So… uh, yeah. The second one just came out and continues the “proud” legacy of its predecessor. Seriously, why are they even spending money on this fanfiction project? God, I think even GSD would be less rage-inducing to watch.

First, they introduced a pair of twin goddesses (I think) that act more like Demons, being all prideful and high-strung, plus zero awareness of etiquette at all.

Then, there’s a debugging competition in which the Yggdrasil bugs are transformed in to giant mollusk creatures and the contest goes to the one that catches the most of them. On a virtual beach. Dear god, why.

Of course, that’s not the worst. Let’s just put it this way. Coke and Mentos. Coke. And. Fucking. Mentos. Holy shit, wow what?

Oh, and drunk Belldandy. GOD DAMN IT KEIICHI, DIDN’T YOU LEARN? DIDN’T YOU FUCKING LEARN?!!!

This better be the last one. I seriously hope they don’t throw more money in to this. MIGHT AS WELL MAKE A THIRD SEASON.

©2012 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

*inhales deeply*

Right. Let me calm down a little first.

*takes a few more deep breaths*

Okay, so I finally got to watch this. What I want to say is that this is a huge piece of sacrilege towards the original work and I can’t believe that Kosuke Fujishima actually put the stamp of approval on this piece of crap.

First off, the plot is horribly nonsensical and barely makes sense. It basically boils down to Keiichi inviting Belldandy for a date, which SOMEHOW MANAGES TO TRIGGER A GIANT OVERFLOW OF HAPPINESS from her that affects the ENTIRE FUCKING WORLD and threatens to put all the Goddesses out of their work. Which should be impossible for the first place because:

1. Belldandy has numerous power limiters that curtail her Goddess powers substantially.
   I find it hard to believe that those same limiters wouldn’t have stopped that GIANT FUCKING OUTFLOW OF HAPPINESS which is basically implied to be caused by her Goddess powers. It’s like they totally forgot about that plot device.
2. THAT GIANT FUCKING OUTFLOW OF HAPPINESS itself should even have that kind of range at all, much less LAST FOR DAYS.
   Sure, in the manga there was a few times Bell has done this, but even then, the effects were highly localized and affected the whole town at the most. Suddenly now, they want us to believe that Bell has enough power to cover the whole world with happiness, and MAKE IT PERMANENT EVEN. Which brings me to No.3
3. The GIANT FUCKING OUTFLOW OF HAPPINESS is apparently permanent.
   First of all, this is all connected to Bell’s emotions and I find it hard that she would feel this happy ALL THE TIME. At the most, wouldn’t it be over when the date’s done? In this OAD, they are implying it’s going to be a permanent thing and threatens to make Goddesses obsolete on Earth forever. What the fuck is this shit? Seriously, what the fuck?

Then to make things worse, it’s apparently all a plot by Hild! With the wave of happiness causing everyone to feel happy and satisfied, there will be no need for Goddesses and they’ll be sent packing back home to Heaven while the Demons just waltz in and make Earth a place of pleasure. Again, this shouldn’t even make any sense at all because:

1. If everyone’s feeling pure happiness, why would anyone need anything else?
   Don’t forget, Goddesses and Demons don’t compete for physical aspects on Earth, they compete for mindshare. And the way they do that is to grant people’s wishes. Now.. if everyone were in a state of pure bliss, WHAT OTHER WISHES ELSE WOULD THEY NEED or even have?! And how would the Demons capture any more mindshare if NO ONE WANTS TO WISH FOR EVERY THING? And don’t even try to justify this the way Hild did. Keiichi was highly affected by that happiness wave, being the closest to the source and all, and he totally lost himself and even said he doesn’t need anything anymore. So WHERE ARE YOUR WISHES NOW, HILD?
2. If everyone’s feeling pure happiness, isn’t that a default victory for the Goddess side?
   Okay, questions of balance aside, it’s been stated the objective of the Goddeses and Heaven are to spread happiness. And regardless of how it happened, wouldn’t the complete happiness being experienced by everyone mean it’s kind of a default victory for Heaven? And Hild is actually wanting that “plan” to succeed? I CANNOT BRAIN THIS AT ALL.

And then it there was Urd and Skuld (ok, well Skuld not so much) acting quite out of character by trying to prevent Bell from feeling too happy, while Hild is actively trying to make Bell feel pure happiness. It’s just so… ironic. Seriously.

There’s just so many other titbits and minor details in this fucking OAD that just don’t add up at all. And don’t even get me started on how…. mediocre the animation quality was generally.

Anyways, I think I best stop here. My verdict on this OAD?

IT (SHOULD HAVE) NEVER EXISTED.

©2012 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

I went to Kinokuniya for the second (SECOND!!) time this week with some friends and fell in to temptation again, buying myself the 20th Anniversary artbook of Ah! My Goddess, with a 20% discount (saving me RM 32,which is quite a substantial amount).

My wallet despairs, but my heart rejoices though, since the book is quite worth the RM 130 I paid for it, as it’s really thick. It also contains just about every damn Ah! My Goddess color illustrations over the past 20 years.

There’s even an entire section dedicated to all of the tankouban covers where you get to see how much the art of A!MG has changed over the years from the “oh my god wtfugly” style back when it first started to the current “Belldandy’s eyes look so hollow” style. (I still think the best Belldandy is during the mid 90′s by the way.)

A long interview with Kosuke Fujishima is at the back of the book…

… and an index of all the illustrations and where it was sourced from.

The inside back of the book.

The artbook is really a worthwhile buy for fans of the series and I am glad to own it myself. This is really what artbooks should be like, :D.

If you want the original photos I used for this post, they are all nicely zipped up for download.

P.S. Right after publishing this post, I get an SMS from Kino: “Dear customer. Your order for Negima Vol. 25 Limited Edition has arrived at the store. Please proceed to….”.

…..WTF Kino? I just bloody came back from there!
…… and they said the book’s gonna arrive NEXT week when I placed the order orz.

©2012 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Making her mad has gotta rank as one of the stupidest things to do, ever.

As usual with me on the end of a season and the eve of a new one, I find myself craving for old classics, while others expound on the loveliness of the new shows. Don’t ask me why.

On a sidenote, so many deadlines to catch up on @_@.

©2012 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Two extra episodes that weren’t aired during the TV run of the series and only released in DVD format.

Episode 25 and 26 covers events in the manga right after the **Terrible Master Urd** arc, where the goddesses have trouble getting energy to retain their forms due to the **Yggdrasil** crash caused earlier on. The results in **Belldandy** having to morph into *chibi* form (a.k.a ***CHOU KAWAII!!!***), **Urd** regressing into her child stage and **Skuld** having a growth spurt resulting in adulthood.

In Episode 25, **Urd** is the first victim as she turns into loli mode and flirts around with a *hikikomori*-ish boy while Episode 26 focuses on **Skuld**, as she turns into an adult, a darn sexy one at that too, so she takes the chance to have some fun as an adult, like wearing sexy evening gowns, high heels and taking wedding pictures with **K1**.

Both episodes are nicely made and in tune with current times, check out the **PDP** that **Urd’s** playing ;). Should’ve updated the dialouge though, the kid was still referring to “A” and “B” buttons :P. The production values just really blow you away and even with the LQ raw, I still managed to enjoy myself. I really should get the DVD versions of the Aa! Megami-sama TV.

The best part of both episodes for me was how both Urd and Skuld’s *seiyuu’s* managed to fit their voices into their character changes. Both **Yumi Touma** and **Aya Hisakawa** did a fine job changing their voices to loli mode and adult mode respectively. Especially **Aya Hisakawa** doing the adult **Skuld** voice of which added in +25 Sekushii. I’m starting to become an **Aya Hisakawa** junkie too T_T.

Continue on for some screencaps.

©2012 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.