Kamigami no Asobi First Impressions--Magical Boyfriends

About a minute into this show, there is a magical boy transformation sequence where a guy's shirt buttons fly off with sparkly sound effects just before his pants get ripped off. He then flies off into battle with the heroine on a pegasus.

Your reaction to those two sentences will determine whether or not you should be watching this show.

 
The show follows Kusanagi Yui (I'm so glad she has a name this time, if this was going to be another Amnesia I would've flipped a table), a Japanese girl who lives with her family at a shrine. She has no ambitions other than being vaguely interested in swords. One day, an unexplained magic glowing sword in her shed transports her to another world where Zeus has decided to create a school where gods can learn about love--I mean, bridge the gap between humans and gods. The rest of the episode has Yui running around, meeting her potential boyfriends--I mean, the other gods.

 
Aside from the hilariously over the top opening, there's not much going on in Kamigami no Asobi. It's pretty standard as far as the first episode of a reverse harem series goes. The heroine is introduced with "as you know" exposition from her bland friends that we'll never see again, she briefly rebels against the premise to try to prove that she has a personality (I'll believe it when/if the show doesn't take away her agency), and the guys are introduced in quick succession and can easily be categorized by stereotype. There's the angry one, the quiet one, the emo brooding one, the energetic one, and the designated gay ship.

 
If it sounds like I'm being hard on Kamigami no Asobi, I don't mean to be. It's not exactly reinventing the wheel here, but on the other hand it's a surprisingly entertaining piece of fluff. While it's not as self-aware as something like UtaPri, it does feel like the show is not taking itself very seriously either, leaving it free to play up the cheese. I burst out laughing the first time one of the harem members showed up and flowers bloomed behind him like the show was a 70s shoujo manga. Surprisingly, the animation isn't quite as polished as the pervious opening episodes of reverse harem adaptations from Brains Base, but it still looks pretty good. If you like reverse harems, this one looks pretty harmless despite its leaps in logic. I can't wait to see the context for the magic transformations...

And we all know that it's not a harem until this happens

Images from Crunchyroll.com.