I've been watching the Ah! My Goddess TV series with my girlfriend who is a fairly big fan and collects the manga. She sent me the first volume of the manga while I was away at Denver and that's the only one I've read. I've also caught the some of the miniseries and some of mini-Goddesses so I'm not exactly new to the material.
For those of you who are new to the material here's the quick synopsis. If you don't want to be spoiled about the first episode or anything, uh, just ignore this post. Keiichi, a rather innocent college student majoring in mechanical engineering, makes a phoen call one night for pizza. However, his call is rerouted to the Goddess Helpline and, sensibly enough, the Goddess Belldandy shows up to grant his wish. He wishes that she stays with him.
The television series is sweet, sentimental, and doesn't take itself too seriously. It also has a terrific budget and is quite beautiful and is typically illustrated in great detail. That said, if you highly object to sentimentalism, this isn't your series.
For me the main appeal is neither Belldandy nor Keiichi, although I like both of them well enough. Instead it's the supporting characters: primarily Belldandy's sisters Urd and Skuld, but other supports like Keiichi's sister Megumi and the mechanics club members are also quite fun. Urd, the older sister, is scheming and far more worldly than Belldandy. Skuld, the younger sister, is a mechanical genius but still quite young and her attachment to Belldandy can lead to her being a bit of a brat. In many ways, Keiichi and Belldandy play straight-men to these two.
The series knows how to handle supporting characters well and manages to juggle a lot of them while at the same time rationing them so as to avoid bloat. Manga readers may be surprised how early many characters show up in the television version. Villainous characters are fairly secondary in this series, at least during the first season.
As for the romance? Well, it's sweet but neither Keiichi or Belldandy tend to behave in recognizably human ways. They're consistent, but they're consistently lacking in desires other than to make one another happy. Instead of "idiot plots" that would be instantly resolved if no-one was dumb, our main concern may be "lack of hormones" plots in which Keiichi encounters relationship trouble because he's basically asexual.
That said, all the interactions are fun and its great to watch with someone who enjoys snarking about the characters foibles. Urd also gladly provides some snark of her own. So that's it for now. In the morning I'll throw in my analysis of whether the series is problematic from a feminist point of view.
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