ANI-MOVIES, *AH MY GODDESS: THE MOVIE

Where as alot of anime movies are connected to a TV series, Ah My Goddess is signifigant as it was a direct sequal to the original OVA series from the 90s, which in America was called Oh My Goddess. Although the film included a few elements from the manga as well, this actually came out a few years before the TV remake.

Set around sometime after the end of the 5-episode OVA, Keichi is still living with the goddess Belldandy, and her sisters Urd and Skuld. Belldandy is visited by her old teacher Celestin, who was unknown to her imprisioned on the moon for rebelling against the gods when she was young. Celestin was released by the fairy princess Morgan Le Fay(from the Arthurian legend)to try and gain access to the Yggdrasil system that Heaven uses to control Earth. Celestin infects Belldandy with a virus that makes her forget everything that happened to her from when she first came to Earth and met Keichi. Urd and Skuld try using a vaccine to cure her and give back her memories, but this causes the Yggdrasil system to crash, and Celestin takes over Keichi's body. With Morgan, Celestin nearly succeeds, but Belldandy regains her memories and frees Keichi of his control. The three goddesses then bring their powers together to heal Yggdrasil, and set everything right again.

This film was very well executed. It had a solid story, a decent plot, and unlike alot of anime movies that spinoff from a series, it actually tied into the original in an exceptional way. It was directed by Hiroaki Godha, who went on to do the Ah My Goddess TV series which retold most of the story from OVA. You can enjoy this movie even if you're only briefly familar with the characters. Weirdly enough, you can see this as sequal to both the TV and OVA series. The astounding digital animation that was used(for in 2000)is still remarkable by today's standards. Even though there's a little less of the comedic factor that usually follows an AMG title, its a very entertaining shojo comedy.