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[ café reviews ]

Keiichi, daydreaming about Belldandy, is rudely brought back to reality by Urd.

amg_0000.gif

Ah! Megamisama!
(Oh! My Goddess!)

Episode 2: Midsummer Night's Dream


[ production info ]

Copyright: © 1993 Kodansha (Japan), © 1994 Animeigo (North America)
Length: 30 minutes
Rating: NR, suitable for family viewing
Format: Subtitled/Dubbed (VHS/LD)

Based on the manga series by: Fujishima Kosuke Director: Goda Hiroaki Producers: Shindo Masao, Takimoto Hiro Character Design: Matsubura Hidenori English Version Executive Producer: Robert J. Woodhead Translation by: Shin Kurokawa, Matsushima Naoko


[ plot summary ]

VHS jacket

Five months have gone by since Keichi's first unexpected introduction to Belldandy. Yet, despite living under the same roof, he hasn't had the guts to make a move on the lovely goddess. Enter Urd, Belldandy's older sister. She's been watching the hapless suitor from up above, and she just can't bear watching a soap opera that doesn't go anywhere. Like most older sisters, she likes to look out for her younger siblings. And meddle where she shouldn't. Will Keichi survive Urd's attempts at fulfilling her self-proclaimed title of the "Cupid of Love?" Will Keichi truly become a "Warrior of Love," and maybe even get to kiss her? And will he live to regret it?


[ capsule review ]

I don't have older siblings, but I don't imagine they'd ever be like Urd. Tohma Yumi has a wonderfully versatile voice (she does more than one voice in this series), and she uses it to her advantage in an episode which primarily deals with introducing her character. I've always preferred Japanese-style animation over the "cartoonish" western styles, and this series is a prime example. The backgrounds are incredibly rich, even though they appear washed-out around the edges, vignette style. Use of strong, vibrant colours is a welcome change to the "primary colour" effect we see in a a lot of Saturday morning specials.

The plot moves along fairly well, and we see something that's not very common in Japanese animé -- romance that progresses fairly quickly between episodes. It's a nice change from watching Kyoko and Godai flounder though how many episodes? The "arctic" scene which Jane notes (do they have penguins in the arctic? How about polar bears in the antarctic?) does deserve a mention (see screen-cap above) -- animé often has some really neat segués between scenes, and this has got to be one of the most memorable. We also get to meet two other prominent secondary characters -- Mishima Sayoko, and Aoshima Toshiyuki. They're about as "bad" as characters get in the OAV series, so you can pretty well guess that this isn't a "good-vs-evil" story. I really like the piano music that's used for BGM; the producers have some very talented score writers working on this series. - AN


This episode introduces us to some new characters whom we'll see throughout the rest of the OAV series. Principle among them is Urd, Belldandy's older sister. A second class limited goddess, she tries to get things moving between Keichi and Belldandy, with some *interesting* results. Tohma Yumi does an excellent portrayal of Urd, Belldandy's meddling elder sister. The story line in this episode is again pretty basic. We also meet two other people, Mishima Sayoko one of Keichi's classmates, and Aoshima Toshiyuki who is a year younger. The animation continues to be fuzzily detailed, although there were some interesting little inconsistencies in the number of bracelets that Belldandy was wearing. Supposedly she had one on her right wrist, two on her left with one anklet on her right ankle, but this varied occasionally. There was some good use of the super-deformed style animation especially with Urd, rather fitting of her personality I thought and the "arctic" scene when Urd teases Keichi while he is waiting for Belldandy makes good use of the background scenery. An interesting wake-up call for him. I have to admit though, it's probably a good thing that he got interrupted before putting sunscreen on Belldandy, I'd hate to know how icy his hands were! - JYN


[ café rating ]

Original: Subbed: Dubbed:
Story: N/R 3 stars N/A
Direction: N/R 3 stars N/A
Acting: N/R 3 stars N/A
Animation: N/R 3 stars N/A
Music: N/R 4 stars N/A
Translation: N/A 5 stars N/A
Overall Rating: N/R 3 stars N/A


[ café trivia ]



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