Kamisama no Memo-chou

[corocoro]

SERIES INFORMATION​

Original Name: 神様のメモ帳
Alternative Name: Kami-sama no Memo-chou, It's the Only NEET Thing to Do, Notepad of God
Categories: Detective, Mystery
Producer: J.C. Staff

SUMMARY
Narumi Fujishima is a plain high school boy, who has been isolated in the class. His classmate, Ayaka Shinozaki, invites Narumi to the gardening club and introduces a hikikomori detective named Alice to him.

Alice hires Narumi as an assistant to solve mysterious cases involving an illegal drug "Angel Fix". But the drug entraps Ayaka into danger.


My Opinion:
Gothic + NEETs = awesome. That actually sums it up pretty well. :P​

 

[Kou]

Spoiler: episode 1

The first episode is anime original, but it was based on an outline written by the original author of the novels.

First, when I think of "JC Staff style" fail. I don't think of one fail moment in two episodes. I think of frequent fail moments.

Second, I got the impression there might have been a bit more care put into this scene than the average violent retribution for accidental infringement scene. That's because unlike many of these situations, Alice's reaction actually makes sense if you make one assumption: she's not getting mad at him just for being in the room when the other girl started stripping her. The way I see it, its very possible that Alice thinks he intentionally stuck around to watch, in which case her being angry with him is far more understandable.

In other words, even in its flawed moments this show is showing itself to be superior to many of its JC Staff brethen.

At one point I thought the show felt more Brains Base than JC Staff, then I realized that's largely because of similarities with Durarara and Denpa Teki na Kanojo.

As for general thoughts on the show, I loved it. It fixed some of the things that have bugged me about Gosick:
-The mysteries and clues here seem sensible and down to earth, which I prefer to the rather hammy and over the top cases and clues in Gosick.
-Alice comes across as more sophisticated and less shrill than Victorique.

I also like the Durarara-esque atmosphere in general.

 

[Terumi]

Spoiler: episode 1

finally had time to sit out 1 hour for this premise. i have gotta say its boring at certain parts, but definitely entertaining overall.

Yes, i panic'ed when i saw JC Staff, rememebering all the evident past failures *cough*aria*cough*

NEETs. wow? i mean, the show definitely has promise. with a badly over-common protaganist who doesnt wanna get involved in anything, we have some crazy neets in town, in particular our neet detective Alice. straight-off her language, i was getting the victorique vibes, but thankfully she is not anything like her. she has some attitude problems, but thats probably fix-able soon enough. fridge full of one drink, sounds pretty similar to a certain protaganist in chaos;head.

detective neet in modern world? looks and sounds nice, especially when they are not doing something out of the world, using perfect logic and reasoning to reach a conclusion. ny fav of the neet should be the 4th right now, with his antics over alice and a certain fake gangster air around him. probably just another imocon who wanna protects alice in some sense, but he is entertaining enough.

so, ya, definitely keeping on with the show

 

[Kou]

I hope they go back to the novels after this >_>.

 

[Kou]

Spoiler: episode 2

A quite nice second episode indeed, enjoyed it more than the previous one (which was already good, so this was even better). Unlike the first episode, events didn't feel draggy at any point and the case, while typical enough overall, works quite well for the show.

I am a bit surprised about how far out Alice is willing to stretch her neck though, they are dabbling in some pretty serious business this time around. Searching for a missing schoolgirl is one thing, but searching for a guy who took off with 300 million worth of Yakuza money, while keeping said money inside your own house, is on a somewhat different scale of dangerous. Obviously they will come out just fine in the end, but I am surprised no one from the group seemed to realize (or care?) about the potential perils of this case. I mean, appearances aside, they are still just kids who wouldn't be able to do much if the Yakuza came knocking.

That aside, it will be interesting to see how the case pans out, and what shape Meo's father is found in. I'm sure there has been some 'questioning' regarding the whereabouts of the money after all.

But yeah, a good episode overall and an improvement over the first one in terms of pacing. I could do with less of Alice's reminders that she is a NEET detective, not a detective, as if that's something worth pointing out on every chance.

Pls bare with Narumi, he is very passive for now and since they skipped volume one, his background and thoughts are skipped, but when he finally does something, it will be quite epic.

 

[Kou]

Spoiler: episode 3

One of the things I liked about Episode 03 is that the Yakuza in this episode and even the previous one actually kind of behave somewhat like real Yakuza. In particular the one obvious goon squad leader that enforces his own guy for trying to start a fight with the manish girl that runs the Ramen shop.

Real Yakuza tend to frown upon members that use violence at random since it attracts unwanted attention to the group and gets cops breathing down their necks really fast. They'll use almost any method of intimidation in the book to get what they want, but they usually stop short of outright violence unless the boss gives his approval like the boss of this group eventually gave in this episode. Usually much like the Mafia it's the threat of violence though more than anything that keeps people in check.

Anyway once again Yondaime stole this episode for me. If Alice is like the Yang-Wen-Li improbable planner of this show then he's like her Walter Von Schenkopp. Just a game breaking badass fighter that you can send out to finish the job when shit his the fan. In particular I liked the scene where he just shows up suddenly ramming the Yakuza car and then there's just brawling everywhere and then everything is good and safe.

And now Narumi has joined the secret bros club for men by taking part in their bromantic ritual. Results were immediate too since not only did he take a stray punch like a champ, but the end of the episode lame gag in Alice's room slid off of his newfound courage and manliness and right onto Alice.

Probably the best episode of the series so far or at least as good as the first one.

 

[Kou]

Spoiler: episode 4

Hmmm, it wasn't as lighthearted as I had thought, but it wasn't as dramatic as I had thought either. I suppose they should just pick lighthearted and run wild with it.

I suppose my favorite scenes were anytime Alice was flustered by either Min manhandling her like one of her own plushie toy, or the 'ideal gift' at the end of the episode where the NEETs screwed over Narumi one last time... Speaking of which, they seem more than certain Narumi would inherit this joint in the future

While it was kinda filler, Min-san's moment with her dad at the end was nice. It's those little human moments that make the show, for me.

Next week- who killed poor teddy bear?

 

[Kou]

Spoiler: episode 5

Loved all the bromance. For a quiet high school dude who's going with the flow, Narumi sure is competent. Checking clubs out, creating a website, meeting people, getting random dudes out of a pinch, doing Alice's housework, getting her panties in a bunch like a pro, being generally useful. Alice chose her assistant wisely. Too bad he's not hers alone anymore. She's gotta compete with the 4th and Renji!

Aside from that, I got to give Narumi credit for not having to go through the "I wonder why she's angry?" routine that alot of guys seem to have to go through- Narumi just jump right into that issue like a Wolf on a Capybara, even Alice was caught off guard- She probably thought she would have to wait till next episode for Narumi to figure it out.

And by the way, if you interpret the preview for the next episode with sufficient BL goggles, you can totally tell it's going to be about the 4th and Renji fighting over Narumi! The 4th will be threatening Narumi not to get close to Renji like a violent tsundere while Renji will try to steal his heart like a shoujo manga bad boy! And there will be angst on Narumi's part as he finds out the two handsome men after him had a "history"!

 

[Kou]

Spoiler: episode 6

The plot and character revelations in this episode were pretty good, and handled well. I loved the handling of Renji's character in particular.

While Episode 6 wasn't without its silliness, those parts of the episode felt appropriately like good comedic relief, while the main story was decently interesting and suspenseful.

This episode also makes me think that Alice works best in small doses, acting in a support role and for the occasional moe scene, while Narumi drives the plot. Narumi can really throw out some pretty incredible lines when he doesn't realize it.

Spoiler: differences with LN starting from epi 1

When you exclude certain details and change the overall tone of the story, you're still making changes to the story.

Narumi has issues with his passivity, but it's all but forgotten after the first episode. For example, when the Fourth asks Narumi why he's going so far in the Yakuza case to where Narumi replied because he is Alice's assistant, the Fourth never presses the issue any further to get a direct answer, and Narumi is never shown to feel bothered about his lack of a personal stance.
Alice may be a spoiled NEET girl, but she does seriously think about issues around the world to the point of having insomnia. The anime made a big effort of making her look like a spoiled hikikomori and a violent tsundere, but they never seemed to address her abnormal sleep schedule.

There were also some more than just verbal threats that the Yakuza made to make Meo's father seem harmed and in real danger. Mikawa didn't feel threatening at all in the anime and his lackeys appeared to be a bunch of brainless stooges.

Overall, the anime isn't bad but it can be better if they don't change stuffs ._.

 

[Kou]

Spoiler: episode 7

Solid episode with strong pacing; I can totally get into why this long "war" has made the two sides so hateful of each other. But sometimes you fight so much that you forget why you were fighting in the first place.

The incident that caused the rift between Sou and Renji is revealed, with a certain girl named Hison involved. However, it's more complicated than that; Hison turns out to be the real target, neither Sou nor Renji, and Renji probably does not know about the real side of the story.

In this case, ignorance is suffering.

善喜 = Yoshiki
喜善 = ?

Thats your answer to the mystery~

 

[Kou]

Spoiler: episode 8

Overall Narumi did a pretty good job handling things. Had to keep the group from going wild and keep the event on schedule with Sou out of commission.

The truth was as expected with Hison being Yoshiki though surprisingly almost no actual presence from said character. Have to say it's impressive that Sou did any damage considering he dragged himself out of the hospital to get over there. At least they settled things and perhaps Renji might return again.

Once again the panic of Alice made the whole episode fun . Narumi is an expert of just sending her into a panic.

Next episode is omake material.

 

[Kou]

Spoiler: episode 9

Episode 9 was a nice, pleasant watch.

Haven't seen a baseball episode in a non-baseball anime in awhile now. I really liked it here. Largely because it didn't take itself too seriously (if you're a non-baseball anime, trying to incorporate loads of baseball strategy into your lone baseball episode can feel a bit forced). Alice's sanctuary inside the car filled with stuffed animals was hilarious

I'm really looking forward to Episode 10. Ayaka is a character that I liked a lot from the novel, but out of the female cast, she's really played a distant third fiddle to Alice and Minli since that episode, so it'll be great to see her get some focus next episode.

Looks like they are going to do Vol 1 arc for the conclusion. This is the arc that made me fell in love with the novel and Sugii in general, so if they skipped it I would've been one sad, sad onion.

 

[Kou]

Spoiler: episode 10

You see, this supposed to happen on the very first arc for God sake. I mean, this incident define Narumi's characteristic in the whole series, why although he could be very wimpy, but he can also sometimes be reckless enough to put his neck on those incidents like the Yakuza one or the one with Yondaime, why he decides to stay with Alice, and why he still hang around with the "good-for-nothing" group of NEETS. Furthermore, the fact that this happen on the very first arc is what makes this series start with a bang IMO.
Ayaka only appeared in the story through flashbacks in the novel.

Luckily, they still decide to adapt this arc in the end, but the timing for this arc isn't as good as if they decide to keep the novel's time line, as in starting the series with this arc instead of the Yakuza one. It still feels weird that Narumi hanged around Alice for so long using the anime timeline, but oh well, I guess it's better to end with a bang than start with a bang...

Of course, I already know most of the story, so I won't go further.....

 

[Kou]

Anime coma FTW!

Spoiler: episode 11

Episode 11 was very well-executed, and made for a great follow-up to Episode 10. Narumi's sense of lost, desperation, and guilt were both tangible and sincere in this episode. It hit just the right note there. The BGM for the episode was frequently quite good - One bit even made me think of a darker "Batman" animated episode or movie.

Some character dynamics did seem off as a result of using the first arc in the novel as the last arc. The Fourth seemed way too secretive about this given the bonds we've seen him make with Narumi over the course of the anime. Simply put, I don't find it believable for The Fourth to treat the young man who's basically become the Vice-Leader of his gang like this. The Fourth and Narumi both showed an alarming lack of trust in one another given what they've been through together. All of this, I suspect, is due to the "out of order" nature of this final arc when compared to the source material.

 

[Kou]

Spoiler: episode 12

I was hoping for a beating for the pharmacy guy, but the hallucinatory plunge into hell by Alice's clever manipulations was quite satisfying. Toshi got the beating he deserved, and I was glad they showed Ayaka wake up in the end, especially after that nice romantic touch with the flowers.

Spoiler: novel spoilers

She totally lost her memories in the novel though and doesn't remember anyone, so its actually a bittersweet ending, but i guess JC staff want to keep it happy.

Overall a decent ending.

Spoiler: final impressions

Overall, Kamimeo turned out alright I guess. I was pleasantly surprised at how Narumi's character was developed and the rest of the cast fulfilled their roles well. Alice was the weakest character in the show for me unfortunately. Despite being a main character, I could hardly bring myself to care about her and see her as more than just the resident info dump. Had she been a side character I would have likely been less harsh on her. However she did have a few moments where she shone, like the last episode where she screwed with Hakamizaka's(?) mind. Her background is hinted bit by bit in the novels. I also liked the last scene of the episode, save for some of Alice's usual lines. The LNs is much better, but the magic that make it good is lost in the adaptation (I guess it only works on paper). I still think that it will be better to start of Ayaka's arc first like in the novel, with Ayaka's memories lost, it gives a darker and bitter atmosphere throughout the novels and also gives Narumi more depth.

The most disappointing aspect of the show has to be Taku Iwasaki's music though. Hardly anything stuck out save for at least two key tracks. This is definitely one of his weakest works ever.