Excelsis - Display Vote

Ah! My Goddess! OAV series

Ah My Goddess! review

(Remember, if this review is helpful or well-written, please give me a good rating (down below)! Thanks for your support! *^__^)

Animation:
Perfect. You won't find better-quality animation than this anywhere, period.

Plot:
If you've read my reviews, you'll know that I consider the characters to be a part of the plot. And when people ask me why that is, I can point to shows like this.
AMG's character relationships are everything and are well-crafted. This isn't one of those shows where you need whole scenes devoted to a single character just to define who they are: Keiichi's, Belldandy's, Urd's, and Skuld's personalities show up every time they do, which just makes it easier to get attached to them.
They're all very likable characters (although if you can't stand the "sugary sweet" type, I guess you'd probably be scared off by Belldandy) and although the basic storyline doesn't really turn up until episode 4, with characters like this, you never really feel like anything isn't happening.
Of course, that may just be because it's only five episodes. Still, when a drag race is the focus of an episode and you actually feel like it's important, you know the story's well-done.
This is a step above even Tenchi, which, although it also had great characters (though a far cry from AMG's) failed to make me feel episodes like the baby episode in the OAV or the swimsuit competition in the TV series were actually important.
And the drama in the fourth and fifth episodes just speaks for itself... I don't think I'll ruin it other than to say that suddenly there are things that look like they can actually come between Belldandy and Keiichi.

Humor:
Excellent stuff here. Urd's Cupid act in episode two was funny the whole way through, and the "Skuld's point of view" scenes in episode three were pretty amusing. And, of course, every single line that makes a reference to Keiichi and Belldandy is funny in its own right.
In episodes four and five, of course, the humor is overshadowed by the problems the characters face... But that's not to say it's not present at all.
Anyway, good overall stuff here!

Soundtrack:
As I (think I) said in one of my reviews or another, I'm a big music guy. That said, the music in this show floored me. It was beautiful when it needed to be beautiful, upbeat when it needed to be upbeat, and sometimes both at once.
Unlike a lot of other shows, I really felt the music genuinely added to the emotion of a lot of the scenes.
In fact, the music is probably a big part of why I didn't feel a single scene in the show didn't live up to the rest of the scenes or wasn't needed.
If I wasn't so busy rapidly increasing my anime collection, I'd buy the soundtrack, and I haven't bought a music CD, anime or otherwise, in over two years.
And I'll give special recognition to the voice actors, too. Usually I don't cover this in the soundtrack section, as it's not music, but here it's important enough that I feel I have to mention it.
Both the Japanese and English versions are wonderful. Usually, with a new anime, I start off on the dub, but with the subtitles on. If the dub follows the script accurately enough and the voices seem to match the characters, I give it a chance.
In this case, the Japanese voice actors are a bit better as far as delivery goes, but I actually liked some of the lines the dub script adds in. Those lines never change the meaning of the show and I noticed that each one tended to just support the characters' personalities even more. For example, after Belldandy reassures Keiichi that he'll win the race at the end of episode 3, Keiichi says, "You know? You're absolutely right, Bell! You know, I'd say that I have quite a team, huh?" whereas the subtitles say "Yeah, come to think of it, I do have strong allies!"
I actually prefer the dub script in most cases, although again I prefer the voice actors for fitting the characters. Or at least for most of the characters. I'm still not sure whether I prefer the softer voice of Belldandy's Japanese voice actress or the lighter voice of her English one. Either way, excellent voice acting all around.

Overall:
A wonderful anime masterpiece that shouldn't be missed.
Everything about it is just heartwarming and undeniably sweet, and when characters say something clichéd like "The goddess of victory doesn't smile on one such as you, who thinks only of winning," it doesn't seem nearly as clichéd as usual because these characters not only believe their own words, they live their own words.
If nothing else, watch it to see a beautiful anime girl like Belldandy in a bunch of different outfits.
And if that doesn't get you, the absolutely beautiful artwork should.
And if that still doesn't get you, of course the characters and music will.
And if THAT doesn't get you, I doubt there's an anime in the world you could appreciate.
This is definitely in my top three series, that top three being Rurouni Kenshin, Sailor Moon, and now AMG, and with that said...
Don't think of purchasing any anime ahead of this except for possibly the Blue Seed box set, and even then I'm only saying it because it's longer and because the box set can be ordered off the Internet for as low as $45 right now for a whole 650 minutes of anime, whereas OMG gets you only 150 minutes for the same amount. And Blue Seed, like OMG, also ranks up there in my top five anime series, but to find out why, you'd have to find out in my Blue Seed review!
Anyway, now that my "cheap shill" mode is off...
Ah My Goddess is recommended, recommended, and recommended some more. Do NOT miss out.

A list of my other 29 anime reviews:
Saint Tail
All of the series I've reviewed are listed at the bottom.

Overall Rating: 10
Animation:10 Plot:10 Humor:10 Sound Track:10
Weight: 40 (Reputable Vote)
Date: 07/31/2002 08:31:30 am PST
By: Jiggy
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=95617

I really like the series and agree with your views. I think a lot more people should be seeing this series!

Back