Kōsuke Fujishima (藤島康介, born July 7, 1964) is a Japanese manga artist.
Born in Chiba, Japan, he first came to public attention as an editor of Puff magazine, his first job after completing high school. Fujishima originally intended to be a draftsman, but took the editorial role after failing to get a drafting apprenticeship. He later became assistant to manga artist Tatsuya Egawa in the production of the Making Be Free! manga, and in 1986 began his first original manga series You're Under Arrest. His second manga series Oh My Goddess!, also translated as Ah! My Goddess, is extremely popular and has made Fujishima a household name in Japan. In addition, he is also well known as the character designer for several games in the Tales RPG video game series and Sakura Wars.
He is known for his love of automobiles and motorcycles, and several of his series and their characters reflect this, such as in éX-Driver and Oh My Goddess!.
I'm probably not grading this as fairly as I might have when read in sequential order, but since I did not read the prior volume (that I can remember), I have to reconstruct what happened before this volume from context.
1. Belldandy is in the middle of a race with the CEO of Hell, with unspecified stakes if she loses (it doesn't matter, since she wins).
2. After Belldandy wins, Velsper is told to name his Demon Consort to make her his familiar, and that would get rid of his white spots. (Belldandy: "Oh, that's right.")
The rest of the volume proceeds from there, with a story about Velsper picking a name, and Urd and Skuld interfering with his naming ceremony. Then it changes topic entirely and focuses on Urd's First-Class Goddess test. (This part doesn't wrap up in this volume.)
On the whole, it's par for the course for the series, and it's not BAD as such. I just sort of prefer, as someone who hasn't collected the entire series, the standalone versions where I suspect the original translations rearranged stories so that one volume would contain the complete story rather than splitting it up like here when arranged chronologically. If I liked the series enough to keep all of the books, I probably wouldn't mind this as much, but I do.
In this volume, the devil turned angel finally finds a permanent home in Welsper. Urd also faces down the test to become a First Class Goddess. However, she seems hesitant to say what held her back on her first attempt to pass the exam.
Can I just say how beautiful the art has gotten? It's just lovely.
There is plot momentum in this story but it is in a major way. Still, characters do evolve and change in different and fantastical ways. Even when its only a bit of movement the series is still incredibly entertaining and a joy to behold.
The Barriers That Bind: Belldandy's broom ends up having a problem and she falls behind after nearly catching up to Hird.
Heaven and Hell: Vesper helps Belldandy and her broom to win.
Beautiful Name: Urd, Skuld and Peorth are chasing Vesper who hasn't given a name to his familiar yet.
Wanted: Vesper finally gives his familiar a name.
The Path to First-Class Goddess: Peorth tells Urd that she is now a candidate for first-class goddess. Peorth will be the test proctor, but then she names Belldandy proctor. Urd passes the first problem Belldandy gives her.
The Power of a First-Class Goddess: Belldandy unseals Urd's first-class powers. Belldandy then gives Urd a second problem to solve and she passes it. Peorth will give Urd her third problem to solve.