harem tales? Goofy parody? Searing heart-tugger? You have to make a choice and if you spread yourself all over the place, it is not going to work. Towards the end, it got rather confusing for me to follow as to who is who or what they are and what it all ultimately means. And some scenes make you question if it really is a romantic comedy. (“Mahoromatic” is billed as a romantic comedy, but there is enough tragedy and death you have you wonder what do the terms actually define).

If there is nothing really really out there that grabs your interest if you are on a hunt, you may want to go here, but it’s lukewarm at best for me.
On a scale of 1 to 10:

Artwork 8 (Nice costume design)
Plot 6 (Done better elsewhere)
Pacing 8 (Runs fast and slow)
Effectiveness 7 (Too many distractions)
Conclusion 7 (It reaches a coupler point)
Fan Service 3 (A similar show would be “Okamisan”)

Overall 7 (Needs to make the decision of what it wants to be)

And remember, it’s first run until you’ve seen it. Survey says…..answer two!