Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi! Pre-Aired Episode 1! [Review]

Episode 1 Screenshot

Yet, another great anime series for this summer 2013! ヾ(*д*)ﾉ゛

Briefing of the Episode:

In the first episode, God abandoned the world on Sunday. As a result, nobody in the world can die or reproduce. So, in order for the people to be at peace, they rely on the 'Gravekeepers'. The heroine Ai-chan, is a little girl who's been told by her village that she's the Gravekeeper - the one responsible for preparing graves for all the undead villagers. The details on how a gravekeeper works isn't yet clear in this episode. Another individual, Hampnie Hambart the self-described "human toy".  It turns out that he has the same name as Ai-chan's father who is supposedly out there in the world, but had promised to come back. However, Hampnie convinces Ai that he is not her father. Due to the fact that his name is actually made up, taken from a toy that runs on springs and never stops moving.

Later on in this episode, Hampnie uses a shotgun to blow the heads off the villagers.  Ai accuses him of killing the villagers (including her guardians Youki and Anna) but he says he merely "stopped them from moving".  He also tells Ai that she's no Gravekeeper. It's because that real Gravekeepers aren't human and don't have parents but "show up from nowhere, like flies". It's not clear why the villagers lied to Ai or even just what a Gravekeeper is. Though, at the end of the episode, we get to see an actual Gravekeeper.

Impressions:

Let's talk about the pacing of the anime. Just by looking at the anime, it does feel rushed because events are happening too fast. I think that the main reason that the anime is pushing the plot so hard is so that the setting can be explained. Some setting were explain towards the end of the first volume of the Light novels. One episode of anime can only do so much in comparison. First few episode will probably suffer a little bit as the audience does not necessary know what is going on. Things will start to make sense once the mystery is revealed.

As far as details that are skipped, they are mainly character developments. One, Ai is actually not as naive. In the novel, she talks about how she wonders if she is actually a gravekeeper. She also has a feeling that all the villagers are lying to her, but she chooses to believe their lies.