Who doesn’t know the story of Ah! My Goddess? Boy has tough life. Boy accidentally dials Goddess Help Line. Boy turns Goddess into eternal companion. Hijinks ensue. One of the classics. Unlike the OVA (which barrels through the initial portion of the plot) and the movie (which takes into account continuity having already been established), the TV show gets the time to explore the stuff found in the manga (of which there is a monstrously huge pile). Having seen the OVA and movie, and read the first 10 volumes or so of the manga, I’d never been particularly pressed to get around to watching the show, but it caught my attention as I was deciding what to watch next, and so I did. As I’ve gotten the bulk of the content in its other forms though, there’s not much to talk about here yet.

We work our way through episodes detailing Keiichi’s life and meeting Belldandy, getting kicked out of the dorms and the search for a new home, divine providence and learning how to fit in, bringing Belldandy to school and competition from the Queen, and Keiichi trying to figure out how to ask Belldandy out (then realizing he doesn’t really need to). I was kind of hoping that they’d get to the motorcycle racing, but the early scene with Keiichi giving chase on a minibike was enough to cushion the blow at the realization of the pacing that the show is actually going at (no Peorth this season ;_;).

The other (slight) disappointment is the drop in animation quality from the OVA/movie to the TV series, but that’s to be expected, really. So far it looks just fine, but I’ll be impressed if they can keep it up throughout. While the next volume should be just as pleasant to watch, I don’t know that I’ll be following this one uninterrupted as its material I’m reasonably familiar with already. More likely it’ll get popped in between other things as I decide what to watch next or as the mood strikes. A visual snack/comfort food, as it were, kind of like randomly tuning in to a beloved and long-running sitcom.