After an extremely long wait, we finally get the premiere of the second season of The World God Only Knows!  As the episode starts up, Keima and Elcie give us a quick recap of everything that’s happened so far, all in an 8-bit video game style, which I loved.  After the recap, Keima looks at the audience and asks if they even bothered to watch the first season (to which I exclaimed “Yes, Keima-sama~!”) and Elcie pops up and tells everyone to get ready to enjoy the second season.  After the new shiny intro, we find our hero and heroine standing in the hallway at school.  Elcie is drawing the four loose souls they managed to capture last season and exclaims that they’re doing really well so far.  Keima – who is playing his PFP as always – asks her when his contract will be fulfilled because he’s tired of having to deal with crazy women just to capture the souls.  Thinking about it for a second, Elcie realizes that the loose souls did find themselves in some really strange girls and wonders why that happened.  Putting his PFP down (GASP!) Keima scribbles something on the back of the paper Elcie had and tries to explain that the souls seem attracted to girls with some sort of issues, whether it be financial/daddy issues like with Mio or just self-confidence issues like with Kanon.  Elcie, unfortunately, doesn’t seem to hear any of this because she’s too busy laughing at Keima’s poor drawing of the loose souls.  Keima yells at her, telling her that the drawing isn’t what is important, but instead the context of what he’s trying to say, but she ignores him.  Snatching the paper from him, she runs away, laughing hysterically until she bumps into someone.  She tries to apologize, but it appears she ran right into the leader of the school’s “gang” (or something similar, I suppose).

He threatens Elcie, but Keima tries to tell Elcie not to worry because bullies like them are “weak like parsley” according to his gaming knowledge.  Unfortunately, his gaming  knowledge lacks real world knowledge and this angers the bully, resulting in quite the powerful punch to the face.  This stuns Keima and as his attacker leans closer he says “New route chosen: Apologize” which only angers his attacker even more.  However, before he’s beaten to a bloody pulp, a mysterious – and yet incredibly fierce and attractive – woman appears and tells the gang to back off and leave weaklings like Keima alone.  The leader then turns his attention to her and pulls out a metal baton (WHY DID THE SCHOOL LET HIM HAVE THIS ON HIS PERSON?!) but the girl beats his ass before he even has an opportunity to swing.  As she stares at Keima, Elcie appears out of nowhere, wielding her broom as a weapon and shouting at “Parsley-san” to let Keima go.  Instead, she ends up beating Keima in the face while the girl looks on in wonder.  She ends up walking away, thinking angrily that the world is full of weak things that no one needs, but as soon as she’s alone, she wonders why the world decided to torture her with so many cute things.  Just as she’s thinking that, the paper Keima drew on (which was whisked out the window by wind when Elcie ran into the thugs earlier) drifts down next to her.  She looks at it and thinks that it’s cute, but we also noticed that something shimmered around her.  Odd…

As it turns out, the girl’s name is Kusunoki Kasuga and she’s not only Keima’s next target, but the heir to the family’s dojo that specializes in a type of martial arts called Kasuga-Style, Life and Death Technique.  Keima surveys her from afar, trying to figure out how to get close to her.  He finally settles on joining the girl’s martial arts club (since Kasuga has scared everyone off since becoming captain) and approaches her while she’s practicing.  At first she says no because she refuses to teach weaklings, but Keima activated what I like to call his bishonen eyes and Kasuga succumbs to how cute he is and agrees to take him as her pupil so long as he does everything she says.  Keima is relieved that she allowed him to join without wanting to test his “skills” first (since he obviously has none) and sets about trying to get close to her.  Over the next few days, he learns that she hates anything weak or cute (especially this kitten that keeps showing up near her), likes super dry rice crackers, and won’t tolerate any sort of bullshit.  One day, after cleaning the school’s dojo, he tries to figure out how to get close enough to her to retrieve the loose soul without obtaining any bodily harm.  As he enters the locker room to put away the cleaning supplies, he’s surprised to find Kasuga snuggling the little kitten that keeps following her.  His entrance surprises Kasuga and she shouts at him for not knocking before telling him that it’s not what it appears to be.

After her embarrassing run in with Keima in the locker room, Kasuga takes the kitten up to one of the school’s balconies and holds it over the ledge.  She reprimands herself, saying she doesn’t need anything cute or weak in her life because she’s trained her whole life to run her family’s dojo.  However, just as she’s about to throw the kitten over the edge, a voice in her head shouts at her not to do it.  This causes her to pause for a moment, but continues, releasing the kitten.  Just as I screamed because I was scared for the kitten, we hear a meow coming from behind Kasuga.  Somehow, there’s two of her and one of them is holding the kitten and frowning at the Kasuga that just threw the kitten over the railing.  Elcie, in her ever graceful nature, exclaims that there’s two of them, ruining her and Keima’s hiding spot.  Kasuga and her double are shocked and her double drops the kitten before disappearing back into the real Kasuga.  Later, in the school’s dojo, Keima tells her that he definitely saw two of her, and he holds up the kitten to try and entice the doppleganger to show up again.  It does, surprising Kasuga (who tries to catch it), but Keima tells her that her weakness for all things cute has manifested itself and the only way to deal with the problem is to surround herself with cute things in order to battle her weakness.  At first Kasuga doesn’t want to do it, but then Elcie pipes up with an idea for the two of them to go on a date.  Keima and Kasuga tell her that she’s insane and it’ll never happen, but Kasuga’s doppleganger appears to really like the idea, even going so far as to materialize again.  Once the matter has been settled, the Keima and Kasuga agree to get their date over with as soon as possible.  The last bit of the show, we see Keima and Kasuga meeting up in town, Kasuga wearing a rather cute, pink dress and sandals and looking mortified.

Opinions: I have been dying to see the second season of this show, and they definitely didn’t disappoint.  The recap at the beginning was cute and I loved the 8-bit style they did it in.  Elcie was just as adorable as I remember her and Keima as stubborn as always.  The twist with Keima’s next target being not only an upperclassman, but someone so hardened towards things weak and cute was excellent.  Although I’m curious about why she has this doppleganger to begin with, and how that will assist or hinder Keima’s conquering of her.  All I can really say is that I’m super excited for the next episode!

Score: A+/A+