Oh, Suddenly...note
"It's a bit sudden... but this is the world of Egyptian gods."
Oh, Suddenly Egyptian God (とーとつにエジプト神 Toutotsu ni Egypt Shin) is a Fall 2020 Slice of Life anime produced by Frontier Works and based on character designs by yuka,
that depicts the life of the deities of Egyptian Mythology... as cute little characters wrapped up in all sorts of fun shenanigans.
Season 1 of the anime consists of 10 short episodes, about 4 to 7 minutes in length and each divided into two halves. It began airing on December 7, 2020 in various platforms. You can watch the entire show on Crunchyroll here, and visit the official website here.
On August 1, 2021, it was announced that the anime will receive a second season; a January 2023 release schedule was announced on October 26, 2022. Episodes of Season 2 are 5 minutes in length, and are not divided into halves like in the first season.
Oh, Suddenly Tropes:
- 10-Minute Retirement: Season 1 Episode 8 has the Idol Singer Sa-ta announcing her retirement from the idol scene. However, pressure from her thousands of fans causes her to change her mind and go back to being an idol. Apparently this is only the 2752nd time this has happened.
- Abandoned Pet in a Box: Medjed finds an abandoned kitten in a box on the corner of the street while he's doing his daily walk. He ends up taking the kitten home with him.
- Advertised Extra: Sobek is shown in promotional materials for the show alongside the rest of the cast (including in the poster, as seen above), but he only ever appears as a background extra in Season One. He gets A Day in the Limelight in the second season.
- Art Shift: Thoth's Transformation Sequence into his Magical Girl form is animated in the style of the genre, with thin lines, detailed shading, humanoid proportions and sparkling background, before quickly reverting back to the show's usual style of thick lines and flat colors.
- Bland-Name Product:
- The gods use the photo and video sharing social networking site "Egystagram".
- Rather than Amazon, some boxes around the house are from "Nile" (both are names of rivers, after all).
- Book Ends: The series' first and final episodes have Medjed accidentally destroying a huge chunk of Egypt using his Eye Beams.
- Bottle Episode: The first half of Season 1 Episode 7 has Anubis, Thoth, Horus and Bastet inside while it snows, huddling around a kotatsu and doing nothing else for the entirety of the segment.
- Call-Back: In Season 2 Episode 4, Thoth corrects the narrator on his pronunciation of the word "pizza", just like he did in Season 1 Episode 3. He also ordered a pizza for the group to share, and stops Medjed before the latter can eat it all himself.
- Comforting Comforter: The other gods draped a blanket over Wenet, since it seems like he's not waking up from his nap and it's getting dark.
- Convenience Store Gift Shopping: Ra returns from his voyage and gives the other Egyptian gods some souvenirs in the form of tacky oversized graphic tees. No one likes the presents apart from Medjed, who is thrilled with his new shirt.
- *Crack!* "Oh, My Back!":
- Ra attempts to do a swing jump after the other gods, and manages a great leap before his back gave in, causing him to flop to the ground weakly and in pain.
- In the Season 2 premiere, he cracks his back while raising his arm slightly as he was delivering a speech, causing him to flop over. He has to be carried off-stage by Horus and Otter as a result.
- Creator's Culture Carryover: The gods do as much normal Japanese activities, if not more, as they do Egyptian.
- Day in the Life: The latter half of Season 1 Episode 7 focuses on Medjed's daily life. He wakes up, does some morning gymnastics, washes his clothes, then descends down to Earth to do his daily walk around the globe, before returning home to take a bath.
- Down on the Farm: Season 1 Episode 9 shows the gods hard at work planting rice in the fields.
- Don't Try This at Home: Immediately after Anubis jumps off a swing, and before the other Egyptian gods attempt to do the same, The Narrator makes a note that only Egyptian gods can jump off swings, and humans shouldn't try it out themselves.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Bastet, Horus, Apep and a few others appear briefly in Season 1 Episode 1, being in the radius of Medjed's destructive eye beams. Ra is also mentioned, although he doesn't appear.
- Failed a Spot Check: The third time Apep emerges from the sea to attack Ra, Apep can't find him even though he's sensing him... because Ra's boat is on top of his head, which slides off of him harmlessly and allows Ra to continue his journey, leaving Apep confused as to where he went.
- Formula-Breaking Episode: Season 1 Episode 6 takes a hard left turn from the usual slice-of-life formula of the show and instead tells a Phantom Thief/Magical Girl story, featuring Set as the thief, Horus as the detective pursuing him, and Thoth as the magical girl archetype to save the day.
- Funny Animal: The entire cast of gods (save Medjed) is based on the Egyptian gods with animal appearances. The gods with full on human appearances, like Osiris and Isis, do not show up.
- Funny Background Event: While Anubis, Thoth and Horus are hard at work planting rice in Season 1 Episode 9, Medjed is busy Chasing a Butterfly — and floats off into the air following it as it flies away.
- Furry Reminder: The entirety of Season 1 Episode 2 is dedicated to reminding the audience that, yes, the cat goddess Bastet behaves like a cat (i.e. she appears in the most random of places, gets bored so easily, and at one point she sleeps on and walks all over Thoth's laptop keyboard).
- Bastet is also the best at jumping off a swing and sticking the landing out of all the gods who tried it, because cats always land on their feet.
- Gratuitous English: In the Japanese dub at least, Thoth peppers his sentences with random English words such as "temperance" and "contingency" and "s'il vous plaît". Somehow his friends can completely follow through with what he's saying.
- Medjed calls his newly adopted pet cat "Princess".
- Hold Up Your Score: The other gods hold up 10's as Bastet makes her successful swing landing.
- Iaijutsu Practitioner: Attempted by Bastet in Season 1 Episode 2 against a single falling flower petal. She fails to cut it, and then throws her sword away in frustration.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Every episode is titled "Oh, Suddenly _____" (とーとつに_____). The blank is filled with whatever subject the episode is about.
- Informed Ability: Sa-ta is said to be a really amazing idol. However, she never actually sings in the show; the scenes of her being an idol only shows her fans cheering on her as she riles them up.
- Instant Home Delivery: The second Anubis closes his phone after placing his pizza order, Horus is already at his house with the order.
- Judgement of the Dead: Parodied. The famous ritual of Anubis weighing the hearts of dead people's souls against a feather is replaced with a see-saw. Anubis stands in for the feather of Ma'at at one end, while the souls (not hearts) jump onto the other end to weigh against him.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Despite his claimed IQ, in Season 1 Episode 2, Thoth says he doesn't know how to get rid of hiccups.Thoth: I'm afraid there are things that even a god of wisdom doesn't know.
- Lame Pun Reaction: Thoth isn't all too happy when Ra gifts him a shirt depicting the Japanese prefecture of Tottori (a pun on his name; Thoth-ori) upon the latter's return home.
- Long Speech Tea Time: Exaggerated. Ra's opening speech at the banquet ends up being so long that the gods decided to move on with the rest of the events anyway, while he's still talking. He only finishes his speech just as the party's about to wrap up and end.
- New Year Has Come: The final episode has the cast preparing and holding a banquet party to celebrate the New Year, with a talent show and a special concert from Sa-ta to wrap it up.
- Odd Name Out: The cast of characters include Anubis, Thoth, Bastet, Horus... and Otter. Which is a deity in the form of an otter.
- Overcomplicated Menu Order: Invoked by Set, who visits Horus' restaurant (wearing shades for disguise) and tries to trip him up with an overly long order, repeatedly canceling and un-canceling requests for menu sets. Horus manages to complete everything in time with the help of Otter.Set: Can I get, uh, the A combo, the B combo, C combo, um, a bowl of katsudon, the hamburg steak, some curry, some koshary, um, actually cancel the C combo, and add some fried rice and stir-fried liver and onions, hold the onions, some fried chicken, beef udon, hold the noodles, oh, and for the katsudon, could you hold the katsu and do double rice? And then some fried eggplant, then cancel the fried chicken, and some stir-fried vegetables, and then also some ramen and dandan noodles, and actually throw in that C combo again and add the D combo, and then the grilled fish meal and some Peking duck with fried rice and lettuce. And on second thought, make that katsudon heavy on the katsu! And I'm short on time, so make it snappy, please.
- Overly Long Gag: The entirety of the first half of Season 1 Episode 2 has Anubis accidentally finding Bastet in various places in his home. The entirety of the second half is dedicated to showing Bastet being bored out so quickly with everything she's doing.
- Physical God: The entire cast consists of Egyptian deities.
- Pit Trap: One of the pranks Set tries to use on Horus. It fails when Otter intervenes.
- Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: In the season two premiere, Anubis and Thoth got engaged in an argument, and all because the former ate an egg first before the latter. It took an hypnosis-induced sleep to get the two to reconcile.
- The Reveal: Three episodes later, it turns out the secret Thoth was talking about in Season 1 Episode 3 is that he can transform into a Magical Girl archetype.
- Rule of Three: Sobek and Medjed are shown moving through the waters three times; the first two times we see Sobek swimming and Medjed floating in a box, while for the third time, Medjed is riding on top of Sobek as they cruise together.
- Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: Happens often in the show. Also, every time the Eye of Medjed gem is shown in Season 1 Episode 6, it's accompanied by Medjed's voice actor saying the "gleam" (きら) sound effect.
- Scales of Justice: Replaced with a see-saw instead, although still serving the same purpose.
- Seesaw Catapult: While Thoth, Anubis and Medjed are playing with the see-saw in their off time, Medjed jumps on the see-saw a bit too hard and accidentally launches Anubis high into the air.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: The first half of Season 1 Episode 3. Thoth and Anubis get hungry and decide to order some pizza, and then they open the box... only to find Medjed somehow already inside, stuffed after he Ate It All.
- Slippery Skid: Set attempts to use a Banana Peel to slip up Horus. Subverted when Otter arrives to the rescue wearing ice skates, turning Horus' mishap into an impromptu pair figure skating scene.
- Shout-Out:
- Medjed asks Thoth about the answer to life, the universe and everything. Thoth's answer is about what you would expect.
- Horus falls into Set's Pit Trap while riding a bicycle, but then Otter saves him and throws him back out, ramming into Set on the way out and putting him inside the bicycle basket, accidentally reenacting a scene straight out of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, with the moon and everything. Even though it was daytime just a few seconds ago.
- Set's Phantom Thief attire in Season 1 Episode 6 greatly resembles Kaito Kid from the Case Closed and Magic Kaito series, with the white top hat, cape, and all.
- Shown Their Work: Zig-Zagged between this and Sadly Mythtaken. The show portrays the stories and characters of Egyptian mythology in often comedic yet somewhat accurate depictions:
- Anubis judges dead people's souls with a see-saw instead of a set of scales, although Thoth accompanying him and writing down the results is accurate to the myths.
- The deity Otter is most likely based on otter statues found in Egypt such as this one; the otter is thought to be one of the Animal Motifs of the goddess Wadjet, along with the cobra.
- Horus and Set's rivalry is shown, although only to the extent of Set pulling pranks and practical jokes on Horus.
- The Journey of Ra is referenced, although Ra sails through a body of water instead of through the sky like in the original myths. Him being the father of the gods and Apep being his archenemy is also referenced.
- Played straight with Medjed's segment in the second half of Season 1 Episode 7; the papyrus artwork shown during Medjed's description is a straight recreation of one of the two pages of the Greenfield papyrus◊ that depict him.
- The goddess Sa-ta is invoked in spells written in Ancient Egyptian texts such as the Papyrus of Ani, which describe the serpent known as "Sata", having an infinite lifespan of dying and being reborn every single day. The show spins this concept into her quitting and returning to the Idol Singer scene over and over, for 2752 times and counting.
- The god Khnum was said to be responsible for creating humans by sculpting them with clay at a potter's wheel. Khnum in this series is simply a master teacher at pottery, teaching the other gods how to make ceramics, using a potter's wheel as one of the tools of trade.
- The deity Wenet is associated with fertility, which is shown when he helps replanting crops and growing them overnight with his powers. However, Wenet in the myths is a female deity, whereas in the anime he's referred to as male. Additionally, Wenet's ritual for blessing the crops is distinctly Shinto in origin.
- Snot Bubble: Seen in the Eye Catches for Season 1 Episodes 4 and 6, with Bastet, Thoth, Medjed and Anubis. The second time around, Medjed is shown floating up into the air with his own bubble.
- Wenet is shown with this in Season 1 Episode 9, as he dozes off the entire day. At night, it pops and he wakes up.
- Talent Contest: A quick one during the party in the final episode. Thoth juggles some colored eggs, Anubis does his high speed mummy wrapping technique, and Horus' turn was interrupted by Set and the two end up fighting on stage before Otter whisks them off to the back.
- Talking with Signs: A variant. Otter doesn't verbally speak, but they have a sun disk above their head, which doubles as a Speech Balloon, filled with either phrases that they would've said out loud or sound effects related to the things they're doing. An example is "どぞ" note as they're serving Set his meal or handing Anubis a phone.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Medjed tries to catch a scorpion, but it keeps evading him, so he gets berserk and just Eye Beams the scorpion, which ends up vaporizing it, along with the entirety of Egypt in the process.
- Unknown Rival: In Season 1 Episode 5, Apep shows up repeatedly to hinder Ra's journey, but every time he just gets ignored as Ra goes on his way.
- Watching the Sunset: Khnum and his students gaze upon the setting sun, feeling satisfied that they've finished refining and perfecting their pottery craftsmanships. Subverted when Khnum subjects them to even more pottery classes.
- Who Will Bell the Cat?: Downplayed. In Season 1 Episode 7, the gods ran out of oranges, but everyone is too cozied up inside the kotatsu that no one wants to go out and get more.
- You Say Tomato: Thoth corrects his peers on their pronunciation of the word "pizza" (the English "pit-za", as opposed to "piza" which is more common with Japanese tongues).
