Manga Review: Oh My Goddess! Volume 5

I’m continuing with Oh My Goddess with the manga’s 5th volume.

Title: Oh My Goddess! Volume 5
Written & Illustrated by Kousuke Fujishima
Adapted by Alan Gleeson,, Toren Smith and Dana Lewis
Lettering and Touch-Up by L. Lous Buhalis, Tom Orzechowski, Suzie Lee, and PC Orz

Available from Amazon.com & RightStuf.com

The Premise

Mara is still hanging around and is trying to torment Belldandy and Urd. Meanwhile, an outbreak of bugs in Heaven’s computer system, Yggdrasil, has brought Belldandy and Urd’s other sister, Skuld, to go to Earth to persuade Belldandy & Urd to come back to fix the problem.

High Points

The presence of Mara makes for a better foil for Bell and Urd then Urd’s own enthusiasm is. Also, Skuld could have been an annoying version of the over-protective younger sister archetype, but as yet she has not succumbed to that.

Low Points

Aoshima returns this volume, and his role is reduced, unfortunately, to near irrelevance. Aoshima works as a character when he’s being the rich jerk who doesn’t understand how love works.

The Scores

Originality: Mara’s latest attempt to break-up Bell & Keiichi is kinda different, though the fundamental concepts aren’t generally (though they are new to the manga). 4/6

Artwork: The art is still great, though the fact that the color splash pages aren’t printed in color in the printing I’m reviewing hurt things. 4/6

Story: As with the last volume, the story here is semi-episodic, though the episodes we get are very nicely done. 4/6

Emotional Response: Oh My Goddess continues to be good manga comfort food, with entertaining humor and fun characters. 4/6

Characterization: No breaks in character from previous volumes, and Skuld, this volume’s new character, is established quickly. 4/6

Flow: 6/6

Overall: While the cast expands this volume, it doesn’t feel like the cast is over-crowded. 4/6

In total, Oh My Goddess! Volume 5 gets 30 out of 42.