U.S. Anime Review: Oh My Goddess OVA

Oh My Goddess! has always been one of those shows that I wanted to check out. I always saw it at the video store and said “I should pick that up” but always put it on the backburner because I had other shows I NEEDED to get first.

So when I was graced with the presence of five free volumes of the Oh My Goddess! manga (courtesy of suvudu.com)I had to do some research to get me up to speed. For my research I picked up the OVA series released by Animeigo years ago (by the way this OVA series is going out of print at the end of the month so pick up your copies ASAP!)

Oh My Goddess! is the story of Keiichi, an absolute loser who really has nothing going for him except his auto club at college (a loser he may be but boy does he love motorcycles!). One day while trying to order take out at 9AM, Keiichi accidentally calls the Goddess Relief Line and meets Belldandy, an actual goddess! Thinking it was all a joke Keiichi uses his one goddess wish to wish that Belldandy be his girlfriend and stay with him forever, you know what they say about being careful what you wish for.

Belldandy then moves in with Keiichi and over time actually grows to love the guy with all her pure “perfect woman” heart. The series then introduces Belldandy’s older half-sister (half angel and half demon to be exact) Urd and her younger sister Skuld, who are also goddesses! This sounds like a horrible harem show but it really isn’t because Keiichi and Belldandy are actually together and every woman is NOT trying to get with Keiichi.

The series really was a treat to watch as it playfully followed the misadventures of Keiichi and introduced the main characters, one per episode for the first three episodes. The same old dumb harem show jokes really weren’t present here but got a little close sometimes but hey…that’s half the fun right!? The series took a bit of a serious tone for the last two episodes (to clarify: this OVA is only 5 episodes long) but it was more of a dramatic approach that really made me interested in what the fate of these characters would be, instead of totally changing the feel of the show.

For an early 90s OVA series the animation quality was extremely excellent, OVAs are usually pretty good but this looks better than some modern shows. The goddess were drawn exquisitely, I use this word because for lack of better phrasing Belldandy and Urd are HOT! Skuld being a minor is drawn as such without any creepy sexualization which was a relief, given the show’s romantic comedy genre. Lots of sight gags litter the series and thus have the “typical” anime trademarks (sweat drops, huge exaggerated eyes for comedy bits, etc.) that might throw newbies off a little bit.

I really enjoyed this series for what it was, a fun lighthearted comedy series with romantic (but by no means “chick flick”) qualities.

Animeigo really did a great job with the DVD presentation: lots of fun extras (especially the “dub your own Oh My Goddess” setting), beautiful picture quality, and a dub that isn’t hard to listen to. I really enjoyed the Japanese language track but am not against the dub at all as it wasn’t the “cat’s meow” but wasn’t the typical early 90s dub!

I urge you to pick this OVA series up because A) you can get it pretty cheap (at least until it is officially out of print) and B) it really is an enjoyable show. B