Review of Adventures Of Mini Goddess: Vol. 4

Introduction

After a hiatus of nine months, the final volume of The Adventures Of Mini Goddess is finally upon us.

When college student Keiichi called out for a takeaway and got the wrong number, he wound up calling the Goddess Belldandy, who granted him one wish. Down on his luck, he wished for a girlfriend just like the goddess, but Belldandy took it too literally and moved in. Pretty soon the goddesses Urd and Skuld joined them, and Keiichi`s life took a strange turn indeed. That was the premise for the manga and 1993 anime Ah My Goddess! which proved to be phenomenally successful and would go on to spawn a feature film as well.

1998 saw the spin-off series The Adventures of Mini Goddess released. This show was to answer the question, just what three goddesses would get up to when Keiichi was hard at work in college. Naturally, they`d shrink down to a few inches high and have adventures in Keiichi`s now massive home, as well as taking some time out to torment their friend Gan-chan, the rat. The fourth and final disc in The Adventures Of Mini Goddess arrives entitled, The Skuld Files. There are more brief episodes featuring shrunken mayhem, with Marla up to no good, masterminding more schemes with her Ninja team. This disc contains twelve short episodes, with some two-parters among them.

37. Urd vs. Urd
When Urd loses an earring, she creates an army of duplicates to search for the missing jewellery while she takes a nap. Only, the duplicates aren`t keen on rejoining afterwards.

38. Gan-chan Runs For Election "Being Self-Made" Edition
39. Gan-chan Runs For Election "Time Of Change" Edition
Gan-chan is looking to be president of the rats, but Marla makes a deal with the other candidate. When the election gets dirty, it`s time for the candidates to face each other in a public debate.

40. Urd`s Ultimate Diet
Urd`s having trouble getting into her dresses, and finds that she needs to lose weight fast. She`s forgotten that being a celestial being means that she doesn`t gain weight in the first place.

41. Happy Birthday Gan-chan
Belldandy, Urd and Skuld have a special present for Gan-chan on his birthday, three wishes. Only Gan-chan can`t make up his mind.

42. Ah! My Average College Student
Gan-chan is puzzling over the meaning of `average college student` as mentioned in the show`s prologue. It inevitably leads to a philosophical debate.

43. This Happens Once In A While
The cameras are rolling, but it`s everyone`s day off. To forestall the inevitable letters of complaint, the goddesses need to put a show together quickly. Fortunately Belldandy has a sci-fi script. Now all they need are the sets, the costumes, the props…

44. Gan-chan The Locomotive
Gan-chan is dreaming about a romantic rail journey, which gives Skuld and Urd an idea. When he wakes up, he`s Gan-chan the Tank Engine, but Urd sure isn`t the fat controller.

45. The Miso Jar
Gan-chan`s gluttony gets him into trouble, trapped in a jar of miso.

46. Deluxe Game Of Life Satellite Version
A board game is ideal for a rainy day, but this game is a little too realistic.

47. Mekimeki High School Memorial
Gan-chan is feeling low, so Skuld creates a dating simulator program, and digitises the rat to be the main character in his own computer game.

48. What`ll Happen Next?!
It`s the last episode, only no one can think of an idea for the show.

Video

The picture is presented in a 4:3 ratio, and the transfer is perfectly fine. I didn`t notice any artefacts or flaws in the image and the picture remains sharp and colourful throughout. The animation is simplistic and stylised, with the mini goddesses looking particularly doll like.

Audio

You get a choice of Japanese and English DD 2.0 tracks, and both are adequately presented on this disc. As a matter of preference I chose as always the original language track and the translated subtitles. But for reference I checked the English dub, and found it to be surprisingly good. The voices suit the characters well, and the translations are free of the usual circumlocutions that affect dubbed Japanese entertainment. The sweet theme tune that graced the first episodes has been replaced here by a catchy tune, which while inducing toe tapping isn`t half as charming. The subtitles translate the Japanese dialogue, rather than reflect the English dub.

Features

There are some brief extras on this disc to accompany the episodes. There are two pages of text describing Skuld`s character, with a gallery containing 8 images of the goddess in various poses. You can see the second end sequence minus the credits. There are also trailers for R.O.D. The TV and Haibane Renmei as well as the disc credits. The language select screen was a tad confusing, with the selected language appearing dimmed and bracketed, as opposed to highlighted.

Conclusion

Delightful! That`s how best I can describe The Adventures Of Mini Goddess. You don`t have to have seen the original Ah! My Goddess to appreciate these episodes, and I get the feeling that the target audiences are completely different. Mini Goddess seems more suited to the younger demographic, although I found the adventures of the doll sized goddesses and their eternal foil Gan-chan to be charming, despite my age.

The episodes are short and sweet, with one of the goddesses finding a way to torment Gan-chan, usually the outspoken and aggressive Urd. The gentler Skuld can be relied upon to invent some device that will cause chaos, while the wiser Belldandy usually observes the chaos and only gets involved if the situation really requires. As a result, most of the episodes revolve around the volatile Urd and her perennial target Gan-chan. The stories take place in a giant world. When the main characters are shrunk down to the size of a rat, then the commonplace takes on imaginative possibilities.

What is stunning about Mini Goddess is the sheer variety of stories. The show never falls into a routine, with each episode having a unique story. While the quality does vary from episode to episode, they are never less than enjoyable, and more often than not are laugh out loud funny. There are in-jokes and references throughout, with many episodes drawing on inspiration from other media, Gan-chan the Locomotive is a prime example, but with the unique characters they all seem fresh and entertaining. In an age when anime is trying to break into the mainstream as never before, The Adventures of Mini Goddess would seem to me the ideal series, good wholesome fun that appeals to children of all ages. The variety of stories and entertaining characters are a far cry from the repetitive and monotonous Japanese imports that do make it to terrestrial television, those designed specifically to sell merchandising to gullible pre-teens. Pokemon j`accuse! Give The Adventures Of Mini Goddess a try, you won`t be disappointed.