ああっ女神さまっ (Ah! My Goddess)
Creator: 藤島康介 (Fujishima Kosuke)
One mis-dailed phone number lead to a goddess with one wish to grant. What do you wish for? "I want you to be with me forever!"
Ah! My Goddess is a popular manga series in Japan, and it is still ongoing. The series focus on the daily lives of Morisato Keiichi (the fortunate guy?) with goddess Belldandy, and her sisters Urd and Skuld. Life should be normal when you have three goddess living with you, right? Guess again.
On the animate front, a 5-episodes OVA was released in 1993, plus a movie in 2000. A brand new TV series is on the air since 2005.
Links:
Ah! My Goddess
Official Homepage by Pioneer Entertainment
Oh! My Goddess (OVA)
Homepage by AnimEigo
Ah! My Goddess TV Offical Site (in Japanese)
The OVA series (1993)
5-episodes OVA
NOTE: This is now the "alternate" version based on the manga, as the new TV series follows closely to the original manga.
Why do I talk about the OVA first instead of the manga? Simple: I watched the OVA first!
Considering the year the 5 episodes are quite well done by the animators. The first 3 episodes are "intro" for each goddess (Belldandy, Urd, and Skuld, in this order, same as manga) and the last 2 episodes deal with a little trouble between Keiichi and Belldandy (oh boy they are going to be separated!!)
It might seems the story got squeezed a bit, but the story itself is nice enough that you will probably not think about it. However, this OVA story is different from the manga, what happened within the OVA might not reflect the storyline in manga, especially for the last 2 episodes, which you will not find any reference to them in the manga.
The opening and ending songs are a must have for fans! They are really good! Performed by the 3 goddesses themselves (er... I mean the character voice people).
Dino's Rating: 9
Will Girls Like It: Maybe
The MANGA (1989 - present)
31 manga collections AND COUNTING!!!
I did not read it from the start first, because when I decided to give it a try, the 17th or 18th collection was already on the street. So I do have to wait a while before getting all the previous collections.
One of the things about the first 10 collections is that the characters looked really different then they look today. Probably Keiichi san changed the most, as the first version really, really looks like another person. Belldandy also look quite different back then. Overall, going through the whole collection you can see the refinements to the characters and quite frankly, the characters do look better in later collections, as well as to reflect the changes to their physicals, since it will be about 5 years now (up to 27th collection anyway) from the start of the story.
The other thing about those early collections is that the story can be a little bit "ecchi". Not that I have a big problem with that (hehehe). However, as new stories came out, it became clear that Mr. Fujishima can write great stories. Girls will like stories that deal with emotions and feelings, right?
Of course, living with goddess means your life will not be "normal", and that's what make it really funny to read it. You just have no idea what those goddess have things in store for you.
NOTE: If you go to your local comic store and try to find a English version of the manga, you should have a hard time finding "27 manga collections". It is becasue Dark Horse Comics, the license holder in North America, do not publish manga the way all comics are published nowadays (e.g. TOKYOPOP and Del Rey). They publish EACH CHAPTER like a standard North America comic book, which they should stop doing it. To make matter worse, Dark Horse never publish the early collections, which is absolutely irresponsible to fans. I only buy the Hong Kong version, and the translations are quite good.
Dino's Rating: 10
Will Girls Like It: Very likely
The MOVIE (2000)
105 minutes
In respond to fans' pleads for some "animated goddess" (long overdue!), a movie is released in 2002. Unlike the OVA, this time the story is tightly tied to the manga storyline, and featured numerous "new" characters from the manga not seen in the OVA series.
The story is superb, the animation is excellent, and even have some CG elements. Overall, a must watch for fans.
Let's hope the next one will not be another 7 years...
Dino's Rating: 10
Will Girls Like It: Possible
The TV series (2005 - )
26 episodes (so far...)
Finally, the goddess will be coming to your TV set in 2005!! (If you are in Japan that is) This will be the best thing happening to all goddess fans around the world since the movie release in 2000!
Dino's Rating: N/A
Will Girls Like It: N/A
Advantures of Mini Goddesses
48 7-minute episodes
I have not watched them one yet, but I beleive it will be a bit childish for me to do so.
If you are interested, go to the Official page (link on top of this page) and click the bottom part of the splash screen.
Dino's Rating: N/A
Will Girls Like It: N/A