Preview

This is a remake of the OVA based on a manga with the same name (or actually, an actually proper adaptation from the manga). Keiichi is a young boy who suffers from extreme bad luck. To compensate, Belldandy, one first class Goddess, second category, unlimited, is sent to earth to grant him one wish ... little does she know that this wish is for her to stay with him forever.

Pacing

The series starts with a strong focus at the pleasant romance that ensues between Belldandy and Keiichi, while they find the pleasures of being with each other. With time, Belldandy's sisters Urd and Skuld end up appearing and also living with them, causing a lot more trouble and weird events than actual good. Having three Goddess at home 'helping' you might not be necessarily a good thing, and things actually might go wrong, specially considering others will start getting jealous of you - not only humans, but demons!

Although the start focuses on the romance and a certain daily "Make-you-fell-good" routine, with a fair development on Keiichi and Belldandy relationship, the good points end here. The series start to loose focus and shuffle some manga passages randomly and quickly. To make things worst for those who know the series, Peorth never shows up, and the Goddess angels HolyBell and Element of Elegance are extremely under developed. Element of Elegance appear only in ONE episode. Belldandy and Keiichi romance get stuck in a loop and start getting annoying, as they can't even get their hands together without 10 minutes melodrama. Urd's character is completely destroyed at the anime as they insert random passages of the manga without proper introduction, making her actions seam quite illogical.

Conclusion

Oh! My Goddess TV is not the worst anime from the decade, but it could, and considering the time expent to produce it, and all the eager fans awaiting it, it sure does not deliver a nice content. The series looses sight and gets nowhere. It's like having some in-depth anime like Neon Genesis Evangelion having it's last episodes turned into powerpuff girls.

It's quite unfortunate that they failed to deliver a nice adaptation (again, since the OVA is not the best example). The repetitiveness, lack of closure, plot mistakes and character development mistakes, not to forget the complete destruction of Urd character, makes this series quite annoying for both the fan and the eventual newcomer to the series. Be warned, this is a "Drag-romance" ... the characters take ages and never act on their feelings.

The second season (see review) actually manages to get over most of this bad points and adds extra care on character development ... thus, you might consider skipping right to the second season if you already watched the OVA.