Kei's Anime Reviews

Ah! My Goddess TV Episode 08

"Ah! Taking an Examination of Love, Starting with a Deviation Value of 30"

Ah! My Goddess was the first anime I ever watched, and it was also my favorite. It's still a there these days, especially the full-length motion picture. So you can imagine I was quite excited when I heard the news that they were bringing the show back as a TV series. I thought it only fitting that after been a long hiatus from reviewing my first review would then be this show. (Yes, that's where Kei came from.)

Anyways, the most obvious thing about this episode is a change in art style for Keiichi. I was really kind of disappointed when first watching the show because while the art was still reminiscent of the original, it was decidedly different. The production of the show was handled by the same company that did the movie which had a style very similar Kosuke Fujishima's original manga. In the first few episodes of this show, the art for Keiichi was a little out there (frequently it didn't look like him at all). In this episode, they've reverted to a more recognizable, familiar Kei-look.

In my usual spirit of full disclosure, I feel I should mention that I probably can't objectively review this series. That only means really, though, that if the show is just okay I might say it's good. If the show sucks, I'll probably still be able to realize that.

This episode features the first appearance of Urd as a main character. Her motives are not quite as clear as annealing fees, but by the end it's obvious that the reason she's intervening is because she wants to speed up the otherwise slow paced relationship between Belldandy and Keiichi. What this means is that Keiichi is exposed to all sorts of strange torments in her efforts to get them to move the relationship the next level.

I was tickled by the appearance of Sleipnir (Odin's mythical eight legged horse) in the episode during a flashback. It's always nice when they throw more of the Norse back story behind the show's concept into actual episodes.

If you haven't seen Ah! My Goddess in any of its incarnations before, this is probably a good place to start. On the other hand, if you're like me and you have, then this is a great place to rediscover it all again.

Rating: B+

Posted by Kei at February 27, 2005 01:10 PM