THE ORIGINS AND EARLY HISTORY OF OH/AH MY GODDESS

[Timotheus]

EXAMINING THE ORIGINS AND EARLY HISTORY OF OH/AH MY GODDESS, the MANGA. – 7/24/2009

The following topic does not represent the beliefs and opinions of the Goddess Project Administration and is presented here for informational and discussion purposes only. All subject material is the work of Timotheus and represents his research and opinions. Please direct all questions, comments, criticisms, profanity, and death threats to him and not our beloved administrator who is getting stressed out.


1.0 - IT BEGINS WITH AN ARTIST AND AN IDEA

1.0.1 - To begin any good origins article, we need to discus the background of the author who created the work.

1.1.1 - Kosuke Fujishima (or Fujishima Kosuke as it would be written in Japan) was born on July 7, 1964 in the Chiba region of Japan. While never achieving Human First Class status, he was discovered to have a B blood type and a fair amount of artistic talent which was applied toward drawing, mechanics, story telling, and music. In school he devoted much of his time to both mechanical designs and artistic story telling, although he claims the latter can only be called manga by default as he wasn’t consciously trying to be a manga artist. By high school he was creating multi-page cartoon stories with word balloon dialogue, but he really didn’t like showing them off and was still more inclined toward becoming an anime producer (please note, not an anime artist) than manga artist. And being a practical sort worked toward a certificate in technical draftsmanship.

1.1.2 - He graduated from high school in 1981-82 with a degree in technical drafting, but after failing to find an apprenticeship in that field he took a job as the editor of Puff, a comic news magazine. While there he allegedly created a parody comic called `X'-pa no Yoko-chan that ran in Puff but never took credit for. As the editor, one of his jobs was to interview new and popular manga artists, one of whom was Tatsuya Egawa in 1984-85, who was at the time just beginning to publish his ground-breaking serial Be Free! in Kodansha's Comic Morning magazine. After the interview, Mr. Fujishima rather boldly asked Mr. Egawa if he was looking for any new assistants. Mr. Egawa liked what he saw in Mr. Fujishima’s portfolio and hired him on.

1.2.1 - Tatsuya Egawa was born in the Aichi Prefecture of Nagoya, Japan. He has a degree in applied mathematics and taught middle school math for five months before switching to a career as a manga artist. After studying under the prolific manga-ka Motomiya Hiroshi for four months, Tatsuya's break came when his story "Don't Give Up" won Comic Morning’s open contest which gave him a slot to run his own series in the magazine. He has done several other noteworthy manga and anime titles and also directed live-action pornographic films (!!). Tatsuya is known for his drawings of over-the-top facial expressions and always giving credit to his staff for their contributions to his creations, the cover credits usually reading something like "Egawa and his assistants". In 1985 one of these became Kosuke Fujishima who would work for Mr. Egawa for about a year and a half. (This may explain where Mr. Fujishima got the inspiration for his occasional displays of over the top distorted facial features for Keiichi and others.)

1.2.2 - In 1986, Be Free! was made into a live-action theatrical movie and Mr. Fujishima did a manga style story on its creation called the Making of Be Free! that ran in Comic Morning and gained a great deal of popularity on its own. Mr. Fujishima considers this his first professional work and in the process created two policewomen characters to help tell the story who would later become known as Miyuki and Natsumi. At least one fan letter was received by the editorial staff at Comic Morning that made such an impression in its ravings about the two policewomen that Mr. Fujishima was invited to create a series based around them. With this as his inspiration for his first début series as an author and illustrator, You’re Under Arrest began running in Morning Party Extra in November 1986 and continued for 79 monthly chapters until May 1992.

(It was sometime between when he got out of high school and becoming one of Mr. Egawa’s assistants that Mr. Fujishima finally decided to make a serious try at being a manga artist. While he had originally considered a career in anime production and had learned some of the background skills, he had concluded that he wouldn’t be able to earn a living at it. Some of his conclusions about the life of an anime artist are spoken by Belldandy on page 38 of the second chapter of Oh/Ah My Goddess, Lair of the Anime Mania.)

1.3.1 - There’s a small amount of controversy over what happens next. While it is universally agreed that in August of 1988 a You’re Under Arrest Promotional Gifts Contest (T-shirts, pictures, key chains, etc.) was held for which Fujishima Kosuke did a promotional advertisement, just what that advertisement was is a matter of some disagreement.

The version with the most visual evidence is a page sized cartoon featuring Miyuki as a goddess and Natsumi as a girl who needs help with her You’re Under Arrest T-shirt. This cartoon has actually been reprinted and can be found on-line (go to Gateway to the Goddesses).

However, Studio Proteus and several other reliable sources have all described the advertisement as a four panel gag cartoon which featured Miyuki and Natsumi and/or other characters from You're Under Arrest! praying to a goddess of luck to please let them win the same contest. While this cartoon has not been reprinted, this version has been reported quite widely and for a much longer time than the first.

It’s certainly possible that both cartoons were created and used and Mr. Fujishima was inspired by the goddess characters in both of them, but however it works out, Mr. Fujishima was extremely pleased with how the goddess character turned out and this inspired him to reuse it when he was offered a chance to do a story for Kodansha’s Afternoon magazine.

1.4.1 - With this as a starting point, Mr. Fujishima began laying out the elements to base this new manga on. In his own words, “I thought it might be an interesting idea if being a goddess was (just) a job, an occupation.” and, “I based it on Norse mythology, which is relatively unknown in Japan.” From there he decided to make her one of the three Norns, again in his words, “They are from the three Norns in Northern Europe legends. They have existed with the gods since the ancient times, and they guard the world tree Yggdrasil. They make prophecies of all existences. Urd decides the past, Bell(Verth)dandy decides the present, and Skuld decides the future. As you can see, they aren't that different from the manga.” This also determined that Urd and Skuld would be part of the story from the very beginning.

1.4.2 - The next things that were needed were a setting and a male protagonist. How and why Mr. Fujishima came up with a down at the heels college student is unknown but his own personal interests in motorcycles and engineering certainly helped lay out Keiichi’s background. The naming of Morisato Keiichi seems to give us some insight into Mr. Fujishima’s interests and his associates. It’s reported that he prefers listening to DMX (a digital, commercial-free radio service) while he works and likes a wide range of music, from classic American hard rock such as Van Halen and Bon Jovi to Japanese idol singers to jazz. There is in fact a rather convincing rumor that the name "Morisato" is based on the name of the idol singer Moritaka Chisato. But the evidence for where he got Keiichi is even stronger

1.4.3 - According to Wikipedia and a couple of independent sources, Mr. Fujishima was inspired to name Keiichi after a real-life racecar driver and jazz musician named Keiichi Tsuchiya. Both sign their name using the shorthand version K-1 ("one" being pronounced as ichi in Japanese), both are noted as using drift techniques when racing (Keiichi Tsuchiya is called the drift king), and both wear green firesuits when racing. (I’d love to find out if “Radio Z” the song Keiichi is singing in the Karaoke contest is a play on one of Mr. Tsuchiya’s songs.)

1.5.1 - On September 25, 1988, Chapter One of Oh/Ah My Goddess! – The Called Number is a Wrong Number was published in the November issue of Kodansha’s Afternoon magazine in Japan, and our story of goddesses, college students, motorcycles, temples, demons, robots, and any other anime or manga cliché Mr. Fujishima could think of began. For awhile he also did an occasional series called Striker about a baseball player but that seems to have faded away and I could find little information about it other than the name and main character. So from 1988 to the present day Oh/Ah My Goddess! has been Mr. Fujishima’s main artistic production. He’s occasionally commented about ending it and starting something new, but then admits he still has stories to tell about the characters and he doesn’t want to quit until they’re told.

1.5.2 - By the way, did you notice the word "cliché"? That's right; one of the overwhelming themes of Oh/Ah My Goddess is Mr. Fujishima's use of other manga themes and styles as basic plots for his story chapters. He will take something like a sports or gaming or racing or transforming robot or robot girl or young love or supernatural or (you get the idea) manga, adapt it to his characters and then run with it poking fun at all the stereotypes and clichés of that type he can. And throw in a few cameos of well known manga characters of those genres as well. This is one of those things he does so well you really don't notice it unless you're really looking, and then you start finding it everywhere.

Chapter 58, Let’s Have Fun (Play the Game), released April 1993 is an excellent example of this sort of thing.

1.6.1 - Besides You’re Under Arrest and Oh/Ah My Goddess!, Mr. Fujishima has a wide range of interests and hobbies, so many in fact that it’s been described as ridiculous - building plastic models and garage kits, playing electric guitar, playing with computers, video games, watching anime, caring for his numerous tropical fish, owning, riding and repairing several motorcycles and three cars, along with dabbling in all sorts of other things. He’s also friends with many of the other manga-ka and anime artists and spends a great deal of time hanging out with them (and they with him). This is why there are so many crossovers and guest appearances of characters in different manga and anime in Japan, it’s almost required if you’re part of the fraternity.

1.7.1 - To conclude this part of the topic, here’s a list of titles Mr. Fujishima has been associated with, the years involved, and in what capacity he was involved. This is in no way complete.

You’re Under Arrest - -1986-1992 - - Author / Illustrator

Oh My Goddess! - - 1988-Present - - Author / Illustrator

Sakura Wars - - 1997-2000 - - Character Designer
Note: Mr. Fujishima is still involved with the Sakura Taisen series even after 2000. He is rumored to have consulted with Hidenori Matsubara for the new NY Kagekidan character designs of Sakura Taisen 5 (the latest title in the series), released in 2005

eX-Driver - - 2000 - - Character designs and settings

Tales of Phantasia - - 1994, 1999, 2003, 2006 - - Character Designer

Gungrave - - 2002, 2003, 2004 - - Mechanical Designer

Piano - - 2002, 2003 - - Character Designer

Tales of Symphonia - - 2003, 2004 - - Character Designer

Tales of the Abyss - - 2005 - - Character Designer

1.8 – Table of References

A - Nationmaster.com - Encyclopedia > Kosuke Fujishima
B - Studio Protius and Dark Horse Biography of Kosuke Fujishima
C - Interview with Makoto Shinkai and Kosuke Fujishima in the April 2004 issue of Afternoon, a Japanese monthly manga magazine (release date February 25 2004). Interview was staged as a Talk Article in Afternoon Filmography in honor of Voices of a Distant Star starting in Afternoon.
D - Animerica Interview with Fujishima Kosuke, Volume two, Issue two, February 1994
E - FUJISHIMA KOSUKE Q&A!? - From Newtype, June 1993
Translated by #Anime! Deedlit, slight editing by #Anime! Keiichi

[Timotheus]

EXAMINING THE ORIGINS AND EARLY HISTORY OF OH/AH MY GODDESS.

The following topic does not represent the beliefs and opinions of the Goddess Project Administration and is presented here for informational and discussion purposes only. All subject material is the work of Timotheus and represents his research and opinions. Please direct all questions, comments, criticisms, profanity, and death threats to him and not our beloved administrator who is getting stressed out.

The Ojiisan Clause: I should also add that it is entirely probable that Mr. Fujishima has never thought things through to this degree and is just “winging it” as he goes. This is an interpretation of what he’s shown and represents an attempt to develop a rational system of interpretation from his writings. Mr. Fujishima has more than likely developed his own ideas on the subject based on his own beliefs, readings, and experience, but feels no obligation to be consistent in their use. If he wants to change how things work in his world, he can (and has), and all I, or anyone, can do is scramble to alter our own ideas to catch up when he does.

Spoiler Warning – THIS IS A DISCUSSION TOPIC AND AS SUCH WILL BE USING EXAMPLES AND REFERENCES TO STORIES THROUGHOUT THE OH/AH MY GODDESS SERIES, BOTH MANGA AND ANIME. ALTHOUGH I WILL TRY TO KEEP THINGS AS VAGUE AS POSSIBLE AS FAR AS EXACT PLOT IS CONCERNED, SOME OF THESE WILL BE STORY SPOILERS. SO BE AWARE!


1.0 - First, Why Oh/Ah My Goddess?

1.1 - For many newcomers to Mr. Fujishima’s world of goddesses and mortals, the first thing to strike them is what to call it. The story is referred to as “Oh! My Goddess” and “Ah! My Goddess” almost interchangeably by different fans on the forums and the anime and the manga releases on both the web and in stores are titled using both versions. So what’s going on?

1.2 - The English phoneticized title of Mr. Fujishima’s story is usually rendered “Aa! Megami-sama”; which can be translated as either “Oh! My Goddess” or “Ah! My Goddess”. The more likely translation for how it’s spoken in Japanese would be Ah! My Goddess, as in “Ah! She’s so wonderful.” But when Dark Horse, Studio Proteus, and AnimEigo were first preparing to bring their English translations of Aa! Megami-sama to America, they questioned Mr. Fujishima directly as to which way he wanted the title translated to avoid error. At that time (1994), he felt that a pun-like title based on the phrase “Oh My God!” would be the better way to go (he does love his word-play), so the English title became Oh! My Goddess for both the American anime and manga releases.

1.3 - Unfortunately for future continuity, the independent fans and self-translators, who tend to be rather purist about such things, all raised a fuss about this, insisting that it should be Ah! My Goddess and continued to refer to it as such. Then, to add fuel to the fire, when questioned about this at a later convention, Mr. Fujishima went on record as saying he really didn’t care what it was called as long as it was what the fans who spoke that language wanted. Thus the great divide was formed. Dark Horse and AnimEigo, who had copyright and legal contracts tied up with the name, would continue to use Oh! My Goddess while Sony/Pioneer/Geneon/Anime Works/Funimation/etc. (who wanted to separate themselves from the AnimEigo OAV anime copyright anyway), would use Ah! My Goddess, along with many independent translators and fan sites.

1.4 - So which version is correct? Actually, both of them are. The version most people use usually depends on how they were introduced to the series. If it was through Dark Horse’s manga or AnimEigo’s OAV anime they’ll use Oh! My Goddess. If it was through the TV animation or independent translations they’ll usually go with Ah! My Goddess. And sometimes they’ll get rather paternalistic about it, but not nearly as much as they used to (especially since Mr. Fujishima has kept waffling in different interviews over which HE prefers). But rather than chose sides or aggravate some of the more virulent partisans of either version, I’ve adopted the habit of using the term Oh/Ah My Goddess to cover both sides. Yes, I’m a pathetic wishy-washy fence sitter, but my computer isn’t all that flame retardant.


2.0 – What Are These Missing Chapters I’ve Heard About?

2.1 – Another area of confusion for some newcomers to the world of Oh/Ah My Goddess are the occasional references to lost or missing manga chapters in older articles or discussions about the early days of the series. This can be even more confusing as there are no missing manga chapters to be found now, but at one time there were.

(Please note that there are NO corresponding missing chapters or episodes as such in the TV anime. If a manga chapter wasn’t included in the TV anime series it was because they were purposefully left out by the producers. After the first few episodes the TV anime abandoned the manga chapter sequence and has been mixing, altering, and/or rearranging the stories as they felt necessary; and some have been skipped entirely.)

2.2 – The missing chapters story goes back to the very beginning of the English language release of the Oh/Ah My Goddess manga. When Toren Smith first brought Oh/Ah My Goddess over to America and convinced Dark Horse to publish it in English, there were some interesting conditions involved. First, he would cover any losses Dark Horse incurred if it didn’t sell. Second, the initial run would be for only six magazines (comic books). And three, it would be tied in with the release of AnimEigo’s English language release of the OAV anime series.

2.3 – Since Mr. Smith was quite certain that Oh/Ah My Goddess would be a success in America, he readily agreed to the first condition and had already set things up for the third one with AnimEigo, so when episode 1, Moonlight and Cherry Blossoms (dubbed, subbed came later), was released on VHS tape on June 29, 1994, Dark Horse was prepared to release their issue 1, Wrong Number, on August 1, 1994 (with the caption, “As seen in the AnimEigo video release!” on the cover), approximately one month later. (The second AnimEigo VHS tape, episode 2, Midsummer Nights Dream, came out sometime in late August 1994.)

2.4.1 – As for the second condition, Toren Smith and the Japanese publishers (including Mr. Fujishima) had decided it would be best to just pick out six of the better chapters that introduced the main characters and would keep the manga story up with the release point of the OAV anime series. At that time only two of the OAV animes were out and the story had progressed as far as including Urd, Sayoko, and Aoshima along with the first episode crew of Belldandy, Keiichi, and the NIT MC members, so manga chapters 1, 14, and 20 covered their introduction.

2.4.2 - As an interesting sidelight, the next three chapters (25, 27, 28) are all primarily about introducing Mara, who it turned out was not in the OAV anime. But internal evidence seems to show that she was intended to be part of the series (Mara and Senbei are featured prominently in the opening credits) and there are plenty of hints that a second OAV anime series centered on her was being planned at the time. So it may have been decided to get her introduction done at that point while waiting for OAV episode 3.

2.4.3 - Assuming the comic book release had been successful for Dark Horse, the next two chapters (32 & 33) would introduce Skuld, which would correspond with the third OAV anime release, and then finally Kodansha chapter 17, Turkey with all the Trimmings, would be released; the chapter that takes place on Keiichi and Belldandy’s first Christmas together and has been described in several other articles as corresponding to the same point chronologically as where the OAV anime ends. That would bring the English manga releases up even with the OVA anime as it was then being planned. After which Dark Horse could go back and pick and choose whatever of the earlier chapters it wanted and slide them into the following chapters’ release schedule.

(That Mr. Fujishima was so willing to go along with this can in part be explained by how he has stated he feels his early art work really isn’t that good and he prefers not to show it. So not reprinting it wouldn’t bother him too much. It could also have something to do with some other theories involving the relationship of the anime and OAV manga, but this would be pure speculation and is best left out of this article.)

2.5 - So it was that the first English released chapters of Oh/Ah My Goddess were (in order) Kodansha chapters 1, 14, 20, 26, 27, 28, 32, 33, & 17 followed by 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 29, 30, 31, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, and onward in sequence…

If you examine this list you’ll discover that Kodansha chapter numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, & 16 are never listed as having been released, and that’s because they weren’t. These are the so-called “lost chapters” because Dark Horse never published them initially.

2.6 - The official story is that they were going to translate and release them sometime in the next year or two after the initial year of publication, but that independent translators had so saturated the market with unauthorized copies of these chapters, even selling them at conventions in front of Mr. Smith and the Dark Horse and Japanese Reps, that it was decided that it would be economically unviable to bother with them at that time. So for six years there were no official English translations of these 14 chapters and only rumor and the word of independent translators that the OAV anime version of the beginning of Oh/Ah My Goddess was substantially different from the manga version.

(As an interesting mind exercise, only read chapters 1, 14, 20, 26, 27, 28, 32, 33, & 17 and then watch the OAV anime. Wait a day, then think back and compare the anime and manga stories to each other based only on what you saw.)

2.7 – Eventually, when Dark Horse started publishing its manga magazine Super Manga Blast, it was decided to start it off with the “lost chapters” of Oh/Ah My Goddess. So on March 29, 2000, Super Manga Blast #1 came out with Kodansha chapter 2, Lair Of The Anime Mania, followed on a monthly basis with the remaining 13 chapters. Once all 14 had been released, Dark Horse wasted no time in resorting the first 20 chapters back into their proper order and then replacing the original first Trade Paperback, 555-GODDESS, with three new ones, Wrong Number, Leader of the Pack, and Final Exam. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a great deal better than it had been.

2.8 - Now, with the latest reissue of the unflipped and restored Trade Paperbacks, all of the chapters have been returned to their proper sequence according to their Kodansha chapter numbers. (Now all we have to worry about are the chapters that Kodansha has numbered out of sequence for their release dates, but that’s a different story.)

2.9 - The First Nine Chapters Released In English By Dark Horse in 1994 - 95

Dark Horse Issue 1 – August 1994 - (Wrong Number) The Number You Have Dialed Is Incorrect
Kodansha chapter 1 – September 1988

Dark Horse Issue 2 – September 1994 - (Sexy Sister) Oh My Older Sister
Kodansha chapter 14 – August 1989

Dark Horse Issue 3 – October 1994 - (Belldandy's Narrow Escape) Belldandy in Danger
Kodansha chapter 20 – March 1990

Dark Horse Issue 4 – November 1994 - (The CD From Hell) The Nemesis
Kodansha chapter 26 - July 1990

Dark Horse Issue 5 – December 1994 - (Mara Strikes Back!) Mara’s Counterattack
Kodansha chapter 27 - Aug. 1990

Dark Horse Issue 6 – January 1995 - (Scales of Love) Balance-Ball Amour
Kodansha chapter 28 – September 1990

Dark Horse Issue II-1 – February 1995 – The Third Goddess
Kodansha chapter 32 – February 1991

Dark Horse Issue II-2 – March 1995 – (The Goddesses Big Crisis) The Goddesses’ Greatest Danger
Kodansha chapter 33 – March 1991

Dark Horse Issue II-3 – April 1995 – Turkey With All the Trimmings
Kodansha chapter 17 – November 1990

In the current Dark Horse Trade Paperbacks these are all listed in their correct sequence order by Kodansha chapter number.

2.10 – Special reference for this section was a reply by Toren Smith to a question about the missing chapters on Mon, Sep 08, 1997 in the Fan Questions section of the Studio Proteus website.


3.0 - Who Or What Was Keiichi Calling When He Was Redirected to Belldandy?

3.1 - There are several popular myths concerning the world of Oh/Ah My Goddess that often confuse newcomers to the story. One of these is that Keiichi reached Belldandy in all of the story’s versions by dialing a wrong number while trying to order take out. Sadly, this myth was even supported by Dark Horse’s own advertisements at one point in its early comic books (see 3.1.5). Unfortunately this particular version only applies to the old five part OAV anime.

3.2 - While it is true that Keiichi does believe he has dialed a “wrong number” when he first reaches the “The Goddess Technical Help Line” (or “The Goddess Relief Office” or “The Goddess Helpline”) in all the other versions, what he was attempting to do was call some location where Aoyama or one of his other sempais was supposed to be in order to inform him of the phone call he had just received. As the least senior member of the dorm community, Keiichi had been forced to remain in the dorm that Saturday night to answer the phone and take messages for all the other dorm members, although as even he had to admit that was no actual great loss since he really didn’t have anything else to do. And it’s while trying to dial this call that Keiichi is rerouted to the heavenly phone system.

3.3 - This version of the phone call is used in both the manga version and the novel and is repeated in the TV anime version as well. It was only in the five episode OAV anime that Keiichi is shown as deciding to try and call for take-out food when he is unexpectedly connected with Belldandy.

3.4 - So why is the take-out version so widely believed to be the standard version? It goes back to section 2.0 and the six years that the AnimEigo OAV anime had a monopoly on the introduction of fans to the series. This gave the OAV anime’s version of the opening a big boost as the most commonly accepted one. Even after all the lost chapters were finally released and available in Trade Paperbacks, the OAV anime was still the only anime version available with the origin in it and it continued to be the most accessible means of introduction to the series. The movie and Mini-Goddesses anime don’t even mention the introduction sequence, so the five chapter OAV remained as having the greatest influence. It’s only been since the TV anime came out that the manga’s version has achieved equal billing with the anime’s.

3.1.5 - The description synopsis for Dark Horse comic book #1 released August 1, 1994.

“Can one phone call change your life? This one quite possibly could! Morisato is spending the evening alone in his dorm room, taking phone messages for his brutish roommate. When he mis-dials his take-out order and instead of dinner gets the goddess Belldandy, he's unknowingly bitten off more than he can chew. She grants him a single wish and he jokingly wishes for a beautiful goddess like Belldandy. But the joke's on him when he gets what he wished for!”

3.7 – This is probably a good point to go into all the different names that the agency Belldandy works for in the first chapter has been called in the English versions. As mentioned above, depending on the source, Belldandy has told Keiichi that she’s from The Goddess Technical Help Line, The Goddess Relief Office, or The Goddess Helpline, all of which have been somehow derived from the Japanese phrase Otasuke Megami Jimusho. They are all probably reasonable translations of the phrase and barring a statement from Mr. Fujishima can be all considered correct. For my part, I think the Goddess Relief Office is probably the closest, but that’s just my opinion.

3.7.1 - Names Of The Place Belldandy Works For In The Heavens
and their English Language Sources

Otasuke Megami Jimusho
Japanese text as phonetically provided by Kotetsu and Elgordo
(O- reputable or public)
(tasuke - assistance, help, support)
(megami –goddess)
(jimusho - office)

Goddess Technical Help Line
Dark Horse, Studio Proteus,

Goddess Relief Office
Nekomi Kodai, Ed Chang
Goddess Miyaku Team
Ah! My Goddess, the movie, sub and dub

The Goddess Helpline
AnimEigo OAV anime, sub and dub
TV anime, sub and dub


4.0 - Okay, what did you mean by, “Now all we have to worry about are the chapters that Kodansha has numbered out of sequence” back in section 2.3?

4.1 - Well, having brought it up, I guess I should explain. This is one of those things that unless you are a real fanatic about useless (or nearly useless) details you will never have to worry about and can live a long and full career as an Oh/Ah My Goddess fan without knowing about, so skip it if you wish.

4.2 - The following was discovered by Jimmy C of the Goddess Miyako Team while he was researching some release dates for his own projects. He very kindly passed the information on to me and I’m passing it on to anyone who reads this article. This information is also included in Oh/Ah My Goddess Timeline.

4.3 - The chapter numbers by which the different stories in the Oh/Ah My Goddess series are usually referred to are actually numbers assigned to them by Kodansha when they are gathered together and reprinted in book collections called Tankoubans, the Japanese version of Trade Paperbacks. The actual stories are first released without any assigned numbers and only have their titles and the issue month of the Afternoon magazine they are included in to identify them by.

4.4 - As an aside, the issue month of a copy of Afternoon Magazine in Japan is actually two months later than the month it is released. The issue date is always the 25th day of the month preceding the month before the month on the cover. So for example, the first chapter of Oh/Ah My Goddess was in the November, 1988 issue of Kodansha’s Afternoon Magazine, but it was released to the public on September 25, 1988. That makes the actual anniversary date for the start of the series in September even though it was in the November issue of the magazine. This can be confusing if you’re trying to compare release dates between stories and other events in the outside world but otherwise has no real effect on appreciating the story.

4.5 – Now normally the Tankouban chapter numbers are assigned in the same sequence as their issue dates, so the stories are numbered and arranged in the Tankoubans in the same way they were released and are thus in the order in which they were to be read. But back in 1991 and 1992 in Tankoubans 3 and 4 there was a little confusion, resulting in chapter numbers 20 to 30 not following the sequence in which they were issued. Why this happened is unknown and it does not appear to have reoccurred since then, but it did happen then. While this doesn’t really effect most fans enjoyment of the series or understanding of the story (there being only two of the chapters that are really out of place), it can still cause some confusion if a person is trying to achieve an accurate chronology of the story at that time.

4.6 - The following lists the effected chapters in their correct release sequence.

Sequence Number - 19
(Final Exam) Upon Close Examination
Manga Date – March 1990
Release Date – January 25 1990
Tankouban Chapter - 19

Sequence Number - 20
(Love Potion #9) Let’s Take the Love Seeds
Manga Date - April 1990
Release date – February 25, 1990
Tankouban Chapter – 25

Sequence Number - 21
(Belldandy's Narrow Escape) Belldandy in Danger
Manga Date –May 1990
Release Date –March 25, 1990
Tankouban Chapter - 20

Sequence Number - 22
(The Secrets Out) Exposing a Secret
Manga Date – June 1990
Release Date – April 25, 1990
Tankouban Chapter - 21

Sequence Number - 23
(Winner Take All) Who Will Win the Champion Flag?
Manga Date – July 1990
Release Date – May 25, 1990
Tankouban Chapter - 22

Sequence Number - 24
What A Miracle
Manga Date – August 1990
Release Date – June 25, 1990
Tankouban Chapter - 23

Sequence Number - 25
(The CD From Hell) The Nemesis
Manga Date - September 1990
Release Date – July 25, 1990
Tankouban Chapter - 26

Sequence Number - 26
(Mara Strikes Back!) Mara’s Counterattack
Manga Date – October 1990
Release Date – August 25, 1990
Tankouban Chapter - 27

Sequence Number - 27
(Scales of Love) Balance-Ball Amour
Manga Date – November 1990
Release Date – September 25, 1990
Tankouban Chapter - 28

Sequence Number - 28
(A Wing And A Prayer) The Flying Motor Club
Manga Date – December 1990
Release Date – October 25, 1990
Tankouban Chapter - 24

Sequence Number - 29
(Mystical Engine) Engine O’ Mystery
Manga Date – January 1991
Release Date – November 25, 1990
Tankouban Chapter - 30

Sequence Number - 30
(Sympathy For The Devil) The Worst Day of a Demon
Manga Date – February 1991
Release Date – December 25 1990
Tankouban Chapter - 29

Sequence Number - 31
(Valentine Rhapsody) Valentine Capriccio
Manga Date – March 1991
Release Date – January 25, 1991
Tankouban Chapter - 31

4.7- In the timeline I created and posted the chapters are listed in their correct manga/release date sequence with the Tankouban chapter numbers left out of sequence for these stories.