By Kosuke Fujishima. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Afternoon. Released in North America by Dark Horse.
Awww. Yes, once again, that is the goal of Oh My Goddess. To get you to read one of the adorable, cute, relaxing chapters and go “Awww.’ And for the most part, this volume succeeds in that.
The first chapter wraps up the Sentaro storyline that was in Volume 34. After injuring himself in front of his girl, Sentaro is back on the bike and vowing to make sure he does the trick right this time. And he does. But an even harder trick might have been a mistake, as Skuld is forced to bust out her goddess powers to save him. Luckily for her, Sentaro is (like most of the human cast) vaguely clueless, and thinks he was merely hallucinating those wings. And of course, lame ending, he’s just moving across the river – like 10 extra minutes. Waaa waaa waaa waaaaaaaah.
The majority of the volume is concerned with the story of a broken antique camera that may not be as broken as it seems. As always, mechanical things are Fujishima’s bread and butter, so the camera is lovingly depicted and described. The camera, it turns out, works fine – provided it’s taking a picture of a pretty girl. After Belldandy sweet talks it (you have to get used to everyday objects having souls and speaking around these goddesses), they’re able to open it and get the 40-year-old film developed. Then it’s just a matter of finding the girl in the photo. This being OMG, they find her in about 2 hours. The best part of this arc was seeing the old couple – Fujishima loves to show us couples in love, provided they aren’t K1 and Belldandy, and you always get the sense that they could carry a manga of their own whenever you meet another one.
The final chapter is slight but amusing, focusing on Keiichi’s sister Megumi. Who shows up at the temple utterly roaring drunk. Turns out she’s been dumped – again. This is news to her brother, who was unaware she was dating. The problem, apparently, is that she’s simply TOO AWESOME for her boyfriends. They can’t deal with her being the queen of the campus, #1 motorbike champion, perfect in every way woman. So she lets them break up with her (which in itself should tell her how much she actually cared, but hey) and then gets hammered. The best part of the chapter is at the end, where she rips into her brother for being a pathetic loser and yet still having Belldandy for a girlfriend. Oh, kid, you speak for us all.
As you may imagine, this manga is preaching to the converted. No one will be buying Volume 35 to give the series a try, and if you were frustrated at the lack of romantic progress, no doubt you gave up after Vol. 12 or so. Still, this is for the Oh My Goddess fan. And for them? It’s good stuff. Not a lot of Urd this volume, but I’m sure that will change. Isn’t everyone in it so sweet? Awww.
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