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Do you ever start reading a manga purely because the title sounds interesting? I do... I get bored a lot. To me, "The World God Only Knows" sounds like it should be about God (although, this is Japan, so maybe a demi-god-like-forest-spirit who dresses like a samurai) that disguises himself as human and wanders the Earth helping people in magical, yet indirect, ways. I suppose that could pass the time in an episodic, low-key, Mushishi-type way peppered generously with vague tautological platitudes. The ontological equivalent of techno-babble that mangaka seem so fond of. Wow... not even close. The "God", in this case, is this kid:  Katsuragi Keima, The Capturing God. "Capturing", of course, referring to his ability to capture any woman's heart... as long as she's two-dimensional... and the path to her heart is a series of mutliple choice questions. Katsuragi Keima, the world's best Gal Game (dating sim) player. He's beaten every dating sim in existence, multiple times, without even looking, and playing 10 other games at the same time. In fact, he'd pretty much given up on the real world and devoted his life entirely to mastering his craft... until he met Elicia:  She's a demon. A low-class cleaning demon (notice the broom, it ain't for riding). For some reason, she was tasked with capturing spirits that had escaped from Hell ("cleaning" up the bad guys I guess?). As with all stories that share this premise, Hell is easier to escape than jury duty. So there's tons of spirits wandering the Earth but they're not just floating around haunting shopping malls or something, nope, they can only hide in a living body. Specifically, they sneak into the cracks in peoples' hearts. The gaps created by tragedy or sadness or an inferiority complex. And not just any people, girl people... high school girl people (mostly, there's one exception so far). So how does one force a spirit out of the gap in a girl's heart? By filling the gap with something else...no, not that, the answer is "love" (so, I guess, sort of "that"). That's right, the only way to get the spirit out and save the human host is to make the girl fall in love. Hell's information network is impressive, but they do let a few facts slip by. For example, rumor of Katsuragi's exploits had even reached Hell, however, as if in a game of after-life telephone, the part about his legendary charm only being effective in video games didn't quite come through. Now Elicia has arrived in the human world and been told to seek out the legendary Capturing God to aid in her duty (with a magic curse to assure his cooperation) but he's not entirely what she expected. But it's OK, his video game knowledge must translate to real life, right? I mean, if the E/N board is any indication, you would expect that all human interaction can be reduced to a quantifiable set of absolute rules, right? If so, then this is the manga for you. You will not be disappointed. Not only does Katsuragi completely rock these chicks' respective worlds, he does it in the most nerdy, Aspergery way possible. It's currently up on onemanga. The only down side is that some of the earlier issues are horribly translated. The newer stuff seems to be much better and is coming out much faster (almost every other day now).
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| # ? Jun 11, 2009 13:43 |
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| # ? May 24, 2013 05:00 |
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drat you, I was about to start a thread about this manga! Oh well. I really like this manga, and I always look forward to a new chapter.
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| # ? Jun 11, 2009 15:54 |
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I got into this the same way the OP did and don't regret it. This manga is good fun, not meant to be taken seriously and pokes fun of archetypes in its own way.
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| # ? Jun 11, 2009 16:45 |
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This manga is pretty good so far, with some really good moments. Chapter 17 is brilliant.
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| # ? Jun 11, 2009 22:39 |
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Just started reading this. Interesting twist on the "mystery girl appears in otaku's life" story. Also, he's like little Lelouch mixed with little Zetsubou Sensei. I haven't gotten far in, but I'm hoping for some recap chapters that compile all his past captures, or re-twists their stories. Edit: VVV In addition, I hear everything the new girl says just like C.C. AnacondaHL fucked around with this message at Jun 14, 2009 around 04:20 |
| # ? Jun 13, 2009 19:20 |
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AnacondaHL posted:he's like little Lelouch I hear everything he says in Fukuyama Jun's voice. It makes it that much more amusing.
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| # ? Jun 13, 2009 20:09 |
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This manga is pretty good, but the pacing is a bit off. We're almost 50 chapters in and he's only caught eight souls, yet there has not been much progression beyond monster-of-the-week style arcs.
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| # ? Jun 15, 2009 07:39 |
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Slowpoke! posted:This manga is pretty good, but the pacing is a bit off. We're almost 50 chapters in and he's only caught six souls, yet there has not been much progression beyond monster-of-the-week style arcs. Hey, they did establish a love triangle with some lovely tsundere girl! That is technically progress, albeit of the very worst kind. I'm not counting his conquests as a harem though, because he clearly does not give a drat after the job is done.
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| # ? Jun 15, 2009 07:43 |
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Slowpoke! posted:This manga is pretty good, but the pacing is a bit off. We're almost 50 chapters in and he's only caught eight souls, yet there has not been much progression beyond monster-of-the-week style arcs. I'd say most comedy mangas don't have good pacing. Which doesn't bother me as long as they stay funny.
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| # ? Jun 15, 2009 08:03 |
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Slowpoke! posted:This manga is pretty good, but the pacing is a bit off. We're almost 50 chapters in and he's only caught eight souls, yet there has not been much progression beyond monster-of-the-week style arcs. Slow? Bleach, for example, hadn't even gotten to monster of the week *or* an arc by chapter 50 and we're up to 8, thank you very much. And, there are signs of longer arc pieces falling in. The fact that our dynamic duo are both prolific and unusual in choice of methodology, the fact that the escaped souls are old vs. new school demons, the fact that our dynamic duo live and die together, the fact that Elsee has some relatives that are quite talented--all of these provide threads that can be converted to longer arcs. Now, are the creators sufficiently talented to pull it off? That remains to be seen. I must admit, though--the suggestion to hear everything said by Keima as being said by Fukuyama Jun is just pure brilliance. "I can already see the ending!"
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| # ? Jun 15, 2009 10:09 |
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If this ever gets an anime, there can be no other voice actor than Fukuyama Jun for Keima.
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| # ? Jun 15, 2009 10:22 |
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Slowpoke! posted:This manga is pretty good, but the pacing is a bit off. We're almost 50 chapters in and he's only caught eight souls, yet there has not been much progression beyond monster-of-the-week style arcs. Untranslated chapter spoilers: I doubt we're going to see this to the end. The first couple girls he "completed" are starting to remember what happened.
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| # ? Jun 15, 2009 13:30 |
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Bocom posted:If this ever gets an anime, there can be no other voice actor than Fukuyama Jun for Keima. And Rie Kugumiya as ... every other voice.
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| # ? Jun 15, 2009 21:24 |
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AnacondaHL posted:And Rie Kugumiya as ... every other voice. Hirano Aya as Elsea, Rie can be Hakua since we'd need her as a recurring tsundere.
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| # ? Jun 15, 2009 21:40 |
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SpazmasterX posted:Hirano Aya as Elsea...  I admit that Fukuyama would make for an awesome voice for Keima, but i actually always pictured him with Kamiya Hiroshi's voice. I mean, come on, look at him:    He's like a younger version of Itoshiki. ... On that note, i can very well imagine Elsea being voiced by Nonaka Ai. That would be great.
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| # ? Jun 15, 2009 22:38 |
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HenryEx posted:NO! She does naive and silly very well. 
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| # ? Jun 15, 2009 22:48 |
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SpazmasterX posted:She does naive and silly very well. 
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| # ? Jun 15, 2009 22:51 |
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SpazmasterX posted:Untranslated chapter spoilers: As a side note, how many chapters are there total compared to translated chapters? AnacondaHL posted:You were thinking of her role in Queen's Blade, weren't you? I wouldn't mind Yui Horie as Mio Aoyama.
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| # ? Jun 15, 2009 23:14 |
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Chapter 48 is up at Mangafox.
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| # ? Jun 15, 2009 23:30 |
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AnacondaHL posted:You were thinking of her role in Queen's Blade, weren't you? A little of that and Haruhi-chan.
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| # ? Jun 15, 2009 23:37 |
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SpazmasterX posted:She does naive and silly very well. You obviously have not heard Nonaka Ai then.
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| # ? Jun 16, 2009 00:49 |
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 "I expected this." I love this guy. He just casually inverts that stupid stupid sexual tension trope i despise. Finally, someone savvy enough to handle this with dignity. Well, as long as he considers the situation like a game. I'll just ignore the earliest chapters.
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| # ? Jun 16, 2009 00:55 |
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Ice Blue posted:As a side note, how many chapters are there total compared to translated chapters?
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| # ? Jun 16, 2009 01:04 |
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All the possessed girls are supposed to have some sort of supernatural power right? The fighting chick split into two. Idol chick turned invisible. The runner chick was convinced she was injured. And the quiet chick couldn't talk and read all the books and all that. I guess it's a bit of a stretch for a couple of those but I thought that was the implication. What was up with Chihiro? She didn't seem to have anything weird going on.
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| # ? Jun 16, 2009 02:26 |
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Ice Blue posted:All the possessed girls are supposed to have some sort of supernatural power right? The fighting chick split into two. Idol chick turned invisible. The runner chick was convinced she was injured. And the quiet chick couldn't talk and read all the books and all that. I guess it's a bit of a stretch for a couple of those but I thought that was the implication. What was up with Chihiro? She didn't seem to have anything weird going on.
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| # ? Jun 16, 2009 05:08 |
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I didn't mean they had powers already. I was saying that all the girls get some sort of supernatural thing manifest from being possessed, but I guess I was wrong, especially considering the teacher chick didn't have anything either.
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| # ? Jun 16, 2009 05:33 |
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My favorite thing so far were the constant pictures of Jumbo Tsuruta, fist thrust triumphantly into the air. Something about the way he was drawn made be crack up every time.
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| # ? Jun 16, 2009 05:53 |
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Ice Blue posted:I didn't mean they had powers already. I was saying that all the girls get some sort of supernatural thing manifest from being possessed, but I guess I was wrong, especially considering the teacher chick didn't have anything either. I read that as the comic poking fun at itself in that these types of characters always have something very distinctive about them to make them interesting to the reader. If you look at it like that then "teacher" obviously works and Chihiro is still the only normal one.
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| # ? Jun 16, 2009 06:48 |
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this comic owns a lot more than it has any right to and than i thought it would. it's shounen but the intense fight scenes have been replaced with intense confession scenes. i just couldn't deal with it at the first horribly cheesy charm bomb and they're only getting better.
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| # ? Jun 16, 2009 17:47 |
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HenryEx posted:I admit that Fukuyama would make for an awesome voice for Keima, but i actually always pictured him with Kamiya Hiroshi's voice. I mean, come on, look at him: Oh crap, that'd be awesome too! I change my vote to either Fukuyama Jun or Kamiya Hiroshi. Also, the latest chapter as fun as always. Though once they catch up, there's going to be a lot of waiting between each chapter, and that saddens me a bit.
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| # ? Jun 16, 2009 19:54 |
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Now I'm just curious if it is really possible to make a living selling individual bottles of energy drinks door to door. Who would even buy something like that?
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| # ? Jun 18, 2009 06:18 |
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Serious Frolicking posted:Now I'm just curious if it is really possible to make a living selling individual bottles of energy drinks door to door. Who would even buy something like that? Anyways, here's 49: http://www.onemanga.com/The_World_God_Only_Knows/49/01/ Ice Blue fucked around with this message at Jun 18, 2009 around 06:45 |
| # ? Jun 18, 2009 06:32 |
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I got this manga up as a mangacast. The World God Only Knows  I'll try to update it as fast as possible so you don't need to check for new chapters all the time. eManga will check for you automatically and alert you when it sees a new chapter is up. You'll need to install the eManga program, though. You can get it here.
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| # ? Jun 20, 2009 09:15 |
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Chapter 50 I wonder if the entire arc will be from the perspective of the girl this time.
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| # ? Jun 22, 2009 16:05 |
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SpazmasterX posted:Chapter 50 i hope so, it would be pretty great.
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| # ? Jun 22, 2009 16:57 |
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SpazmasterX posted:Chapter 50 That last page is all sorts of ins ane. From the inexplicable infatuation of boys with shimmering body skin (I'm looking at you, Twilight) to the words down the side of the page.
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| # ? Jun 22, 2009 18:44 |
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New chapter. I wonder if he'll be able to pull it off.
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| # ? Jun 24, 2009 22:33 |
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drat, Katsuragi is like a serial killer. He's always just in the right place at the right time. How the heck does he pull that off...
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| # ? Jun 24, 2009 23:04 |
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Next chapter. Also, the oneshot that was sort of a prototype. Seeing Elicia at Keima's age is weird. Keima is somehow even more ridiculous, and there are differences in how the job works.
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| # ? Jun 28, 2009 19:14 |
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| # ? May 24, 2013 05:00 |
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HenryEx posted:drat, Katsuragi is like a serial killer. He's always just in the right place at the right time. How the heck does he pull that off... He's the capturing god. Of course he can pull it off!
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| # ? Jun 28, 2009 20:25 |
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