Customer Reviews

1-555-Goddess! (Oh My Goddess! (Numbered))

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

1-555-Goddess is the first in Dark Horse's graphic novel adaptions of their Oh My Goddess! series. This is a great way to get all the early comic book relaeses at once. However there are a few surprises for those not familiar with Oh My Goddess! or the Japanese original Ah! Megamisama. First of all although Fujishima sensei has some of the most lovely and delicate drawings ever put to paper, be prepared that it was shaky going at first and the original chapter shows quite a different Belldandy than the one we come to know and love. Secondly, Dark Horse decided not to publish several of the original chapters so the stories in this volume do not flow together very well. These minor complaints aside, Oh My Goddess! is a wonderful, lovely story. The characters are so well developed you will love them all. Fujishima sensei is such a skilled artist and has an incredible immagination for cute quirky outfits for the goddesses and is really adept at amazingly detailed renderings of machinery. (I want Belldandy's clothes! ) The story is gently amusing and very sweet but it appeals to both genders and has enough action and adventure for those that don't find knitting an adorable pastime for a goddess.

If you can find this (out of print) title for a reasonable cost, its good because it was the original graphic novel release in the USA. The subsequent origin has restored stories, and is issued in three separate volumes. Those books are: Wrong Number, Leader of the Pack, and Final Exam. They should all still be in print, and available on Amazon.

The Oh, My Goddess series is one of the cleanest, yet funniest manga to come out of Japan. They don't resort to blood violence, overt sexual situations, foul language, or nudity at any time. Despite this the concept has a knack for extremely funny, crazy situations that always keep you wanting more. The basic story may seem similar to those like Chobbits, Steel Angel Kurumi, Hand Maid May, or other manga based on a powerful non-human woman. It is generally more original than all those, and never crosses the lines of child proof decency, that those others occasionally bypass.

The concept may take a little getting used to by some of us Western folk. Some strict Christians may not want to confuse their children with the concepts, although there is nothing offensive. Japanese lore is a world full of demons, gods, goddesses, oni's, and other spirit entities. The Religious concept of one God, or Goddess does not apply, and this may be a new concept for some Americans. The stories in the Oh, My Goddess series do not deal with religion. This would not be like much Christian literature found in a Christian book store. It's intent is merely a humorous story with some standard elements of good and evil. These concepts follow the Eastern notion that nothing can be perfectly good (although Belldandy comes close) or totally evil. They do not follow any specific religious philosophy.

The story has Keiichi, a young man attending a technical college in Japan. He likes motors, both in automobiles and especially motorcycles. Initially he lives in somewhat of a Fraternity house, and one boring weekend, his friends out, he tries to order some food. Instead, he gets the Goddess help line, and Belldandy, an ultra-nice, ultra pure, fairly high level Goddess, who offers him a wish. Thinking its all a joke by his friends, he requests that Belldandy be his girlfriend, for as long as he wants. To his surprise she agrees, and shows up to be with him. Unfortunately, with girls not allowed, he must now move, and his resources are limited.

This series is not the typical of the powerful girl genre in that it contains elements of motorcycle racing, computer technology, and other things that tend to set it apart. Since Belldandy alone would ultimately be too nice to make a good story, her half-demon, half-goddess, sister Urd is introduced, to sometimes play demons advocate. Still even she is a Goddess first and a demon repressed. I read a lot of manga graphic novel compilations. Ive read Ranma ½, No Need for Tenchi, Video Girl AI, Maison Ikkoku, and many other similar series. What sets this apart is the exceptionally inventive humor and writing. Despite the fact that this is a long running series, its never gotten stale, or fallen into repetitious predictability.

One thing that helps (for at least the near future) is that its published by Dark Horse. They still publish these compilations in the larger (8.5 X 6) format. All the Viz, and Tokyopop books, have gone to a smaller size that makes it more difficult to read. Since these were all originally published in comic book size, the more you shrink them the more difficult to read the captions, and the more detail is lost. The recent issues of Oh, My Goddess books have kept the bigger size, and I think thats a big asset. Finally, the series did have a limited run anime, thats available on VHS and DVD. A fairly well done movie was made later. Surprisingly, theyve made little use of a wealth of material to make further episodes.

What would you do if you had a goddess for a girlfriend? Well, that's is exactly what hapens to Nakomi Tech student Morasato Keiichi when he accidently hungerly dials the wrong phone number looking for some take out. To his supprise, after about the fifth call, a goddess named Belldandy apears and grants him any one of his heart desires! Well whats it going to be Keiichi? A million dollars? Lots of women? World domination? Or.....A goddess? Find out in this excellent book created by Japanese artist/and writer Fujishima Kosuke. I give it a eleven on a scale of one to ten.

Published Monthly By Kodansha's Monthly Magazine in Japan And In America By Dark Horse Comic's Studio Proteus

The series "Oh My Goddess" by Kosuke Fujishima is excelent! The first manga( The one entitled Oh My Goddess 1-555-goddess)is an intorductry to the world of Kechi Morisoto(main charcter)and his first encounters with two of the three goddess. As he falls helplessly in love with Belldandy(One of the goddess) at first sight, all begins to go wrong...or does it? By making a wish with out thinking Belldandy is stuck with Keichi for the rest of his life...but with a goddess that buetiful as Belldandy, would you complain? So after living with Belldandy for while Belldandy's sexy sister decideds that their love life needs a little more excitment, and all begins to go insanely wrong from there!! Kosuke Fugishima is an excelent writter as well as an artist! His attention to detail is unpeckable to any other manga artist. One of my favorite things about his manga, is that you can actually see how his art work progresies through out the many graffic novels! So if you don't like the art work in the first graffic novel...he gets a lot better. Don't belive me? Pick up the first graffic novel and one of the latest comic books or novels and compare! This is another must read!!

~Kittywolf13

Oh! My Goddess is one of my favorite mangas ever! If dark horse had released good translations of ALL the parts I would have given it 5 *s. The problem is that dark horse decided to cut out parts. After showing the first chapter, they decide to skip almost a whole book, and suddenly they soppose that you understand that Keichi and Belldandy live in an old temple. I would NOT suggest you buy this book if you don't know the story, or you want to read the WHOLE story. Finally Dark Horse understood what they did wrong and put out translations of the parts they missed, but to get those (called "Manga Blast"s) you have to go to darkhorse.com and dig through a whole bunch of stuff to order it. I would suggest you just buy the japanese manga and find translations on the internet. voe.com sells lots of japanese manga, and you can go to anipike.com to search for OMG translations. In japanese the manga is called Ah! Megami Sama.

The reason that this book did not receive 5 stars is because of the way that Dark Horse comics butchered the early chapters. I mean Urd did not arrive in the second chapter. Important details are left out of the book such as how and when Belldandy and Keiichi came to live in a temple. It is also obvious that Fujishima's art style did not evolve as much as it did between only two chapters. Overall though this is still a very entertaining book to read. It is a quite simple boy meets girl story. the girl just happenens to be a goddess. In this volume we also meet Urd, Belldandy's older sister whose desire is to get Belldandy and Keiichi in the sack together, Sayoko Mishima a beautiful rich girl who harbors feeling sfor Keiichi, Aoshima Sayoko's cousin who wants Belldandy for his own, and Tamiya and Ootaki Keiichi's upper classmen who seem to only want to make life hard for Keiichi. Good stuff check it out

While the laughs that I enjoyed while reading this manga were fun and well deserved, the series shines not in its ability to make me chuckle, but in its sheer ability to disarm me, and bring me (almost) to tears. It is a wonderful story that I would recomend to anyone that lives, breaths, and (most importantly) has a heart.

Well, I was really kinda of iffy on starting this series.Even though everyone around me was saying excellent things about, I still wasn't sure.The reason? Well the artwork didn't really appeal to me, but despite that I got it anyway. Apart from the artwork(which does get better as the series goes along)it was actually a pretty cute and lighthearted Manga. Keichi who is kind of a loser college guy that has no luck with girls, accidentally calls 1-555-goddess meaning to call for pizza, When Belldandy comes forth telling him that she would grant him any wish that he desired. Thinking it's a joke that his buddys are pulling on him, he then wishes that Belldandy will stay with him forever, and that's where the whole story begins and will probably end. But that's what I really do like about this series, because despite that Keichi who wished for Belldandy to be with him forever doesn't start out as a relationship, he does end up falling in love with her as Belldandy for him. This quirky series gets even better as more characters are added and some really weird plot lines as well. I hope this helps if you had any doubts about the series!!!!

This is the one manga that is safe for all ages to read. No nudity or foul language. Even some manga that might seem as if it's for a young audience might have mild nudity. Nothing to offend people here.

I love this series because I can be a hopeless romantic, and perhaps I identify too much with Keiichi.

Keiichi is a college guy who has zero luck with women. While trying to call a friend to give him his messages, he accidentially calls a goddess help line. As a result, Belldandy appears so she can grant Keiichi any wish he wants. He's allowed one wish. Thinking this is a prank, he wishes that Belldandy be with him forever. Well, it's not a prank, and Keiichi now has a goddess as a girl-friend - forever.

There is an error on the back cover of the volume I have. It states that Keiichi was trying to order pizza when he calls Belldandy. In the anime series, he's trying to order food to be delivered. Here in the manga, it's just as I described it above.

This is the first volume of the manga. Some parts are missing, but it doesn't affect the flow of the storyline. You'll have to grab past issues of Super Manga Blast to read the missing parts unless Dark Horse decides to publish them in a collected format. If you can read Japanese, the missing material is in volume 1 (I think) and volume 2 of the original Japanese volumes. I own a copy of volume 2 so I can only comment for sure on that one.

A book that seems to be aimed at younger readers, with no nudity, cussing and few fights (though the Keiichi does grab the Goddess Urd in a place he shouldn't at one point). The book seems to focus on the relationship between Keiichi and the Goddess Belldandy, which seems to be one the boy wishes to mature into a serious one. This is the first book and you might wish to see the reviews of the other books in the series before trying it out. As the series continues it DOES get funnier.

If you enjoyed this series, I suggest you try out the Ranma 1/2 books also.