Content Warning: Mild misogyny, attempted sexual assault, and racial caricatures. In a light-hearted comedy.
Welcome back to Magical May. This week, we’re going to visit a “dead” genre that deals with magic, the Magical Girlfriend. What is this kind of story? Well, it’s not hard to figure out: Boy meets girl that a witch, a princess, a goddess, or other magic user (or alien) that doesn’t know much about our world but is deeply in love with said boy. Sometimes they’re Tsunderes. Sometimes the boy is down for it. Sometimes, they’re really not. The formula was popular and common in the old days but has faded away in the recent era. Today, we’re going to visit one of the more wholesome and fun series in the genre. However, this is my first time watching this version of the story. You see, back in the day there was six part OVA that told an abridged version of the story and that was how I was first introduced to the characters. I even had a bootleg VHS of the first episode that had a printed out cover, the printer having begun running out of ink. After that, I tried to read the manga, checking it out from the library, but Dark Horse comics didn’t seem to believe in putting volume numbers on them back in the day so… Yeah. I didn’t really know what was going on. Anyway, let’s get started.
Our story begins with Morisato Keiichi in his dorm room, watching TV on an old TV (just to be clear this series is from 2005 and the original manga was written long before that), providing us exposition in the form of an internal monologue. The basics are that he’s enrolled in the Nekomi Technical College (or is it Institute?), likes working on motors and electronics, is short, has never had a girlfriend, and lives in the dorm with his very macho men “senpais” of the Motor Club. The flip side of this monologue is the one provided by Belldandy, about how Keiichi has been under an unlucky star his whole life. But, his luck is about to change.
Misdialing a number, he reaches the Goddess Help Line and speaks with Belldandy. Who then travels through a mirror to Keiichi’s dorm room. She’s there to offer him one wish. He doesn’t believe her for a bit but he catches on eventually. The thing I really love about this interaction is how Belldandy doesn’t see Keiichi like everyone else does. She doesn’t care that he’s poor, short, and unlucky. She sees how he takes care of old things, like his TV, VCR (for those of you who don’t know, that’s what we used to watch movies on), and a radio (I’m not going to explain that one). He sees how they can still be useful, even if they’re old and no one else wants them anymore. So, Keiichi uses his wish: For Belldandy to stay with him forever. His wish is granted, causing Belldandy to blow a hole in the roof, right when the other guys in the dorm get home. They get jealous and promptly kick both of them out. Because NO WOMEN ALLOWED in the dorm. It’s tradition. Here, we find out about the fate thing that will keep them together, no matter what. This usually takes the form of odd coincidences that prevent them from being separated, like Keiichi’s helmet getting stuck on Belldandy’s dress, but can go all the way to a tower collapsing on a car. That last one is avoided at the last minute. Eventually, they find themselves at a Buddhist temple, with a kindly and somewhat foolish priest, who takes them in. And then leaves them in charge while searching for enlightenment after seeing Belldandy’s “angel.” It’s complicated but it’s so Keiichi and Belldandy can stay together.
From this point on, the series starts off as slow romance in the college setting, with Belldandy being the “fish out of water” for a while. This also gives us some low-level enemies. The first of which is Mishima Sayoko, the college’s Queen, who turned down Keiichi some time ago. Belldandy, being a goddess, puts her looks to shame. So, after losing the beauty contest, Sayoko tries to take down Belldandy, by any means necessary, including going after Keiichi to get to her. There’s also Aoshima Toshiyuki, the school’s heart breaker. He convinces Belldandy to go with him to a love hotel, using her naive request for trying to learn about romance, which ends with him getting a face full of lightning. There’s also small stakes (in retrospect) things that happen, but this first part of the show is chance for us to learn about Keiichi and Belldandy and have them learn to love each other. And then they start introducing the more magical characters and things.
The first other goddess to show up is Urd, Belldandy’s older sister. And, boy, does she have that “Big Sister Ara Ara” energy. Thankfully, she doesn’t try to ride Keiicihi’s Baloney Pony, she just wants to see them get together. Often with disastrous results. When we first meet Urd, you assume that she’s just a comic relief character, but that changes by the end of the show. We’ll get into it. After this, we get to meet Skuld, Belldandy’s younger sister, and Urd’s youngest sister, who just wants to be with and just like her older sister. Not oldest, as Urd and Skuld are like fire and water. Literally. Skuld has a “sister complex” and can’t stand that Keiichi is going to steal her sister away. This leads to all sorts of hilarity, like when Skuld turns Keiichi into a girl and then Bellydandy gets sick when trying to help Keiichi. However, that episode does show how much Keiichi cares about and loves Belldandy. As many problems as the show has, they make it clear that Keiichi doesn’t take Belldandy for granted and cares about her deeply. Even if he can’t do anything beyond hold her hand.
If you’re familiar with this kind of show, you know that the main male character is usually bland and doesn’t really have interests or much else. This show is different. Keiichi is a gear head and it’s part of the show. There’s a desert race in one episode, the interest in mechanics allows him and Skuld to get along from time to time, and it’s always there in the background. It also leads to one of the better episodes in the show. You see, Belldandy is very much along for the ride. She just wants Keiichi to be happy and doesn’t have much to do beyond that. But, then there’s this one episode where the one girl in the motor club, Hasegawa, needs to learn how to compete in a go-kart race because the two meat heads in charge sign her up for an all-girl race. Belldandy takes the lead and not only has Skuld make a go-cart track around their home, but helps her learn how to drive and compete. Of course, Keiichi plays an important role, as he is a gear head, but this is Belldandy’s episode. And Hasegawa’s. We get to explore her character and backstory as well, which makes her one of the more fleshed out minor characters after this episode. Really, this episode is worth the wait. I just wanted more.
Now, the show really gets on the serious track when Marller turns up. She’s a demon who was sealed away by Belldandy and Urd but is probably the worst at being evil. She’s got the will but not enough competence to pull off most of her plans. She conspires with Sayoko to get Keiichi to dump Belldandy, to hurt her, but it doesn’t work. She’s actually a very funny bumbling nemesis. Until she tries to release the Lord Of Terror.
She thinks that she can be the host. Nope. It’s Urd, who’s recently lost her Goddess License because she helped Belldandy. So, she’s mad and then she gets this offer of power, all she has to do is embrace her Demon side. So she does. But, not all of her does. There’s part of her that’s still good, trying to stop the Lord of Terror.
I won’t ruin the end of the season, because it’s just that good. What you need to know is that the mythology used for the show is based on Norse stuff. Just from a Japanese point of view. One thing I find rather amusing is that we see magic and technology at use in the show, pre-dating the whole “no difference between magic and science” in the MCU.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Suggestion: Give it a
chance if you like romance, magical stuff, or slice of life stuff,
it’s a good one.
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