KamiKatsu: Working for God in a Godless World

Episode 6

With last week's exposition dump hastily yet laboriously eliminating our nebulously defined status quo, it's time for a fresh start. We've got new antagonists, a new conflict, and practically a whole new setting! Thus begins KamiKatsu's new era.

By that, I mean we're back to basically the same things we were doing before. After some hollow back and forth with Loki, who promises to be back as an antagonist, we eventually move back into Yukito's quest of roping in followers. All that's really changed is that we've swapped out the gender-bent knight for Atar, which thankfully means fewer jokes about being forced to wear sexy outfits. Atar is barely a character, but I'll take Aoi Yuuki eating ice cream in the corner over Bertrand's whole shtick.

Other than that, however, not much has tangibly changed about the story or its trajectory. The first half of the episode is basically a retread of the same thing Yukito did before; manipulating people with food and safety to join the church. Like last time, it's a way less interesting version of Dr. Stone's first season, with the bonus of all the characters being unlikable and virulently unfunny. Only now do I fully recognize that the show has no real ideas about religion or cults, so it's just a means for Yukito to be a comedic scumbag and level up his DigiGods.

Only in the second half do we get anything new, and even that is less fresh than you might expect. Knowing KamiKatsu, you'd think that introducing a rival Sex Cult led by one of the Archons would be its opportunity to really turn up the sex comedy. After all the loud, in-your-face fetish stuff it's hastily illustrated, you'd probably imagine it had some special debauchery up its sleeve. Yet it turns out they'd already been cranking that dial to 11, and there's no way to escalate from there. Every villager character was already a loud, horny idiot obsessed with random fetishes and mugging for the camera, so there's nothing surprising to be had here. Am I supposed to be shocked by the priestess cumming as she imagines Yukito assaulting her? I've already watched Roy jizz in his overalls over a fantasy of drinking Mitama's toe-wine. This is the fourth time Alural has tried to suck Yukito off against his will, and not even the most deranged attempt. The show's already played these cards so many times that it no longer registers.

It just feels like we're going through the motions, and it mostly exemplifies why basing your sense of humor around being loud and purposefully crass becomes a constant war of escalation. If you can't actually be clever, charming, or subversive, you just have to keep yelling “PENIS” louder and louder until your voice gives out, and then the game's over. Even our new Archon foe, Dakini, feels totally phoned in. Oooooh, the sex goddess character is like a modern Gyaru. She speaks in slang and makes people really horny with mind control magic or whatever. Wow. Woo. I didn't see that one coming.

This isn't even close to the worst episode of this show so far, but it's perhaps the one that most exposes KamiKatsu's ultimately vacuous nature. Without anything left to shock you with – for now, anyway – it's just chucking the same things at the wall with gradually deflating enthusiasm.

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KamiKatsu: Working for God in a Godless World is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.