The Day I Became a God

The Day I Became a God

The Day I Became a God anime series cover art
The Day I Became a God

Series Overview

The Day I Became a God (Kamisama ni Natta Hi / 神様になった日) is an original drama anime by P.A. Works. I haven’t actually seen many anime by P.A. Works, but from what I have seen, the best comparison I can make to this series is Angel Beats! It has the same basic structure.

So, what is that structure? For the first half or two-thirds of the series, The Day I Became a God is effectively an episodic comedy. This portion of the series follows the wacky “adventures” of Youta and Hina, a girl who claims to be a god with omnipotence.

These “adventures” include things such as having Youta save a failing ramen shop or even winning a high-level mahjong tournament. Normally, Youta would never be able to do these things. But with Hina’s help, he’s able to accomplish the seemingly impossible.

The end of the series swaps from comedy to drama. I’m not going to spoil the drama portion of the series (yet), but I do think it’s worth looking at why this swap occurs. Basically, the first part of the series is meant to make you like the characters so that the drama at the end hits you even harder.

I think this swap to drama worked very well in Angel Beats! However, I don’t think it worked very well in The Day I Became a God. The reason for this is that in The Day I Became a God, there wasn’t really a goal for the first part of the series.

In Angels Beats!, the characters were fighting for their survival, so all of their actions at the start of the series had a purpose. This time around, Hina is just kind of doing whatever she wants and also sometimes attempting to help Youta impress his crush. This lack of a purpose makes these episodes feel extra “filler-y.”

Main Characters

Youta Narukami is just your average high school student. He has some friends, has a crush on a girl he’s known since they were kids, plays on the school basketball team, and studies for entrance exams. So when I say he’s an average high school student, I mean a normal one. He’s not a friendless loser like many anime protagonists.

Hina Satou is a younger (relative to Youta) girl who dresses in sister’s robes. There’s probably an official name for that outfit, but I don’t know what it is. Anyway, Hina’s age is never actually given, but she’s small and energetic, so she’s probably a middle schooler.

What makes Hina unique is something I’ve already touched on — her insistence that she’s a god with omnipotence. By using her omnipotence, she knows that the world is going to end soon. But is Hina really telling the truth? Or is she just a kid who’s playing make-believe? You’ll have to watch the anime to find out.

Hina Satou from the anime series The Day I Became a God
Hina Satou

Kyouko Izanami is Youta’s childhood friend and crush. She’s a kuudere character — meaning that she’s quite and seems unapproachable, but is actually very nice once you talk to her. There’s not much more to say about her though, which is one problem with this series.

Sora Narukami is Youta’s younger sister as well as the best character by default due to that distinction. I think Sora is supposed to be in middle school, but she could also be a first-year high school student. She’s interested in directing movies and says “like” a lot.

And the last character I’ll mention is Hiroto Suzuki. Hiroto is a high-school-aged expert hacker who works for some sort of shady tech company. He doesn’t really have a purpose in the series, which is why I wanted to mention him. He’s an example of a character that’s added for no real reason aside from causing a bit of drama.

Does it Deserve the Hate?

Even if you haven’t seen The Day I Became a God, you may have heard about the backlash it received from Japanese and international fans alike. In fact, it got so bad that the creator, Jun Maeda, deleted his Twitter account and hasn’t been seen or heard from since.

So, does this series deserve all the hate it gets? Honestly, I don’t think so. There are a lot of really bad anime that come out each year that don’t get nearly as much hate as this series has. And considering I think it’s only a bit below average, I don’t really see why this one series in particular got attacked as much as it did.

From my understanding, a large portion of the hate comes from (spoilers incoming) the fact that Youta and Hina’s relationship is revealed to be a romantic one at the end. I get it, Hina is a child, and at the end of the series she’s mentally handicapped as well, so it’s odd for this high-schooler to love her in that way.

But I don’t see how that potential relationship being revealed deserves this much hate. There are so many other anime that have similar or worse relationships and nobody bats an eye.

Hina and Youta from the anime series The Day I Became a God
Hina and Youta

Now, what I do think this anime deserves is for the community to express what’s really wrong with it. I don’t care about Youta and Hina’s relationship. I think the series is bad because it has uninspired characters and a plot that barely matters at all.

Every character aside from Youta and Hina is one-dimensional, such as Izanami. And then there’s the whole plotline with Hiroto that makes no sense. He’s a genius who hacks into the mainframe of Hina’s brain chip for an evil corporation so that they can turn her into a vegetable because they’re afraid of her power. It makes no sense.

Call The Day I Became a God bad because it has poor character and plot writing. But don’t attack the creator because he included a relationship you don’t like.

Conclusion

I was originally going to give The Day I Became a God a 5, but as I was writing this review, I decided that it actually deserves a 4/10. It looks pretty and is sometimes enjoyable to watch. But the characters are bad, the story doesn’t really make sense, and the emotional aspects just didn’t hit.

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