![]() His dark side is revealed through his growing obsession with Yui, the protagonist, whom he love has fallen in love with because of she is impervious to his godly charm. The negative aspects of Baldr’s personality and his identity as the god of destruction is only revealed later in the series. The most interesting change is his dual personality, as he has a dark side which is a result of his aspect as god of destruction. The changes made to Baldr’s character in the anime, in comparison to myth, are to make him more human and less perfect – he is very clumsy and not wise. Similarily in the anime not only is Baldr physically beautiful, kind and good-natured, but the power of light means that all people and things in the world are drawn to and charmed by him. ![]() Baldr’s godly aspects affect his characterisation his personality traits associated with his identity as god of light is closely related to his depiction in the Eddas: in the Gylfaginning he is described as the ‘best of men’, he is beautiful, wise, and beloved by all. In Kamigami no Asobi each Norse god is associated with an element Loki is god of fire, Thor is god of thunder, and Baldr is god of both light and destruction. Image from the official Kamigami no Asobi website. Yes, all the gods were given random surnames. ![]() While I am by no means an expert in either mythology or popular culture analysis, I thought it would be interesting to take a closer look at how this series represents two Norse gods, Baldr and Loki, and their relationship in comparison to their myths told in the Eddas.* The Norse gods include Baldr, Loki, and Thor – though Thor’s character bears little relation to Norse mythology. Zeus tells Yui that she must help the gods learn or else be trapped forever. The protagonist, Yui Kusanagi, is a human girl who has been transported to a world where Zeus has brought together (read: kidnapped) a group of Greek, Norse and Japanese gods to learn about humanity and love. The nature of this game genre influences both the story of the anime series, the choice of characters and how they are portrayed. Otome is a female-oriented genre in which romance is a major element, where the player character chooses one (usually male) character to pursue a relationship with. Kamigami no Asobi is a Japanese anime series based on an otome game of the same name (see a thorough game review here). I recently watched Kamigami no Asobi (2014) and was intrigued by its interpretation of Norse mythology.
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