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SUMMARY

Keichi Morisato is a lovable looser. Very sweet, but lacking in self confidence, he finds himself in situations of his own making.

One such situation is the day he accidentally phoned a goddess help line, while trying to get take out. Belldandy is there to grant him his one wish. Thinking it to be a joke, he wished to be with the beautiful Goddess forever. Surprised when his wish is actually granted, he learns a valuable lesson, be careful what you wish for.

Now things are getting worse.  First, Belldandy's sisters Urd and Skuld are both busy making trouble. Now system bugs from the Goddess machines are appearing everywhere.  Because of this, The Lord has ordered Belldandy back home.  Now, Keichi must find a way to keep the love of his life on Earth.

Problem is, how do you fight the Lord?

DVD VISION TEST

VIDEO:A beautiful looking transfer, AnimEigo has done a fantastic job. The colors are perfect, there are no pixels, no wrinkles, no defects. This looks a lot better than their VHS release. The washed out look is gone.

AUDIO:Good audio mix on both the English and Japanese. Majority of this title is dialogue based, so don't expect a lot of surround sound elements. The music and sound effects track only is exactly what it is, with everything coming from the sides and the back.

With the audio commentary, depending on your system, you may not be able to hear the guest speakers that well. On our Pioneer DV 525, it does not sound so good, but on our APEX 2001 with the 3D audio enhance, it sounds great.

EDITS: Well, sort of edits. You have the option of watching either the AnimEigo clean open with optional subtitles or the original Japanese open and close. No other edits exist.

EXTRAS: The most I have ever seen on an AnimEigo release. There is a photo gallery, a dub your own OMG section (sound and music only), a "silent movie mode" (sound an music only with subtitles), and two similar audio commentary tracks (one with subtitles, one with out).  You also have the clean open and close from the entire series.  

WIDESCREEN REVIEW

STORY: The series is based off of the manga created by well known writer Kousuke Fujishima. Truly considered a classic on both sides of the Pacific, the team (supervised by Fujishima) does a great job in translating his sweet and honest story from printed page to the anime format.

ACTING: The cast on both versions perform very well. On the English side, this is the best dub AnimEigo has ever done, with the exception of Your Under Arrest. Scott Simpson as Keichi perfectly captures this sweet looser. Juliet Cesario is perfect as Belldandy. It is no surprise that AnimEigo is going to have her play the part of Miyuki in the "You're Under Arrest" TV series.  Also, Lanelle Markgra adds a regal quality to the sexy Urd.

For the purists, you have the wonderful vocal talents of Kikuko Inoue as the ever sweet Belldandy. You also have Tenchi Muyo star Masami Kikuchi playing Keiichi. Lets not forget Yumi Tooma as the voice of the very sexy Urd.

FAN SERVICE: Nothing I would write home about.  Well, there is the requsite "featurless nude" transformation sequence.

CONCLUSION

Oh My Goddess is truly a fan favorite. With most people, when you ask "What do you think of Oh My Goddess?" invariably, the response is "It is one of my favorites. Why is this particular anime so popular? Is it the characters? Perhaps the writing? Or is it the innocent and sweet representation of life that eludes so many. It's a little of everything.

Predating the romantic antics of Tenchi Muyo, Oh My Goddess was the first to introduce Americans to romantic anime. The love for Keichi and Belldandy has nothing to do with sex, it has everything to do with love, pure and uncut. Unlike Tenchi, there is only woman he has to deal with, and, in old-school Japanese style, takes a frustratingly long time to make his move.

These episodes are a bit more serious, with the events surrounding Keichi and Belldandy reaching almost cataclysmic proportions.  It kind of diminishes the playful spirit of the first three episodes.  The fact that the two of them seem destine to be apart just adds to the aggravation.

It's not to say that the episodes are bad.  Not at all. Despite this series being all to short, it is a rather fitting ending.  I only wish that they had continued the series much like they did with "You're Under Arrest."

Knowledge of the manga is not required to understand what is going on. Actually, not being familiar with the story may help. If you are new to this series, you won't know which characters and situations that didn't make it this anime. With writer actually having a part in the production, the story is very similar in tone to his long running manga.

Overall, AnimEigo has a winner with this DVD. By presenting a very popular story on a well made DVD, you can't go wrong in buying this. This is one for your collection.

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