Oh My Goddess! (Ah! My Goddess) OVA Series Volume 1

This is the story of a boy who is calling for take out, dials the wrong number, reaches the great beyond, and contacts a goddess who gets bound to him by the powers that be. The whole story revolves around their love and the problems that having a goddess in the house can present.

This is the ultimate masculine fulfilment series. Sort of like 'I dream of Jeanie only not as problematic'. The characters are very endearing, the music is brilliant, the animation is so beautifully done you will wish you were a part of the series. I highly suggest this for anyone. It's a beautiful romance film with a lot of chuckles in between.

"Oh! My Goddess" begins with Keiichi, a college freshman at Nekomi Tech, made to do the grunt-work in his all-male dorm, taking phone messages for his 'sempai,' which I assume means the upperclassmen. Unfortunately, they've left him no food. He desperately starts calling for takeout, only to find that all the takeout places are either closed or not delivering. In a moment of classic comic anime serendipity, Keiichi wants food so badly that his desire triggers an unintentioned call to the Goddess Helpline. Before he knows what's happening, a lovely goddess, Belldandy, appears in the dorm, telling an incredulous and shy Keiichi that he can have one wish. He decides in yet another classic moment, that he wants Belldandy to be his girlfriend forever.

Kicked out of the dorm for having a girl on the premises, Keiichi and Belldandy come to live in a deserted shrine, where they are shortly joined by Kei's little sister, Megumi. Over the next two episodes, this little group is joined by two of Belldandy's sisters, the hypererotically charged older sister Urd, and the mechanically genius, but lonely younger sister Skuld. A great deal of the comedy in this first volume of "Oh! My Goddess" comes from Keiichi's repeated attempts to overcome his shyness and make a move on the wonderfully magnanimous Belldandy.

This first DVD contains the first three episodes, "Moonlight and Cherry Blossoms," which introduces the lead couple, "Midsummer Night's Dream," in which five months after Kei and Belldandy move in together, Urd tries her best to force them to hook up, and "Burning Hearts on the Road," where Skuld joins the cast, in the midst of a drag race competition at Nekomi Tech. These are all excellent episodes. The characters play well off of each other, and the stories in these first three episodes are charming and cute. Belldandy is a terrific character, as are Keiichi's two bulked up, often drunk, sempai in the Auto Club, who are great minor characters. The fact that the major social organization in the series (and later in the movie) is an Auto Club, and that they all go to a technical college is just a great touch.

The English voice actors do a good job interpreting the characters, but having watched it in Japanese with English subtitles, I tend to like the Japanese dialogue better. The extras on this DVD include a slide show of cells and drawings from the series, and a clever 'dub your own DVD' feature, which is basically the episodes without dialogue. Volume 1 of the "Oh! My Goddess" DVD set is certainly worth watching and owning.

That being said, I am shocked and disappointed to find that they split the series onto two DVDs, each for separate sale. The episodes are very short, totaling a little over an hour per DVD (I believe it is 82 minutes for Vol. 1, and 62 minutes for Vol. 2). There are no extra features included. Yikes! That's a lot for two and a half hours of viewing.

I find it hard to believe that Animego could not do more justice to this excellent series, or provide more value to their customers. The six-part "Moldiver" OAV managed to find it's way onto one well-priced DVD. How disappointing that "Oh My Goddess" could not do the same. I am sad to say that this is an excellent series to rent (but not to buy).