Oh My Goddess Omnibus #1 Review: Chuckle-Worthy and Smart

Romantic comedy manga doesn’t t have the greatest of reputations. Some of the criticisms are they’re not funny, they devolve into harem manga or are borderline pornography. There are some decent ones out there. One of them is “Oh My Goddess.” Dark Horse has released the first omnibus in America and it’s rather nice.

Keiichi Morisato is the typical loser struggling college student. One day a girl comes out of his TV named Belldandy who claims she is a goddess. This is apparent because she is capable of using magic. Keiichi wishes for them both to be together forever and what follows is Keiichi trying to live a normal life with a goddess.

The thing this manga gets right is tone. The tone is not balls the walls hilarity like many in its genre; it’s more down to earth with the funny bits being realistic. Realistic as in a character is put into a serious situation where things just spontaneously become less serious. They’re not laugh out loud funny, but they do give the reader a chuckle.

One of the main things that make a compelling story is how well the characters are written. Both Keiichi and Belldandy are likeable characters. One of the reasons is that they are not bound by their stereotypes. They do have stereotypes; it’s just that they are written in a way that they are actually characters with personalities and motivations instead of walking stereotypes like in other manga.

The manga is drawn in the late 80s style people will recognize along the lines of “Yu Yu Hakusho” and “Ranma ½.” This style works and looks well in this manga. Fujishima managed to take this art style and make it look fluid and understand where and when to do certain techniques.

One thing this omnibus has is full color illustrations that appear between volumes. They’re mostly of Belldandy, but they are absolutely gorgeous. A nice addition to the collection.

“Oh My Goddess” is one of the better romantic comedy manga with well written characters, well drawn art, an interesting story and has just the right amount comedy/romance to not make people want to burn the book.