Lampshade Hanging/Anime and Manga/The World God Only Knows

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Organized in the order of appearance. Citation(s) would be appreciated.

In the manga

  • Chapter 2, p. 19-23. Keima has a nasty feeling Elsie's a Lethal Chef. A double subversion: at first it looks like Elsie's cooked an Alien Lunch... then the reaction kicks in and Keima finds himself running for the toilet.
  • While following Mio (chapter 3, p. 20):

Keima: It's kinda troublesome to locate a house in the real world. There would usually be an icon on the girl's house.
Elsie: What do you mean, 'usual'?

  • Mio realises she's in a Cinderella story: "I should have realised the meaning of that pumpkin-shaped bicycle for today!!" (chapter 5, p. 2)
  • When Elsie realises she can track Kanon through her spirit sensor: "You should have told me earlier." (The anime renders it as "You should have remembered that earlier, you brain-dead demon.") (chapter 10, p. 5)
  • Elsie lampshades (chapter 13, p. 13):

Keima: If she [Shiori] is half-hearted, I will send a complaint letter!!
Elsie: To whom...?

  • Another from Elsie: "As always, you aren't scared to say things that can easily bring down the reputation." (chapter 14, p. 14)
  • Keima starts gloating about finally hearing 'the voices of the heart'. Elsie points out "You know... you were only told 'Stupid'." (chapter 14, p. 18)
  • Discussing the cause of Shiori's gap (chapter 15, p. 5):

Elsie: Maybe in truth she wanted to talk more.
Keima: I don't want that kind of conventional librarian.
Elsie: Who do you think you are, Kami-sama?

  • Keima on the runaway spirits' intentions: "I'm so disappointed about it being unexpectedly easy. There's little foreshadowing, little amount of weird proper nouns..." (chapter 24, p. 5)
  • "Your story already ended!! At least lengthen the gap a bit more! Get out!" Keima rants when Haqua reappears. (chapter 27, p. 5)
  • Keima on Haqua ignoring his protests: "This conversation is on the '90s girl game level! I can't take it anymore!" (chapter 27, p. 6)
  • The Capturing God is not happy with the terms of his contract: "With a task like this, normally, you only need about 7 pieces. Imagine 60,000 D-gon balls!! Or 60,000 chambers in the Shaolin Temple!! Who'd be willing to do that!!" (chapter 28, p. 5)
  • "Look at this school. Even though in games, schools have aliens, military and electric waves, those kinds of idiosyncracies, in real schools there is only so much as one hair color!!" (chapter 28, p. 7)
  • "What's up with those half-way parameters? She's exactly a middling girl among real girls..." (chapter 28, p. 12)
  • Keima really doesn't like Reality Ensues: "If they made a game like this, the company that made it would burn!!" (chapter 28, p. 16)
  • Talking to Nikaido about Jun Nagase (chapter 39, p. 15-16):

Keima: I see. You're not telling me about Nagase, because it includes something you don't want to say.
Nikaido: What do you mean 'I see'? What are you basing this on?
Keima: That happens a lot in games.
Nikaido: *stare*

  • Keima on Haqua and Yukie's relationship: "It's like a drama..." (chapter 48, p. 13)
  • Lampshading Compulsory School Age: "It seems like he repeated school, and now he's in the same class as his sister!" (chapter 51, p. 5)
  • How Elsie got the idea for a Light Music Club (chapter 54, p. 7):

Elsie: An anime I watched at night was using a classroom for practice.

Chihiro: You're a high-schooler, and you're still watching anime?

  • Chapter 55 lampshades the Unwanted Harem trope by pointing out neither Keima or the girls he's worked on want to get involved.
  • Chapter 60, p. 16: Keima rants about cheap character deaths when Yokkyun is 'killed'.
  • Chapter 63, p. 4: Diana prepares to continue Tenri's story. Keima proceeds to lampshade.
  • Ryou lampshades the power of I Have Boobs - You Must Obey!: "If Nora's breasts weren't so big, I wouldn't have followed her, though. That's the truth." (chapter 64, p. 7)
  • On learning goddesses require The Power of Love: "Aren't you embarrassed to say that?" (chapter 65, p. 15)
  • Paying respect to the Katsuragi ancestors (chapter 66, p. 8):

Elsie: Nii-sama should press his hands properly as well.
Keima: Should you even be pressing your hands together?

Elsie: Just like Kami-nii-sama, ne!
Keima: What do you mean by that!?

  • A ramen shop decides to close for the day (chapter 69, p. 10):

Elsie: It's a popular store. So why aren't they making more soup?
Keima: A simple, yet profound, question.

  • Keima tempts fate, fate seizes the opportunity, and Keima lampshades it. (chapter 76, p. 7-8)
  • Chapter 77, p. 9: "If everyone would talk that much with me, every capture would be a breeze!"
  • On Diana's Tsundere behavior: "Strong, then weak. How troublesome." (chapter 80, p. 4)
  • The series premise gets a lampshade (chapter 88, p. 5):

Elsie: But there's no reason for it to work just like in those games!
Keima!Yui: Is now the time to doubt it?

Keima: H-huh? I feel like I've been dreaming for a week...

  • "I'm again put behind the scenes..." Elsie moans. (chapter 96, p. 5)
  • Keima has a point: "That I would really approach the real world on my own is a big deal." (chapter 102, p. 13)
  • "That we have to go together... isn't this just like a capture operation?" (chapter 102, p. 18)
  • Keima wonders why Elsie would want to go on a ferris wheel: "Is this really interesting for you, despite your ability to fly in the sky?" (chapter 103, p. 8)
  • "The third time in this month... How often do I need to come here?", Keima remarks, on yet another visit to DezeniSea (chapter 105, p. 16).
  • On having to interrogate Keima's previous targets (chapter 108, p. 6):

Keima: Besides, it's strange to continue on like this, despite having finished the capture and seen the ending! It's normal to return to the menu after you're done with the capture and everything is reset! This is such a shitty game!

Elsie: Which 'normal' do you mean?

  • Chapter 112, p. 10:

Keima: I have seen a mountain of patterns like this one. In games.
Akari: That's also just an empty theory.

  • Keima on the basis for his latest theory (chapter 119, p. 5):

Keima: Two is more than enough! If you look at history there is plenty of precedent for that! In games.

Haqua: (thought balloon) He's really the sort of guy that only comes up with those lines.

  • Chapter 122, p. 18: (thought balloon) At least use different lines!!
  • Haqua says what we're all thinking (chapter 123, p. 6):

Haqua: It wouldn't be strange for you to get killed once they realize that you were five-timing them.
Keima: Hey, don't make fun of it!

  • On Haqua's unfamiliarity with a cellphone (chapter 125, p. 12):

Haqua: I borrowed it... but I have no idea how to use it.
Keima: She's a devil and yet she's full of ideas about how to interact with humans...

  • The power of Keima's latest event (chapter 126, p. 4):

Keima: Just wait and see. With this event, I will raise each girl's love points by 5!!
Haqua: How much is 5 points?

  • From Shiori's novel (chapter 128, p. 9):

Pierre: Simone, you're like the main character of a story.

Simone: Please stop saying things like that.

  • In chapter 129, p. 5, Yui comments on Keima's beauty mode: "You… make a good looking face sometimes."
  • Nora and Haqua are confronted with Keima's Insane Troll Logic (chapter 130, p. 17).
  • On Keima's Determinator nature: "This man just doesn't give up, even when I threaten him… He doesn't even flinch…" (chapter 135, p. 14)
  • Keima sizes up a captive: "I just hope that you're not some underling who nobody cares about." (turns to Nora) "As it stands, it should be very safe since she's just a clumsy moe girl." (chapter 137, p. 12)
  • Lampshading an invocation of Bridal Carry (chapter 137, p. 13):

Vulcan: I cannot move...... Carry me.
Keima: Just return to Tsukiyo and walk!!

  • Lampshading Webcomic Time: "It's only been three days, but it feels like we haven't seen each other for mooonths." (chapter 137b, p. 5)
  • Nora knows how Keima can solve things (chapter 138, p. 8):

Nora: Goddesses grow stronger with love, right? Isn't that your speciality?!
Keima: How do you know about that?!

  • Wrong genre for that True Love's Kiss: "This isn't a fairy tale!" (chapter 138, p. 9)
  • In Keima's opinion, his allies are not being helpful: "Stop talking like a low quality RPG game! Why don't you try walking in the shoes of the person being dragged around?!" (chapter 138, p. 10)
  • Keima assesses what they've learned: "There is no way of knowing just by what [she] said. That was just some useless foreshadowing." (chapter 138, p. 15)
  • "Getting pummelled and insulted. What kind of flow is this?" (chapter 139, p. 4)
  • Haqua realises she's been wrong-footed: (thought balloon) That was also acting just now! (chapter 139, p. 10)
  • Keima on the chapter's Running Gag: "Every last one of them..." (chapter 139, p. 12)
  • Haqua calls Keima out on his bastardry (chapter 139, p. 15).
  • Not only the God of Conquest, but the God of being conquered (chapter 140, p. 9):

Keima: If I become the heroine, Yui's love will definitely grow splendidly!
Haqua: Hey, hey. Are you for real?
Keima: Now that I think about it, I've conquered tons of heroines. I know more about the pattern of being conquered than anyone else.

  • Haqua reads Keima's mind (chapter 140, p. 13):

Keima: (thought balloon) I only want to be a heroine...! Not to become a girl!!
Haqua: Should've realized that from the start.

Lampshades in the anime

  • A bystander on Elsie's use of advertising balloons (s1, episode 1):

"Wow, advertising balloons. I haven't seen one in forever. But why are they skulls?"

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