Ah! My Goddess 1
Morisato Keiichi is a college student who's pretty down on his luck.. and today he doesn't have any as usual.. tsuite nai. His senpais in the auto club boss him around and he ends up having to go along with them to earn some funds for the club since they don't have enough to keep operating. They repair a guy's bike, but he goes off without paying so Keiichi gets sent after him on a little bike, eventually catching up and getting paid, but only after tearing through the school and causing a mess.
And his bad luck doesn't end there. While everyone's out, he has to do rusuban and all the chores as well. Then he remembers he has to return a video he rented and runs off, and on the way back he runs across a girl who's lost her wallet. Since he is a nice guy, he helps her search for it and manages to get back in time to catch a phone call. And after that, he just has to do another call and that's it for the day... but he gets connected to the お助け女神事務所 [insert official translation here] and before he knows it the girl on the line says that she's coming. And she comes.. not just any girl, a goddess named Belldandy who will grant Keiichi's wish. So perhaps his luck will change now :)
I'm going to have to plead ignorance here, not having seen any of the Ah! My Goddess OAVs, or read the manga, so on. Putting that aside, I did enjoy this first episode a lot. Keiichi's troubles this time were pretty funny to watch, and next time should probably be even more interesting with Belldandy around, I suppose. Show looks nice as far as animation and such, and I rather liked the opening theme (btw, I'll put song info at the top of each show's page this season). Looking forward to more :) (sorry I can't come up with anything more insightful to say, lol)
I loved the OVAs (and movie!) but they definitely rushed things since there were only 5. It's nice to see the TV series is off to a more reasonable pace. :) (In the first OVA you even find out what the wish will be, and that's about 10 minutes in.) Characters were introduced rapidly, so I'm looking forward to seeing them fleshed out more. ^_^
BTW, I think you'll enjoy this more going into it without knowing the OVA storyline. There'll be more surprises for you. :)
I confess I haven't read much of the manga, but it's up to volume 190 I think, it's rather overwhelming to approach it now. o_O
Hey, Matt...
The manga is up to volume 196. You also have to realize that it started in September of 88. The character designs are definitely close to the movie versions. I hope that they have a big enough budget to produce a 52 episode show..at least!
Hm...it does sound paced slower than the OAVs, which is nice, as I was going 'Hunh?' after the 5 episodes :) Animation looks smoother, as well.
As for the manga..I've only read the first volume, so..I'm giving up now. :)
The animation style kind of bugs me. Keiichi, although "down on his luck" did not seem to me in the manga nor the OAVs like he was the complete geek he was made out to be in the first episode of this. Oh, and Belldandy's eyes seem placed too high up on her face ;)
Well, I have to admit I was slightly disappointed with this 1st episode... While it was nice that they added some story development to make it flow better, it was pretty slow and made me fall asleep. ^_^;;
I'll keep a look out for this anime on your blog to see if it's worth following.