Ah! My Goddess
Storyline
7. Keichi is living a boring high school life, far away from his family. His club members from the male-exclusive Auto Club take advantage of him all the time and his love life is inexistent. But that all changes when he accidentally calls the Goddess Assistance Agency. He meets up with the beautiful Belldandy, who claims to be a Goddess from heaven who can grant him one single wish to reward the compassion he has for other people. Strangely enough, Keichi doesn’t ask the Goddess for wealth, fame, popularity or immortality, the things I’d most likely ask when I had the chance, but he asks her to stay by his side forever. The innocent Belldandy immediately accepts her fate and starts a new life on earth together with Keichi.
Plot and pace
6. The series had a lot of potential. I rushed through the first twelve or so episodes in merely two days and had a pleasant watch, but then the creators decided to take a different road. While the first episodes were based on Keichi developing feelings for Belldandy and ultimately even trying to confess to her - this being very hard for him because he’s a loser who’s never been with a girl before - , halfway through the series they started adding a lot of irrelevant new side-stories, some more ridiculous than others, and also some annoying new characters. It says a lot when I found the OVA’s the most enjoyable episodes since halfway through the Anime.
Cliffhangers
5. There are only some cliffhangers in the last three episodes of the Anime. They tried to give a thrilling ending to an Anime that outshines in randomness, but failed. You never get the feeling that anyone’s in grave danger. Most of the problems get resolved by simply adding some new content about the Goddess powers to the series that the viewer didn’t know about. Clever, AIC, clever!
Satisfying ending
5. This is one of those cliché series where you know beforehand that nothing’s actually going to happen. Keichi never really dares to make his move, and when he’s getting there, some kind of interruption always comes in-between them. The last three episodes formed a darker story that didn’t fit the series and could never be taken seriously. But hey! They needed to have at least some kind of conclusion that didn’t include Keichi and Belldandy getting intimate, right?
Rewatchability
4. I wouldn’t watch this story again. While Belldandy is a lovely character and the story was somewhat fun to watch at first, there are too many drawbacks and nearly no progression whatsoever. I can already predict what will happen - or won’t happen - in the second season, and that’s keeping me from watching it right now. Maybe I will watch the second season in the future.
Characters
6. The characters are just so-so. Some are great, other fail to give the story any added value and could be just left out of season two for all I care. Belldandy, obviously, is the star of the show. She is kind, powerful and got the looks. But her innocence and ignorance about relationships and her low knowledge about the earth give the viewer who expects some kind of romantic conclusion few to be cheering about. Keichi is a sad unlucky fool, but at least he’s come to accept it like I did. His club consisted of two funny guys and a whiney bitch who received no less than a full episode to groan and moan about her incompetence to get anything right. then there’s Belldandy’s sisters. The hatred I felt for these imbeciles… They could best hope that my foot won’t hit them on the way out of this show. The elder one is selfish and in the end almost destroyed the earth, while the younger one is a brat that can’t stand Belldandy and Keichi getting intimate and always intervenes when they do. Other than that, their whole background, personality and reasons for being in this show are as redundant as looking for water in the middle of the desert.
Conversations
7. The story never gets hard to follow. All of the romantic scenes end with the same cliché sentences like “I want to be with you forever” or “I’ll protect you”. their babbling never goes any deeper than that, but because this show was apparently made for kids I don’t think they would mind.
Art Style
8. Everything in this show looks pleasant and appropriate. The characters look great and so do the backgrounds. The Anime has a modern look, even though it’s already eight years old.
Setting
5. The viewer gets to see certain parts of heaven where they’re working hard to keep the earth in balance, but other than that everything takes place either at the school Belldandy and Keichi go to or the temple they borrowed from a monk who never returns home.
Music and sounds
7. The sound effects are spot on, the voice acting acceptable. The intro song is decent and suitable. The ending song was awkward, but I never really kept listening to hear the end of it. The villains and good guys can easily be separated from one another by just listening to their voices.
Overall score
60/100