KamiKatsu: Working for God in a Godless World Review

A World Without God(s)

KamiKatsu: Working for God in a Godless World is an anime by Studio Palette that aired in the spring of 2023. I didn’t watch this series as it was airing. But, if I had, I feel like I would have liked it less.

There are some series that just aren’t as good when you have to wait a week between episodes. And KamiKatsu seems to be one of them.

But, what’s KamiKatsu all about, anyway? It’s about re-establishing religion in a world without gods.

Protagonist Yukito Urabe grew up in a religious cult led by his father. Then, one day, his father tied him up and tossed him into the ocean as a sign of his devotion to their sect’s god. Naturally, their god would save Yukito if he was meant to live.

As Yukito was drowning, he wished to live in a world free from religion. Living in the cult had never benefited him in any way. And, in fact, it only made his life more difficult. So, he wanted to finally be free from all of that nonsense. And, as luck would have it, his wish came true.

Yukito awoke in an unfamiliar land with strange beasts and no concept of gods or religion. However, he soon found out that religion does serve some important societal functions. Well, at least within certain circumstances. You know, like in a world ruled by a dictator who forces population control on the people.

And, wouldn’t you know, that’s exactly the kind of world Yukito finds himself in. So, to fight back against tyranny and “voluntary” executions, Yukito develops a cult of his own. And their object of worship is none other than Mitama-sama(chan), the god of his father’s cult.

I Wouldn’t Mind Joining this Cult

The best part of KamiKatsu is the female characters. I don’t really care about the goddess Mitama. But, Alural, Siluril, Atar, Dakini, and Bertrand (female) are all good. Then, there are lesser characters who are still good, like Riche and Gaia.

The wildest thing about KamiKatsu is that it actually has recognizable voice actors. For example, Kana Hanazawa voices Alural “Al”, the female lead (ignoring Mitama). Alural is the villager who first finds Yukito when he appears in their godless world. And, along with her older sister, Siluril, she’s one of Mitama’s first followers.

Siluril “Sil” is the owner of the only eatery (pub) in the village. She has a bit of an obsession with her younger sister, Al. But, not in the way you might be thinking. Sil’s obsessed with pushing Al into lewd scenarios, often also involving Yukito.

The next VA I recognized was Aoi Yuuki, who voices Atar. Atar is one of the Archons, artificial beings who want to become the new gods of this godless world. However, Atar is a bit different from the other Archons. She doesn’t want to become a god and instead wants to go back to the rule of the Empire.

Dakini is another Archon and has the most surprising VA of all, Rie Takahashi. What makes Rie voicing Dakini so strange to me is the kind of character Dakini is. She’s the leader of a sex cult, which is very different from the majority of Rie’s roles.

Lastly, there’s Bertrand, who started off the series as a male knight of the Empire. But, the main antagonist, Loki, turned Bertrand into a hot girl. And, I have to say I prefer Bertrand’s new form. Eventually, Bertrand the female knight allies with Yukito and Mitama.

If Only the Art Was Good

At times, KamiKatsu is pretty funny. And, overall, it’s an entertaining show. But, it has one major flaw: The art. If you watch this series, you’ll notice it pretty quickly. The art just doesn’t look all that good a lot of the time.

Of course, the most obvious example of this comes from the strange beasts. Every strange beast in the series is animated using horrendous 3D CGI. They all look terrible. But, I’m still not sure if that’s on purpose or not. You could argue it’s supposed to be that way because it’s funnier.

However, I’ve also seen a lot of other isekai anime with similar 3D CGI monsters. And in those series, the bad CGI isn’t supposed to be funny. So, it could go either way here. But, the CGI isn’t the only bad art in KamiKatsu.

The normal art in the series also isn’t great. But, at times, it looks extra bad. Sometimes, it appears low-resolution for no reason. It’s as if we’re seeing a zoomed-in version of the original scene. And instead of redrawing it, they just blew it up, instead.

And, other times, the characters aren’t drawn as well as they usually are. There’s no real rhyme or reason to it, either. Sometimes the characters look weird, and sometimes they look fine. Though, there were some characters I didn’t notice this happening to. For example, I can’t think of a single time when Dakini looked bad.

That could be because Dakini’s supposed to be hot all the time. But, I did notice this poor art affecting Al pretty often. A drop in animation quality (or animation altogether) also usually accompanied this art. Though, I’ll say again that this may have all been intentional.

Conclusion

KamiKatsu: Working for God in a Godless World is a pretty good anime. It’s a 6/10 for me. And, if it looked better, it would have been a 7. But, I don’t see it being rated any higher than that. Also, the series doesn’t end with this season. However, I doubt it’ll get a sequel.

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