Maybe it’s just the Strawberry Panic talking, but I think this would have made one hell of a Shoujo Ai show XD

A remake of the original which was aired in 1993, Ah! My Goddess returns with refurbished animation, a new soundtrack and five times the episode count. Does this mean that the remake is better than the original? Not necessarily…

I really enjoyed the original anime because, although the animation was rough, the story shined. As many anime, we start with your average loser male lead with nothing going for him in life. Now most series would use this as a chance to release a torrent bishoujos on this otherwise unlucky bum. But this is not your typical series, so instead we see the arrival of who many see as the perfect woman. The caring, honest, naive, loyal and dedicated pantheon bishoujo goddess, Belldandy.

Upon her arrival, Belldandy grants our unlikely hero (Keiichi) one wish, anything he desires. Thinking it’s a joke, Keiichi wishes that a goddess like Belldandy would stay by his side forever. To his surprise, his wish is granted and thus sets off a chain of events that alters his life darastically, for the better. A fairly creative plot when compared against the all too common harem template that we all share a wonderful love/hate relationship with.

The 2005 remake adds new story arcs and lots of flashy effects and fanservice. However, all in all I think it detracted from the overall quality of the series. After watching the original and moving to the remake, I was expecting some more slice-of-life/love comedy arcs to fill in the huge time lapse that happened in the original. Instead we got more depth into the fantasy side, background on the goddesses and their opposing force, the demons. This would have been great, if it didn’t make it seem like I was watching Fate/Stay Night by the end >_<

The added story arcs, in general, sucked. The whole thing with Marller got lame about two seconds after she appeared on screen. As for the ending…I have not been more disappointed since Mai HiME =(

Not to say that it was bad though! On the contrary I enjoyed it very much and ended up marathoning it in about two days.

As with most other anime, the characters were the main highlight. Belldandy lives up to her reputation, she may not be uber perfect bishoujo girlfriend that everyone makes her out to be (Nemu stands atop this list for me ^^). But I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t want to meet her real life incarcation. Though I did find her to be TOO naive and trusting at times, through no fault of her own =\ Next up is Keiichi, not the worst male lead I’ve ever seen, but he’s still a wimp. The long awaited kiss scene between the two takes FOREVER, and even then it’s just a peck on the cheek (unless you count the mouth to mouth earlier on) Urd and Skuld, while generally very annoying, became quite likeable. Their antics and love for their sister makes their personalities enjoyable and add some commotion to the plot, which is always good. Third party character (ie. senpais, keiichi’s imouto, gakuen slut sayoko, etc) are given enough time to be more than plot devices, but not enough to become plot centric, perfect. Favourite character? Skuld (I’m not a lolicon! ._.)

Plot and pacing are kind of an issue in the remake. It began as I expected it to, a light hearted, slice-of-life love comedy. But once past the 3/4 point, it rocketed into a heavy sci-fi, mythological war between heaven and hell. Demons, goddesses and magic flying left and right accompanied by mythology references from norse to greek caused a failure of an ending. And it really was the ending that killed what would have been a very good anime, leaving the all too common feeling of wasted potential lingering in my mind.

Animation was great. For instance, although useless, the magic and casting scenes were animated quite well. Character designs were average, nothing spectacular but they got the job done. Music was great, most of the time the atmospheric music did a good job of drawing me in, except in the last few episodes where I phased out on all aspects of the anime. The OP and 1st ED were pretty catchy, the 2nd ED never got past the first line due to horrible engrish XD The voice acting was pretty good, I though Urd and Skuld fit perfectly. Belldandy needed a little getting used to as it seemed her character was in a constant state of surprise. BUT! Keiichi has to have the most ANNOYING voice since Shinji from EVA, argh X_X *stabs his vocal chords*

All in all, a decent anime whose potential was wasted by its ending, which sucked horribly. The beginning and middle, however, were executed quite well, minus the Marller arcs. However! I enjoyed the original a lot more and would have liked the remake if they hadn’t tried to add in the myth centric arcs. But with 20 more episodes to fill, it’s not hard to see why they decided to do so.

Recommendation? Yes. I’ll be watching the second season when its translation job is finished.

By the way, sorry the writing on this post totally sucked. It’s 1 in the morning, I’m braindead and thinking of what to type as I went along. Gomen!

~ Shirukii ~