Ah! My Goddess: Difference between revisions

{{work}}

[[File:amg.jpg|frame|Promotional art from the first OAV series]]

 

 

So she does.

Keiichi and Belldandy enter into a very sweet, very low-key romance but then Belldandy's sultry elder sister Urd (the Norn of the Past) shows up, irritated because they haven't moved faster and into more advanced levels of intimacy. Then their kid sister Skuld (the Norn of the Future) appears, convinced that Keiichi is no good for her big sister and seeking to sabotage the relationship. Matters are further complicated by Keiichi's sister Megumi (who in the grand tradition of ''[[Bewitched]]'' knows nothing about the supernatural nature of the sisters), the demoness Mara, who has a grudge against the goddesses, and a large cast of additional supporting characters from Heaven, Hell, and the student body of the Nekomi Institute of Technology, where Keiichi attends classes.

 

 

It has spawned numerous adaptations, including a five-episode [[OVA]] series in the early 1990s (which this entry was originally written for), a motion picture, and a [[Gag Series|sequel series]] called ''[[Adventures of Mini-Goddess|The Adventures of the Mini-Goddesses.]]'' This was followed much later by two season-long TV series; one in 2005, the second in 2006 (subtitled ''Flights of Fancy'' outside Japan) which continued the story that began in the first series. Those were followed by a 2-episode TV special to celebrate the franchise's 20th anniversary, called ''Fighting Wings''. A new "OAD" (Original Animation DVD) called ''Itsumo Futari de'' was released in 2009 and bundled with manga volume 42.

 

 

* [[Above the Influence]]: In chapter 43 (episode 19 in the anime), thanks to a [[Magic Misfire]], Belldandy spends a day throwing herself at Keiichi (including, at least in the manga, taking him to watch a porn movie). He realizes that ''something's'' up and refrains.

** Sayoko shows up drunk at his temple house in episode 2 of Season 2, throwing herself, [[Squick|and throwing up]] on him. She later wakes up and finds herself sleeping in one of their futons.

* [[Absolute Cleavage]]: It's not surprising from Urd, or from [[Evil Is Sexy|Hild]]. But when ''Belldandy'' [http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/4939/belldandysurprise.jpg displays it], [[Head-Tiltingly Kinky|the mind goes "Tilt."]]

** In the second episode of ''Itsumo Futari De'' (translated by one group as "Together Forever"), well, it's a [[Beach Episode]] where the outfits of all three goddesses have officially crossed into Stripperiffic territory. Cue full on Brain Crash.

* [[Accidental Marriage]]: On the second-to-last page of the manga, Belldandy revealed to Keiichi that the wording of his wish [[Contrived Coincidence|happened to be]] the form for proposing marriage to a goddess. Then she asked him to [[Book Ends|say those words again]].

* [[Brilliant but Lazy]]: Urd's inherent powers are potentially leagues above those of her sisters and possibly any other deity except The Almighty and Hild, but she prefers to hang out with her siblings to watch over them and have some fun instead.

* [[Broken Bird]]: Morgan LeFay from [[The Movie]] {{spoiler|lost faith in love after deserting her lover, thus she became [[The Dragon]] for Celestine}}

** Aoshima to Urd.

* [[Canon Immigrant]]: The goddesses' battle outfits, and the [[Bridge Bunnies]] Ere, Ex and Chrono, first appeared in [[The Movie]] and weren't incorporated into the manga until several years later.

'''Belldandy:''' Yes, when it comes to Keiichi, I am not so generous. }}

** Skuld displays this trope towards Belldandy from time to time.

* [[Clone Degeneration]]: Happens to a clone of {{spoiler|Urd}} at one point, when Mara duplicates her.

** Also, it was shown in ''The Adventures Of Mini Goddesses'' manga that making too many [[Super-Deformed]] copies of oneself cause them to look... [[Squick|rather disturbing]].

* [[Evil Costume Switch]]: Technically Keiichi does when he is possessed in the movie.

** More prominently both Urd and Keiichi get this during the Lord of Terror arc when possessed. Keiichi's hair even grows longer and is dyed blond in the manga and TV series. However, when the Lord of Terror is defeated and is expunged from Keiichi his hair remains long and goes black and Keiichi is surprised at what he is wearing. In the anime his hair reverts to being short as well.

* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]: Hild wants to increase the demons' stock share on Earth, but she follows the agreement to never kill goddesses, though she did once show no problems beating up her own daughter, albeit non-lethally.

** Marller's own schemes sometimes makes her wonder if she's going too far, such as when she rigs Belldandy's goddess license to make her a demon instead, or when she splits Urd's demonic and goddess halves into two separate bodies.

** During the Lord of Terror arc, when Urd sets Fenrir loose on the city, Mara asks if she's maybe going "a little ''too'' far?"

* [[Equivalent Exchange]]: The Law Of Conservation of Happiness. Granting too many happy wishes in a short span of time means that someone has to suffer a bit of bad luck, as Keiichi learned the hard way when an intoxicated Belldandy started granting the wishes of every poor soul in town.

** Also one of the rules of wishes granted by demons.

* [[Fan Service]]: Notable for ''not'' having much of it. And what [[Fan Service]] there is is very tastefully done, ''especially'' for this genre.

** On the other hand, if [[Technology Porn|detailed imagery of rare cars and motorcycles]] would count as this trope, AMG would almost be [[Hentai]].

* [[Fertile Feet]]: Belldandy does this in ''Fighting Wings''. Lind grows a flower in her hand, so it might be a common trait.

* [[Fighting From the Inside]]: Whether through demons or [[Stop Helping Me!|well-meaning goddesses]], Keiichi is the victim of [[Mind Control]] quite often, yet always tries (and usually manages) to resist it.

** Around the time of the "Mystery Child" arc in the manga, Keiichi became more squeamish around women, and Belldandy more naïve.

** Then there is Mara's ever-growing stupidity. In the early manga she was occasionally an actual problem. Not so in the anime.

* [[Friend to All Living Things]]: Belldandy, to the extent she can speak with animals, plants and inanimate objects.

* [[Fun Size]]: Belldandy splits off a [[Super-Deformed]] size of herself in episodes 25 and 26 of Season 1 so her main body can recover after using a lot of her power to fix the damage around the temple and city from the Lord of Terror arc in the previous episodes.

* [[Mayfly-December Romance]]: It was suggested, but never explicitly stated (until Peorth told Keiichi, sadly), that whatever relationship Keiichi and Belldandy would have would be one of these. '''However,''' it should be noted that the gods and goddesses are capable of getting sick, injured, and have been killed before. They can also die if their demon doublet is killed.

** Many times in the manga, one of the main reasons Keiichi didn't more persistently pursue a relationship with Belldandy is because he's afraid of her not being willing to return to Heaven when she has to. Although this fear was justified in the OVA, where Belldandy ''was'' forced to return, [[Genre Savvy|in the manga, Keiichi may be thinking of this Trope:]] [[Fridge Brilliance|when he dies, Belldandy will continue living, unable to let go of his memory.]]

* [[The Messiah]]: Belldandy.

** Keiichi is the main character and he's nothing like that at all, [[Nice Guy|although he's pretty close]]. It's why he was given a wish from Belldandy in the first place, and it's been noted several times that his pure heart is what Belldandy (and some of the other goddesses) finds most attractive about him.

* [[Moment Killer]]: ''Just'' when you think Keiichi has the nerve to admit his deep love for Belldandy (or vice-versa)...

* [[Motorcycle on the Coast Road]]

* [[Mundane Wish]]: When Tamiya unintentionally summons the demon Mara, who offers him a wish, he thinks she's an ordinary human who sneaked in and tells her to "get the heck out". She tells him that's an uninspired choice for a wish and then vanishes.

* [[Nice Guy]]: If you read the synopsis above, then you'd know that if Keiichi ''wasn't'' one of these, there'd be no story in the first place. And many girls ''adore'' this genuinely [[Nice Guy]], too.

** She did the standard version [http://www.mangareader.net/ah-my-goddess/49/31 at least once in the manga], when she was afraid Keiichi might accidentally get dosed with one of Urd's love potions. (This was also the first chapter showing that Urd is [http://www.mangareader.net/ah-my-goddess/49/28 terrified of Bell getting '''really''' angry].)

* [[Sacred First Kiss]]: When the Gate -- who looks like a young girl -- forces Peorth, Urd, and Skuld to kiss her as part of her quest for [[What Is This Thing You Call Love?|knowledge]], Skuld moans that she hadn't even kissed Sentaro (a mortal boy in whom she's shown significant interest) yet.

** The original (flipped) English version of the manga was rated "Ages 8 and up", whereas the newer right-to-left edition is rated "13+". There are only three considerable differences between the two: The format, the number of references to Japanese culture (the right-to-left version has more) and the crudeness of the wording... [[Unfortunate Implications|and, if anything, the original was more crude than the newer versions]].

** Part of this is probably that bookstores/publishers don't think young children could handle a "backwards" book and multiple foreign references; most of the rest is likely because the original editions came out before the manga publishers standardized their age ratings.

* [[Satan]]: Hild, though she seems like less an ultimate evil and more an annoying trickster.

* [[The Scrounger]]: Early in the series, Otaki was referenced as being one, producing rare motorcycle parts out of nowhere.

** Tamiya and Otaki's behavior is heavily implied to be a result of how they were treated by ''their'' sempai in the Motor Club, who eventually returns.

* [[Sexy Santa Dress]]: Urd wears one in an episode of ''Flights of Fancy''.

* [[Shout-Out]]: One plot arc involved Keiichi bonding with an [[Space Whale|extradimensional whale]] by singing Matthew Sweet songs. He's [[Big in Japan]], you know.

** English version only, in the original, K1 listens to The Carpenters (''Sing'' and ''Top of the World'' are the songs). Changed due to the impossibility of getting the rights to publish the original lyrics. Luckily it all worked out since Sweet's "Missing Time" happens to fit the plot perfectly.

** There's also a Shout Out to ''[[Maison Ikkoku]]'' when Keiichi's mother visits for the first time. One of her guesses as to why Keiichi is living with a lot of women:

{{quote|'''Takano:''' I got it! This place is an inn, and you're the resident manager. That one's Ichinose-san, there's Yotsuya-san...

'''Keiichi:''' What kind of story is that? }}

** A shout out to ''[[The Texas Chainsaw Massacre]]''. Skuld (in the anime at least), has a chainsaw called "Texas Murder" that she wants to test out, much to Keiichi's horror. Thankfully, it breaks before it can be used. Skuld then starts crying "[[Played for Laughs|Noooo, my Texas Murder]]!"

{{quote|'''Tamiya''': [[Pimp My Ride|Your ride has now officially been pimped!]]}}

** When asked by Skuld why she wore such an uncool red mask, Morkulaffi answered that they got intel that wearing red masks and helmets made you [[Mobile Suit Gundam|three times faster]].

* [[Silk Hiding Steel]]: Lind, the polite and proper ''Valkyrie'' that works for the Almighty.

** Belldandy too, if she weren't so gosh darn nice.

* [[Single-Target Sexuality]]: Belldandy towards Keiichi. It takes [[Friend to All Living Things|her]] a little while to figure this out, unfortunately for Keiichi.

* [[Single Woman Seeks Good Man|Single Goddess Seeks Good Man]]: Belldandy and Keiichi's relationship is quite possibly one of the greatest examples of this wonderful trope.

* [[Skinship Grope]]: Done by Urd to Skuld at one point, with Keiichi hearing everything and misinterpreting it (apparently not by much). It's also done in a lighter form in the episode where Skuld temporarily becomes an adult: she brags about her body but is shot down by Urd affirming her status as the big sister.

* [[Slapstick Knows No Gender]]: Mara and Sayoko are never safe from having a can of whoop-ass opened on them when the former's [[Zany Scheme|Zany Schemes]] are exposed and fail; or when the latter goes too far in her bitchery. Usually a good [[Shock and Awe|electrocution]] at the hands of Urd.

** A few others did this, of course: Urd vs. Uld (correct name: Urð, or possibly Urdr), Skuld vs. Skurd (Correct name: Skuld), Lind vs Rind, etc. Most of these are obvious if you actually check the Norse myths they're based on: The Japanese names are the nearest equivalents to the Norse ones possible given Japanese lacks some of the sounds.

** The effect may be restricted to English audiences, but "Belldandy", taken as a compound word, is evocative of both bells-- generally "happy" instruments, rung in times of celebration and such, and "dandy", an old-fashioned, light-hearted adjective meaning "high-quality", which goes '''much''' farther in describing the character than "Verthandi".

** And of course, the great ''Ah!'' vs. ''Oh...'' debate. This one was settled by [[Word of God|Fujishima himself]]; according to [[The Other Wiki]], and a snippet in Volume 2 of the right-to-left English version, the title was due to the way the Japanese put the accent on "Oh" instead of "God" when saying "Oh my God!" in English. So it's two titles for the price of one: a [[Gratuitous English]] [[Stealth Pun]] in Japan, and its rough English translation is a straight-up pun. A literal [[A Worldwide Punomenon|Worldwide Punomenon]]-- Works out nicely.

* [[Spit Take]]: In the anime's third episode, the mother of a little girl whom Keiichi helped out in the first episode treats Keiichi and Belldandy to lunch at a fast-food joint as thanks — when the little girl starts asking too many questions... and Belldandy [[Can Not Tell a Lie|starts giving too many answers]].

** He does it again in the first episode of Season 2 when Belldandy compares Skuld and Urd with Keiichi and Megumi after the two goddesses get into yet another argument outside the temple.

* [[Spy Catsuit]]: When she's racing, [[Innocent Fanservice Girl|Belldandy of all people]] prefers to wear really tight racing leathers with heart motifs.

* [[Stealth Hi Bye]]: The two motor club guys do this sometimes. Some of the goddesses and demons do this once in a while as well.

* [[Stuff Blowing Up]]: Skuld relies on bombs before her magic develops. She also has a habit of putting self-destruct routines in her machines. She also just, in general, ''enjoys'' having this happen.

* [[Swirling Dust]]: Sort of -- all of Keiichi's possessions instead of dust.

* [[Take a Third Option]]: Urd manages to convince the tiny female ninjas to do this by exploiting [[Loophole Abuse]] via [[Exact Words]] {{spoiler|(Be killed by those who pursue them or kill all those who pursue them) So when the entire clan gets defeated by Belldandy is to leave the clan (and Mara employ).}}

* [[Theme Naming]]: "[[wikipedia:Tamiya Corporation|Tamiya]]", "Otaki", and "[[wikipedia:Hasegawa Corporation|Hasegawa]]" are all manufacturers of plastic model cars, planes, etc.

* [[There Is Only One Bed]]: When Sayoko passes out after drinking and Mara takes her home for the night, [[Hilarity Ensues]] when they wake up together and Sayoko assumes Mara took advantage of her.

* [[Third Person Person]]: Hagall has referred to herself this way a few times.

* [[Those Two Guys]]: Tamiya and Otaki, the heads of the Motor Club.

* "[[This and That]]": Used by Urd in the "instructional" video she gave Keiichi (in the English dub, it's "[[Rule of Three|this, that, and the other thing, too]]") in TV Episode 8.

* [[Unknown Rival]]: Belldandy towards Peorth, the former never thinks of the latter as such, which only ticks Peorth off more.

** Possibly Belldandy towards Sayoko as well, since the goddess never seems to have any ill will towards her despite all her attempts to break her and Keiichi up.

** Belldandy mostly dresses in [[Yamato Nadeshiko]]-style housedresses early on in the manga, but becomes considerably more of a fashionista later on, particularly after she starts working at Whirlwind alongside Keiichi.

** This is actually explained in the manga (albeit as a small side note and not spoken by the characters). In a chapter where Banpei wants to go out while the others are gone, it looks for the goddesses' clothes but finds none, and eventually settles for Keiichi's. In a side note on the page, it is explained that the goddesses summon their clothes using magic.

* [[Wham! Episode]]: After more than twenty years of the status quo, chapter 285 appears to turn everything upside down. See [[Awful Truth]] and [[Cerebus Retcon]].

** The fandom, wich is normally completely laid back, erupted in chaos when the contents of this chapter were revealed. For the first time ever. The wham was just that big.

* [[When She Smiles]]: Lind becomes a lot less chilly and intimidating.

** The "Belldandy smile" (TM) is a superpower in its own right, capable of melting glaciers and convincing even the most militant feminists to have some tea and cookies.

* [[Whip It Good]]: Urd breifly wields a pair of whips in the first season of the anime, and in the second season she swings a chain around like a whip while on her way to confront Hild. Peorth once used her vines as a whip when trying to help Keiichi overcome his [[Cannot Spit It Out]] problem.

* [[White-Haired Pretty Boy]]: Gan, in his spirit form.

** In the occasional flashback, though, she was an ''adorable'' little girl (so was Belldandy, too, but that kinda goes without saying).

** When Belldandy unlocks her [[Power Limiter]], her hair turns silvery. Belldandy was also portrayed with silvery hair for the first 40-50 chapters of the manga.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]

[[Category:AIC]]

[[Category:Animal Ya]]

[[Category:Anime]]

[[Category:Anime of the 1990s]]

[[Category:Dark Horse Comics]]

[[Category:Fantastic Comedy]]

[[Category:Geneon]]

[[Category:Magic Bus (studio)]]

[[Category:Manga]]

[[Category:Media Blasters]]

[[Category:Print Long Runners]]

[[Category:Seinen]]

[[Category:Studio Cosmos]]