cfay - 2015-08-05 20:37:20

Hey it's Jamie38459 again. Well let's cut to the chase and not use any lengthy description, since I know you guys will probably want to know what I think of the show, so without further ado, let's get started...

Story: Nekogami Yaoyorozu is a story about a Cat God named Mayu who has been stripped of her rank and powers and banished from Takamagahara to live on Earth for illegal gambling. She ends up living in an antique shop called Yaoyorozudou with a girl called Yuzu. The story revolves around the various antics the two get up to as they meet with various other gods and creatures from Japanese Mythology. (Source: Wikipedia)

When I first heard about this premise (and the reason I hadn't seen this show a long while ago), I was a little worried it would be one of those anime. You know the ones, the ones where the main character (human or not, who is also 'abnormal') annoys or bothers the other main character (who is supposedly 'serious') for a weird reason or no reason at all, said MC gets annoyed at first but slowly warms up to the other main because... reasons. I don't hate the formula as much as other clichés, but I'm still not a fan of it as its usually predictable and dull.

After watching it however, it seemed like it was going to go that part at first, but it turned out to be a lot more than I anticipated. It wasn't a lot, but for what I thought the show would be, its actually quite impressive. Basically, 80% of the show centers around the comedic slice of life aspects of the gods and the adventures they have in the human world alongside Yuzu, the girl who works at the antique shop.

While on paper, some of the stuff sounds pretty generic like a beach episode and an episode focusing on creating manga, they're actually quite creative and unique in how they present them in execution, making them memorable and standing out from other interpretations I've seen from other anime that do them. Now granted, the comedy is pretty stale and repetitive, which I'll get to later when talking about the characters, but the slice of life stuff and random stuff that happens in this do more than make up for it. Though some episodes are better than other.

Believe it or not, there is some actual drama and development in this, mostly regarding the human girl Yuzu and her backstory of how she came to be working by herself at the antique shop. It's not super depressing, but it's hard to not feel sorry for her with how they tackle it. The show also explores how she and Mayu first met and its not as bad as I thought it'd be, it could have been done better, but I thought it was a pretty good way to put that in, especially since the first episode doesn't do much in explaining a whole lot.

There are some cliffhangers at the end of some episodes, but with the exception of the last three episodes, they comprise of introducing new characters and plot events for the next episode, it's really nothing major. Episodes 10-12 on the other hand have some pretty big cliffhangers and events (which I won't give away that makes in exciting and you want to know what happens next, there's even some great buildup in the last episode which might lead to an epic final battle and I was honestly thinking of raising my rating for this show... up until I saw the ending. I'll won't give away what happens but I will say this: It seems to start a big climax but ends with a cop-out and also doesn't fully resolve some things. How do you do that?

Oh well, the ending may be lame and underwhelming, but I still thoroughly enjoyed the story nonetheless.

Animation: The animation in the opening promises what you get in the show, but some events are a lot different than in the actual show. The one in the ending sequence are mostly still images with different expressions. The background designs are nothing special, even Mayu's world is a typical god-like world... pun entirely unintended. The animation is alright, the expressions are a bit weird but are fairly amusing nonetheless (honestly I feel its done here better than Plastic Elder Sister, which I still think is overrated btw).

Sound: Clap, clap, clap let us talk. Clap, clap, clap about the songs.

The opening song is preppy with some cute lyrics, though I think the animation's more memorable than the actual song aside from the beginning. The ending song is also camp, but is a bit more somber, but not to the point where its a sad song or anything, but more uplifting than anything. Not bad songs but not fantastic either. And the lyrics can be questionable at times... 'Baby oh my god!'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8qfio5JioU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9Q4hpx3_0w

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to talk about the voice acting! The majority of them are good, but some of them are really bad and will take a lot to get used to, even fewer where they don't show up much but have super obnoxious voices that you can't get used to and will hurt your ears too :x

Characters: Now for the characters, starting with Mayu. Like I said I was worried about her when I first started watching this, she appears to be lazy, likes to tease others, and plays video games almost all day. She also has a gambling addiction which got her kicked out Takamagahara and stripped of her divine powers by her mother.

Despite all that, I surprisingly found that she is very competent when she needs to be and is genuinely caring of others both her friends and of other things there besides resulting her in being well loved by the people of her town. She could have been an annoying creep but they made her very likeable.

Yuzu is also pretty good. I already talked about her backstory, but her personality outside of that is actually good. I honestly thought for this type of anime that they'd make her a serious tsundere, but thankfully they didn't. Yuzu is very positive and all the gods like her. She rarely gets angry, but when she does she gets a little scary. Even though she doesn't like Mayu's annoying attitude, she still cares about her.

Now to talk about the other characters, and here's where the character cast starts to falter. Remember what I said when the comedy is not so great? Well this applies here. There not bad, but they don't leave much of an impact either. Sasana is Mayu's childhood friend and is also her fiancé while Meiko is the spoiled sweet rich girl. They both hate each other and love Mayu a lot and will usually fight over her. And that's there entire shtick.

Gonta is a young Fox God in charge of caring for the town's wealth and prosperity. He has a major crush on Yuzu and is something of pervert spending much of his time daydreaming about her. Due to being extremely headstrong he is also willing to go as far as fighting typhoons in futility for his infatuation but is incapable of expressing his feelings even when circumstances don't conspire to thwart him.

He enjoys antagonizing Mayu mostly out of jealousy over her closeness to Yuzu and his belief that Mayu is impending him. That's his personality. Riveting huh?

Shamo is the quiet one, Yoshino is the clumsy weak one, and the others are all pretty forgettable, which is sad cause of the missed opportunities some of the characters could have had, like with Mayu's parents and Lady Amaterasu.

Enjoyment: I enjoyed this way more than I thought, it might not have been much but from what we could have gotten, I was pleasantly surprised by what I actually got. If you want to watch a show simple like this and don't mind getting a lame ending, then you'll probably like it fine.

Overall: The Everyday Lives Of A Cat God is a very lively and god-like anime unlike any other I've seen from the genre, making it an underrated and surprise gem, I recommend it c:

Pros: The drama and development is great, thankfully isn't as clichéd as I thought with its premise, likeable main characters, interesting take on certain episodes, nice music.

Cons: Not-so great side characters, cute but weird lyrics, ending is a super lame cop-out, voice acting on some characters is obnoxious, animation is mediocre at best.

Also recommend: Place To Place, Show By Rock (for anime with 'cat girls'), Okami-san (for some good drama and development like this), Haitai Nanafa season 1 (similar premise but is shorter), and Ah My Goddess might also be a good one with a girl god in it.

Thanks for reading my 91st review~