21 year old Keiichi Morisato's life unfolds when he accidentally dials the wrong number. From out of the mirror Belldandy, a first class goddess, is sent to help Keiichi by granting only one wish - "no matter what it is." Accidentally, Keiichi wishes Belldandy to be with him forever.

Soon after, Belldandy's older sister Urd (second class goddess) appears from the heavens to play as the lovely Cupid; as twist of events occur, her plan soon backfires. Skuld, Belldandy and Urd's youngest sister (also second class goddess) appears from the heaven in an attempt to return her dear sister Belldandy back to the Heavens.

Throughout the anime, Keiichi and Belldandy come across many obstacles testing their love for one another. Do they have what it takes to go against the Gods? Or will their love force them to separate for eternity? Ah! My Goddess is an anime for those who love Comedy, Fantasy, Magic, and Romance.

Story & Playability

Have you ever imagined having a chance to make any wish come true? Think about it for a second if you haven't. All the kinds of tangible and untangible items you may want, like a large sum of money, world peace, or maybe power. I mean these are the most common categories that people would delve into but when you get down to it, a person's wish is much more down to earth and personal. Before you read this review, I would like to give you readers a task. Go out and ask one person, in all seriousness, if they had one wish, what they would wish for? Now this question would be better off asking from your significant other or confidant because they're easier to be serious with.

What I talked about above is pretty much the premise of this series and OVA. Before I go any further keep in mind the 6 episode OVA came first which was released in 1993 followed by the 2-season series. Coincidently enough both were named slightly different as well (OVA being named "Oh!" My Goodess while the series was "Ah!" My Goddess). Not sure if that was just a translation difference from then till now or if that was done on purpose.

Anyhow the series follows the main male protagonist Morisato Keiichi and Belldandy (a goddess first class) on their crazy hijinks and adventure with plenty of other characters. Now the the OVA was a romantic comedy of sorts but when you delve into the anime it didn't seem like one. It was more of just a plain episodic comedy with some small romance episodes thrown in. It was very disappointing when coming off the good feel of the OVA. The series just felt very disorganized with the writer(s) confused on what direction they wanted the story to go in. The OVA was a straight arrow as far as story. The moment you start til the moment you end, you can already tell that they had a destination for the story, as if you were playing a linear RPG where you can't stray from the main story at all. Not that it made the OVA bad, actually it was good that way.

Supporting the antics of Keiichi and Belldandy (some spell it Beldandy) are the Members of the Motor Club (which Keiichi is a proud member), Morisato Megumi (Keiichi's sister), Urd and Skuld (Belldandy's siblings, also goddesses), Peorth at various times and last but not least Sayoko. Now in the series (not the OVA) we're presented with another supporting character who is the male equivelent of Sayoko (Sayoko being the "trying-to-make-the-main-male-protagonist-fall-in-love-with-her" type) but with this guy, he's trying to get Belldandy to fall in love with him. He's actually a very annoying character. The moment he was introduced was the moment I stopped paying attention to certain episodes that featured him (yes I'm using pronouns because I can't remember his name). To me, he's the equivelent of Amachi from Ichigo 100%, for those who know who I'm refering to. This guy is the guy you just want to strangle if he was a real person. Granted, the fact I feel this way about this character could mean the character did what he was suppose to do, because thats pretty much how the main set of characters feel about him as well. We don't need two versions of the same character appearing in the series. One suffices to correctly rely the concept and reasoning. Sayoko is suppose to represent the "unrequited love" of the non-existent love triangle. I guess every series needs one.

The OVA being 6 episodes, didn't have a large cast list but I think thats for the better. It kept the story nice and compact, plus without having so many characters to create small backstories for, left time to help push the main story foward and help explain the main concept. The story itself was pretty good but it depends on which version you watch. Essentially both the series and OVA tell the same story but there are slight differences except for main plots like Keiichi buying the ring or the beach (both appear in the OVA and series).

In the end its up to your personal preference. I liked the compact version of the OVA better (I'll explain that more in the Presentation section). Story was unique with plot devices and settings but the characters followed your basic harem.

Rating: 6

Graphics

I get a sense of nostalgia when I see the art of the OVA than the series. I've always been keen on the older art styles but that doesn't mean I dislike any of the new ones. I just felt that the OVA art style is what defined Ah! My Goddess. Now I like the improvements made in series but I'll always have a special place in my anime-loving heart for the older style of the OVA.

Now as far as anime in general and how both series compare in art to other anime I would think they were good for their times. The OVA I think was one of the better styles at the time it was released (1993) and really showed some anime how good something can look. Now fast-forward 10 years and it becomes and outdated style. When the series was released (2006), it looked good but there were plenty of other anime released in that time that looked alot better. It seemed like this series had high production value (especially when it was approved for a 2nd season) that one would think some action movements and action sequences could've been drawn out better and use new technology to its limits. I feel they kinda held back a little because they might've had some reservations or something. I don't know, I can't pin-point what I mean here. This series wasn't meant to be an "action" series, however they had plenty of scenes that would seem on the contrary.

Overall the art of the OVA was great for its time and the series was okay but could've been better.

Rating: 6

Sound

I will freely admit now I've never watched either in Japanese. I actually felt content with the dubs (waits for the dub haters to bash him in). Now I'm neither for or against either Japanese or English. To me its whatever comes to me first. For instance if I find subs of the series first I'll watch it Japanese, obviously, but if I find dual audio or buy the DVDs (in the U.S.), ill watch it dub. For Ah! My Goddess OVA and series, I had the chance to watch it in dub, which I did. I wasn't disappointed at all.

Now when switching from the OVA to the series, I didn't care much for the series dubs because I was so used to the OVA dubs that the change bothered me. Yet I realized that the OVA was 13 year old, approx, when the series came out that I can't judge. There was probably no chance to get the same VAs to reprise there roles so I can't blame anyone for that. After a couple episodes I got used to the new ones and I haven't looked back. I still enjoy the old VAs from the OVA but the new ones are pretty good as well. By far my favorite VAs from both is both VAs who played Skuld. Both times it was exactly how I imagined Skuld would sound like. Now I didn't read the manga prior to any of this (barely started) but even just looking at the cover prior to watching the dubs for the first time, thats how I imagined Skuld to be.

Each English VA did well in their roles that it was all believable. I probably couldn't have done better than that in regards to both.

The music, like alot of series I've seen, has always been my favorite part of any anime (unless if you read my To Aru Majutsu no Index Review, that was an exception). The OVA had a solid opening and ending song ("My Heart, Your Heart" and "Congratulations") that I couldn't help but sing along a bit. With the changes in music since the early 90s you can definitely tell the difference in style. I've always felt that countries in Asia have been about 10 years behind in music and the OVA songs were no different. They sounded more like mid-80s music then mid-90s. Now bump up to the mid-2000 decade and the change is significant. I didn't get much into the ending songs from the series, it was more the opening music that I got hooked on. I still listen to "Shiawase no Iro", and probably will still continue to listen to it for a while. The bagpipes in the song just enhances it so much for me that it sometimes makes me want to learn how to play (hahaha). The bagpipes with the nice vocals provided by Ishida Yoko makes it for plesant listening. It also sounds like something Belldandy would sing (hah!). The endings just lacked in some solid opening notes that would typically hook me enough to listen more.

Music definitely a high point. Some may wonder about references to the soundtracks for both, sorry haven't gotten around to relistening to the BGMs so I can't say much at all on it.

Rating: 7

Fun

Ah, finally on to the final section. I'm sure some of you are wondering why I've rated the series as such thus far (example the music section when that was a high point). The reason for this is because they're combined scores for both the OVA and series. Since I can't quite submit seperated overall scores, I had to combine and average approximately where the mean of the scores would be. For instance in the art, I probably would've gave the OVA a 7 while the series would've gotten a 5. Average those out you'll get about a 6 (excluding decimals).

Anyhow past the math lesson, I'm for the OVA. In the battle between OVA and Series, OVA wins. For me its hard to get into series that is an off and on type with the stories. Meaning that some episodes connect and some don't. What made the series worse for me was the fact there was no real plot. As said before, it was a story with no destination. The OVA had a destination and it was able to create one because of the shortness of it. Being 2 seasons long, the writer(s) had to expand a story that just didn't have enough to do so. They were taking an inch and making a mile, unfortunately creating many accidents along the way. Sure each individual episode in the series can get entertaining but when looking at the bigger picture, it didn't mean much. I mean hell, being the leader of the demons, one would expect Hild to wage blood and war to take down Heaven, yet it wasn't like that. Think of it like this, take a real war with real bullets that kill, but in AMG terms, they took out the bullets and replaced them with paintball shells. Its a very naive way of looking at the constant battle of good and evil. They defined good and evil but they dummed down the evil part so much that they didn't seem evil at all, just a bunch of idiotic fools with too much time on their hands. As said before, the series felt unorganized.

The OVA has a set story and objective but the issue with the OVA is the questions left over at the end. True alot of series and ovas have questions by the end but when you have a set objective and you (as a writer of said story) know how its going to end, you should do as much as possible to answer all questions. Now it wasn't like Full Metal Alchemist where it had too many unanswered questions that they literally created a movie to try and explain it all, but the ending to the OVA was just enough that a special would've suffice; an epilogue of sorts.

When its all said and done, compared to the anime out there the series definitely lacked and wasn't as great as it could've been. Poorly written plots, no direction, and misuse of good characters led to its downfall. The OVA had a good story, good set of characters but with the lack of anything expanding past it leads to you begging for more when you know you won't get it (FYI the AMG Movie occurs after the OVA at some point but there's no explanation as to "when" it occurs or what happens inbetween). I will say this if you're looking for a good fix about what happens to Keiichi and Belldandy a couple years after their inital meeting, I suggest picking up the AMG Novel written by Tohma Yumi (Japanese VA for Urd in both the OVA and series). Its a really good book that kinda helps with the unanswered questions.

Ah! My Goddess, not a must see, but its worth giving a once through (the OVA maybe more than a once through).

Rating: 6

Final Verdict

6.1667 (average)

Reviewed by SaitoHajime101, Feb 01, 2010

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