Manga

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The Oh My Goddess! manga is written by Kosuke Fujishima, and is being published in the United States by Dark Horse Comics. In the beginning it was translated for DH by Studio Proteus, but since then recently Dark Horse has bought Studio Proteus.

The manga began in 1988, and was in fact inspired by one of Mr. Fujishima's other series, You're Under Arrest. Fujishima had added a four-panel gag strip to You're Under Arrest in which Natsumi, one of the main characters, was praying to a goddess (it was Miyuki - the other main character - as a goddess), and the gag-strip was so well-received, along with the fact that Fujishima liked the look of his drawings of the goddess. Soon after, Mr. Fujishima began a manga series with the idea of a goddess coming to live with a mortal.

Little did he know that it would expand into what it is today. In 2004, Oh My Goddess celebrated its 15th anniversary. The manga has been continously appearing in Kodansha's monthly Afternoon magazine, and has expanded to over 200 chapters (over thirty collected volumes) now. Like most popular manga, an OVA was made based on it. With the OVA's success, the stage was set for two TV series and a movie to follow.

[edit] Introduction

Spoiler warning: Story of the first volume.

Small bits of Norse mythology are incorporated in the original Manga. For instance the names of the main Goddesses resemble or are identical to those in Norse mythology. The plot of the manga (and of most OMG series) centers around a good-natured, yet hapless and girlfriend-less college freshman named Keiichi Morisato. He is often imposed upon by his elder dorm-mates and brow-beaten into taking phone messages and doing miscellaneous chores for them. One day, exhausted from completing a long list of chores given him by the other students who then left to party, Keiichi wearily dials for some fast food (In the Manga, this is changed to Keiichi calling his sempai, Tamiya to tell him of phone messages that Tamiya received).

To his surprise, he discovers that he has actually dialled the number of the Goddess Relief Office before he can explain his error, a beautiful goddess (Belldandy) has materialized within his room. She tells him that the Almighty has taken mercy upon him, and has sent her to grant him one wish. Understandably, Keiichi is sceptical, thinking it more plausible that his dormmates are playing some manner of practical joke on him. So he seeks to defuse the prank by asking Belldandy to be his girlfriend forever, thinking that when the wish was refused, as it must be, he would have turned the tables on them.

The wish is granted. But Keiichi soon discovers a downside to this wish: Belldandy has nowhere to live, and must live with him. But the dormitory is adamantly same-sex, and so Keiichi and Belldandy are forced onto the street by the other residents of the dorm. As luck would have it, Keiichi's motorcycle had just been repaired, so both could ride on it. Their attempts at finding shelter at various friends' houses fail due to the friend's lust for Belldandy, so Keiichi is forced to seek shelter from a fierce storm in an old apparently abandoned Buddhist temple.

The next morning, they are greeted by a young monk who is the sole inhabitant of the temple. He welcomes them and allows them to stay for a little while until they can find lodging; he then immediately puts them to work maintaining the temple grounds. When Belldandy uses her powers to save Keiichi, the priest begins to fear that perhaps Belldandy is no ordinary girl, but a foreign demon of some sort. He investigates, and is eventually persuaded of Belldandy's intrinsic goodness when he witnesses her solicitous care of the temple premises and her uncanny bond with wild animals; he decides to go on pilgrimage to India, granting the two lovers permission to remain in the temple contingent upon its good maintenance. Due to luck, or perhaps divine intervention, the two now have a home.

[edit] Stories

The Oh My Goddess manga consists of loosely coupled chapters with individual stories, but also larger so-called story arcs. As there are no official names for these specific lines of story, this is a collection of the most commonly used ones from different sources. They are translations, are taken from the Dark Horse releases or are inventions of fans for practical purposes (The major arcs with more than five chapters are set in bold type.)

[edit] Sources

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