Online Keima Katsuragi is known as the God of Conquest. No girl can refuse him. In reality he is an intelligent gamer geek who cannot function in meatspace and spends his time playing dating sims. Game and reality collide when he replies to an email challenging the God of Conquest to conqueror the unconquerable girls. Elsie, a demon, shatters the sky and informs Keima that he just made a pact with hell. If he refuses both he and she will die. The challenge: capture escaped spirits from hell that possess the hearts of young girls. It should be a breeze for the God of Conquest after all.
Only Keima cannot even speak with a girl in the real world. He wants nothing to do with reality and it’s “poor buggy” design.
Keima comes off as a douche. He is manipulative and cunning with how we approaches girls. He acts fearlessly to discover the key to her heart. Nothing is off the play list. All his plays are taken from dating sims, so they don’t always translate well to comic effect. However, despite his manipulation he does genuinely fall for each of his conquests. Conveniently, they lose their memory of their encounter with him when he finally drives out the evil spirit with a kiss.
Elsie is a kind hearted demon and a little wonky. She becomes Keima’s younger sister and takes to the role with genuine affection for her strange elder brother. Her roles is to detect the demons and help Keima in his schemes. Conquests follow the stereotypes of dating sims, from sports to the shy librarian. However, each story is genuinely touching, and each of the girls are changed for the better. Keima simply helps them unlock parts of themselves they are trying to unlock but unable to.
Don’t expect action from this anime. It is all about social awkwardness, relationships and psychology. Animation isn’t extremely detailed or fluid. Many of the scene’s jittery style changes are jarring, but they do get the emotion across. The animation is acceptable for the most part. The characters are charming, except Keima of course. He has the entire douche look down pat, but the glimpses of his softer side would lose its impact if it wasn’t for the severe contrast to his everyday character. The music can be repetitive, like with the pop idol.
The series is ongoing so we have yet to see how it plays out. If you enjoy psychology and relationship humor, you will enjoy this anime.
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