The Gorilla God's Go-To Girl

I didn’t know what to expect with such a peculiar title like The Gorilla God's Go-To Girl, but to my surprise, I found a light fantasy story with an unexpectedly well-executed romance. I had my doubts about watching this anime because I’m not a fan of stories where humans transform into animals. I can tolerate it to a certain extent (like in Fruits Basket), so I was worried about how the concept of blessings would be handled here. Thankfully, most characters keep their human form. Only one character actually transforms, and no, it’s not the female lead. The plot is fairly typical, an insecure girl suddenly gainsimmense power and everyone around her starts to take an interest in her. Despite that, it was surprisingly engaging. It’s not a reverse harem, which I appreciated a lot, the main character, Sophia, only shows interest in the male lead, Louis, and never wavers or plays around with others. That alone was refreshing, especially because I’m tired of unnecessary love triangles. On the downside, some conflicts were resolved way too quickly or in an unconvincing way, like the bullying toward Sophia, which was handled far too lightly. If there’s one thing worth highlighting, it’s the development of the romance between Sophia and Louis. It felt natural and is a great example of how a romance can be well-developed in just 12 episodes. I was genuinely surprised, especially for a shoujo, and it was nice to see a couple come together halfway through the story instead of in the last minutes of the final episode. That said, Sophia’s character was a bit frustrating at first. As a protagonist, she was too passive, always trying to go unnoticed or hide things, especially in the earlier episodes. Thankfully, she improves a bit by the end, and I have hope she’ll continue growing if we get a second season. I’m not familiar with the manga, so I don’t know how the story progresses there. As for the animation, it’s pretty basic, but honestly, it’s rare to find a shoujo anime with high production quality, so I wasn’t expecting much to begin with. Lastly, if you’re expecting constant battles just because Sophia joins the knights, you might be disappointed. The anime is more laid-back, with just enough action to support the story. But if what you’re really looking for is a solid romance with cute moments between the leads, a bit of comedy, and some fantasy sprinkled in, this could be a nice pick to relax with. It’s not a groundbreaking story, and it doesn’t have the best visuals, but it stands out for offering a sweet and drama-free romance between the main couple, and sometimes, that’s more than enough.

Good enough anime, but a bit too generic, it's hard to blend all these genres and themes into 12 episodes. The development of the couple's relationship is the main attraction of this anime, which is sometimes sidelined by the fantasy plot, so it is romcom heavy. In that regard it achieved what it wanted, can't say the same about the fantasy theme. The fantasy side of the anime was just the right amount and perfectly fine up except for the whole Daybreak plot, there wasn't really a need for it to be the main plot for most of the second half of the anime, it's too ambitiousfor a 12 ep anime that's trying to be both fantasy and romcom. Instead of the Daybreak plot there should've been something that doesn't eat up that much screentime and doesn't take over as the main focus in a few episodes, sometimes less is more. The romcom side was more focused in the first half but it was still present in the second half, it even felt a bit weird that the finale of the anime was more around the Daybreak plot, it felt out of place compared to how for the most part of the anime the romcom side was more focused, it was like 65-35. The characters were fine, they weren't too complicated and it's expected from a romcom, the couple had the chemistry and the rest just worked out, not too much to say about that. There are some really poorly animated scenes that I just have to mention. All in all it's a decent anime, 7 feels a bit generous, but it's definitely not a 6. Pretty easy watch, if you look for a light romcom that leans into the fantasy theme then it's recommended.

This anime made me realize I need to use my power of hate more so here I am. The Gorilla God’s Go-To Girl is a fantasy romance that for reasons I still don’t understand has a comedy tag. I didn’t notice anything particularly funny, but sure, maybe I just don’t get good humor. In this world, when you turn sixteen, you receive a blessing from an animal god. It can range from something totally useless to one of the most powerful beings. In this case, the Gorilla God is considered the strongest in terms of combat, and our heroine, Sophia, ends up with this blessing making herthe ideal candidate to become a knight. Which is exactly what she doesn’t want… When I first saw the cover (not the current one, but the original with just Sophia, Louis, and the gorilla), I assumed it would be more of a gag-comedy type anime. The concept felt fun and kind of absurd in an interesting way. But then I realized it was mostly a romance with light fantasy elements. Not what I was hoping for but still, it could’ve worked. Unfortunately, it didn’t. I’ll try to avoid spoilers, though most of my criticisms would be easier to explain with them. Let’s start with the characters. Sophia is, unfortunately, a blank-slate protagonist with barely any personality. She’s basically a doormat for half the anime, and in the other half, she tries not to stand out while somehow standing out more than anyone else. This type of character is everywhere, and I’ve never liked it. Sure, when I was reading Wattpad at 2 a.m. in ninth grade, it was fun but those were books written by other teenagers.This story was written by adults, so I expected at least some personality. She’s clearly meant to be relatable to teenage girls (it’s a shoujo web manga, after all), but she ends up being relatable to no one. The show presents her passiveness as kindness, but even in the moments where she could have shown genuine kindness, we don’t actually see it. That just makes her feel even more flat and underwritten. On top of that, I’d say she’s just plain stupid—some scenes genuinely made me question her ability to think, not just mine. As for the other female characters there’s not much to say. They contribute almost nothing to the story. Even though it doesn’t officially have a reverse-harem tag, it definitely gets close. Not quite there, but teetering on the edge. There are a lot of male characters. In stories like this, it’s common to rely on tropes—but that doesn’t mean the characters should be completely one-dimensional. You can write familiar archetypes and still give them unique traits or development. Want to write a kuudere love interest? Great just give him something more to work with. Sadly, that doesn’t happen here. The main love interest is as generic as they come: rich, handsome, admired by everyone, kind but unreadable. The rest of the cast follows suit: we’ve got the golden retriever-type guy (who, honestly, was the most enjoyable—at least we saw him struggle and grow a little), the kuudere, the flirt, and so on. You can probably guess all of them. They’re not the worst part of the show they just don’t bring anything new. And of course, they all love Sophia. She’s so special, so adored. At this point, just call it a reverse harem and be done with it. What bothers me the most is the wasted potential. The premise could have made for a solid show: a girl with a powerful blessing learning to control it, training to become a knight, with some sweet romance along the way. Nothing groundbreaking, but still a charming little story. But the knight training is rushed and barely explored. Instead, we get way too many episodes of the characters just wandering around or stuck in drawn-out romantic moments that go nowhere. Sometimes, an episode ends and I realize literally nothing happened. Even a basic slice-of-life anime feels more eventful. They could’ve added more training scenes, or moments where the main character actually struggles to improve. But nope she’s just naturally good at everything. The only character with real potential was the “villain.” He started off interesting, but was completely ruined within 15 minutes and turned into yet another shallow character. Visually, the world is cute bright, colorful, and generally nice to look at. But we mostly see the same three locations over and over, so… it gets dull pretty fast. Overall, this feels like a bad Wattpad story from 2015: a bland female lead who’s basically a Mary Sue, a bunch of love interests with barely any personality, a wasted villain, and a story full of empty scenes. Who might enjoy this? If you’re feeling nostalgic for old-school Wattpad romances and just want something average not good, but familiar this might give you what you want.