While Kousuke Fujishima's Oh My Goddess! manga has been running for at least ten years, its anime adaptations are few, spanning only a five-episode video series, a hyper-cute parody show called The Adventures of the Mini-Goddesses, and, most recently, the alternatively titled Ah! My Goddess the Movie. Essentially a saner, sweeter, less cynical version of Urusei Yatsura, the Oh My Goddess! franchise chronicles the travails of racing-fixated college student Keiichi Morisato and the ethereal goddess Belldandy, who ends up living with Keiichi as the result of some screw-up in the celestial bureaucracy. The unlikely yet affectionate pair is soon joined by Belldandy's sisters, the meddlesome half-demon Urd and a bratty little girl genius named Skuld, and thus the semi-romantic comedy ensues.
Not bothering with direct introductions, Ah! My Goddess the Movie finds the characters in pleasant circumstances, with Keiichi and Belldandy taking part in a membership drive for the college's Motor Club. Odd things are afoot, however, as the first new club convert is Morgan, a reticent, leather-clad girl who seems both distanced and intrigued by Keiichi's attempts to befriend her. Even stranger is a sudden visit by an ominously polite man who Belldandy recognizes as her childhood mentor, Celestin.
If Belldandy is innocently overjoyed to see Celestin, Keiichi is suspicious. His misgivings are soon confirmed by Urd, who learns that Belldandy's mentor recently escaped from a heavenly prison. Before his incarceration, Celestin used a young Belldandy to foment a personal rebellion against the gods themselves. Now that he's free, the fallen angel erases Belldandy's memories as part of an elaborate plot to overthrow what he views as the apathetic authority of the universe. Keiichi, in the meantime, desperately tries to bring back the Belldandy he knows.
While the story is slow to entice, things grow more a little more compelling as Celestin and Morgan make their intentions known. Both are interesting characters with honest motivations, and the film's finest sequence is a flashback that illuminates the tragic connection between Belldandy and her childhood guardian. The ensuing conflict between the goddesses and Celestin also makes for sharp-looking fights, though it also results in a somewhat specious conclusion. A climatic final battle is framed with beautiful imagery, but it's also burdened by preachy, unconvincing dialogue and a too-neat resolution. Carelessly dismissing any questions raised in the rest of the film, the ending of Ah! My Goddess is lovely to look at, yet hard to comprehend or accept.
And that's always been a problem with Oh My Goddess!: it's completely facile. Urd, Skuld, and most of the supporting cast are likable but limited in screen time, while Keiichi lacks his manga counterpart's sarcasm and goes through most of the movie with an inane earnestness. Belldandy is also at her blandest, acting helpful and sweetly optimistic regardless of her situation. It's not even as appealing as the Oh My Goddess! manga, which manages to be cute without reaching the point of overbearing fluff.
The somewhat sugary melodrama is aided, or perhaps lessened, by spectacular visuals. From the opening panorama of Celestin's lunar cell, the animation's never anything but gorgeous, even if director Hiroaki Gohda squaders some of it on mundane elements, such as a subplot about sidecar racing (and other excuses to salute Fujishima's vehicular fascinations). Character designer Hidenori Matsubara recreates Fujishima's clean, wide-eyed illustrations well (although the administrative goddess Peorth is dressed like a Vagrant Story streetwalker) and the animators show off quite often, particularly through the angelic avatars that the goddesses project when using their powers.
An excellent soundtrack from Shirou Hamaguchi and Final Fantasy series composer Nobuo Uematsu complements the animation, as do the English and Japanese voices. Masami Kikuchi plays a fine Keiichi, even if he and his dub counterpart, Tony Oliver, are forced into somewhat basic performances. Aya Hisakawa and Yumi Toma do nicely as Skuld and Urd in the Japanese version, while the dub has Melissa Williamson (Julia in Cowboy Bebop, Diva in El-Hazard) giving Urd a fitting tone, while Skuld is voiced by an evidently uncredited Sherri “Sasami” Lynn. David Lucas (GTO's title hero and, of course, Cowboy Bebop's Spike), is a charismatic Celestin, and Lia Sargent fills Morgan's role with a cold intonation that recalls her performance as R. Dorothy Wayneright from The Big O. The only voices that bugged me belonged to Belldandy; both Kikuko Inoue and Ruby Marlowe (Mima in Perfect Blue, Rem Saverem in Trigun) portray the goddess with an airy, deferential frailness that makes her often syrupy lines seem all the more irritating.
I sometimes enjoy the Oh My Goddess! manga for its lightweight charm and sharp translation, but I'm not quite so taken with the film. While it's a darker exploration of the series, there just isn't any real impact to it. Like a routine fairy tale, Ah! My Goddess the Movie is fun while it lasts, even if its final impression is too sweet and simplified for its own good.
C+
