"Oh My Goddess!" E1 vis a vis "Verthandi in the Middle" Ch1
This review was commissioned by @ArlequineLunaire
"Oh My Goddess," also sometimes translated as "Ah! My Goddess," "Ah, My Goddess!," and various other permutations, is an anime/manga series that's had various incarnations and adaptations from the late 1980's up through the late 2010's. Put simply, it's basically Japan's answer to "I Dream of Jeannie." Down-on-his-luck guy somehow ends up with a submissive kami gf; paranormal sitcom shenanigans ensue.
I know a little bit about OMG (lovely acronym) going in, via cultural osmosis. Goddess GF is named Belldandy, apparently a Japanified version of the Norse fate goddess Verthandi. She doesn't actually have anything to do with her mythological namesake, though; my impression is that the creator just whimsically took an exotic-sounding name from a mythos that wasn't well known in Japan at the time. Her powers are also considerably more low-key than the English translation "goddess" would suggest (Japanese kami are much more variable in power and importance). I think there are some other divine entities that show up as recurring characters to complicate the couple's lives together.
Also, I've been spoiled on the inciting incident for the series. By amusing coincidence, the very first commissioned review I did (the Konosuba pilot) actually featured a parody of it. Belldandy appears to the male lead to grant him a wish that he'd somehow earned himself, and he unthinkingly wishes she'd stay with him. The parody being that in OMG this was an innocent misunderstanding, whereas in Konosuba he does it to fuck her over on purpose and she totally deserved it.
Finally, I've also heard that there's a been a bit of culture war discourse about this franchise over the years. Unavoidable given the premise; "Bewitched" and "I Dream of Jeannie" are no different in this regard. We'll see how I end up feeling about OMG through this lens by the end of the review.
Anyway. I'm going to be reviewing the first episode of the 1993 OVA, alongside the first chapter of a kinda-sorta fanfic written by @ArlequineLunaire. What she's told me is that her story, "Verthandi in the Middle," has a broadly similar premise to OMG but does much more with the Norse Mythology connection (not that that's saying much, necessarily, since OMG literally just took the name and nothing else).
The OVA pilot has a very efficient introduction, letting the viewer get a sense of who the protagonist is and what his status quo was like quickly while propelling him toward the disruption. Morisato Keiichi is a booksmart but socially clueless college student who tries to do right by everyone, but mostly just gets taken advantage of as a result. We open on him playing dorm secretary for his older "senpai" dormmates, sitting in place and taking phone calls even as the evening wears on and his stomach growls.
On that note: I couldn't find a subbed version easily, so I'm watching the dub, and what was the deal with Japanese-to-English localization back in the nineties, seriously?
I hope someone talks about plans later this episode.
The nineties look weirder and weirder the more retrospect we have to look back at them in.
While hastily calling takeout restaurants trying to find someplace that isn't closed for one contrived reason or another, Keiichi accidentally dials the "Goddess Help Line" and is informed that he has been granted authorization for one wish. While he's trying to figure out what just happened, Belldandy teleports into the room and invites him to go ahead and make his choice.
Keiichi is sure that this is a prank. It would be just like his senpais to hire a stripper or something to mess with him, as they won't stop giving him shit about his shyness and inexperience with women. Not sure how he thinks they could have managed the part where she phased through the wall in a prism of lilac-colored light, but for all I know he's a stage tech guy and has already figured out thirty different ways to pull that trick off.
He still thinks this is a joke when he decides to play along by saying "okay, be my girlfriend forever then." It of course isn't one, and the lightshow produced when Belldandy (temporarily? Until the time of Keiichi's death, I assume?) sheds her divinity to take on mortal form.
He believes it now. Unfortunately, he also isn't sure what to do with the situation he's landed the two of them in. And is even less sure what to do once the senpais come home and promptly evict him from the dorm for violating their strict "no girls" policy. No chance to explain himself. No hesitation or delay.
Experience tells me that if I question this, multiple readers will direct me to extensive documentation of this being 100% accurate to how college dorms in Japan actually are. So, I won't question it, and instead simply be glad I didn't go to school in Japan.
Anyway, the pace picks up quickly after this point, as Belldandy uses her powers (including limited telekinesis, clairvoyance, and healing abilities) to help guide him to some new housing as quickly as possible. Keiichi, for his part, drives them where they need to go in his motorcycle-pod (okay, how the hell was he not already getting dates when he drives that certified pussy-magnet around?) and tends to her when she overuses her powers and faints. Between the two of them, they're able to eventually get to an abandoned shrine at the edge of the city that seems to have once been the home of one of Belldandy's kami buddies. Which Belldandy eventually pretties up into a liveable home for humans as well as herself. And...also, Keiichi's little sister somehow finds out where he is almost immediately and comes to stay with him while she looks for more permanent student housing for herself. And somehow his senpais also all find out, but they're cool with him now, and throw a moving-in-party on his and Belldandy's behalf.
Also, the senpais pretty much have to have been among ONE's artistic inspirations lol.
The little sister arrives with money from home, which Belldandy suggests is part of the greater divine force at work behind the granted wishes. Belldandy and entities like her aren't all that powerful, but the power behind the company she came from is, and it's warping reality to give the two of them the opportunities they need to let Keiichi's wish be true in spirit as well as letter.
The episode ends when, after the party, Keiichi finally asks Belldandy why he of all people was chosen to receive one of these wishes. Belldandy doesn't give him a straight answer, but implies that it's got to do with karma. Which, well, to be fair: Keiichi's main stated motivation during their search for new accommodations was concern for Belldandy, and not wanting her to have to live homeless after he was responsible for bringing her here. When they arrive at the shrine she eventually guided him toward, she's still unconscious from overexertion, and he decides to give the one blanket he has with him to her while laying on the cold, hard floor shivering all night a few feet away from her. He's running a fever by the time she wakes up in the morning; good thing she can heal people. He's definitely characterized as someone who the Powers That Be might have decided could use a break.
As for Belldandy herself...well, she's an odd one. Odd in a way that makes me unsure how exactly to read this story in the context of gender politics.
The thing about Belldandy is that she's not remotely human. She (and presumably the other agents of the Goddess Relief Program) is characterized as sort of a "spirit of helpfulness." She doesn't seem to want anything except for her client to be happy. She doesn't register any surprise or regret or sense of loss after he makes his wish. She's clearly not an automaton; she's self-aware, takes initiative, has a few personality quirks of her own, and seems to genuinely experience emotions of her own. It's just that all of these things are geared - from the level of base instinct on up - toward helping others, and right now she's been pointed toward Keiichi. She's almost like some concepts I've read about what a friendly artificial general intelligence might look like.
The thing is...is the entity I just described an interestingly alien character to see a human lead try to build a meaningful relationship with despite the differences, or is it just some bitter asswipe's idea of The Perfect Woman?
I'm really not sure which it is.
The ambiguity of this also makes me look a little side-eyed at the allegedly goodhearted Keiichi. Is this (minus the magic and the temporary homelessness) what he was always picturing when he imagined a "girlfriend?" Does he consider this better than what he'd always pictured? From this episode alone, it's hard to tell. Notably, some of his dialogue when he's trying to find a new place suggests that his urge to provide for her is less "I'm responsible for this person's situation" and more "my new girlfriend is so beautiful I need to treat her like the goddess milady she is." Translation difficulties can badly misrepresent these sorts of thing, so I opted for the charitable interpretation in my summary, but that may or may not be the way it's actually written.
I'm also of two minds about the thoughts going through Keiichi's head as he thinks about Belldandy the day after their shrine-rehousing. On one hand, she's an attractive woman who genuinely wants to be his girlfriend (albeit for reasons that don't quite map to any human desire to do so), and sexual thoughts are totally natural in that situation. On the other, their dynamic up until then was - despite her powers doing a lot of the heavy lifting - a fairly paternalistic one, with her lesser familiarity with the mundane details of the world forcing him into a mentor-ish role. Combined with the kinda-sorta parental dynamic of him bringing her into the world and being responsible for her conditions, it makes it...I dunno. Kinda creepy, in a way that maps to the same sort of regressive gender roles.
That said, I did at least giggle when Keiichi wondered if "something might happen to" him if he had sex with a kami. I don't think his dick actually will catch on fire when and if they get to that point, but the possibility appears to have crossed his mind.
So, lots of ambiguity on account of translation questions. And lots more ambiguity on account of how extreme patriarchal views of women are indistinguishable from xenofiction.
Anyway, "Verthandi In the Middle." The title is probably a play on "Malcolm In the Middle" that ties into Verthandi's place as the middle of the three Norn sisters of Norse mythos (the three embody the past, present, and future, with Verthandi being the present). Going off of the first chapter, this story plays things fairly close to its anime/manga inspiration in some ways, while wandering far from the concept in others. Notably, it leans much more into the comedy side of OMG's comedy-drama mixture. Very Terry Pratchett-ish sort of dry humor in its treatment of gods trying to make their way in an evolving human world.
It also differs in having Verthandi as the protagonist. In first person narration, no less.
VitM takes OMG's premise of Verthandi and some other goddesses (the other two norns, in this version) running a wish shop and weaving fate to the whim of their customers, and Verthandi being sent to visit a mortal man in person as part of a wish-granting. However, this time it isn't a client who she's sent to grant a wish to, but rather she goes to scope out the subject of someone else's fatewarp to check the results. Also, the man she's being sent to check on is a serial killer, and the wish was to get him to stop serial killing. I'm guessing he prooooobably isn't going to be her love interest this time.
I wish I could say I liked it. And I also wish it was easier to do this with works that were written by people I know, much less the person who commissioned the review. But, @ArlequineLunaire told me that she wants me to treat this like any other work I'd review, so.
This chapter is a goddamned mess.
Character motivations changing from paragraph to paragraph. The narrator arbitrarily changing her mind about whether she's going to be explicit about being an ancient goddess, or try to hide it from the reader. The style of humor is Pratchettesque, but with a few exceptions the jokes don't actually land.
An exception to this is the characterization of the three nornir. Skuld of the future frozen in perpetual adolescence, currently going through a goth phase and using zoomer slang that neither of her sisters can understand. Urd as a grumpy old woman who's always twisting the other two's arms. Verthandi herself as a slightly neurotic, sort of spineless sad sack constantly being tugged and pushed around by the other two. I feel like that does speak to how it often seems like time works. Especially when one takes the deterministic, fatalistic view, as you'd expect a story about the Fates to do. That aspect of the chapter essentially works, and managed to be a little bit funny at times.
But...I'm sorry, it's just really badly written. There's not much else to say for it. Aside from commenting on Verthandi being the POV character as opposed to an inscrutable outsider as per OMG, there's not much for me to compare and contrast either.
