Anime: Aa! Megami-sama! Tatakau Tsubasa

This is a short little addition to the Ah Megami franchise that sheds a bit more light on Lind, one of the strongest fighting-type angels, as she, along with Keiichi and the gang do their best to unravel the mystery of the angel-eater. It's a surprisingly focused story considering how random (at times) the previous seasons have been. As you can guess from the title, there's going to be a bit more action/ep than what you'd gotten in the past from Ah Megami. But don't worry as there's still plenty of humor/keiichi bashing that you've come to expect from the series.

Overall this is a nice, if slightly cheesy, addition that fans will like.

Animation:
This is pretty much what you'd expect from the second season, maybe with a bit more action. The angel-eater itself is a bit... weird. The battles have nice effects though there's nothing really groundbreaking. Only one ecchi accident in the entire special.

Sound:
A new OP, slightly more intense than what we've heard in previous OPs in the series, is introduced here. Note that you might want to skip it at first as there are SIGNIFICANT spoilers in it. The ED is much calmer and more in line with what I expected from Ah Megami. The BGM is fairly supportive but nothing too memorable.

VAs are the same so you can still expect stellar quality here.

Story:
I was surprised that they were able to continue elements from the second season, and advance the entire storyline, all in two episodes. The story is very focused and told at first in a mystery-ish format, sparkled with typical light humor from Skuld and Urd. The overall plot was fairly good though the finale was quite predictable; there is a bit too much of the love/good overpowers all aspect.

Character:
There is actually some decent development considering the short length, mostly with Skuld and Lind. General interactions seemed natural and in line with the previous two series. Only one question remains: when will anything happen between Keiichi and Belldandy?!?

Value:
For its length, this is a pretty easy, and reasonably engaging watch. It won't have any groundbreaking developments but suffices to please fans who want more of the franchise.

Story: 4/10 (Warning: potential spoilers in this section)

The story is very simple with borderline entertaining execution.

The peaceful lifestyle of some aliens, who call themselves angels, living with a human on Earth, is threatened by a grave danger that is most likely spreading to them and they must defend themselves.

It starts off with a mysterious crime being committed in someplace unknown. It then shifts to Earth with a very brief introduction of each of the characters and their easygoing lifestyle. Soon after, the introduction of a new character marks the start of the suspense with the news brought about that crime and how it may affect them all. Their reaction is quite ridiculous. They go back to doing what they "normally do" individually, while the danger is imminent (though because of this, we get introduced to each character's primary traits).

We get some back story on the new character and with that, she's practically promoted to being a main character of the series. The story progresses with her in some sort of daze, but she eventually provides some action and confronts the bad guys using a plan that places trust her partners, going against her previous style of training/fighting alone.

The moral of the story seems to be that working together is better than working alone.

Animation: 7/10

The visuals and animation are above average.

Good use of special effects. Though, I find the lighting effects that they use with the angels and the devil auras are a little overpowering.

Interesting note: characters blink, though not frequently or naturally in a realistic sense. This is an unrefined skill in animation. It could be as simple as making characters blink when then turn their heads which happens nearly 100% of the time naturally. Just the attempt to include them is enough to give them credit for it.

Goofy note: There was one scene where I saw Lind throw a punch at the devil and her fist looked abnormally large. There were a few cheesy scenes which the animation style was terrible, such as the "meteor kick"at the end and the "blitz" of answers that Keiichi and the others give to Lind when she quizzes them (the first time was funny, the times after that it wasn't so).

Sound: 9/10

The audio tracks and effects were great. A+ voice acting, A+ soundtrack, A+ OP/ED tracks. It only lacks good ambiance.

The devils don't have quite a sinister aura that a good soundtrack could've provided. The OP/ED tracks are so good that I have them in mp3 form.


Character: 5/10

There isn't time for character development in only two 25m episodes, but it does a good job of at least trying to provide the minimal info.

The only character with depth in this series is Lind, due to the flashbacks of her history and how she gained her reputation. The only thing I could tell, from this series alone, about the other characters is that I could tell that Belldandy was powerful being ranked an "Angel First Class", but also displayed that she was most suited to fit in as a human woman and possible suitor for Keiichi. Urd is a scientist type. Skuld is an engineering type. Lind is a warrior-knight type. The last one (I forget her name; it started with a P) is probably a free-loading angel.

The character and costume designs are very well detailed, at least in a visual sense.

Value: 5/10

I don't expect too much from a two part series, but I can't tell what the objective of this was even though the title makes you think action.

Going through common genre types:
- Action: The battle scenes between the angels and devils were ok. Not up to par with good action animes. In customary anime style, the villain explains their intentions when they confront their targets and allows the heroes to pull out their trump card.
- Suspense: Poorly done. They didn't spend enough time making the enemies seem like a grave threat. It actually seemed like the opposite how ignorant and carefree the victims were.
- Romance: This got tagged for romance, but it's virtually non-existant.
- Comedy: The surprising things the little girl came up with were funny, but there were only two times which I noted this.
- Fan service: AMG being a harem type anime, there has to be some, but all there was, was skimpy clothes, a glimpse of some panties, some skin during a bath scene, and some pitiful fan service at the very end.

It's doesn't have much of anything, I guess since it spent a significant portion of it's very limited time on character intros and development. That probably explains why I think that the back story on Lind was probably the greatest part about this short series.

This anime isn't worth watching again for enjoyment nor collecting for a normal anime otaku. This is simply a bone thrown out there for AMG fans commemorating the manga's 20th anniversary.

Enjoyment: 4/10

I watched only the original AMG series and thought it was great, but after watching this, I don't remember it being so corny. I don't remember Keiichi's house being that fancy (a temple!?) either. It was nostalgic, to say the least and that's the limit to how much I enjoyed it.

If you are not familiar to AMG, then you would most likely enjoy it much less since all you would get from this series is a story about Lind, a few laughs at Keiichi and Skuld's solution to fool the incoming threat, and a "moral of the story" about not working alone.

Okay, so Ah! My Goddess returned for a short visit in december 2007 with a 2-episode TV-special, and likewise this review will be pretty short as well.

2x20 minutes is not much to work with so we are interestingly enough pulled right into the action. Angels are seemingly defeated in heaven itself by some unknown force, and for a brief moment there AMG reaches a level of intensity you only get rarely in this show. After this one of the Battle-goddesses descends to you know where, Keiichi's residence. This angel, Lind, predicts that this will be the next target.

The story itself is sweet enough for a 2-episoder and we get to know Lind a little better, she only had little screen time so far. There are just a few plotholes that deduct a bit from the overall enjoyment, even if hardcore fans will brush them off as things that just happen in this show where the good guys always win. Let's just say the mastermind behind this incident had enough chances to settle the matter with his/her own power, but for some reason didn't. Maybe this person just wanted to mess a bit around with our beloved characters, but then why go through the risky task of attacking heaven itself in the beginning?

Okay, moving right along. The animation is exactly as we know it from the 2 previous seasons so there is really nothing much to add here. However I'm as always impressed by how good looking the female characters are in this show. I'm not specifically talking about the faces, with their characteristic pointy noses and weird ears, sure they look nice, but it's the female proportions in general I'm fond of. The hips, thighs, shoulders, legs, arms, hands are all drawn very elegantly. Most shows usually get the 3 sizes right, but rarely put an effort into the detailed shapes of the rest of the body.

The voice acting is also very familiar. Not a single character has a new seiyuu, which is obviously good since the entire crew is very talented. The OP and ED songs are two very fitting and good(!) songs, I could even consider putting them into my mp3-list.

So in conclusion, this is a nice little addition to the AMG universe, telling the viewers that it's not over yet. There are a few things that objectively don't make sense, such as Belldandy who has time to give moral support even in this very dire situation. However fans will not see these things as flaws, and those who are not fans will not have watched this in the first place :)

Now go watch, you know you want to, and prepare for more angel action than you've previously seen in such a short amount of time.