Ah! My Goddess: Colours/ああっ女神さまっCOLOURS
Oh My Goddess! Colors (Manga Book) Review

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The five-episode Ah! My Goddess OVA series was one of the first anime titles I watched in 2002 when I first got into anime. Since I wanted to know the whole story, I got into the manga as soon as I could afford it (this in the days when the manga was flipped and that didn’t bother me, nor did the lack of honorifics in the Dark Horse adaptation). I loved what I read and I guess it was late 2003 or so when I heard about Ah! My Goddess: Colours from other fans. So I made the ultimate splurge and picked up the Japanese version of this manga celebration book while waiting for Dark Horse to license and publish an English version of this book. Fortunately, that has finally happened and being such a fan of the franchise, I picked up Dark Horse’s release as well.

For those who don’t know, Oh My Goddess! Colors is a combination of a celebration of the Ah! My Goddess manga and a resource guide. On the celebration front, things get kicked off with a short manga by ASARI Yoshitoh, who gives a high-level look at the manga series from the point of view of the two ninja masters (who’s story was in volume 9 of the manga). This is a pretty funny manga since Asari-sensei pokes fun at the lack of progress in Belldandy’s and Keiichi’s relationship; he pokes fun at the similarity to the Q-Taro manga; and he pokes fun at the unanswered questions. Since this manga was published in Japan in 2001, one of his questions has been answered. Asari-sensei also manages to get a jab out at Japanese fans who buy used manga, something manga-ka and publishers in Japan hate.

The “colors” part of the title comes into play next as Belldandy, Urd, Skuld, and Peorth get a story from the manga done in full color (there’s no Lind since she had not been introduced when this book was published). Belldandy’s story is when she first met Keiichi. Urd’s story is when she reverted to a kid and met the boy Shohei, who fell in love with her. Skuld’s story is of her growing in power thanks to her feelings for Sentaro. Peorth’s story is when she’s trying to be useful to Keiichi and finds herself truly intrigued by him.

It is great seeing these stories in full color, though I do so miss the honorifics and fun like that in the adaptation. Even in their unflipping of the manga and correcting some translation errors and rewrites, Dark Horse couldn’t quite take the plunge to go “otaku” (though they do in some other titles they publish) but in this case, my love of this book overrides my dislike of the missing honorifics.

Next up in the “monochrome” section of the book are four essays, one for Belldandy, Urd, Skuld, and Peorth. Following that is an encyclopedia. This is where Dark Horse has put in a lot of additional work since the Japanese version only covers the materials published through 2001. Dark Horse goes quite a ways further (through volume 30), thus Lind does make it into the Dark Horse version via an encyclopedia entry.

The book wraps up with a look at the vehicles in Ah! My Goddess, the cosmic world of Ah! My Goddess, and finally a Dark Horse original feature where they break down how their original, flipped books worked within their current, unflipped volume releases (those unflipped volumes now match up with the original Japanese tankoubon releases).

If you are a big fan of Ah! My Goddess, I highly recommend purchasing this book. Not only is it great to get four stories in full color, but the additional information provided makes it worth having in my opinion, even if there is more to be added later.