Welcome to the world of the Egyptian gods.
This is where the famous gods of Ancient Egypt, from Anubis to Thoth, live their lives freely.
How freely, you ask? Bastet appears out of nowhere, singing and dancing. Medjed is always stone-faced.
Horus works a part-time job. Set is devoted to pulling pranks. Ra's off traveling and rarely comes
home... All the Gods basically just do whatever they want!
(Source: Crunchyroll)
***MAJOR SPOILERS, READ AT YOUR OWN PERIL YE MEN OF LITTLE FAITH*** “Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does. It is up to you to give [life] a meaning.” ― Jean-Paul Sartre _Oh, Suddenly Egyptian God_ is that meaning. To label it simply as "anime" would be an unforgivable disgrace to the subject matter. It is far more than just a show, far more than art, far more than any fallible human concepts could frame. It simply is. It shall always be. Oftentimes we find ourselves concerned with the transience of life, with the purpose--or lack thereof--we find ourselves endowed with. We agonize over the smallest detail in our lives, wondering, thinking, dreaming. "Was it all worth it?" No one can truly say. We are not blessed with divine purpose, regardless of what one may claim. _Oh, Suddenly Egyptian God_ is different. Immensely so. It is an iron pillar in this ocean of despair. An oasis in the midst of desolation. Perfection, comparable only with itself. Just as the iceberg sunk the great ship Titanic, so shall this show create great faults in our society. The shortcomings of modern philosophy shall become apparent, and the world shall descend into anarchy. There is no more purpose, there is no more certainty. There shall only be people, alone in their desperation. They have seen the end, and it spoke Japanese. I have come to love myself for who I am, for who I was, and for who I hope to become. Yet even with that, I shall be nothing. Do not despair at your own inadequacy; it is only natural to find oneself lacking in comparison to the divine. Rather, be glad that you shall be outlasted by that which is far greater than yourself, far greater than any of us. Unlike _Oh, Suddenly Egyptian God_, we all die someday. To fear death is human, and so we have created institutions to assuage concerns of mortality. Religion and myth, heaven and hell, redemption and punishment. Now, there is no need for such institutions. There is no heaven after death, for we have already experienced heaven on Earth. I doubt you could even imagine it. That which commands the stars, giving life it's fullest brilliance. _Oh, Suddenly Egyptian God_. _Oooooooooohhhhhh, Suddenly Egyptian God_. Created, by someone or something. Don't tell me you don't see it. Look up at the sky. It burns. Yes, Indeed. It is called Egypt, where the transitory lands of the Gods converge. In venturing East, the pilgrims discover the truth of the old words. The fire fades. Thoth goes without eggs. When the link of fire is threatened, the bell tolls. Unearthing the Gods of Egypt from their graves. Thoth, saint of the eggs. Anubis, lord of the see-saw. And the reclusive god of the sun, Ra the Boatsman. The egg shall rise.
Sometimes, you just want a cute five minute gag anime that comes around every week, and Oh, Suddenly Egyptian God absolutely fits the bill. I wouldn't consider it a genre-busting example of the medium, but it definitely has a few things to recommend it, especially if you, like me, had a pretty strong Ancient Egyptian mythology phase when you were a kid. The character designs are the absolute stand out aspect of the show. They're very charming and distinctive, with the unified color pallet of gold, white, and black setting them apart from more candy colored mascot types. A friend of mine who teaches English in Japan mentioned seeing merch and how much the color pallet set it apart from a lot of other stuff. I wouldn't call it muted as much as... stately, perhaps, which is a fun contrast with the goofy antics the gods get up to. Aside from some more oddly-shaped characters like Medjed, Apep, and Sa-ta, the character designs kind of remind me of canopic jars, which is a cute nod to Egyptian design. If you're looking to this for a little edutainment about Egyptian mythology, it's not super deep, although it does more or less get the dynamics right. Thoth is the brainy one, Anubis is really good at mummifying things, Ra is everyone's goofy dad, Apep keeps trying and failing to kill Ra and spread chaos through the land, and Horus and Set have a goofy rivalry that is... perhaps less strange to modern eyes than the original myths. There's no weird stuff going on with lettuce, for one. There are some deeper pulls even discounting the ever-memetic Medjed, with Sa-ta and Otter being figures I had to look up to figure out who they even were... it's kind of cute that Sa-ta is a beloved idol in the show despite being relatively unknown even in the scholarship. I feel like the edutainment value is more in getting people to look up the various figures in the show and develop an interest in the subject matter rather than explaining it in great detail, which I can appreciate. As far as the actual comedy goes, it's a little hit or miss, perhaps. Some gags go on just a bit too long, and I'm not entirely sure where Bastet's characterization comes from aside from "cat." Which, fair. That is what cats are like. However, I did appreciate some references to Western comedy like the answer to life, the universe, and everything. It's the sort of thing that feels kind of old and overplayed in Western nerd stuff, but when it shows up in something from another culture with its own storied media history, I find myself delightedly pointing and going "I understood that reference!" Aside from that, I do wish it was more than ten episodes. The ending was kind of sudden! Which... is fitting. That's fair, Oh, Suddenly Egyptian God. I do hope that there is an equally sudden Oh, Suddenly Egyptian God Again or something along those lines at some point, though.