“Kamisama Dolls” returns this week with a slightly more focused episode; the wheels of the plot are picking up speed. The anime, of course, isn’t without its quirks. All in all, the series’ progression is a bit of a disappointment.

Half thoughtless thriller, half schlock
Utao recklessly sends her doll after her male lookalike — reckless because both her brother and Hibino had to duck to avoid being absolutely rammed by the doll.

I’m sure it looks very exciting to have a giant doll fly over their heads with action lines, but Utao could have killed her brother and his friend. Then in a split second, Utao suddenly tells the two college kids to separate because (uguu) she’s jealous of Hibino.

She does this in the middle of a tense scene — well, it used to be tense, but the atmosphere is completely diffused after that. What the hell is wrong with you, “Kamisama Dolls?”

“Stupid kids, this isn’t some playground.”
Finally, there are extras on the streets to notice the ongoing struggle between Utao and her lookalike. Of course, it seems to be a one-off thing. The city watches, but it doesn’t really respond.

In some stories, settings and locations can become “characters” just as much as the humans. In “Kamisama Dolls,” however, the city is idle; I’ve never seen such an inert Tokyo that it may as well be dead.

The rotten countryside
I wrote a short piece a while back on how villages are often seen as something scary in anime, but adding, however, that “Kamisama Dolls” managed somewhat to buck the trend. Well, I was wrong. After just five episodes in a featureless metropolis, Kuga and Utao are returning to the village. Naturally, Kuga’s home is anything but bliss. Hell, there’s apparently an extensive subterranean system of caves underneath some creepy old man’s dojo. And what should these caves be hiding? Amaterasu.

It might be the sun goddess in traditional mythology, but its sinister introduction in the anime is anything but holy.

Narrative progression
Kuga tells Utao to hide her doll in the forest. In the next scene, the characters find themselves running in a forest. Well, that was really quick.

“In any case, we lost.”
Lost what? Why are the characters even fighting?

Are we playing a game? The character motivations in this anime is just so opaque. For instance, Hibino asks Kuga if she can accompany him back to the village? Why does she want to drop everything in her life to do this? She hasn’t known either Kuga or Utao all that long. Kuga doesn’t even ask her why.

He just looks stunned, then the anime fades to another scene. Characters in this anime just do whatever the script tells them to do without so much as an explanation.

The broken doll
During the fight, Utao’s doll struggled as if it was a living thing. When we later see it in Hibino’s home, it’s broken arm is even bandaged and in a sling. Why would an automaton, an inorganic structure with seemingly no fluids within it, require that sort of “medical” care?

Hibino observes that the outside of the doll is simply made of wood, but of course, it can bend and twist as if it was pliable material. I suspect we’ll never really understand the dolls other than the fact that it’s all magic mystical!