The Day I Became a God (Japanese: Kamisama ni natta hi) is a drama and comedy anime with a splash of sci-fi. I watched this show when it aired in 2020, and I wrote weekly episode reviews. Well, here I am two years later, finally ready to write a series review. But this post isn’t just a review; it also includes a brief Anime Rant at the end. I hope you enjoy the review and the rant.
Visuals: 8
There’s no questioning the fact that this anime looks good. Hina’s character design is unforgettable and extremely cute. Although the other characters don’t have the most creative designs, but they still look nice and polished overall. The level of detail is good, especially for important or dramatic scenes. The backgrounds, scenery, and lighting are top quality. There aren’t really any action scenes, so I don’t know if the animation is especially smooth or not. For this kind of drama/ comedy anime though, it’s more than neat enough.
Story: 5
The basic story concept is ok, but not great. The overarching idea is to help Hina experience life while solving the mystery of her identity. Events happen at a decent pace, but the show still felt rather boring and predictable at times. The last few episodes were emotionally intense, so the writing and directing were pretty good. However, there were some issues, such as episode 11, which was mostly about Hiroto and felt out of place and forced. The humor sometimes made me smile, but often it fell on its metaphorical face.
Themes are another important part of the story category. They were again fine, but nothing special. The themes included family bonds, romance, making the most out of life, and not taking things for granted. As you can see, these are a bit overused and worn out. They still work well enough, but there was nothing that truly touched me.
Note: The Day I Became A God was created by Jun Maeda, the same mind behind Clannad, Angel Beats, and Charlotte. While he is capable of creating good stories, he reuses far too many elements in his works. For example, there’s always a very sick girl who dies or nearly dies. The story usually starts off comedic and becomes darker and emotional in its second half. Many tropes were used, and coming from a creator who has potential, this was sorely disappointing. Maeda needs to either stop making content or spend some time off seriously considering how to make an original story.
Audio: 7
Elements from the audio category were not as impressive as I had hoped. They weren’t horrible, either– just average. The voice-acting was probably the worst part. Natsuki Hanae, best known for voicing the protagonist of Haikyuu, plays Yota Narukami. There were no real chances for him in this anime to show his real talent. Yui Ishikawa, best known for playing Mikasa in AOT, appeared as Miss Izanami. Hina was voiced by Ayane Sakura, who has done quite a few voices from across many anime series. Despite some promising cast members, the voice-acting was rather mediocre all the way through.
The music and songs are very good. The opening song and the three ending songs were all performed by Nagi Yanagi with lyrics by Jun Maeda. Sure enough, they are all beautiful. My favorite is the opening song, “Kimi to Iu Shinwa.” The others are great too. But for some reason, these pleasant songs did not stick in my memory at all. Though they were nice to listen to, I seriously forgot about them and didn’t go back and find them until two years later. I’m honestly not sure if that’s the fault of the music or just my brain being derpy. Either way, I enjoy the songs now.
Characters: 5
The characters were, by and large, disappointing. They were neither original nor very interesting. Yota is the most “samey” main character possible. There’s nothing unique or special about him. Hina is often annoying, although it does make sense for her to obnoxious given that she only has 30 days to enjoy life. I guess Hina’s character is better than Yota, but I still found myself annoyed with her a few times.
The rest of the characters were nothing special, either. Ashura is a stereotype of “main character’s best friend.” Miss Tengan is a stereotype of an arrogant adult woman. Hiroto is a stereotype of an arrogant savant boy. Yota’s younger sister, Sora, was a decent character, but not well developed enough. As you can see, the characters category is sorely lacking.
Personal Enjoyment: 5
My personal enjoyment level was actually alright for the majority of the series. I would put it at a 7. The music and songs were nice. Hina was sometimes cute. Occasionally, the comedic aspects made me smile. So what happened to make my enjoyment drop from 7 to 5? It was the ending of the series, where Yota said he was in love with Hina.
I am not the sharpest tool in the shed, so I really didn’t get it that they were pushing a romance for these two. I thought it was a platonic, familial sort of love. When it was explicitly stated to be romantic love, I felt disgusted. Hina is surely too young for him. I have more to say about this matter in the Anime Rant Section below. For now, let’s wrap up the series review.
Overall Score: 6/10
While not the worst anime I’ve ever seen, The Day I Became a God was a definite disappointment. On MyAnimeList.net, this series is sitting at 6.79, which is far too generous of a score if you ask me. Part of my disappointment is due to the fact that I expected so much more from the creator of Angel Beats. However, I’ve tried to examine this anime as its own independent work as much as possible for this review. It still ended up mediocre. If you’re trying to find an emotional drama anime with some comedy, don’t stop here. You can do a lot better than this anime. Skip.
Anime Rant Section: Hina and Yota’s Romance
I have a bit more to say about the issue mentioned in the personal enjoyment section. In my opinion, a romance between Yota and Hina is completely inappropriate. All we need to do is look at their ages.
Yota is in his last year of highschool, making him 17 or 18. He is certainly 18 by the time he finds the facility where Hina is being kept. As for Hina, her age is never stated. I can’t find it listed on any wikis or other websites, either. But it’s very clear that Hina is a child. Not only is she child-coded in terms of appearance, but in addition, all the adults and highschoolers refer to her as a kid. If I had to guess, I’d say Hina could be anywhere from 12 to 14. And I’m supposed to think it’s romantic when an 18-year-old says he’s fallen in love with a 12-year-old? No way. I can’t get behind that.
In case there is any doubt in your mind that this relationship is meant to be romantic, listen to the words Yota uses in the final episode. When he says he fell in love, he uses the Japanese word “koi,” which refers specifically to romantic and sexual love. This is in contrast with the word “ai,” a broader form of love that can exist between friends, family, or partners. Since Yota uses “koi,” it’s clear he feels romantic and sexual love toward Hina.
Even if the age thing wasn’t an issue, I would still feel strange about Yota and Hina being together. That’s because Hina is not mentally capable of understanding something like a serious romantic relationship. By the end of the series, Hina has reverted to a state where she can barely talk or walk because of her illness. The illness also attacks her brain, and will probably never let her “grow up” beyond the intellect of a child.
I’m not saying that mentally disabled people can never be together with someone neurotypical. I’m sure there are cases where that would be appropriate. But this doesn’t seem like such a case. Yota has basically become Hina’s new caretaker. Because of him, she doesn’t have to live in a facility. I don’t think it’s good for the main caretaker to be romantically interested in the disabled person he agreed to care for.
Maybe this reasoning is off. Maybe it would be perfectly ok for Hina and Yota to be together at a later point in their lives. But at their current ages, it’s gross. Once again, I’ll say it: the real issue is that Hina is a child, and Yota is a young adult. That is not ok. Rant over.
Thanks for reading~
Note: This post first appeared on my Wix Blog, Mono’s Anime Rants, on Oct 25 2022. After republishing it here on WordPress, I’ll delete the original to avoid confusion.
Anime Rants 
its multiple personalities.
LikeLike