ollege freshman Keiichi Morisato is a fairly typical male lead for a romantic-comedy anime series: sweet, self-sacrificing, a little timid, more than a little put-upon and generally bland. Generally, such meek boys end up subservient to a legion of domineering women (à la Neon Genesis Evangelion, or any of the many branches of the Tenchi Muyo tree), but Keiichi is far luckier than most. While trying to order lunch, he misdials a restaurant's phone number, and the "Goddess Helpline" answers. A moment later, a beautiful girl in elaborate robes is standing in his dorm room, asking him what wish he would like granted. Thinking she's joking, and apparently feeling lonely, Keiichi says he'd like someone like her to be with him forever. One magical typhoon later, he's informed that the contract has been approved, and the goddess Belldandy is with him for life.
Naturally, there are a few problems with the contract. Keiichi is quickly evicted from his men-only dorm, and he and Belldandy have to take up residence in an abandoned temple. Belldandy's older sister Urd wants Belldandy and Keiichi to have a more forceful, physical relationship, while their younger sister Skuld wants to break the wish-contract and bring Belldandy home. Both of them move in with Keiichi and their sister, and start using their powers to interfere in the couple's placid, gentle relationship.
This DVD repackaging of Animeigo's five-part Oh My Goddess! OVA series includes the first three of five episodes in a number of formats—the usual dub and sub versions (which are still available on video, one episode to a tape), plus a "silent movie" version with subtitles, sound effects and music, but no voice tracks, and a "dub your own" version that's the same thing without the subtitles. Finally, a commentary voiceover track reunites voice director Scott Houle with English-dub voice actors Juliet Cesario (Belldandy), Scott Simpson (Keiichi) and Pamela Weidner (Skuld), who mostly make jokes about whatever's on-screen and chat about their thoughts and reactions like any pack of otaku watching a familiar show.
A kinder, gentler fantasy series
The commentary track is the only real disappointment on this nicely packaged DVD release. It's highly unusual for an anime release to have an English commentary track, and this one may reveal why—the English voice cast doesn't have any particular insight into the artistic choices that went into creating the series and, oddly enough, rarely even address their own creation process. They mostly just joke about the characters and events, or comment on things they like, or recite along with favorite lines. Listening to the track is like sitting through an anime-club showing with a bunch of average clowns who won't pipe down. Another annoyance is the soundtrack of the video they're watching, which is audible below the soundtrack of the DVD itself, creating a jarring audio echo.
That aside, Oh My Goddess! is a sweet and beautifully designed series. It takes some odd plot twists—particularly in episode 3, "Burning Hearts on the Road," when Keiichi has to win a drag race on behalf of his Auto Club, or (horrors!) Belldandy will be forced to join the rival Racing Club. (Oh My Goddess! does have a tendency to overdramatize the very mild threats its characters face: Here, typically enough, the well-groomed but sleazy head of the Racing Club makes it sound like he's purchasing Belldandy as a harem slave.) But Belldandy's obvious kindness, Keiichi's obvious gratitude for her presence, and their obvious respect for each other make this a nearly unique romance, devoid of the usual fun-but-formulaic unrequited-love comedies like Tenchi or Ranma 1/2. Urd and Skuld's antics provide some humor and a few plot twists, but relatively little tension: It's clear from the outset that this is one show that's destined to have a happy ending.
The series' elaborate character design makes for some particularly nice stills, a number of which are included in a "slide show" bonus track. It also makes for pretty compositions and impressively detailed overall animation. Pleasant to look at and pleasant to watch, Oh My Goddess! is a mellow, low-key series that earned its place in history as a fan favorite.
