Publishing on a monthly basis from the late 1980s up until last year with a little over 300 chapters to its name, you'd think that this is a manga that goes well beyond the scope of countless other romances, right? Well... you'd be sorely mistaken. In reality, Ah! My Goddess is the ultimate game of will they/won't they. Its concept leads to a foregone conclusion that takes much too long to get to and by the time that the foregone conclusion rears its head, one question still remains unanswered: why did it take so long to get from point A to point B? With that
...
said, it's not like I hate Ah! My Goddess. No, quite the opposite in fact. I love the entire series and Belldandy will always be best girl. However, I'm not so quick to recommend the manga over something like say... the 2005 TV series done by AIC.
My biggest problem with Ah! My Goddess is the fact that it takes WAY too long for any substantial developments to occur when it comes down to Keiichi and Belldandy's relationship. From the very beginning, we already know that Keiichi and Belldandy will end up with one another. I mean, the guy wishes for an all-powerful goddess to stay by his side forever. What other possibilities could happen other than the two of them ending up as lovers? Living in a dysfunctional relationship? Yeah, if Belldandy was the abusive one and that'll never happen... unless she was secretly Shion from Higurashi in disguise.
From Chapter 1 up to Chapter ~280, Keiichi and Belldandy's entire relationship was a constant dance of will they/won't they. Now, Ah! My Goddess is primarily a comedy manga and this is where the bulk of the comedy is supposed to come from (key word: supposed to). Basically, Belldandy is a literal goddess, a friend to all creatures and things, and so on and so forth. Keiichi on the other hand is your standard nice guy that gets screwed over by everyone else and one day, he finds himself living with a literal goddess that he has the hots for and he can't bring himself to confess his feelings. Whenever he tries, Belldandy inevitably makes things worse because she doesn't know the first thing about love or romance. For example: he tries to confess, he stutters a lot, and Belldandy thinks he's sick so what does she do? She rushes him into bed and starts forcing cold remedies down his throat until he gets "better." Belldandy is a lot of things, and she's most definitely an unintentional sociopath. Pretty funny stuff, right? Not really...
As much as I love my sociopathic romantic comedies, there's a limit to how much I can find funny before it just gets tedious. The funny thing is that Ah! My Goddess was always a seinen manga, so one would think that it would be a logical course of action for the author to actually try and go beyond the realm of a will they/won't they relationship. Unfortunately, that's not the case whatsoever. If you really want a romance that goes beyond the conventional will they/won't they dynamic, you might as well read KareKano or *gulp* Itazura na Kiss (it may be shit, but it DOES go beyond the norm). Then again, who's to say that the constant will they/won't they is an inherently bad thing?
One of the main reasons why I love Ah! My Goddess so much in the first place is because of the fact that it's this really sweet and endearing read in the first place. In recent years where all sorts of grimdark stuff that try too hard at being edgy ends up getting popular, I feel like Ah! My Goddess serves an important niche as one of the few lighthearted mangas that you can turn to when you're sick of all the dark and edgy content being shoved in your face. Even if the romance isn't that great, I can count on Ah! My Goddess to at least make me smile whenever something sweet goes down between Keiichi and Belldandy.
On that note, the characters ain't half bad either. Aside from Belldandy and Keiichi, we have plenty of other characters that show up and make things more interesting like Urd, Mara, and Keiichi's sister (I'm too lazy to look up her name, please forgive me). I would include Skuld in the list too, but she's an irritating and possessive cockblocker and so I don't really care much about her. Over the course of 308 chapters, I can safely say that the characters were handled much better than the actual romance. Everyone has their own motivations, quirks, and so on and so forth. At the same time, the constant repetition that went on in the manga prevents any substantial character development to come forward when it actually matters. I mean, it DOES happen but at a much slower pace than I'd like for it to.
On another note though, the artwork is actually quite lovely. This manga was publishing for well over 20 years, and it's quite obvious that the artwork changes significantly over time, but another reason why I like reading Ah! My Goddess in the first place was just to see these changes make themselves more evident over time. I mean, mangas like Berserk that have also been publishing for well over 20 years also go through some form of art evolution but most of the time, the changes are actually pretty limited and just involves the mangaka finding their own style and then sticking with it for years. Ah! My Goddess is one of the few mangas where the author actually experimented with his style multiple times throughout the entire work.
Would I say that I enjoyed reading Ah! My Goddess? Well, yeah. Even when it was getting tedious, I really did like reading it but at the same time, it lost momentum way too quickly for my liking and whilst the ending DOES make up for it, to some degree, that doesn't really change the fact that the conclusion it DOES reach by the end of it all could've easily been achieved in around half the time it took to actually get there. Even though I really do like Ah! My Goddess, I don't think I'd be recommending it to anyone anytime soon. If you really want Ah! My Goddess, watch the 2005 TV series instead. It cuts out a lot of the crap that was in the manga so that Keiichi and Belldandy's relationship could develop much quicker and it was always meant to be a self-contained story, so it could go much further than the manga ever did. Plus, it has two seasons! Can't go wrong with that, now can you? Anyway, that's all for now. Feedback's always welcome and with that, I'm out. Peace :)
 Alternative TitlesSynonyms: Ah! My Goddess Japanese: ああっ女神さまっ More titlesInformationType: Manga
Volumes: 48
Chapters: 308
Status: Finished
Published: Aug 25, 1988 to Apr 25, 2014
Demographic:
Seinen
Serialization:
Afternoon Authors:
Fujishima, Kousuke (Story & Art) Statistics Ranked: #24082 2 based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded. Popularity: #1080
Members: 18,606
Favorites: 754 Available AtResources | Reviews
Filtered Results: 8 / 8
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Jul 3, 2015
Publishing on a monthly basis from the late 1980s up until last year with a little over 300 chapters to its name, you'd think that this is a manga that goes well beyond the scope of countless other romances, right? Well... you'd be sorely mistaken. In reality, Ah! My Goddess is the ultimate game of will they/won't they. Its concept leads to a foregone conclusion that takes much too long to get to and by the time that the foregone conclusion rears its head, one question still remains unanswered: why did it take so long to get from point A to point B? With that
...
Aug 8, 2008
I've come to love this manga! One true reason I enjoy this series are the characters. The character designs are just fantastic! Fujishima's art is definitely one of my favorites. This manga also a unique use of racing and motorcycles as a plot device. That's a plus for me since I am a big racing and motorcycle fan. The comedy is also one of the strong points of this anime. Since it is a seinen manga aimed for an older audience, it dishes out plenty of dirty jokes.
One drawback is the fact that the manga has a slow start. The story and Fujishima's art ... 
Jul 7, 2014
Before I start to describe my thoughts, I want to point out that this manga is 25 years of one author work. So regardless of what I write, give this comic a try if you have some interest in genre.
This is one of those Harem-Comedy style comic books. There is one boring protagonist and lot of beauties that want to get his attention. Someone may say that, there are thousand mangas with same plot and some of them might have better story or more interesting art style. This all true, this manga have nothing unique or special but i still think this one ... 
Jul 5, 2020
tl;dr: A manga that has an interesting world, interesting stories, and a likable cast, but that doesn’t have enough narrative oomph.
This manga has many aspects, but none really felt like they were enough to hold up the manga, especially considering how long it is at 48 volumes. There’s the aspect with the goddesses and demons, which has a decent amount of good world building, but the stories related to it mostly just amount to small episodes. Similarly, a good amount of the manga also has to do with motorcycles and the motor club, but that too just comes and goes as small episodes without any major ...
Jan 25, 2012
One advantage that my goddes has its that it offers long legged, sexy, smooth skinned , and genius chicks. yes Urd is genius at biology, skuld with machines so they are not just stupid brainless bimbo. The author tried her best to provide scientific grounds to everything, but of course you don't have to be a genius to know that the grounds are false.
Keichi's friends who are also his seniors Toraichi Tamiya and Otaki Aoyama are not your typical harem manga' weak , cool supporting characters. They are rude, , very big and strong and more ... 
Jul 9, 2021
The romantic story between man and goddess.
Throughout the entirety of this manga, it has lots of mini story arcs which helps progress the main plot in the background. It's mainly seinen and slice of life with some tidbits of romcom and action thus kinda giving you an "episodic" feel. One thing to note of, this started in 1988 and so the art and character designs have that old look. Also, the story started slow. It may take more chapters to read to get used to it but I assure you, character designs, art, and plot will get gradually better as you read through. I also ... 
Nov 22, 2019
(just for the record, this is a slight alteration of my anime review)
This is the title that initiated the Magical Girlfriend subgenre of harems and ecchies and it’s also amongst the oldest harems yet still published manga series (it’s been around since 1988). STORY SECTION: 5/10 [Feels almost like a hentai] Analysis: General Scenario 1/2, Pacing 1/2, Side Stories/Extra Spices 2/2, Plausibility 1/2, Conclusion 0/2 The story is about a teenage dork dialing the wrong number and ends up living with a beautiful goddess, ready to fulfill his wishes, of which his is to stay with him forever (wish fulfillment). Soon afterwards her also godly sisters pop up ... 
Mar 30, 2022
Oh My Goddess! Has been my favorite manga for a while. It's a sweet and super funny collection that evolved so much from the initial chapters, both in terms of art and character development, that it's almost unrecognizable after a few volumes.
The kind and shy main character finds himself living with a beautiful (and KIND in a godly way) goddess, who never ever harbors a negative thought. They start developing feelings for each other, and they shy guy will eventually come a long way, proving to be a great mechanic, bike rider, faithful lover and, all in all, an acceptable match for the otherworldly Belldandy. It's ... |
