[Sackett]

Interesting.

I consider TWGOK to be a light-hearted parody of moe, not anti-moe, and not pro-moe. More of an affectionate mockery of moe. So we get to have our cake (moe girls) and eat it too (laugh at the silliness of it all).

I will admit the anime so far has toned down the mockery quite a bit, but it is still there. For example in this episode when Keima was complaining to Elsie about the proper traits of a sidekick character and Elsie replies that it makes Keima the perfect sidekick. Keima then gets angry at Elsie making herself the main character.

Except, that you could easily see this as Elsie being the main character. She has a quest. She's a bit of a bumbler, but is making up for it through determination and by recruiting a competent sidekick...

That's some good meta humor there about the silliness of the "normal" male main character at the center of the Unwanted Harem genre. Why is he never interesting himself? How does such a boring character become the center of a show? It's always the sidekick characters that are interesting. But not in TWGOK.

I think the extra episodes are fine from a pacing stand point. I don't mind giving three episodes to Kanon and Shiori. My concern is that the arc I wanted to get to would make a really good hook to draw viewers in for the next season, and would be something fans can point to to show that this is more than just a moe show- thus allowing word of mouth to be more effective at drawing in new viewers. If we could go 14 episodes and get it all in I'd be perfectly happy.

Unfortunately it appears they will not be doing that.

Still the second season is already planned, so we'll have to wait for that to set the hook- it's just I'd prefer for the hook to be set in the first season. I think even people who are enjoying the current arcs can understand this concern.