Kids running in fear. A little girl crying in the background. A behemoth-like monster lets out an inhuman scream. Fire. Explosions. A thumping drum beat to dissonant woodwinds.

Kamisama Dolls’s first few minutes start out with a bang, so much that I felt like making an example of it. Even the OP wasn’t just a montage of anime scenes strung together; the OP is, if nothing else, interesting to look at. I’m just tired of a lot of anime introducing itself through placid, lifeless openings full of trite, deliberately obtuse monologues. I can remember a few examples of great openings and one that has always stayed with me was Rakka falling from the sky at the start of Haibane Renmei. Like the start of Kamisama Dolls, we get action (even if it’s just her falling from the sky), mystery and, perhaps most importantly, a great soundtrack to set the stage. A good beginning will grab my attention for the rest of the episode, even if the resulting anime is a disaster. So how, then, did the rest of the episode fare?

When we return to the anime, we arrive at an annual party for a college department. Ooh, so the protagonists of Kamisama Dolls won’t necessarily be high school students? That’s already another plus for the series. Although college is hardly far removed from the halcyon days of high school, any change in anime is a welcome sign.

The male protagonist, Kuga, takes a seat amongst friends and begins eying Shiba, a girl at the party. I should note that her chest is massive — distractingly so. Normally, I don’t bring this sort of thing up, but since these are college students, it’s worth noting the disparate portrayal of women as they age in anime. In most shows featuring high school girls, their chests are usually moderately sized. In most shows featuring adult women, they are practically too well-endowed. It’s as if women undergo a massive growth spurt in only a single area of their body between high school and college.

Anyway, Kuga’s colleagues urge him to ask Shiba out. Like the average male protagonist in anime, he blushes and stammers when he gets a private moment with her. Before he can work up the courage to spit the desired words out, another female colleague interrupts the pair’s moment and throws up. With his moment ruined, Kuga resigns himself to full blown drunkenness and karaoke at the top of his lungs. All of a sudden, he reflects on his choice to leave his village for college. A disappointed girl is left behind in the wake of his decision; she appears to be his sister.

Kuga passes out from all the alcohol, awaking later in Shiba’s lap. They have small talk for a while, but when they go to take the elevator, Kuga and Shiba discover a mangled corpse inside. Oddly enough, Kuga thinks to himself that this isn’t the first time he’s been in this situation. As the police and a crowd of people gather around the crime scene, a mysterious figure overlooks the entire affair.

After the pair separates, Kuga starts to hallucinate a bit on his way home. We start to wonder, however, whether it’s all in his head or something more serious. When he enters yet another elevator (what’s with this anime and elevators?), a peculiar chanting begins. It’s like an old Japanese prayer song, but, at the same time, it’s not: the singing voice resembles a young girl, but also artificial and unnatural like a computer program. A doll emerges and so does a familiar face.

We meet Utao, a petite-looking girl towered over by some bizarre, doll-like construct. She greets Kuga by ‘oniichan,’ and it becomes apparent that every time she attempts to control the construct, the chanting starts up again. Once they’ve had a chance to talk, Utao informs Kuga of some bad news: someone by the name of Aki has escaped. By itself, this means little to the audience, but Kuga has a horrible reaction.

Regardless, as soon as they just spoke of the proverbial devil, the devil arrives through Kuga’s window. Aki is also accompanied by a construct, but whereas Utao’s doll is white and rounded in appearance, Aki’s doll is dark purple with menacingly sharp, fang-like limbs. Aki and Kuga exchange harsh words, referencing things that are, as of yet, a mystery to the audience: terms like ‘seki’ and ‘kakashi.’ Aki and Utao briefly skirmish with their dolls, but Aki has the upperhand and chucks the young girl out the window.

But Utao isn’t harmed; she appears again in her construct’s arms. She follos up with an explosive blast on Kuga’s apartment. The anime then cuts straight to the following morning, where Shiba and her father has arrived to give Kuga and Utao a place to stay. During the car ride, Kuga thinks back to the crazy night he just had. Apparently, Utao’s attack managed to incapacitate Aki. Mysterious men in jumpsuits then showed up to haul Aki’s body — wrapped in some kind of cloth or plastic — back to the village. They also bark some orders to Kuga, causing him to bitterly remark that he is a slave of the shrine (or village?) even in Tokyo. He then recalls Aki’s words that the village is what’s truly insane.

At Shiba’s home, she presses her father with questions about the village and her friend’s involvement. Her father then requests Utao to summon the village’s treasure only for the construct to appear right beneath Shiba’s feet. The episode ends with a cliffhanger: the truck hauling Aki’s body was upturned at some point and the cargo door is open.

I don’t normally given an extensive summary of events for anime episodes, but Kamisama Dolls throws a whole lot at the audience right from the start:

• What is Karakami Village and why is everyone so nervous about it? How about that shrine they keep referring to?

• What is the nature of those doll-like constructs? How are they gods?

• What is Kuga’s past with Aki? or the village?

The pacing of the first episode was a little up and down and I didn’t think the rest of it lived up to the start of the anime. In particular, I found the goukon at the start of the anime to be a little dull; although it properly introduced us to Kuga and Shiba, the whole proceedings felt somewhat… irrelevant. Once Aki entered the picture, the anime’s energy picked up again, but I thought the incident ended a little haphazardly. Still, the anime kept the air of mystery going and, even if I wasn’t trying to blog anime, I’d probably keep watching the show. At the very least, this isn’t quite your standard “high school male falls through a portal and goes on a wild ride.”

There are some inconsistencies in tone throughout the episode, however. I will name two moments and they both involve Utao:

(1) Aki knocks Utao to the ground and she immediately covers up her legs and blushes. We don’t see the alluded panty shot, but I must still ask why this moment was even necessary at all? — especially in a tense encounter.

(2) Likewise, when Aki knocks Utao down later in the same scene, Kuga tries to protect her. What results is a sexually suggestive pose by the siblings. Utao then tells Kuga not to touch her in a weird place. Again, why was this even necessary?

What’s most puzzling at all is the lack of what anyone would consider true fanservice? No amount of skin is shown in the anime. No panties are ever flashed. Shiba has large breasts, but she remains clothed throughout the episode. Why, then, even allude to fanservice?