In keeping with what I do with Negima! and xxxHOLiC, I will start writing synopsis and review current chapters of Ah! My Goddess from Japan. Thanks to the guys at GMT for the scans!

Chapter 220

Summary: Keiichi and Belldandy return to Nekomi Institute of Technology for whatever reason when they are met by Aoshima, who wishes to give Belldandy-san a present — a ring. Naturally, K1 is not keen and Aoshima will not let his “senpai” interfere. However, other males arrive to give Belldandy-sama presents. She declines them all and as they walk away, she tells K1 that she already has all the items being offered (or access to them) and a ring she already has received from Keiichi-san.

K1 is floored by this and the two stop to admire some flowers growing nearby. K1 decides that the moment deserves a picture and so he goes to take Belldandy’s picture at the flowers. At a nearby bench, and older woman gives Belldandy a flower stating that a picture would be better with it. Belldandy accepts and the woman walks away, leaving K1 feeling like he’s seen her before.

Having spoken out loud about Belldandy accepting the woman’s present of the flower, his senpai’s Otaki and Tamiya arrive on scene. Under the guise of giving K1 a present, the two drag K1 off to the Motor Club facility with Belldandy following. There, they unveil an antique Rolleiflex camera. K1 is impressed by it and thinks they are giving it to him as a present. Of course, they have no such plans and in typical fashion have decided that his present it to fix this classic camera.

Back at their temple-home, Belldandy has a mild reaction to the camera. Meanwhile, K1 struggles and fails to get the camera to work. He feels it is hopeless when Belldandy pops in to check on him. Once the camera lens has Belldandy in its sights (thanks to how K1 is holding the camera), suddenly everything starts working perfectly. The viewfinder opens and K1 is able to take a picture of Belldandy with no problem, stunned that its suddenly not broken.

Thoughts: Well, this is a setup chapter for whatever story Fujishima-sensei is wanting to tell. Aoshima’s showing up in this chapter was out of the blue and didn’t add anything to the story (yet). The character design for Aoshima has him looking like a butch woman to me at times, but then I’m not a fan of most of Fujishima-sensei’s current character designs.

As to the old woman, I suspect she’ll be back before the story is finished based on K1’s finding her familiar to him. Is it someone he knew from the past (Fujishima-sensei seems to be going back to bring back long-forgotten faces of late)? Is she someone who has traveled back from the future? That seems a long stretch, but I keep thinking, Chihiro-san for some reason.

As to the camera, we have another in a long-line of classic items that Fujishima-sensei decides he wants to draw and build a story around. That the camera suddenly worked when it was pointed at Belldandy is no surprise though.

Overall, like most groundwork chapters, there’s not a lot here and it will be a month before we can see where things go.