Note: I originally finished this on June 5th but am now posting this from my Letterboxd review w/ minor edits both for posterity and also cause I noticed no one else had written one beforehand. When I first heard about Oh My Goddess or Ah My Goddess as its sometimes called or the Japanese title Aa MegamiSama there were only two things I knew about it: it was the second manga series Kosuke Fujishima penned and drew following the success of his then ongoing work Youre Under Arrest with this one becoming even more popular if the volume and sales count are anything to go by and that this was another stepping stone for him to become the character illustrator for video game franchises Tales and Sakura Wars. Everything else about what it could be about was a blur to me so the only thing I had to go off of was summaries on both Anilist and Wikipedia which made me think this was gonna be like Tenchi Muyo a comedic and energetic harem thing but instead of incorporating scifi and other spacial elements this was about religious allegories and shit like that. Also contributing to the comparison is that both of these properties were at this point in time animated by the same studio AIC so it was pretty surprising to witness that this 5episode romp is actually... down to earth. Way more chill than I expected for better and worse. To make a correction about my kneejerk harem label it very much isnt that at all. Keiichi Morisato and Belldandy are locked in as a pairing as soon as they meet in the first encounter so the series revolves around the formers shy yet understanding nature with the latters highstatus of being well a kind and caring Goddess being used as a way for both to bond together and slowly get closer and closer with each day passing. The rest of the cast ranging from Keiichis buddies to Bells family are more so there to add more dynamics to the core story either by lightening the mood or nudging them and/or the plot of the current episode along and it makes for a pretty comfy and compelling watch. Like shit man its just sweet to see how one of the two reacts or say something to the other through thick and thin so despite the short length it was a nice sell on making me root for these two to work it out and appreciate each other more as a result. It also helps that it balances the serious aspect of these tangled obstacles with the wacky hijinks is solid like seeing Urds minx nature trying and usually failing to push Keiichi further along on the relationship level with Bell or Skuld being the technical mind yet getting on peoples nerves due to her stubborn bratty nature. No one here ever truly becomes annoying which is was a surprise since again I was expecting something pretty different. Im also super into the presentation as well. The aforementioned AIC already have plenty of works made by talented people to help sell a greatlooking anime see Riding Bean Metal Skin Panic MADOX01 or perhaps a relatively more recent Humanity Has Declined for some examples and this ones no different. Hiroaki Gouda does a great job at leading the team to apply a rural and easygoing look to the affair with any magical elements having a contrasting look from the surface world with Hidenori Matsubara greatly transitioning Fujishimas character designs onto the screen matching the ceremonious attire for our three Goddesses as well as the more casual and school vibe for every human member here. It was also nice to see some more sakuga goodness from this time that hasnt been overshared to death like so many other moments on Twitter as Yelling At Clouds as that sounds. I did say it can be for the worst though and its usually from how these episodes are structured. Now I dont mind the slowpaced vibe in fact I consider it one of its greatest strengths but near the end you can tell its haphazardly juggling between adapting elements of the manga while being more of a standalone story tying aspects of it in here and it gets rather muddled as a result. Not awful mind you especially since the ending did get me tearyeyed but just enough to feel like somethings missing from the element. They throw in one of the students in episode 4 without any sort of proper introduction and theres a character that appears in the OP but not AT ALL in the show proper which makes it pretty bizarre. With the last episode being 40 minutes instead of the usual 30 I feel like this OVA couldve benefited from either another episode or more distinct time lengths of whats available to make the juxtapositions feel less jarring. Thats all I can think of for negatives thankfully otherwise its a smooth ride and a great sell in checking out the manga or perhaps its more faithful TV adaptation. There is that movie though so maybe Ill give that a look at some point...