The Gorilla God's Go-To Girl

This series is set in a world where, at the age of sixteen, people receive an 'animal blessing'. Protagonist Sophia Reeler is surprised, and not initially pleased, to receive the rare blessing of the Gorilla God; this makes her incredibly strong as well as fast and agile. This leads to her becoming a trainee knight. This in turn leads to her meeting and befriending Louis Scarrel; a particularly popular knight. As the series progresses they become closer and she gradually comes to terms with her blessing. She and her friends later found them confronting revolutionaries who are determined to overthrow the establishment.

I thought this series was rather fun, if not in the way I was expecting. It is more of a romance than the fantasy adventure I expected. That isn't to say there is no action; there is a decent amount and it increases as the series progresses. The characters are likeable; especially Sophia who is a good lead. The story plays out nicely leading to a solid finale. Overall a fun series; perhaps not a must watch but it passes the time nicely if you are looking for something light.

These comments are based on watching the series in Japanese with English subtitles.

The idea is nice at first glance (but nothing more), but poorly executed. The teenager is given powerful powers and thus becomes integrated into the system. The animation is once again rather cheap, with far too few interludes, resulting in a very halting, slow flow, but a lot of still images. The backgrounds are also rather poor.

The series has two main characters. The first is the protagonist. A whiny person who, even as one of the two most powerful figures in the world, remains a shy deer who must be protected by her significantly weaker prince. The image of women conveyed is awful. The character is built up only to be completely dismantled, especially in the finale.

Even worse, however, is that the protagonists are on the completely wrong side. They want to defend law and justice - but what they are actually protecting is the status quo. The rich, the powerful, the nobles. They don't care about the common people. Those who want to change that rotten system are turned into criminals. The the taken path may be wrong, but the intention is understandable, and morality is on her side. But we ignore morality as long as there are fairy tales with beautiful dresses and princes. I thought we'd be further along by 2025.

This is a super cute anime, with laughs, action, romance and magic.

The characters are fun, likable, and bring great comedic relief.

The gorilla god is another character that shares these qualities, which I found extremely surprising, but have throughly enjoyed. The main character who is a heroine is also quite fun, and relatable. Her reactions to events range from hilarious to heroic, she has a lot of great of qualities.

Needless to say, if you are looking for something fun to take a break from another series, I recommend this show. It's easy going, and interesting. I have really enjoyed watching it.

Sophia, a shy girl who lacks confidence, is blessed by the Gorilla God and suddenly finds herself over-powered. She wants to hide in the background, but given her new powers, she is ordered to try out as an apprentice knight. Her plan was to deliberately fail and return to obscurity, but when she sees a very handsome knight, she decides maybe she will try after all.

What follows are a number of funny slap-stick moments caused by her new super strength. Her low self esteem gradually improves as she makes new friendships among the knights. The romance that develops is innocent and sweet. There is also some light action, often with a humorous twist.

The animation is straight forward but competent. The voice acting is good.

When you are in the mood for some light entertainment, I recommend you give this a try.

At first, I thought, "How original! A society where, at 16, you're selected by a spirit animal (?) and from then on, you acquire the spirit animal's virtues (super speed, flight, strength, even the ability to create spider webs), I'm sure it's hilarious." And, well, while it's entertaining to watch, it wasn't what I expected :(

1. I thought that each character's individuality would be explored much more by having different animals, that these traits would be more present in action moments, and that they would be the humorous point throughout the series. This happens very rarely; most of the time, it seems like a normal series about teenagers who go to an academy, and whether or not they have the powers of an animal doesn't matter.

2. I thought Sophia was going to exploit the gorilla's power much more in everyday life. She only breaks a few things at the beginning and little else.

3. The ending... (SPOILER) I thought episode 11 was very good. It really addressed the issue of how the selection of the animal can radically change your life made perfect sense. Talking about poorer areas and the difference in status quo between nobles and commoners was something I didn't expect and I was pleasantly surprised. I understand the point of the rebellion, and Leohart's story moved me. Problem: His behavior toward Sophia causes him to lose the viewer's support, as he seems more driven by the morbid curiosity of having her than by his social cause, which, again, seemed like an incredible plot twist to me, what a pity. Also, the main characters don't even mention anything at the end, like, "We have to fix this; thanks to what's happened, we've opened our eyes." Nothing-at-all. (END OF SPOILER)

Let's also talk about the positives!

Finally, a love story that doesn't take 12 episodes to just hold hands! I liked the chemistry between them; it's more serious and adult than in most animes.

I would recommend this anime if you want to unwind and not think too much. It's entertaining to watch, and you don't have to think too hard.