Sunday Without God/Kamisama no Inai Nichiyōbi

AN Shows
21

I can’t forget–repress–that the sub-only BDs are actually happening if this board keeps reminding me of them :laugh: :silly: :frowning:

If I hear that the show becomes amazing in its later eps then I’ll be conflicted if it comes out on sub-only BD. Right now I think that I’d just pass.

Edit: What does Sentai offer with subbed blu-rays to compensate for the lack of dub? I was reminded of this quote from NIS about how they compensate, through packaging/limited editions, and how Sentai has stated that it has no interest in doing the same.
http://bayoab.info/live/old.php?panel=249

22

Episode 2 –

spoiler

Hampnie introduces Ai to a real gravekeeper named Scar. However, that isn’t her real name and she has had some other interesting ones in the past. Sadly, she’s never had a true name. There are some definite differences between her and Ai as well. Yet, Ai insists that she’s still a grave keeper.

As far as Hampnie is concerned, I wonder who this Hana is that he’s searching for. I don’t know why Ai wants to stay with Hampnie, since he’s so abusive, but I guess it’s because Ai has nowhere else to go. And Hampnie also knows that Ai will never make it in the cruel outside world. He would rather see her dead than tainted by it.

Hampnie gets shot instead, but it turns out that he doesn’t ever age or die – he’s immortal. The man that shot him is also his best friend, Julie, seeking revenge, since Hampnie killed his dead wife. Now that Julie’s daughter is also dead, he has no reason to live and hopes to die by Hampnie’s hand, under the excuse of a duel. But Julie denies this and insists it’s revenge, but how do you kill someone that doesn’t die? Hampnie grants Julie the duel, but he has no intention of going through with it.

It was a little sad to see Ai leave her village for the last time, but there’s nothing there for her anymore and she’s sure that there are others in the world that may need her. Ironically, she ends up traveling with Hampnie again and he actually shows her some kindness this time around by giving her a piggy back ride when she hurts herself. But then he jumps off the bridge with her! Hampnie later calls himself a monster, but Ai disagrees with him.

People stopped dying and giving birth fifteen years ago and Ai is twelve, so how can she even exist? Hampnie believes she may be the product of a human and a gravekeeper. That may at least explain how Ai got to be a gravekeeper. Hampnie shares some other theories with Ai and also tells her a little about himself. But when she asks why he killed the villagers, he only tells her that there was a secret sealed within her village and that she will eventually find out everything on her own. More mystery!

23

It’s takes an awful lot for me to dislike any anime. Some may be a little disappointing at times, but I still enjoy watching. I try to take away something good from each one. I’ve had issues with very few, and I’m just happy enough to be able to even see anime in America.

24

I’m the same with watching anime as well, but I’m concerned that this might be a drop for me.

25

I wonder how much Sentai knew about the plot progression for this one when they licensed it. They’re coy about their selection process.

At Otakon, Sentai’s “PR Guy” Christian Lopez had seen through ep 4 and was still enthused with the show, but then again he’s biased.

26

I imagine they may have only seen at most the first 2 episodes, if any, when they license the shows that are simulcasted.

27

Episode 3 –

spoiler

Ai’s mother mentions making the village like Heaven and I wonder if that has something to do with what Hampnie said about there being a secret sealed in the village. In the meantime, Ai is still following Hampnie, who is still searching for Hana. He tells Ai a little more about Hana as they travel. He also confides that he’s looking for a way to die because he has no wish to be the last human. That is really sad to think of. Hampnie seems terrified of being all alone in a world without people till the end of time.

As they cross a bridge, Hampnie kicks Ai off of it. She later awakens to find that Julie saved her. Ai is angry with Hampnie until Julie explains that he saved her. Julie also tells her some things about Hampnie, but she doesn’t believe him. Julie shows Ai a picture of Hampnie and the woman he loved – and it’s Ai’s mother! So, Hampnie really is her father after all. Suddenly it changes the way Ai feels about him.

Julie tells Ai that Hampnie was taken by the ones that attacked him. She wants to go save him, but Julie says that he’ll be fine on his own. Ai seems to have changed her opinion of him as well and not only wants to save Hampnie from his kidnappers, but she also wants to save him from himself. Julie will go with her for the sake of his friend. Scar appears and ends up going as well.

Hampnie was taken by some real undead crazies. They have been torturing him too. The leader, Hiko, seems to know a lot about Hampnie and has even copied his look. He also promises to give Hampnie the death he desires. But when Hampnie tells Hiko the kind of death he wants, Hiko says that Hampnie has betrayed him. Then he tells Hampnie he’s just become a toy. These are truly the monsters that Hampnie told Ai the undead become.

Scar breaks through the door and announces that she’s come to bury them. Ai joins her and Hampnie is not happy to see her. Ai tells him about her mother – his Hana – and suddenly he can see Hana in Ai. Ai announces that she’s his daughter and Hampnie is stunned. And that is also just what Hiko needed to hear. Ai really should have waited to tell Hampnie who she was. Ai also realizes that everyone in her village was dead, but stayed around for her sake. Was this the hidden secret of her village?

Hiko tells Hampnie that he will torture Ai, but before he can shoot her, Julie rushes in and shoots the gun from Hiko’s hand. Hampnie tells Ai to run, but she attacks Hiko with her shovel instead. As the bullets fly and Ai fights with her shovel, Hampnie muses over Hana and the daughter he didn’t know about. He says that he isn’t the father type and could never be a good one. After the fight, Hampnie is freed and he tells Ai his real name, which is Kizuna Astin. Ai cries as her father tells her that she is Ai Astin. And then he dies. But did he die just because he was content to have family and friends around him – the kind of death he wanted? Was it the death emitted from the shovels? I think I missed something. How does an immortal die just like that?

And now Hampnie wakes up as an undead and Ai is very happy to have him back. The foursome travel back to Ai’s village and Ai gets to spend some precious last time with her father. She wants him to stay with her forever, but knows that she can never ask him for that. Once back in the village, Ai digs a grave beside her mother’s while Hampnie pays his respects to Hana. She cries to see Hampnie in his coffin and breaks down as she buries him. This was a heartbreaking episode with a very sad ending. Ai hardly got to know Hampnie before his life ended. Not only did she have to bury her mother, but her father as well. But at least she did get to meet her father and he did get to find his Hana. And I am still anxious to see what kind of future this little gravekeeper girl has in this strange world that she wants to save.

28

I think that

spoiler

he died because his wish to die with family around, someone to mourn him, was granted. Then he realized how stupid that was, that he didn’t really want to die, but he had to accept that he made his choice.

I didn’t like how Hampnie radically changed in ep 3. In ep 1,2 he was a cold and cocky guy but in ep 3 he had that emotional breakdown that came out of nowhere.

After ep 3, what can the show really do? Where can it go? This show is sort of the inverse of another show that I recently finished as where that show focused on its present and forgot its backstory this one blew so much on its backstory that I don’t think that it has anything left for its “present”; can the final episode be more dramatic than Episode 3?

29

Episode 4 (Sub) is live at ANO

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Episode 4 –

spoiler

Julie fixes up an old VW type van and that makes traveling a lot easier. But I wonder how they are supposed to get gas. Ai is impressed with the size of the world, until Julie informs her that it’s just a small piece. It’s nice to see how Ai reacts to all the new discoveries. She must have led a very sheltered life in her little village.

Scar mentions another passenger, and Julie pulls over rather abruptly. There is a boy sleeping in the back of the van! Julie draws his gun and the boy wakes up. He wishes everyone a good morning and falls back asleep. Julie notes that the boy has been drugged. Julie tries to wake the boy up again and asks for his name. The boy babbles and mentions a whole bunch of names. He confuses Ai with someone else and calls her “Princess”.

Back on the road, Julie warns Ai, for her own safety, not to tell anyone that she’s a gravekeeper. The boy wakes up again, fully this time, and demands to know who they are. They introduce themselves and he is able to give his name as well – Kiriko Zubreska. He is from a place called Ortus, and Julie doesn’t seem to like that place very much.

When the van breaks down, they end up going to Ortus for help with repairs. Ai is excited until Julie tells her that they won’t be going inside. When she asks why, he tells her that she’ll find out soon enough. As they travel, Scar senses undead – about a million of them. Kiriko tells them that’s because Ortus is the Land of the Deceased. It’s the largest “Capital of the Dead” in the world. Julie confirms that and tells Ai that they hate gravekeepers enough to kill them. Ai sees it for herself as they pass a graveyard of gravekeepers.

Kiriko arranges for them to stay inside the city, but only in the section for the living. They also meet a very unusual person in the form of a half man, half woman. The female half is Pox, and the male half is Wreck, and both have different careers. For saving Kiriko, Pox tells Ai that she can have anything she wants and Ai requests entry to the city. Wreck grants it, but Julie wants to know why Ai wants to go in there. She’s just curious, but she and Scar are still in danger every minute that they’re here. Julie reluctantly agrees to let Ai and Scar go. But Scar can also hear a voice calling to her and that may not be a good thing.

They enter the city, but Kiriko warns them to leave as soon as the van is repaired. The city is beautiful and unlike anything Ai has ever seen, but the residents all wear masks. They are housed in an inn, where Scar wakes up ill the following morning. And she can still hear the voice calling out to her. Julie has gone to see about the repairs to the van, but left orders that they are not to go outside under any circumstances. Ai gets miffed at that, but it is for her own good.

Ai is bored and tells the innkeeper that she wants to see the city. Kera supplies her with a mask and sends her out to Mask Avenue. Ai has a good time, but meets a man in a lion mask that tells her to leave the city because she doesn’t know of the darkness it contains. That only confuses Ai. Elsewhere, Kiriko meets with the rather strange looking Princess Ulla and tells her that she will save the world.

31

Episode 5 –

spoiler

After warning Ai, the man leaves her. Luckily, Ai later runs into Kiriko. He wonders at her attitude towards the dead and she tells him that she was raised by the deceased. Ai also tells Kiriko that she is half human and half gravekeeper, and only twelve years old. Too much information for him to handle! But Ai trusts him.

Kiriko takes Ai back to the inn and Julie is really relieved to see her. He truly has become her adoptive father and really cares for her. It’s kind of nice really. His best friend killed Julie’s wife and his daughter died. Hampnie died, leaving behind his daughter. It was quite natural for them to come together – almost like Hampnie was giving something back to Julie, so he’d have a reason to live again.

Kiriko isn’t alive, but he isn’t quite dead either. He tells Ai the story of five people that were something of a family, although not related. They were looking forward to someday expanding their little family with the addition of children. But they never got the chance before God abandoned the world. Still wanting children, they visited a witch, and she told them that she could make their wish come true, but in a terrible way. The witch took parts from each of the five and created a new person – Kiriko. Pox and Wreck were also two of the five. People named Diva, Orias, and Veruela make up the rest, and the six together are called “Lapstar”.

Ai meets Diva, the doctor, and half of her is the other half of Pox. Diva is the royal physician and has come to see Scar, but she just gushes over Ai’s cuteness. While she examines Scar, Julie is at the repair shop and is on the phone, but who is he talking to? After her examination, Diva tells Scar that her condition is “imaginary pregnancy”. This seems to be common in a world where no one can have children anymore. It happens to women who are desperate to have a child. But Scar is supposed to be cold and unemotional, so why has this happened to her? Scar’s condition is a mystery to Diva, since Scar is a gravekeeper and never wished to have a child. But Scar still hears a voice calling to her.

On her way out, Diva thanks Ai for becoming friends with Kiriko and that surprises both Ai and Kiriko. Ai says that she’s never had a friend before and Diva asks her if she’d also like to be friends with the princess in the castle. Kiriko brings Ai to the castle and Ai is granted an audience. It looks like Ulla can’t speak so they use Kiriko as a go between to converse. Ulla is completely covered and even her eyes are masked. Ai questions that, but Kiriko lectures her instead. While he does that, Ulla communicates with Ai by way of writing things down and it seems that they are already friends.

Ai tells Julie of Ulla and he gently reminds her that they will be leaving soon, but Ai is fine with that, since she can still write to Ulla. But Ai still doesn’t understand why the living and the dead can’t coexist. Julie tells her a little more about Ortus, and Ai is very insightful when she tells Julie that there is one way the living can reside in this city. Julie tells her that she’s figured it out. Ai says that she did while speaking with Ulla earlier – you have to die. Julie confesses that he once tried to live in Ortus with his wife and daughter, but couldn’t ask his daughter to die.

The bells of the city begin to ring and Kiriko bursts into the room, almost getting shot by Julie. Kiriko tells them that the city is under martial law, all the gates have been closed, and foreigners are under house arrest. Julie asks if they are holding the “Admission of the Living Ceremony” and Kiriko says they are. The living volunteer to be killed so that they may become citizens of the city. Ai finds this hard to deal with and tries to reason it out by herself as Julie watches her. She asks Julie if it’s right and Julie tells her that it’s their choice to make. Ai wonders if Ulla knows about it, and comes to the conclusion that she doesn’t.

Julie asks Ai how she can be so sure and Ai tells him that Ulla is still alive, which surprises Julie. He really can’t believe that, and then Ai surprises him further by saying that she must tell Ulla what is happening. Ai runs from the room with Julie following, trying to stop her. The man in the lion mask watches as Ai runs past. Ai finds a way to sneak into the castle and makes her way to the princess. But it seems that Ulla is presiding over the ceremony herself. Ai is going to be devastated when she sees that!

32

Does the amount of loli fanservice drop off in this show?

33

Episode 6 –

spoiler

Unbound, Ulla becomes Koroshiohake, a goddess of death. Her gaze, her voice, and her touch, all bring death. Ai witnesses the living become the dead, and Julie saves Ai from being seen by Ulla. The man in the lion mask makes another appearance. He was the one that told Julie about Ulla, but Ai wants to know why this stranger is so concerned for her, so he tells Ai his story. But Ai wonders if Ulla even knows that she has this power of bringing death to others.

Ai figures out that Ulla believes that she is among the living and Kiriko confirms it. Ortus is a city of lies, but Kiriko does care for Ulla, although in a twisted way. He would see the entire world dead, and then Ulla would be free – her killing power would become meaningless in a world already dead. Remembering that her father didn’t want to be the last human left alive, she brings up this point to Kiriko. When all around her are dead and unaging, Ulla will be the one to grow old all alone. Kiriko loves Ulla and is sworn to protect her. Put in that same position, even Ai is unsure what she would have done.

However, Ai is certain that Ulla now needs to know the truth, even if Ulla ends up hating her for it. Diva takes Ai to the castle. Ai meets with Ulla in her room, and Ai tells her that she is half human and half gravekeeper. Ai tells Ulla the story of how she was unknowingly raised by the deceased, and how Ulla’s situation is similar. AI gently tells Ulla that Ortus is a city of deceased, and that Ulla herself helped to increase the population, by looking upon the living, speaking to them, or touching them.

Ulla writes on her notepad and asks Ai if she is Koroshiohake. Ai confirms it, but tells Ulla that her powers are necessary to allow the living to live in this country. Ai also tells Ulla that Kiriko has been lying to her, but only to protect her. Ai apologizes for telling Ulla the truth. Kiriko then enters the room, and tells Ulla that he doesn’t expect to be forgiven. But Ulla loves these two, and doesn’t want them to be sad. She admits that she had already known some of the truth. She knew that her eyes did something to people and she knew how hard people worked to hide it from her. Ulla didn’t exactly know what she was doing, but she never wanted to know either. Only now does she understand that she kills people. And they had always looked as though they had been set free afterwards.

Ulla asks Ai if death is a bad thing, but Ai cannot answer her, for she does not know. Ulla tells her that is perhaps why she is traveling, and Ai says that she might be right. Ulla admits that they are similar, yet different. Ai is free to spread her wings, and Ulla is caged, but it’s a cage she loves. And Kiriko is with her, to protect her, and be her friend. Ulla regrets that she can’t see Ai, nor can she hug her, and AI feels the same way. It was so sweet, yet so sad, the way Ulla used Kiriko to hug Ai.

Ulla wants to show something to Ai, and they meet Julie and Scar along the way. It was cute to see Ai look a little jealous when she saw that Julie had his arm around Scar. They are shown Celica Hecmatika, Ulla’s older sister that has been asleep since birth. Kiriko tells the story of Ulla’s mother, and how, during her labor, she wished that everyone would die. Ulla accepted her final wish and innocently gained the power to give death, while Celica rejected it and remained the way she is now – a sleeping infant.

Scar steps forward, and the barrier around the infant disappears. This is the one that has been calling to her! The baby suddenly cries, and Scar cuddles the infant to her. Surprising everyone, Scar claims the baby as hers. Accepting it, Ulla tells Scar to look after her sister. Soon the van is on the road again, with its extra addition. Ulla and Kiriko watch their departure from the wall, and Kiriko has his arm around Ulla. She leans into him and touches his hand. I wonder what other lives Ai will touch.

34

Wait… did I miss something?

35

Sounds to me that you missed scenes like the bathing scene in ep 1 and the utter ridiculousness of the “Oh, I have to change my clothes after I ‘fell’ in the river” scene. :slight_smile:

I’m getting a feeling that this show is trying to be a sort of Kino’s Journey, only I don’t think it can be anywhere near as good. If so, it might answer my question of “what would Kino’s Journey have been like if the show had opened with Kino’s backstory”, in a way.

36

Ah, so basically, the first two episodes. They didn’t put much focus on it, so it did past me up a bit.

37

Episode 5 (Sub) is live at ANO

38

So, the god in this world decided to be an asshole and blocked humans from creating new life and dying normally without the aid of grave diggers.

What happens if you’re the last grave digger left alive?

39

Except for the quasi-loli main character, the grave diggers are emotionally dead (well, they’re supposed to be but…) so I don’t think that being the “last man on Earth” would be something they’d get worked up over. They’re also constructs of the god in this show, constructs built to keep tabs on what’s left of humanity so my thought is that they’d be removed once the humans are gone (kinda sounds like Ergo Proxy when it’s put like that lol).

The god in this show decided to grant the wish of humanity to not die, giving them eternal life and youth, so I wouldn’t call that a bad thing; I’d take eternal life with eternal youth in a heartbeat Shoot, even after seeing that episode of Jonny Quest about eternal life without eternal youth I’d still take that deal so this god’s bargain is pretty good.

As much as I disliked episode 3, this show still did better than the similarly-premised Children of Men. :sick:

40

Did the show mention that grave diggers were the result of the god of this show?