Oh! My Goddess (Aa! Megamisama!)-Volume 1 (1993) (NTSC)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Anime	Main Menu Audio & Animation Gallery-slideshow Isolated Effects Track-music and effects Audio Commentary-voice actors and dub director DVD Credits
Rating
Year Of Production	1993
Running Time	85:44 (Case: 87)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,4	Directed By	Hiroaki Gooda
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	None Given
Case	Click
RPI	$34.95	Music	Yasuda Takeshi

    In my review of Ah! My Goddess I mentioned that it followed a short series called Oh, My Goddess. This series. Yes, I'm reviewing them in the wrong order.

    Oh, My Goddess is a sweet little story. It has many very gentle passages, and has been mistaken on occasion for shoujo anime, but it's not. It's actually quite suitable both sexes, and for most ages, although you might be wary of the sexual innuendo (mild, but not missing, especially when Urd is around) when considering it for children.

    The setup is quite simple. Keiichi Morisato is studying at Nekomi Tech and living in a men's dorm. He is lumbered with answering the phone one afternoon while his dormmates are out. He's hungry. He tries several phone numbers, trying to get some food delivered, without success. Then he gets a crossed line, and finds himself talking to the Goddess Help Line. A beautiful goddess called Belldandy appears, and offers him a single wish. Thinking it's a prank, he says that he wishes he had a girlfriend like her. Zot! She's his girlfriend. This causes one small problem: it's a men-only dorm, so he gets thrown out on the street. Hmm, homeless, but with a beautiful girlfriend — still seems like a step forward...

    Keiichi discovers that having a goddess for a girlfriend has a few drawbacks, especially when the goddess has sisters. But things have a habit of working out (goddesses have a number of useful talents...).

    The three episodes on this disc are:

1. Moonlight and Cherry Blossoms (28:28) — the luckiest crossed-line Keiichi ever got
2. Midsummer Night's Dream (28:32) — surely a holiday at the beach with Belldandy would be a good thing?
3. Burning Hearts on the Road (28:44) — a race, with Belldandy on the line?

    The only objection I've heard raised about this show is that Belldandy is quite submissive. I don't quite see it that way: I think she's very gentle, and trying hard to fit into a world that's rather alien to her. Either way, if you're concerned about Belldandy acting as a bad role model for girls, just bear in mind that this show offers several strong female role models, including Keiichi's sister Megumi and Belldandy's sister Urd.

    Actually, there is one other objection I've heard voiced about this series: there's not enough of it! That's an objection I have to agree with, and the reason why I was so glad to see the movie appear. This is an enjoyable show, and one I'd have been quite happy to see extend into several more episodes.

Video

    This is an NTSC transfer, so you won't be able to watch it unless your setup will handle NTSC.

    This DVD transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. It is not 16x9 enhanced. That's the original and intended aspect ratio.

    The image varies from reasonably sharp to rather soft, with foreground characters usually clear enough, and background rather softer. Film grain is no problem. There is no low-level noise.

    Colour is nice and bright, but there are frequent instances of slight smear and colour bleed. There's quite a bit of mostly minor cross-colouration (see 8:34 and 21:22 in Episode 1), and even the infamous "rainbow" effect that only seems to afflict NTSC transfers of anime (shame we have an NTSC transfer...). Some scenes seem deliberately a touch over-bright, creating a white wash over the entire frame — if you're familiar with anime you'll recognise the effect.

    There are no film artefacts worth mentioning, which is a good thing. Oh, there are film artefacts, but they are tiny and momentary, and insignificant against the big problem...

    Aliasing and dot crawl is present on virtually every frame. The black lines outlining the characters shimmer and dance. Sometimes it's more annoying, but it is always present. Perhaps the worst instance is the blueprints at 2:46 in Episode 3. There's even the occasional instance of Gibbs effect causing a halo around characters in the middle distance (that's something I've not seen before, and I can't say I'm too keen to see it again!). There's not much in the way of moire, but the aliasing can reach the point where it causes major shimmer

    There are two subtitle tracks. The one coded as English is full subtitling. The one coded as Others is subtitling of signs and the occasional cultural reference. I watched all of the full English subtitles. They seem quite accurate, well-timed, and easy to read in an attractive font. They are a little unusual, in that they use multiple colours: most of the language is yellow, with green (and even orange) used to distinguish when multiple characters are talking at once, and white used for signs.

    The disc is single-sided (with an attractive picture label), and single layered. There is no layer change, but there isn't really enough material here to demand one.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are four soundtracks here, every one of them Dolby Digital 2.0 (not surround-encoded) at 192 kbps. I listened to all of the Japanese and English dialogue soundtracks, and the commentary soundtrack. The fourth soundtrack is a music and sound effects only track — once I'd confirmed that was what it was, I didn't bother listening to all of it.

    The English dialogue is clear and readily comprehensible. The Japanese dialogue sounds clear. There are no obvious mismatches between the sound and the mouth movements.

    The score is one of the delights of this series. Bouncy and cheerful at times, more considered at others, it's really nice stuff. Yasuda Takeshi has done a good job.

    The surrounds and subwoofer are given nothing to do by this straight stereo soundtrack. There's quite a bit of use of the stereo soundstage, though, with voices placed left, centre, and right matching their positions on or off stage.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    There are some extras here, but not as many as the extras menu make it appear. One has to hand it to the disc designer — they've been rather creative.

Menu

    The menu is animated with music — rather attractive.

Gallery (2:17)

    Still images of the main characters, some from the show and some that may have been promotional material. Set to music and presented as a slide show.

Dub Your Own

    This is the music / sound effects soundtrack — you can supply the voices. Might be kind of fun late at night with a number of friends when feeling uninhibited.

Silent Movie Mode

    Gosh, the music / sound effects soundtrack again, this time with subtitles.

In the Studio 1 — Audio Commentary

    An audio commentary from two of the voice actors, plus the voice director, who made the English dub. They seem to be having a lot of fun, but they do let the occasional morsel of information slip out, especially during the first episode. I think they are having more fun than we are listening to them. Not the greatest commentary committed to disc.

In the Studio 2 — Audio Commentary

    The same commentary track, but this time with subtitles — see what I mean about being creative to make a few extras look like more?

DVD Credits

    A two page listing of the parties who made this disc. They are from AnimEigo, rather than Madman, because this is the NTSC mastering made in the USA. The second page is shown a short interval after the first, and then vanishes after a moment — that's annoying because I hadn't finished reading it.

    This disc is strangely similar to the Region 1. Well, no, not strangely — it's exactly the same content, with a different label and different cover — the Region 1 has nicer artwork, in my opinion, because it's less crowded. Both the Region 1 and Region 4 discs are actually coded as Regions 1, 2, and 4 — you can get either with no problem.

    Oh, My Goddess is a beautiful show on an imperfect DVD.

    The video quality is not good, but it will do.

    The audio quality is fine.

    The extras are not compelling.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall