Welcome to the life of Yukito Urabe, the guy with dead eyes. He is the skinny son of the muscular leader of a sketchy cult, whose father’s interference has made him unable to have a social life. Dying in an absurd ritual, he wishes to be isekai’d to a world without gods or religion. Sure, there are seemingly no adventurers or magic in it, but getting to know the peasants of his village, introducing them to wine, and working hard alongside them, prove to make for a surprisingly satisfying life. What could go wrong? Well, as Pope Benedict XVI once said, “Were God to lose his centrality, man would lose his rightful place… What ancient wisdom evokes with the myth of Prometheus has not faded: man thinks he himself can become a ‘god,’ master of life and death.” And thus, a visit to the Imperial Capital leads to a horrific discovery: in this world, the Emperor determines what your lifespan should be. Public suicides and public executions are the norm. And time is up for Allura and her older sister, the owners of the local tavern…

So! What about this one? Sadly enough, KamiKatsu is an ecchi, and while so far those elements are not very overt, they are creeping into the background: some shots here, some jokes there, some situations throughout. It’s mild for now, which lets the story, the characters, and the art shine through. I was favorably surprised by the isekai jokes and the way expectations were subverted. The pacing is good, the art is good enough (except for some dreadful CGI here and there), and the show deals with themes I find fascinating for their surprising wisdom. Are the dead buried in a world without religion? How would such a place react to shreds of evidence of divine power? Will our dead-eyed friend retain some of the religious values of his crazy dad, but expressed in a different way? How will the game-changer at the end of the episode play out? Under other circumstances, I would be tagging along with great interest. But I have seen enough to know that the ecchi elements affecting underage characters will get more pronounced (and more annoying) in episodes to come, so it’s a no for me.

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KamiKatsu: Working for God in a Godless World can be streamed on Crunchyroll.