Ah! My Goddess

Director
Hiroaki Goda
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
5 episodes
Year
1993

Ah! My Goddesse The Movie, DVD

By Joseph (Joe) Wood
18th Aug 04

Having watched the Ah! My Goddess OVA's and enjoying them immensely I figured I would get the moive also.

Belldandy, a Goddess from heaven came to grant Kenichi Morisato a wish, beliving her to be a practical joke he whishes for her to become his girlfriend forever, and it is granted. Later joined by Belldandy's sisters Urd and Skuld, the four of them live in a temple restored by belldandys magic. Kenichi and Belldandy go to the local college where both are members of the auto club, a club for racing self-built bikes etc. The movie is set one year after Belldandys arrival.

Belldandy's old mentor Celestine is freed from his imprisonment on the moon, which he was sent for eternty. Arriving on earth he seeks out Belldandy, who belived he had gone away on an a assigment. Kenichi is pleased to meet this mentor of Belldandys who she has mentioned several times. However, Celestine sends Belldandy into a coma, and when she awakes, she has no memory of Kenichi or her time on earth. Also heaven's central computer is infected with a virus sent by Celestine through Belldandy. Celsetine, it seems, wants to overthrow the current system in heaven.

The plotline is qute simple but very enjoyable, although I was qute supprised as very early in the movie it is mentioned that a important race which Belldandy and Kenichi are the racers in is a few days away, I excpected this race to play an important part or even be the climax of the film, but it didn't even get to the race. Other plot points are mentioned several times before they show up in the film, so when they do it, it isn't much of a surprise.

Also the film is quite serious unlike the OVA's which were very humorous. There are one or two funny comments or lines but nothing that is of the same standard as the OVAs. This is mainly due to Belldandy's lack of memory. The lack of humour is not a bad thing however, the drama and plot twists pull you in, both the Japanese and English vocal cast give great performances.

Visually, things are a few steps up from the now grainy look of the OVAs and the larger set peices look divine (thats not an intentional pun). If any CGI is used in the film it is blended into the animation seemlessly unlike other animation where the CGI sections look like the've been done just for the sake of it.

The music is of very high quality and if your not humming the theme from the credits for a few days afterwards there is probaly something wrong with you!!!

Overall this film is well worth purchising if you enjoy the OVAs or manga, having not seen either will not lessen your enjoyment but having seen them will likely highten it.

The DVD is published by MVM in the UK however the english language version was produced by a different company to the one who produced the OVAs and this causes a slight difference in the sound of certain charcters in the dub.

DVD extras include, both an English and Japanese(with subtitles) language version, a number of trailers for the moive and the best extra is an episode of "Adventurs of the Mini-Goddess".

"Adventurs of the Mini-Goddess" is a spin-off of Ah! My Goddess and stars the three goddess's Belldandy, Skuld and Urd and a rat called Gan-Chan. This episode on the disc features Urd and Gan-Chan mostly and is very funny but has a kind of Tom and Jerry feel to it as it's only about 7-10 minutes long. This too can be viewed in both English and Japanese (with subtitles) language versions.

-- Joseph (Joe) Wood 18th Aug 04

Ah! My Goddess Images