blog好き

Nov 08 2005

Categories: anime, belldandy, episodic review
Tagged: belldandy

1 Comment »

In the manga, K1 and Bell spent their first night together at an anime otaku’s house, and he was so moved by Bell’s tea service that he tried to sexually assault her. Of course, those were the days when the manga was still trying to find an identity (not to mention art style), and Bell would call Urd, “a fat cow” and toss turkeys at her. Seems so 1989 now. In the original OVA, K1 and Bell spent their first night together squatting in an abandoned temple. K1 spends most of his time (comically) trying to care for Bell’s fatigue/illness, and he’s the one who ends up being sick in the end. I liked this version more than the manga, despite the chapters it skipped, if anything for the very K1 and Bell moment when K1 is sick. Now in the 2004 version, they end up sleeping under the stars (and, as we’ll find out later, counting sheep), and it’s really the best fitting of the three.

The original manga version just doesn’t fit with the post-Skuld Belldandy archetype anymore, and that story just feels so not ああっ女神さまっ… maybe better suited for, oh, Girls Bravo or Shuffle. The 1993 version compressed time and skipped the whole temple story, and I felt it did an okay job. Nothing spectacular given the short time for the series. This new re-telling with K1 and Bell sleeping under the stars? It just feels like the volume 30 K1 and Bell, and that’s not a bad thing. Sweet, romantic, slice-of-life, simple… isn’t that patently ああっ女神さまっ?

Yet, as the saying goes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Before K1 and Bell can look for lodging, they must be evicted, and that portion hasn’t changed and remains true to form. And, of course, the wish never changes.