Oh My Goddess! Manga Series Intro

~ Bookstooge

615axv2cxml-_sl500Whenever I start a long running series of posts, I like to do an Intro Post, at least if I think of it. I did an un-named Intro Post for my Malazan Book of the Fallen series and I did an actual Intro post for Survival Saturdays.  An intro post allows me to talk about the subject as a whole before I start in on a book by book, or food by food, gritty battle for supremacy. So I shall sit down and type my thoughts for this upcoming manga series.

I was actually introduced to this series through the anime. It was a 5 part ova [each episode was 30minutes long] and I immediately bought the 2 dvd box set. Once I realized it was an ongoing manga, I began to slowly collect the volumes. Each volume was around $15 and for a young 20’s something guy trying to save for a house and other things that life required, it wasn’t something to splurge on.

Oh My Goddess! has 48 Volumes. However, the first 19 volumes actually comprise 20 volumes as the publisher, Dark Horse, was releasing whole volumes as they saw fit, not when a whole book hit Japan. It had to do with rights and whatnot. It was a lot more tricky back then, with more legaleeze and not so much money greasing the wheels of international love and brotherhood. * eye roll *  But from Vol. 21 onward, the size was shrunk to what we think of as manga size and mirrored the book releases in Japan. It was a sad day when the books went down in size.

1374_4-facebook-smiley-faces-upset

 

Fast forward 14 years. My reading of Eyeshield 21 was coming to a close. It was time to pick another series and since I owned up to Vol 35 of OMG, I decided to tackle that. Why have them on my shelf if I’m not going to read them? So I bought the last 13 volumes, now more affordably priced and things are taking off.

This manga ran from 1988-2014. The art will have changed and I’m going to try to showcase at least one page from each volume in each review. Some of the volumes are pretty slim so the review might not consist of much more than a synopsis and me whining about how little there is to the book.  I figure this series will be read for all of 2018, as I know from experience that there are times I just don’t want to read manga. I know I’m not going to read a volume every week. I’m inviting burn out if I try that again. I would love to get back into a Manga Monday routine but that is going to take some forethought and planning. Probably use November and December to work out the mechanics of if it is viable.

And with ALL that blabbing out of the way (I skim posts this long when written by others, so I feel like I should be apologizing to you all)…

Here is a comparison of the first and last book:

 

omg
It’s been a rough day. 800mg of caffeine might have gotten me through, but it’s doing my hands no favors at the moment.

 

 

While I will be listing each volume reviewed at the end of the current review, I will also be adding an OMG tag. Eyeshield 21 showed me that more than 10-15 links in a single review is just unwieldy and ugly.

bookstooge

32 thoughts on “Oh My Goddess! Manga Series Intro”

  1. Gosh! I’m not familiar with this one. I’ve been out of the game for so long…

    Back in the day, I was into all things Japanese,and Manga in particular. I loved the Nerima Daikon Brothers. What an insane and lighthearted look at contemporary Japanese issues in anime/manga form. It veered from lunacy into (pretty weightless) satire at times, but Koizumi-san made an appearance there too…

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    1. It is a romance comedy that I’m hoping I’ll still like 🙂

      I was very heavily into anime and manga until I got married. I was definitely into it for the stoic romance of it. Once married, my need for romance was focused on a real person 😀

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  2. I would’ve been super annoyed by the change in format… Ever thought of selling what you got to get the omnibuses of the manga? It would probably be far prettier on a shelf. 😮 Looking forward to finding out what made you fall head over heels for this series in your 20s. Maybe I’ll get curious enough to try it out myself. 😀

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    1. I have thought about it.
      1) I can’t justify the expense for something that I’ll probably read once more in my lifetime after this initial read through
      2) I haven’t had good luck with omnibus editions in manga. The paper is just as cheap as the regular stuff and the spine is just as cheap. So stuffing 2-4 volumes into one book pretty much guarantees a wrecked spine after just one read through.

      I fell in love with the manga because a short geeky guy gets a goddess as his girlfriend and she loves him too. Being a goddess, their adventures are sometimes bigger than life. I needed that when I was in my early 20’s 🙂

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      1. Ahh yeh.. Good point. For mangas, them omnibuses sure aren’t as quality as you’d hope for. I do like the omnibuses for comics though. Although some of them can also get wrecked if you don’t take care of them (like the way you open and read them with or without support on each side).

        Sounds like the story has a nice little romance side to it. Your big two thumbs up for it is definitely a good sign then. 🙂

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    1. Thankfully, there are as many genres of manga as there are novels.
      The really successful manga tend to get milked and go on and on and on. The really successful aren’t necessarily the good ones 🙂

      If you want some suggestions, let me know. Or ask questions. I’ll be happy to answer what I can 😀

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            1. Deathnote is very cat and mouse and a “thinky” manga.
              Kare Kano, or, His and Her Circumstances, is a slice of life about 2 highschool students, but it has a strong romance element.
              If you want out and out funny, then I’d recommend Yotsuba or Azumanga Daioh. Both are by the same manga-ka and are laugh out loud funny 🙂

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      1. I second the Card Captor Sakura recommendation Lostart. It is one of my favorite anime, so I’m sure the manga is good too!
        Thanks Thiago! And thanks for jumping right in with suggestions. Nice to have another knowledgeable person following me 😀

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  6. Pingback: Leader of the Pack (Oh My Goddess! #2) ★★★★☆ (Manga Monday) | Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road

  7. I watched the OVAs many years AGO in VHS, when I was still kind of new to Anime, and I loved it so much it still is one of my favorite anime. But I’ve never read the Manga, and reading your post just reminded me of that. Maybe it’ll be my 2018 challenge?

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    1. 😀 LOVED the ova. One of the best investments I made when I started my dvd collection in the early ’00’s.

      If you do start the manga, do you think you’ll pace it out or race through it? At 48 volumes I’m planning on it taking me 2-4 years to work through…

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      1. As you mentioned in your post, I’m afraid of being it out if I try to race through it. Specially because I’ll be studying full time starting May.
        And I don’t want to commit to just one series, but keep watching anime, TV shows, and reading books

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