Ah! My Goddess Ch. 293 Manga Review

Ah! My Goddess Manga/Oh My Goddess! Manga
ああっ女神さまっ Chapter 293

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

The lake goddess finds to her horror that she is about to be destroyed. She begs for forgiveness since she only took one step beyond the boundary. The voice tells her that her grief for the loss of the bard is the problem and as such, it is too late. The voice further tells her that she needs love for others. As she contemplates this, a sealing container forms around her. Her body begins disintegrating as she reaches up. Above the closing container, Belldandy floats down, communing to the goddess that her and the bard’s dream did come true as the goddess has seen the sea. As such, Belldandy tells the lake goddess that she’s not sinking in sorrow, providing some small comfort to the lake goddess as the container envelops her.

With the sealing container closed, Belldandy and Keiichi are returned to Gate, both in tears over what they’d witnessed and experienced. As they contemplate this, Gate welcomes them back, asking them what they thought since the tragedy that befell the lake goddess and the bard is what awaits Belldandy and Keiichi.

Gate appears to get hacked again, but continues to speak, stating that Keiichi has some feelings of distrust toward Belldandy for her for her putting a seal on him to prevent them from becoming intimate. Keiichi says that while the news of what had happened to him surprised him, he held no resentment of Belldandy, mainly because he understands the whole problem resulted from his foolish wish to have a goddess like Belldandy be with him forever. As such, he apologizes to Belldandy, but states that with a goddess like her, he has come to love her more.

Belldandy also apologizes, revealing that even before Keiichi had made contact with her, she had observed him as a troubled person who might need their services. She cheered for him back then and reveals that this is when she fell in love with him. Before they can kiss again, Gate has a question that needs answering.

Thoughts/Review:

Man, that’s so jacked up what happened to the lake goddess. It would be nice if somehow, they are able to unseal her before the manga ends and allow her to return to the lake. I kinda doubt that happens though, but one never knows since Belldandy was able to communicate with the lake goddess, something that as I see it shouldn’t have been able to happen.

It appeared that Gate was taken over again. This is what I said about that happening back in chapter 288.

I think it may be safe to say that Kami-sama is the one who briefly took over Gate.  I don’t think that Hild nor Ansuz would have, or even could have done so.

So, assuming I’m correct, then they are talking to Kami-sama, not Gate. If that’s true, then this should be Belldandy’s father whom they are talking to, since all along, Kami-sama has been stated (or at least, heavily implied) to be the father of Urd, Skuld, and Belldandy. Now I’m excited to see the next chapter and find out if I’m right there or if this hack is from someone else (though whom else could do that, I couldn’t even guess).

I have got to give Fujishima-sensei a tip of the hat for drawing Belldandy in a similar style to her original (and ugly) character design during her recounting of having observed Keiichi prior to him making the fateful call that landed him a goddess for a girlfriend.

This chapter also shows something Fujishima-sensei is quite skilled at getting away with, at least with Ah! My Goddess — retconning. Seriously, when one reads the first chapter of the manga, there’s ZERO sense of Belldandy having observed Keiichi for a long time or having fallen in love with him. Indeed, her reaction to his wish being granted is one of, “Are you kidding me?!”  *lol*

Still, Fujishima-sensei has been stringing us longtime fans on for so many years, I guess we just forgive such retconning moments, more so because there’s that element of sweetness in believing that maybe Belldandy DID fall for Keiichi prior to him asking her to stay with him forever. Thus, we get yet a further explanation of why she would so easily become his live-in goddess/pseudo girlfriend.

I still think we are on the fast track to ending the manga on chapter 300, or whatever completes a final volume. That being said, I’m loving the ride so far.

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16 Responses to “Ah! My Goddess Ch. 293 Manga Review”

  1. Lan says:

    one more chapter to read to have caught up with the translations (and japan) ^_^

  2. Anonymous says:

    “Seriously, when one reads the first chapter of the manga, there’s ZERO sense of Belldandy having observed Keiichi for a long time or having fallen in love with him.”

    But if somebody have seen the OVA (ancient one, ne?), this situation/version is not a big surprise.

    And 294? Well, Luke, I am your father. :))))))))))))))))))))))) Or something else… 😛

    • AstroNerdBoy says:

      >But if somebody have seen the OVA (ancient one, ne?), this situation/version is not a big surprise.

      It has been years since I saw that OVA, so I don’t remember specifics. ^_^; (I sold my DVDs years ago to pay some bills.)

      • aion eternal says:

        1.first class goddess cannot tell a lie…??
        2.It’s true like bell observed keiichi in ova 5 episode and TV anime episode 2 season 1 when bell said keichi name without he introduce first…Like she already know who keiichi is..
        Sorry my bad English..,??

        • AstroNerdBoy says:

          Sorry my bad English

          No problem. 😀 I have to figure out how you got cool emoji in here that aren’t in my base list. ? (I just copy-pasted this one.)

          As to your points, I had forgotten both of those anime incidents. However, for the manga, there was no indication that she even knew who Keiichi was. He was just some customer in Japan whom she came to visit. 😉

          • AstroNerdBoy says:

            ? Oh! I just discovered that Windows 10 has an emoji functionality.

            Using Emoji on Desktops
            Windows 10

            1) In Desktop mode, right-click the Taskbar
            2) Click to check the option that says “Show touch keyboard button”

            A new icon will appear in the taskbar (lower right hand corner of the screen near the time) that looks like a keyboard. Click the keyboard icon to open the onscreen keyboard, you can then click the smiley face to open the emojis.

            That’s the Windows 10 instructions.

          • aion eternal says:

            yes…i can see that in chapter 1 too…and then when we go to chapter 7, suddenly keiichi thinking she love him even belldandy never said she love him before…and at the end of chapter bell kiss keiichi when he on fainted..so strange right?? like bell love with him already..i know bell she is..never kiss a boy and flirting a boy…maybe kosuke fujishima first idea of this anime is not thingking about that..but after study and study all of story back, he want make like bell fall in love with keiichi in the first place and he also showed us how deep bells love and loyal to keiichi without love someone else even she can observe another person she like..i thing kosuke fujishima idea is very good…he want make their love is really2 truly love without unbalance love…we all know before this chapter about bell observed keiichi, maybe belldandy fall in love keiichi because keiichi force belldandy to stay with him forever by he wish and like usual bell is very kind person, she dont want make keiichi sad that why bell always granted keiichi wish…now we all already know bell fall in love with keiichi before they meet and he made crazy, force wish like that without keiichi knowing…i can say they very2 love each others ⚖️⚖️.. ????

          • AstroNerdBoy says:

            Well, Fujishima-sensei wrote Ah! My Goddess and didn’t worry too much about continuity. He retconned whatever he wanted whenever he wanted. He was able to get away with it.

            One of my frustrations with the manga was that at the start of the manga, the romance between Keiichi and Belldandy heats up and they even kiss. But then that’s put on the shelf and they make no progress until the end of the manga.

          • aion eternal says:

            oh sorry..i forgot….i can say about bell observed keiichi maybe kosuke fujishima study back all AMG story and got inspired this idea from ah my goodness ova 5 episode 1994 and anime tv 2005..maybe he write this chapter late 2011 or 2014 to tell this story..whos know✌️✌️✌️

          • AstroNerdBoy says:

            He may have. Fujishima-sensei wrote whatever he wanted and retconned stuff when he wanted. Since I know some manga-ka (and light novel authors) will sometimes see unique things in the anime adaptations of their works and incorporate it into their manga, you may be right in your theory.

  3. Ether101 says:

    One could argue that Bell’s reaction could have been to what Keiichi said when he caught her and not his actual wish.

  4. Anonymous says:

    Not necessarily a retcon, as Bell may have loved him and wanted to help him, but the wish would have still blindsided her, she may have thought it would be an unrequited love, that she would help him once and never see him again, she was surprised by learning he liked her as well and wanted her (it also explains how she accepted it so well).

    • AstroNerdBoy says:

      Initially, she didn’t accept it at all. The moment she realized the wish was granted, her first action was to call in and verify that something so outrageous had actually been granted. Once stuck, she accepted her role with grace and dignity.

      Believe me, when Fujishima-sensei conceived this manga, he had no designs on Belldandy watching Keiichi. After all, back then, she had a job for a wish-granting company (or department, or whatever) that rivaled Peorth’s. So what we are now told is that she apparently had lots of free time and while people surfing, she happened upon Keiichi and went on from there. ^_~

      Anyway, my point is that Fujishima-sensei’s writing style is one where he doesn’t really worry too much about plot holes or the like. He writes what he wants. If it works, he keeps it around. If it doesn’t, he drops it.

    • Anonymous says:

      Bell was also shown as an overachiever, easily being able to complete her work and still have time for cyberstalking.

      I agree she was shocked at first, but the fact that she got over it so easily indicates that she was not unhappy with it.

      Remember a goddess can break a contract (Keiichi would have just gotten a new wish), she chose not to.

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