Review of Adventures Of Mini Goddess: Vol. 1

Introduction

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. This, The Gan-chan Files is the first disc in the Mini Goddess series, and contains twelve 7-minute episodes of mirth and mayhem.

1. Let`s Tell Your Fortune
Spring is in the air, and the thoughts of Gan-chan turn to matters of the heart, which is when Urd appears to foretell the identity of his future love.

2. Secret Treasure In The Attic: Part 1
3. Secret Treasure In The Attic: Part 2
A rat falls from up above, disturbing Gan-chan and the goddesses from their lounging, and the last words he manages to say before losing consciousness refer to secret hidden gold. It`s enough to inspire Gan-chan, Urd and Skuld to start a treasure hunt. But there is more in the attic than just treasure.

4. Let`s Fly In The Sky
When Gan-chan wishes he could fly like a bird, Urd and Skuld overhear and decide to grant his wish, with a couple of false starts.

5. Let`s Fly Into Space
The sky isn`t enough for Gan-chan, and he wants to take the next step into the final frontier. Fortunately he knows some accommodating goddesses.

6. Slimming Down! Go!!
Gan-chan has gained weight, and needs help to get through his front door. Skuld has a patented keep fit machine for the occasion.

7. Gabira, The Giant Monster: The Birth
8. Gabira, The Giant Monster: The Final Battle
Gan-chan has a fungal infection from eating mouldy cake, but Urd`s cure causes trouble when the amiable rat mutates. Soon a giant green rat monster is terrorising the temple, and Urd and Skuld must mount a defence.

9. For Whom The Bell Tolls: The Mysterious Can Of Food
Everyone`s hungry, so it is fortunate that Gan-chan has found a can of food. But how can they eat when there is no label on the can? There is a new vending machine by the temple, but it doesn`t just contain cans.

10. For Whom The Bell Tolls: The Secret Of The Diamond
Gan-chan is more uncoordinated than usual, and it`s caused by a cursed diamond ring, as Urd finds when she puts it on. It`s time for some Goddess 2nd Class level exorcism.

11. Gabira, The Giant Monster: The Strike Back
The mutated rat is back, and this time the mutated rat has mutated some more, and is impervious to the original defence. It`s time for Skuld to unleash… Mecha-Gabira!

12. Let`s Play Baseball
Watching baseball on TV is boring, but Urd is up for a challenge. So it is Skuld versus Urd, with Belldandy and Gan-chan commentating.

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. It serves the purpose well, and is suited to the target audience.

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. Mini Goddess also comes with one of the most charming theme tunes that I have heard recently, and I found that I was looking forward to the end of each episode.

Features

There are some brief extras on this disc to accompany the episodes. There are two pages of text describing Belldandy`s character, with a gallery containing 8 images of the deity in various poses. There are also trailers for Trigun, Chobits and Yu Yu Hakusho as well as the disc credits.

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, regardless of 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 makes this show stand out from countless hours children`s animation is the sheer variety in the stories that are told with these characters. Every episode offers something new, and it`s impossible to tire of their adventures. Out of the twelve episodes here, there may be one or two that don`t appeal, but there is genuinely something for everyone, and it is most certainly a show that adults can watch as well. When the stories are as rich with pop culture references as these are, then they easily cater to a wide audience. Secret Treasure In The Attic is a neat little Aliens send up, while the Godzilla movies are revisited in fine style with a giant mutated rat terrorising the temple. There is even something educational, with Let`s Fly In The Sky reliving the pioneering days of flight, from Icarus to the Bell X1, as Gan-chan lives out his aerial dreams. Immediately following that, the goddesses recreate the space program with the rat as test subject and rat-o-naut.

The Adventures Of Mini Goddess is imaginative, original and entertaining. It`s fun for all the family and a brilliant example of how good animation for children can be. This is the sort of children`s anime that should be on television. Instead we get Yu-Gi-Oh! GX... I guess there isn`t enough merchandising with Mini Goddess.