Marller, you call yourself a first class demon? How can you be a successful practitioner of the dark arts and malice if you feel guilty about what you do? In the realm of Ah! (or Oh!, if you prefer) My Goddess!, even the queen of demons, Hild, has conscience to her malevolence and possesses some good at heart, as this episode 21 has shown. A!MG! is such a benign series that even its demons are likable.
Currently, the manga (which I haven’t read) exceeds thirty volumes and is still ongoing. With Keiichi and Belldandy’s relationship status at a stasis, and their development progressing at an infinitesimal rate, I wonder about the appeal of A!MG!. Keiichi and Belldandy demonstrates and reconfirms their feelings for each other, many times, in their adventures and stories, so I can see an attraction of A!MG! lies in the sweetly heart-warming behaviours of the naive love between Keiichi and Belldandy. Watching them makes one go “Aww, aren’t they a cute couple.” I was uttering that too when I first saw A!MG!, but soon I (and some others as well) grew weary of the repetition, the repeated messages from the same situation. Yes, we know Keiichi and Belldandy loves each other. Yes, they are soul mates and belong to each other for everlasting. Yes, their love will be triumphant against all obstacles. Yes, we get it, but let’s move on. Now I say with impatience, “Keiichi and Belldandy, advance to the next level already!”. But I understand moving Keiichi and Belldandy forward and maturing them would destroy this attraction that some people still enjoy.
Thankfully, A!MG! isn’t just solely about Keiichi and Belldandy, otherwise the series would get dull fast. It is a strong reason behind why numerous side characters and side stories are presented in A!MG!. I find these ancillary characters and their stories more interesting, because they’re much more varied and imaginative. By “side characters” I mean other characters, major or minor, that are not Keiichi and Belldandy. This is why I prefer anecdotes like Marller’s child-like mischievous antics against Keiichi and his company of goddesses, or the exposition of a character like the Skuld and Sentaro arc, or the good and evil Urd, or pretty much any episode not focused on Keiichi’s and Belldandy’s relationship. Such tales occur with enough frequency to keep me entertained in A!MG!.
Muir Woods 