Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi

"The Sunday Without God", a world were God is a foolish being whom haphazardly grants peoples wishes before abandoning the world completely. Thus the world is littered with humans who have been granted powers and nobody dies. Even if you chop some one's head off, they won't die. Unless you have a gravekeeper bury your body. It's in this strange little world that we meet Ai; a young gravekeeper from a secluded village. Her father ran off before  and her mother recently passed away leaving her in charge of gravekeeping.
However Hampnie Hambert comes along turns her world upside down. He reveals the truth: her whole village is actually full of living corpses who need burying. Ai must now choose what to do and she's set on the extremely vague target of 'saving the world'. First by travelling with her newly found father. Then by going to a strange kind of 'gifted and talented' school for all the people with special powers. Then by going to a parallel world to fix a time loop. The connections between each of these story arcs were a little hazy to say the least. So whilst she sets out with the intention of saving the world, it's a lot more like she's just exploring the world.
The show is full of false promises from the beginning. The awesome fight scene which is brilliantly executed, the lighthearted jokes, the gore. The show gets of to a good start! But it's lies. All lies! The show goes on a tangent. Then another tangent. And another tangent that ends on a completely unrelated note! It's like me writing essays! It starts as a mysterious adventure anime but ends up as a romance. It's not often I complain about romance, but do we have to make everything about love and sacrifice. Why can't it be about the value of family and friends like it was in the start of the anime? It's not that I didn't like the story arcs as individuals, but they just didn't go together properly.
My other complaint would be the distinct lack of action. The opening sequence is so perfectly animated that is must be counted as art! Ai's footwork in those 10sec of fighting was more detailed than I see in many action based anime. So why, after going through all that effort, did they not pursue this as an action anime? It had so much potential! However, it must be said that even with the lack action it is an anime full of lush animation. The swirly clouds that represent life and Dee, the translucent ghost. So many little details that are not often needed in anime are, in my opinion, very well created!
And let's not forget character design! We had lots of exciting costumes with pretty faces. Ai has one of the cutest ridiculous costumes! Her hat is the most pathetic excuse for head wear, but it is undeniably cute. Then there's a character in a few episodes called Ulla who cannot speak to, look at or touch any one with out them dying, as such she spends most of the time fully covered in a very cleverly designed costume to make her look simultaneously confined and casual. But underneath that is the cutest little dress for the cutest little girl! She's definitely my favourite character.
However, I don't have the same high praises for the characters' personality. They're all a bit drab if I'm completely honest. Ai's charming innocence turns into an irritating degree of ignorance due to a total lack of character development. I know that she's a young character who was bought up in a very guarded way, but after adventuring for a bit you'd think she begin to mature. Surely! Then there's Julie. A totally inconsistent character. He enters the anime as a maniac, hell bent on revenge. He even threatens Ai's life! But all of a sudden he takes on the loving father role in order to look after Ai. I must have missed something in the anime because this did not make sense to me at all. Finally, we have a cliched character: Alice. He's such a cool guy so mysterious and cold hearted, but he has a selfless side that wins over all the fangirls. But not me! No. This time I will stand strong against this unrealistic and over played stereotype. It's a terribly mundane character type and is not at all cute... Ok, I give in. I do find him a bit cute. How much he cares for Dee is undeniably sweet! But that doesn't change the fact that his character is weak!
So, the plot was disappointing. Not necessarily bad as far as anime goes, but it just had so much potential if only it had been given more thought! I really hate to see good ideas like this one just decay through out a series, it's like sitting in a sinking ship. But boy was it pretty! I might be overrating just because I haven't seen any conventional anime in a long while and I guess I sort of missed it! I can say with total conviction though, that the costumes were a delight! It's just a shame the people with in the costumes are so boring. In the end, we haven't got anything particularly revolutionary to rave about but it's only a short series anyway, so no worries.

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