I could explain to you my entire history with anime and where I stand right now and what led me to watch the original Ah! My Goddess OVAs in the first place, but I'd be fooling myself if I thought you were interested. Still, some qualification may be necessary here, so I'll keep it brief: I've been watching anime for almost 15 years now, and by "watching anime" I mean "aware of anime as an entertainment medium that I would indulge in from time to time but never really dive into, despite being heavily involved in an anime-centric online community for the better part of the last eight years". It's weird, in retrospect, just how little anime I've seen, and up until recently I didn't really care to watch any more.
But that's changed, and now I'm making up for a lot of lost time. Lately I've been spending my time on some of the classics. Ah! My Goddess is one of them, and it was only a matter of time before I decided to give it a go. Based on ratings from sites around the Internet, including AniDB and others, my hopes weren't that high. But given it's only five episodes...well, why not?
And now that I've watched it, I can think of several reasons you might not want to devote your time to this. It has its problems, and while none of them are bad enough to ruin the show, they're all worth mentioning and pondering.
One thing that becomes very clear very quickly is that everything in this show is compressed. Given that it's only five episodes, there's only so much that can be done, granted. But as you go through these episodes, big plot lines are introduced that simply don't have time to develop in a natural or convincing way. Episode 3 is particularly guilty of this; something that could have been sustained and developed over three or more episodes in a normal-length series is reduced down to a paltry one, and as a result character developments suffers, story suffers, and believability is shot. There's something like this in almost every episode. Suspension of disbelief (beyond the normal scope of your typical contemporary fantasy anime) is a must if you're going to watch Ah! My Goddess
Another direct result of the short length is that lots of things are left out. Again, this becomes apparent almost immediately, as at the start of episode 2 we learn that five months have passed since the end of the first episode. Five months! What in the world happened in that time? Especially given the way the first episode ends, it really seems like we as the viewers are being cheated out of a lot of potential plot development. This sort of time jump happens at least once more in the series. It was frustrating and fed into the ultimate dissatisfaction I felt by the end.
Actually, most of the major problems with this series stemmed from its length. Hanging plot lines, flat and undercooked characters, and an only half-explained ending all could have been fixed if only there had been more time to explore and expand. As it stands the anime feels rushed, almost from the very first minute. There's something to be said for being concise, to be sure, but just as much to be said against it when doing so sacrifices this much substance.
One other negative worth noting is that Belldandy's character is not handled very well -- she completely falls for Keiichi almost immediately, and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense; however, basically her entire character is explained to (almost) satisfaction in the last 10 minutes of the last episode. Frustrating, to say the least, but I suppose it's forgivable. (Side note: the voice acting for Belldandy was baaaad. I did not like her voice at all.)
That said, I'd still recommend A!MG to those of you who have stuck with me thus far. As many things as it does wrong and as many missed opportunities as there are, it manages to do quite a few things right, and in my opinion these things make it worth watching.
For one, at least in my opinion, it has beautiful animation. Considering this is from the early '90s, it manages to have a very "modern" feel to it without being too generic. The animators utilized a more muted, realistic color palatte and the character designs are lovely. Really, from this era you're probably not going to find anything too much better.
From a story perspective, I especially appreciated that there were very few overused romance tropes that can ruin other, similar anime. For example, where in other anime the "misunderstanding" between the main character and his love interest is a common (and cheap) plot device used to create dramatic tension, there is but one instance of such in this series -- and it's resolved within five minutes. Beautiful. There was also a refreshing lack of the "will-they-won't-they" that drives a lot of other romance anime. The main characters' feelings for each other are pretty well laid-out from almost the beginning. Much of the tension in the series derives from other sources, and while the romance is central to the plot, the chacters' feelings for one another are never in question. I liked that, a lot.
On a related point, the ideas in this anime are actually pretty interesting. The interaction of the human and the divine, a romance developing between the two, an interesting spin on the way reality works and how divine beings influence and guide it. It's fascinating stuff, even if the details end up being shoved into the background or ignored outright. Again, this is the fault of the length of the series, but I can still appreciate the ideas and themes presented.
Perhaps most importantly, Ah! My Goddess is a classic, in every sense of the word. As imperfect as it is, when I watched it I couldn't help but notice all the proto-romance stuff that has since developed into what we've come to take for granted in our modern shows. Plus, A!MG was taken into the next decade with the movie that it spawned, as well as the full-series adaptation in 2005 (which I have yet to watch). How much influence it had on the medium as a whole I can't say with any confidence, but it's a pretty well-established staple in the romance genre. Take it as you will.
When it comes down to it, it's five episodes; about two and a half hours of your life. If you've made it this far, to the end of this review, you were probably already invested enough to begin with that you're going to watch it anyway. And you should -- it's good, if not great. It's a cute, feel-good anime that, I think, is worth your time assuming you're a fan of the genre.
And if you don't like it, it's only five episodes, right?
