Oh! My Goddess!

A Parent's Guide to Anime
Rated: G
Suitable for Family Viewing

Review by Don Kreipke:

Five episodes original video anime: 1) Moonlight and Cherry Blossoms, 2) Midsummer Night's Dream, 3) Burning Hearts on the Road, 4) Evergreen Holy Night, 5) For the Love of Goddess. Light-hearted romantic comedy involving the adventures of three Goddesses (Belldandy, Urd, and Skuld) who come to visit a college student (Keiichi) on Earth. Lots of lovable, huggable characters. Language: Keiichi says a couple of subtitled "damn"s. Violence: In a romantic comedy????? Well... Keichi does suffer minor injuries each time a Goddess arrives on Earth. Bare body parts: Urd often wears skimpy apparel. One short mannequin-like, no-detail nude sequence of Bell in episode five as she magically switches from an Earthly costume to standard-issue Goddess garb.

Review by Bryan Pfaffenberger:

A delightful, sunny-spirited story that the whole family can enjoy, but be aware that there are a few sequences--involving the goddess Urd--that emphasize the goddesses' almost lascivious sexiness. Parents of elementary-school-aged kids might want to put off this series until junior high. Nothing much transpires between Keiichi and Belldandy; their relationship is chaste, if anything, save for one near-kiss--which, of course, results in disastrous consequences for poor Keiichi!

Review by Vince Kwong:

A goddess comes into Keichii's world. He makes a wish, out of sincerity and the goddess, Belldandy, and Keichii get to live together for the rest of their lives. But why does Belldandy love Keichii? Because he is a selfless person. Always sacrificing so much to help others. That's what is so endearing about him. He's no buffed up guy like superman. He's an average college student.

But many things try to split this relationship up: One guy wants Belldandy for himself, another wants to increase her popularity by splitting the couple up, but mostly wants Keichii because he is the most popular guy on campus, thanks to his beautiful girlfriend, Belldandy. Even Belldandy's little sister, Skuld, tries to break the couple up. Eventually, someone does split the couple up and tears begin to well up.

But less plot summary, and more to the things that would interest parents. The show display the body shape of Belldandy during a transformation, very much like Sailor Moon transformations in the later series. And Urd wears very skimpy aparel, but most of her outfits pale in comparison to the apparel worn on "BayWatch". And the violence is about as heated as a shouting match between little siblings. Except Belldandy acts as a mediator and explains why they shouldn't fight. (They've got morals!) But the most disconcerting bit was that one slap, which really got me going because Belldandy didn't deserve that. Overall, there's a lot of great artwork in the series, a lot of romance, and a lot of KAWAII! (that's japanese for cute) stuff. Even those little rabbit-like bugs were cute.

Episode 1 - Moonlight and Cherry Blossoms
CLEAN

Episode 2 - Midsummer Night's Dream
Urd comes in. She wears suggestive apparel, and the plot takes place at the beach. So expect swimsuits, and a one position where they *ALMOST* kiss. And the little slap occurs here. grrr.

Episode 3 - Burning Hearts on the Road
About the worst thing that happens here is Keichii getting bashed on the head when he's taking a bath. But then who told Skuld to drop in when someone was taking a shower? And Urd is wearing some ridiculous outfit with all this odd plummage.

Episode 4 - Evergreen Holy Night and Episode 5 - For the Love of Goddess
It's all clean from this point on. The last two episodes details the relationship between Keichii and Belldandy, and all the emotional scenes are here.

Rating: Green. Anyone, and I do mean ANYONE can watch this series. But, a note of warning, the plot can be just as gut wrenching as Titanic at some parts. So make sure you have something to brush away all those tears, if any.