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Shinigami No Ballad: Momo The Girl God of Death – Anime First Impressions

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Shinigami no Ballad is the other 6-episode anime that replaces Hantsuki in the same time slot. It seems like a good choice to follow Hantsuki, since this anime is also about death. Morbid? Yes. Entertaining? Read on to find out!

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Shinigami no Ballad is the other 6-episode anime that replaces Hantsuki in the same time slot. It seems like a good choice to follow Hantsuki, since this anime is also about death. Morbid? Yes. Entertaining? Read on to find out!

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Shinigami no Ballad tells the story of a cute loli Shinigami (death god) whose job is to take people’s lives. In this episode, Shinigami A-100100, or Momo, takes the life of a little girl by the name of Mai.

Mai is a sickly cute girl, and Kouta is a nice guy who walks her home every day. Doesn’t it seem like they share a Rika and Yuuichi dynamic? One day while they’re walking home, they come across an abandoned kitten. Rather than naming it Shii, they go with “Blue.” Mai and Kouta play “Mama and Papa” with it. What a cute couple! I’m just concerned that they might be taking things a little too fast.

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One day, Kouta decides to play with his other friends rather than help Mai take care of Blue. Mai goes in the soaking rain to feed Blue, and even gives Blue her handkerchief. Unfortunately for Mai, it’s the last time she sees her cat. The anime doesn’t really explain how Mai dies; I guess Momo just snuck up from behind and whacked her with that giant scythe of hers.

Angry at the death of Mai, Kouta decides to blame Blue, since Mai wouldn’t have been walking around in the rain otherwise. He leaves Blue at the park where they found him to die of exposure. That’s harsh! I thought Kouta was going to apologize to Blue that his “Mama” wouldn’t be coming back. Momo shows up to take Blue’s life, when Kouta has a change of heart. Then ghost Mai comes back to say goodbye to Kouta and Blue. Cheesy!

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As far as character designs go, Momo is pretty cute. She seems like a very atypical shinigami to me. Rather than just saying “please die” and taking care of business, she seems to empathise with her targets. Although she acted all tough in front of Kouta, she was a crybaby afterwards. I really find the Momo character interesting and unique. Her flying bat cat, Daniel, is also very cool.

The animation for this anime is good. Sure, there’s no action scenes, but there’s a lot of attention paid to detail. If you don’t believe me, watch the episode again and see how much Blue moves around even when he’s not the center of attention.

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The music for this anime is also really good. Both the OP and the ED are done by KOY (I think). The OP is a mellow, but it fits the anime. It’s also sung in English that actually makes sense! The ED is also a slower song that sounds very sentimental. It’s not my favorite song ever, but it’s not bad.

I also noticed that the music played during the episode fit well. The happy parts had cheerful music and the sad parts had super dramatic stuff playing in the background.

Download the OP: “no one” by KOY
Download the ED: “White Messenger” by KOY

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Overall, Shinigami no Ballad seems like a really well done anime. In the course of 24 minutes, I actually cared about the characters enough to be sad when one died. Although it was a bit predictable (I was hoping that Kouta would die as a crazy plot twist!), I still enjoyed watching every minute of it. Momo seems like a nice version of Jigoku Shoujo, ne? I’m looking forward to the next episode where we can hopefully learn more about Momo and her modus operandi. I wonder if the last episode will have a crossover with Hantsuki…

Further Reading: Shinigami no Ballad Manga

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5 replies on “Shinigami No Ballad: Momo The Girl God of Death – Anime First Impressions”

you stole the rips (they were made for kuroneko, for someone who dont like our subs you sure like our mp3)

Hey, K.Neko.

First off, I ripped the mp3s myself from the raw anime itself. The file sizes of the mp3s on your site and mine are different. If you want to get very technical, the CRC32 checksum of your OP file is 7D1A4C0B. Mine is BB0DECAC. For the ED, yours is C9BD24C7, mine is 638B4C66. For me to steal your mp3s and change the filesizes would be just as much work as ripping them myself (which I did).

Next, yes, it’s true that I find your fansubs inaccurate. I didn’t watch your fansub of Shinigami no Ballad; I watched the C1 anime version. I think they did a good job. Perhaps I’ll post a side by side comparison on the quality of your fansubs vs. C1?

I’m sure many people appreciate your efforts to bring quick fansubs out. I just have a distaste for them because they tend to be inaccurate. I watched your subs of Hantsuki because they were (and still are, I believe) the only ones for episodes 4-6. While I appreciate the work you put into it, I still think they were done poorly. This is my own opinion, you’re free to argue against it.

I don’t want to pick a fight with you, I merely wish to respond to your eloquent criticisms of my conduct. Next time you feel like insulting someone on their own blog, I suggest you do your homework. Most people don’t like being wrongfully accused of theft.

I wont discuss about it on animesuki so here is my reply

I’m not picking a fight either but i know for sure ending rip is not yours…especially with the fade out effect and checksums is an easy excuse…. ..probably also why this blog looks like a copy of Random Curiosity too ..

as for you finding us not correct, its your opinion, we are all free to have one and we force no one to dl our subs. We subs only for fun and our translators are japanese ppl so dont insult their work. Btw if you also check info online, titles are accurate, of course, we dont always LITERALLY translate things ..

i’m not accusing ppl like that without being sure coz i hate fights, it just gets me when ppl steal others work…

I’ll just reply once more to set some things straight:

I ripped the MP3 from the raw anime. If there’s a fade out effect in there, it’s because it was found in the anime. Listen to it yourself. Checksums are an easy way to prove that I’m right, not an excuse.

Unlike you, I don’t claim to “own” the MP3s that I rip. Anyone is free to download them from my site (using my own bandwidth) and use them for whatever they want. Do you know who deserves credit? The artist, not the computer geek who thinks he’s a leet hacker for ripping a song from a video file. It’s easy to do.

Is my site a copy of Random Curiosity? Lets see. I like Yotsubato, and supposedly he does too. My site is about anime, and his is about anime too. I guess you’re right, my site is a complete carbon copy…

Your titles are accurate? The first thing I noticed was the name of your file: Hanbu no Tsuki? Gimme a break! And the problem is that you do literally translate things. “Our Both Hands,” anyone!? Translating from language A to language B requires knowledge of both languages. Your Japanese translators are probably great. The QC on the other hand…

The bottom line is this: if you still feel like being mad about me supposedly stealing your MP3s, I’m fine with that. I’ve tried to show you that they are indeed not your MP3s, but I really have no reason to go further with this. I know I’m right, and I don’t care whether you believe me or not. Good luck with your fansubs. I do hope they get better with time and experience.

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