The Essentials
Name: Oh! My Goddess, Ah! My Goddess, Aa! Megami-sama!
Genre: Romance, Comedy, Fantasy
Episodes: 5
Released: 1993, 1994
Based On: Oh! My Goddess manga by Kosuke Fujishima
Director: Hiroaki Gohda
Produced By: AIC
Cast
| Character | Japanese Cast | English Cast |
|---|---|---|
| Belldandy: | Kikuko Inoue | Juliet Cesario |
| Keiichi Morisato: | Masami Kikuchi | Scott Simpson |
| Urd: | Yumi Touma | Lanelle Markgraf |
| Skuld: | Aya Hisakawa | Pamela Weidner |
| Megumi Morisato: | Yuriko Fuchizaki | Amanda Spivey |
| Tamiya: | Kiyoyuki Yanada | Mark Matney |
| Ootaki: | Issei Futamata | Sean P. O’Connell |
Review
Keiichi is a loser to attends college at Nakomi Tech. One day when watching over his all-male dorm, he calls a wrong number when trying to order delivery and accidentally dials up the Goddess Help Line. As a result, Belldandy, a goddess, comes down to grant Keiichi’s wish. Believing it’s a joke set up by his dorm-mates, Keiichi wishes for Belldandy to be his girlfriend forever.
Unfortunately (or fortunately) for him, it isn’t a joke, and suddenly Belldandy has to stay with him forever – backed up by the power of Heaven’s “system force.” Also, girls aren’t allowed in Keiichi’s dorm, so when his dorm-mates return to find a beautiful woman with Keiichi, they kick them both out, forcing Keiichi to ultimately find refuge in a nearby temple, with the help of Belldandy.
After a while, Belldandy’s older sister Urd comes down from Heaven in an attempt to spicen up their relationship while her younger sister Skuld comes down in an attempt to persuade Belldandy to come back home. However, things soon start to go seriously awry around the temple, and it appears to be because of Belldandy’s presence.
The main weakness of this series may be that it is so short and compact – 5 episodes and about 2 1/2 hours of video time. The first half of the series, consisting of the first three episodes, introduces all of the important cast and is more of a comedy as Belldandy and Keiichi live their lives. The second half of the series – consisting of the last 2 episodes – is more of a drama as a mysterious force created by the interaction of Belldandy and Keiichi starts causing havoc, requiring that they must remain separated. It’s quite a sudden jump of genre, and the show probably really could stand to flesh things out a little bit more. On the positive side, the animation and music appears to be pretty good for a series in the early 90s.
I think that, overall, this series could probably be considered to be about average. It isn’t bad by any stretch, and if I saw a good enough price, I’d probably even buy it, but I wouldn’t really consider it one of the top series that I’ve watched, either. It’s probably still short enough to make it worth giving this show a try, though.
Scores
Animation: 4/5
Story: 3/5
Music: 4/5
Dub: 3/5
Overall: 3/5
First Watched: October 2005
Do I Own: No
Do I Recommend: Yes