Ah! My Goddess - From the amazing OVA to bad fillers
I have planned to write about the whole franchise some time now, but just haven't got inspiration to do it before. Partly due to disappointing second season. I took most pictures from Wikipedia, few links to original articles.
I'm sure most of you know the story here, but just in case short summary: Keiichi calls accidentally to the Goddess Hotline and gets one wish, he wish that Belldandy stay with him forever. After that they start living together.
Oh! My Goddess
The movie may have better plot, but emotional side in the OVA reach higher level if possible. First three episodes are mere introductions to characters, but last two are the reason why I rate this so highly. The animation may seem ugly (old) to some, for me that's beside the point when content is this good. I don't think there is any particular factor for that, everything just fit together perfectly. Goddess Family Club singed both OP and ED, I wish they would have done more songs later, but unfortunately not.
I like all kind of love stories and drama so this one hit the right spot, if you think same way OMG OVA is a must watch.
Rating: 9-
Adventures of the Mini Goddesses
This chibi comedy has a setting that's just the win. As you know chibis are awesome and combined with goddesses from AMG it's double win. The pacing is rather unusual, but 5 minutes per episode is perfect for this kind of show.
I have rewatched some episodes and the amusing content is still there, mini goddess certainly is timeless series that's enjoyable to watch once in a while. Gan is also great character. In some episodes with Urd's help he try to find love, but not with good luck. Sometimes a kettle he loves decide to abandon everything for sake of another household item or pink girl rat eat him while kissing. =) Poor rat.
Rating: 8,5
Ah! My Goddess - The Movie
When it comes to plot and action scenes this's one of best anime movies I have seen. The beginning is slow as always, but things just keep getting more awesome closer the end is. The last battle is magnificent, females with spells and other that kind of stuff have always been an exception for me in otherwise quite boring action genre and this one follow the rule. Magical women FTW!
Also the main focus here recalls myself why I liked AMG begin with, it wasn't because of storyline that keeps getting worse every time they add new girl to harem. Instead of that I want to see development between Belldandy and Keiichi, it's ironic that one movie does it better than countless fillers. Overall AMG Movie is perfect combination of romance, drama and action, watch it now in case you haven't already.
Rating: 9-
Ah! My Goddess TV
Still watchable, but already starting to show signs to worse, Belldandy felt almost like fighting robot maid. It's not like having a personality hurts, you know?
Rating: 7
Ah! My Goddess: Everyone Has Wings
Here things start to fall apart, most likely Inoue Kikuko was only reason why I bothered to continue. I don't remember exact episode, but after the beginning I lost my main interest to watch more. Nothing really happens, but more importantly it's not interesting anymore.
Rating: 6
Manga
My experience with manga is rather random. I have volumes 21, 22 and Adventures of the Mini Goddesses in the bookshelf. From scanlations I have read first volume and some random chapters, not much though. It felt bit too fanservice-ish at times and I don't have motivation to read such a long story, Fujishima probably don't finish the manga anytime soon.
Characters
Belldandy
As I said before Inoue Kikuko has done enormous job with her character, perfect voice actress for Belldandy. And the look of course, I would be lying saying that doesn't affect to my liking at all. Her personality on other hand is mixed bag. While I like to see certain naivety in anime characters in this case it's bit overdone. It's okay to be angry or jealous sometimes, not just keep saying that everything is fine. It's too monotonous in long run.
Skuld
Same way as with Belldandy the voice actress is also excellent here, Hisakawa Aya has done other roles as Misuzu's mother in Air for example. For her character type, tsundere, she's surprisingly likeable. In addition to voice I like her obsession to build various machines, Banpei-kun would be useful robot to have.
Urd
Compared to Belldandy and Skuld I don't like Urd as much, she doesn't have interesting enough personality for that. Not to say she is boring, just decent. Her lighting strike is quite impressive. =)
In conclusion the way things are now unless they make another movie or more chibis I'm not going to watch new Ah! My Goddess episodes anymore. Yet another series ruined with too big episode count.
posted by Anga at 7:28 PM
7 Comments:
I wholeheartedly agree - the high episode counts of today's anime series are really killing them. Way too much filler, with too little substance whether it be in terms of plot or character development. You see the same thing happen in Blood+ (though in a different fashion, rather than having filler episodes they simply drag the plot out over 52 episodes when they only needed half that at most). This kills the emotional impact of the series. Ah well, I guess I might as well start "harking back" to the days when anime was good, right?
Not sure if all shows in the past kept it short, but yeah. Too many anime stretch the content.
It's a soap! It'll never end.
Probably not.
So manga went even backwards? I have to admit that's first time hearing that kind of thing.
It hasn't regressed quite THAT badly yet - after all, they DID introduce Urd's mother just a few volumes ago - but at the same time, everyone else BUT Keiichi and Belldandy are moving on with their lives. Skuld looks older, and she's actually discovering relationships outside her family (thank you, Sentaro), while Urd's starting to come more to terms with her own other half... mostly after dealing with Dear Old Mother.
At the same time, though, Belldandy's not quite as forward as she used to be - the Volume 3 'warm his lips' thing's kinda vanished somewhere in the past 10-12 volumes, although at the same time they're quite happily partnered, and the main progress seen in the most recent English-translation volume is that Keiichi's admitted to his folks that he's got a girl who he's living with, when way back during Megumi's visit he was panicking about them knowing about such a thing.
Two steps forward, one step back is how I'd rate the manga now - after Volume 15 or 16, things just started dragging a bit... and unless you're willing to look at other stories in that universe, you're bound to be disappointed.
Yeah, I probably would be disappointed since main couple's relationship is main attraction for me. Other characters's development is always nice of course, but not enough to keep me reading it.
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