Oh My Goddess! Omnibus Volume 3

Oh My Goddess Omnibus #3

by Kosuke Fujishima

Strange, cute, and charming new characters are around every corner in Oh My Goddess! Omnibus Book Three! First, the blonde bombshell demonness Mara descends with a wicked plot to possess the body of Keiichi's little sister, Megumi...which leads Skuld to build a new character, Mini-Banpei RX, to combat their infernal rival! Then, at a mountain resort, the ghost of a long-dead lovely maid takes form to try to get Keiichi to honor a promise his grandfather made to her, and Mara strikes back by conjuring a trio of killer ninja masters...ninja masters only one foot tall!

Oh My Goddess! is America's longest-running manga series. Dark Horse first published OMG! in comic book format way back in 1994 and has been the exclusive publisher ever since. Now, Dark Horse is collecting Oh My Goddess! in the larger, omnibus format with three of the original trades in each omnibus for the low price of $19.99. There will be a total of 14 volumes.

Genres: Manga

560 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2016

About the author

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!.

Reviews

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

AH! MY GODDESS Omnibus #3 slows and narrows the manga's pacing considerably in favor of telling a larger, more cohesive story. Considering the previous two volumes failed in this regard, the creative team's emphasis on low-key continuity is welcome. Here, episodes deliberately maintain the slice-of-life entertainment native to a shy collegiate and his awkward girlfriend. The title's occasional dalliance with relational drama and interdimensional, spiritual warfare reaches a gentle balance.

Belldandy and Keiichi's relationship is at an odd inflection point. The joke about the pair's physical relationship (or lack thereof) continues, but it's rather clear and obvious that neither character feels particularly comfortable taking the next step. To the author's credit, Keiichi voices this dilemma plainly and consistently throughout the manga. He's too nice of a guy to take advantage of a woman like Belldandy, but he's not above feeling self-conscious or jealous of the goddess when life goes awry.

Notably, this section of the manga appears to be where the 2006 TV anime acquired a good deal of source material. Familiar stories include the awkward and annoying allies Mara pulls into frame as well as a handful of grand failures on the part of Urd and Skuld to either bring together (or completely separate) Kei and Bell. AH! MY GODDESS Omnibus #3 also includes stronger chapters that chronicle what happens when Belldandy grows jealous of another woman (Chapter 57: Tainted God) and the understated criticality of female friendship (Chapter 49: Lunchbox with Love). The latter of the two focuses on the delightful secondary character, Sora Hasegawa; however, it's perhaps better that the anime focused on a street race than on cooking and assembling a bento for a crush.

After nearly 50 chapters, it appears Fujishima finally hit his stride in terms of detailing Belldandy's quintessential aesthetic. The book's visual schema has since shifted away from big hair, a bouquet of accessories, and clashing patterns toward a more casual and streamlined, if occasionally provocative (hyper-fashionable) look. A few of the character designs linger in the era of hyperrealism native to the late 80s and early 90s of manga/anime subculture (e.g., Sayoko's design is exquisite, even if she rarely appears), but for the most part, the manga looks the way most readers actively remember it.

Fujishima's page composition, however, deserves special mention. AH! MY GODDESS Omnibus #3 routinely enlists an oversized character profile to overlay or overlap smaller panels. This works phenomenally well for multiple reasons. First, the gestures or actions depicted in these overlapping images are usually domestic; the author isn't drawing readers' attention to flashy behaviors, but to natural ones. Second, the detail is superb; the author might go with the simple movement of Belldandy offering Keiichi her scarf, but the proportioning and positioning is so delicate and precise, it's worth the visual interruption. Third, among these compositional curios, the characters change, the perspective varies, and the function the visual break provides likewise shifts with each occurrence.

This is a good edition of the omnibus. Readers have a better feel for Keiichi's hapless attempt to balance his home life and his school life. Readers also have a better feel for how the guy's home life can go sideways on any given day. Skuld's maturity. Urd's cheekiness. The arrogance and stupidity of the guys at the auto club. It's a good volume.

[~Cyanide Latte~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

So it would appear that many of the stories and chapters from this series that I recall reading back when I was a younger teen consuming all the manga from the library that I could find, happen to be in this omnibus volume. Pleasant enough surprise, and it makes me happy that I picked it up!

I will say that I feel like there is a particular chapter (chapters?) in this one that I should warn everyone about for the potential dysphoria it could cause. It has to do with Belldandy being sick and Keiichi [stupidly] testing Urd's various potions and "medicines" on himself in order to see if any could help Bell. This results in some gender fuckery with him and it doesn't get immediately addressed, because Urd's ex shows up to impose his presence on the household for a few days, and Urd deliberately won't help Keiichi due to the concern her ex would harm a man out of jealousy. This leads to more problems before the gender fuckery is finally addressed, and while this is something that was clearly done For The Lolz, it's a lot less funny to me these days than it might have been as a teenager (and even then, I feel like I remember being a little uncomfortable with how it was handled.)

So what can really be said? I did still have fun for the most part, going through these chapters, save for those, but I'm currently undecided on whether or not I want to even continue trying to hunt the series down to collect. To my knowledge, Dark Horse only released 6 omnibus editions and I think they've just sort of...given up? since then. And with how long the series is, it would be a lengthy endeavor to hunt it all down, and that's also not considering how much of a pain it would be to try to find the next three omnibus volumes (it was already a hassle just trying to find these ones for purchase.) As of right now, I think my journey with revisiting this series might end here. I'll have to do some serious thinking on whether or not it's really worth pouring money into collecting the rest of it in the future.

[David Doel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This manga isn't perfect, but it's really good and enjoyable. It is occasionally touching, always has a sense of humor, and occasionally has some drama. There are more volumes, but this is my last.