The Series (3/5)

    OK, so it's not often I jump into a series in the middle or end of it's run.  However, The World God Only Knows: Season 3 Goddesses ended up in my review pile, and with an innate desire to watch anything remotely interesting I queued it up the second I had the time.  My rating above is a 3/5, and normally I wouldn't call into question my own score, but I will be forthright in admitting I enjoyed the series for what it was, but as I jumped into the series without the knowledge of the prior 2 series and the OVA I felt that I was truly missing something that may have further improved my viewing of this series.

    The premise of The World God Only Knows is basically this a teenage boy Keima, who is a very skilled gamer, is tasked by an entity named Elsie to help retrieve ancient demons from the bodies of young women, by making them feel love for him.  I should clarify that the type of games, that Keima excels at are a certain type of romance-strategy game which involve successfully picking up girls, whereas in real life he lacks that particular skill, and must now develop it to excel in his demon-hunting.  The first 2 series apparently show him developing this skill, and defeating the demons. This series, however, sees Keima having to go and retrieve 6 souls of a group of entities known as the Jupiter Sisters. These souls are trapped in the bodies of his prior conquest, and thus remember him from their prior interactions.

     The World God Only Knows 3: Goddesses is an effective blend of comedy both physically, and in the tone of the series itself. It also offers compelling character drama, as the show takes it's premise quite seriously, and offers nicely fleshed our characters who interact with each other quite well.  I do think there would be more depth to the characterization, especially those between Keima, and his prior "conquest" had I seen the prior seasons first, but what I was able to pick up on had a certain compelling dramatic intensity.  The series itself has a wonderfully bright and stylized animation style that fits the tone of the episodes quite nicely.  The story arc that runs through the series also makes the episodes more compelling than watching individual narratives in each episode.  Looking at the cover to the Blu-ray, I was not expecting much, but those expectations were easily exceeded, and then some.

Audio/Video (4/5)

    Sentai Filmworks presents The World God Only Knows: Season  3 Goddesses with a splendid 2:35:1 AVC encoded 1080p transfer that preserves the original aspect ratio of the show  quite nicely. Colors are quite solid and detail for the most part is excellent.

     Sentai has presented the series with 2 audio tracks a DTS-HD MA 2.0 track in English and Japanese. Since dubbing drives me crazy (unless I know that's all that is available),  I primarily stuck to the Japanese track.  However, both tracks are quite good and serve the show well.  The dialogue, score, and effects come through nicely, and I did not detect any instances of pops, cracks, or hissing on the tracks.

Extras (1.5/5)

    A clean opening and closing are included, also previews for other Sentai titles.

Overall

    Although I feel the series would have had a greater impact had I been more familiar with it going in, The World God Only Knows Season 3 was quite a pleasant surprise, and I ended up enjoying the Goddesses arc for what it was. The Blu-ray looks fantastic, but like most Sentai titles has limited extras. RECOMMENDED.