Based on a popular manga comic, this enjoyable fantasy-comedy centers on a cute emissary from Hell named Elsie, who arrives on Earth to retrieve runaway evil spirits (aka “lost souls”) that are concealed in young women. Only a host's act of falling in love will expel an invader, so Elsie forms a (mutually destructive) pact with schoolboy Keima Katsuragi to get girls to fall for him. Keima is supposedly a great lover, the “god of conquest,” but his mad Casanova skills actually hail from “dating sims” video games. Forced to use romance-game strategies in real life, the confident hero courts issue-ridden females—an insecure pop idol, a tough martial-artist, a stereotypically timid librarian (whose lengthy inner monologues about her love for books are fantastic PSAs for public libraries). Conveniently, the girls lose their memories of romance after the lost souls depart, but during the lengthy 40-episode narrative arc some heroines return for additional heartache. Two adventures here play with gender-switching, as Keima finds himself in the body of a would-be female conquest, and later cross-dresses for a mission, and a finale raises the stakes, with kidnapped goddesses, a wedding, and a conflict to alter Hell itself. Compiling all 36 episodes from 2010-13 along with four OVAs in separate dual-language DVD and Blu-ray editions, rated TV-14, extras include music videos. Recommended. (C. Cassady)
The World God Only Knows: Ultimate Collection
(2010) 1,000 min. DVD: 10 discs, $79.98; Blu-ray: 7 discs, $99.98. Sentai Filmworks (avail. from most distributors). Volume 32, Issue 2
The World God Only Knows: Ultimate Collection
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