Subject: The FAQ is back! The new AMG FAQ...
From: [email-masked] (Geir Friestad)
To: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 7 May 1995 14:26:45 +0000

Hello everyone,

After having stayed in limbo for a *very long time*, the AMG FAQ is finally
back again. I apologize for not having updated it before now, but, well...
I've been busy. Hopefully the updated FAQ will be of some use to you all!
^_^;

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        AH! MY GODDESS / ああっ女神さまっ FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS LIST
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                          Version 12: May 6th, 1995

   Welcome to the latest official version of the AMG FAQ list. It's been on
"vacation" for quite a while now, but it's finally back again.

   Some of the names in this FAQ have been written in JIS (NewJIS) format and
unless you have some sort of JIS viewing software, the JIS codes will look like
garbage to you. Please refer to Ken Lunde's excellent document "Electronic
handling of Japanese text" for information on how to view JIS on your computer.
The document can be fetched from several FTP servers around the world. Some of
these are:

   USA ............. remus.rutgers.edu /pub/anime/lyrix/JIS.inf.Z
   Europe .......... nic.funet.fi /pub/culture/japan/info/japan.inf-1.2.Z
   Australia ....... monu6.cc.monash.edu.au /pub/nihongo/japan.inf

   The document is slightly outdated, though, and will be replaced by a new
one soon, which will be called CJK.INF. For *really* complete information
about Japanese text encoding methods, there's Ken Lunde's excellent book
"Understanding Japanese Information Processing" (O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.,
ISBN 1-56592-043-0). Information about both CJK.INF and the books can be
found on Ken Lunde's homepage:

                      http://jasper.ora.com/lunde/

   Additions, corrections and comments to the FAQ, as well as questions
regarding "Ah! My Goddess" not covered by this file can be sent to me at these
addresses:

        [email-masked] / [email-masked] / [email-masked]

   This FAQ wouldn't have been possible without the help of all those who
made contributions and comments, especially the following people:

         Hitoshi Doi ......................... [email-masked]
         Stephen Lee .............. [email-masked]
         Chadwick Ngan ................ [email-masked]
         Eric Shen .......................... [email-masked]
         Iain Sinclair ............... [email-masked]
         Ito Takayuki ................ [email-masked]

DISCLAIMER 1: The opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily represent
the opinions held either by the editor or any organization he's affiliated
with.

DISCLAIMER 2: This file, fragmented or complete, is not to be reprinted in
fanzines, magazines or any other form of publication without the prior
permission from the editor and the original author(s) (where applicable).
Also, if you use this FAQ as reference material for a published article,
please give appropriate credits.

FAQ AVAILABILITY: The FAQ is normally posted to the Megami Mailing List, the
Skuld Mailing List, rec.arts.anime.info and rec.arts.manga. It used to be
posted in these places the first week of every month, but due to my other
responsibilities I've been forced to cut this down a bit. You can also download
it from the remus.rutgers.edu FTP site or The Relief Goddess Office homepage
at http://www.hsr.no/‾geir-f/amg.html.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CHANGES FROM PREVIOUS VERSION:

 Lots of small updates here and there, the only "major" addition is an entry
 about Hasegawa in the characters section, and two new sections: "Will there
 be more AMG anime?" and "What other titles is Fujishima involved in?"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

o WHAT IS "AH! MY GODDESS" / "AA! MEGAMI-SAMA"?
o HOW MANY OAV EPISODES ARE THERE?
o WILL THERE BE MORE "AH! MY GODDESS" ANIME?
o COULD SOMEONE GIVE ME A DESCRIPTION OF THE CHARACTERS?
o BELLDANDY SAYS SHE IS A "FIRST CLASS GODDESS, SECOND CATEGORY, UNLIMITED."
  WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
o I HEARD "AH! MY GODDESS" IS BASED ON NORDIC MYTHOLOGY. IS THIS TRUE?
o SHOULD IT BE "AH! MY GODDESS" OR "OH! MY GODDESS"?
o WOW! IS THERE AN AMG MANGA TOO? HOW MANY VOLUMES ARE THERE? WHAT ARE THE
  ISBN NUMBERS? WHAT IS THE PUBLISHER? (ETC.)
o ARE THERE TRANSLATIONS OF THE ANIME/MANGA AVAILABLE?
o WHAT FTP SITES CARRIES AMG PICTURES?
o THE AMG SOUNDTRACK CD FREEBIES
o HOW CAN I GET ON THE AMG MAILING LIST?
o WHAT IS THE GODDESS FAMILY CLUB?
o WHAT IS KISS/XKISS/KISS DATA?
o ANIMEIGO'S "OH MY GODDESS!" RELEASE
o LIST OF AMG VOICE ACTRESSES/ACTORS
o HOW DOES THE AMG WORLD "WORK"?
o WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MARKINGS ON THE GODDESSES' AND DEMONS'
  FOREHEADS?
o WHAT AMG RELATED WWW SERVERS ARE THERE?
o WHAT OTHER TITLES IS FUJISHIMA INVOLVED IN?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

o WHAT IS "AH! MY GODDESS" / "AA! MEGAMI-SAMA"?

      Originally a manga created by the young manga artist/writer Fujishima
  Kosuke (*), and appearing in anime format in the shape of a five-episode OAV
  series started in 1993. "Aa! Megami-sama" (Ah! My Goddess) is about the
  love relationship between the ordinary college student Morisato Keiichi and
  the goddess Belldandy, who are brought together after Keiichi accidentally
  phones the Relief Goddess Office, summoning Belldandy. Belldandy grants
  him *one* wish, and since Keiichi has a problem of going steady with a
  girlfriend (because he is a bit short), he wishes for someone like her to
  stay with him forever.
     She interprets this as Keiichi wanting *her* to stay with him forever;
  she is now bound to be with Keiichi forever (or at least until God-sama
  terminates the contract)... ^_^
      The show develops from this point, introducing more characters and
  generally being a very sweet and romantic, and often funny, anime/manga.

     (*) Fujishima Kosuke (藤島康介)

o HOW MANY OAV EPISODES ARE THERE?

      There are five OAV episodes, the ordering information is as follows
   (see the AnimEigo section further down in the FAQ for information about
   the commercial subtitled versions).

         The OAV series consists of the following episodes:

      Ah! My Goddess - Moonlight And Cherry Blossoms  [LD: JSLA 22101, Y5300]
      Ah! My Goddess - Midsummer Night's Dream        [LD: JSLA 22102, Y5300]
      Ah! My Goddess - Burning Hearts On The Road     [LD: JSLA 22103, Y5300]
      Ah! My Goddess - Evergreen Holy Night           [LD: JSLA 22104, Y5300]
      Ah! My Goddess - For The Love Of Goddess        [LD: JSLA 22105, Y6600]

         OAV #5 finishes the story that began in OAV #4. A longer running time
      (40 minutes - 10 minutes more than the other OAVs) is the reason for
      the higher price.

         The catalog numbers for the AMG video tapes are the same as the LDs,
      except that 'JSLA' is 'JSVA' instead. The first four tapes cost 5300 yen
      each, the fifth one is 6600 yen.

o WILL THERE BE MORE "AH! MY GODDESS" ANIME?

      At the time of writing, the answer to this question is "we don't
   know." There are, however, several things that *suggest* that at least a
   second series will be made; (1) In the interview with Fujishima in the June
   1993 issue of Newtype he hinted strongly at a second series. (2) There's
   a small section in the pamphlet that came with the fifth LD called "See
   them next stage?" with pictures of Marller, Banpei-kun RX, Honda Chieko
   and the mini-ninjas. (3) There's been talk about a second OAV series and
   a movie at Movic, according to rumours. Note: These are RUMOURS!

o COULD SOMEONE GIVE ME A DESCRIPTION OF THE CHARACTERS?

   Belldandy (ベルダンディー)
         She is the first of the RGO [Relief Goddess Office] goddesses that
      we are introduced to. She is very pretty, with golden/light brown hair
      and triangular markings underneath her kind, blue eyes. Her forehead
      bears one of the characteristic goddess marks.
         Belldandy's domain is The Present and she uses the mirror as a link
      between our world and Heaven. In terms of earth years, she's about 21
      years old (1). Belldandy is 165 cm tall. Her vital measurements are
      B 83 cm, W 57 cm and H 84 cm.
         She is classified as a First Class goddess, Second Category,
      Unlimited. Belldandy is very fond of Darjeeling tea, as well as the
      "Prince Of Wales" chocolate brand.

         (1) This is the age according to Fujishima in the June 1993 Newtype
             interview. This differs from the age in the manga, where according
             to the school ID Belldandy creates in chapter 4, her birthdate is
             1st January 196X.

         (2) Darjeeling is a brand of black tea grown 2000 m above sea-level
             in Northeastern India, near the Tibet border, in a stable and good
             climate.

                Here are some comments I got when discussing the tea brand with
             the Megami ML's own resident High Elf, Chadwick Ngan:

                By the way, you should try some Darjeeling tea if you have the
             opportunity. It's not an overwhelmingly fragrant tea, like
             Jasmine. Rather, it's fragrancy is a lot more subtle. :)
                I like Fujishima's selection of tea brand. It reflects
             Belldandy's preference of tasteful inner personae over exterior
             appearance far better than pages of drawings could have done. :)

   Urd (ウルド)
         Urd is Belldandy's older half-sister, and she's the second RGO
      goddess we meet. She is introduced in OAV #2 (and manga collection #2),
      when she materializes from Keiichi's television, which happens to be her
      link between our world and Heaven (not necessarily Keiichi's tv, though).
      Urd is lightly darkskinned, with flowing and slightly curled white hair.
      She has green eyes, and like the other goddesses, her face carries the
      goddess markings. Basically, Urd is in terms of looks a 'sex kitten'
      in this series.
         Her domain is The Past, and she acts as Cupid (love goddess) as well
      as running the computer system Yggdrasil back in Heaven (this is the
      system that maintains the enforcing power between Belldandy and Keiichi).
      She is also very good with magic potions.
         In terms of earth years, Urd is about 24 years old. She is 170 cm (*)
      tall, and her vital measurements are B 90 cm, W 60 cm and H 91 cm. Urd
      has a special passion for sake. Urd is a Second Class goddess.

         (*) The height 170 cm was obtained from the interview with Fujishima
             Kosuke in the June 1993 issue of Newtype. In the second manga
             collection (page 128) she's described as being 165 cm tall.

   Skuld (スクルド)
         Skuld is the youngest of the three goddesses, about 12 years old. She
      makes her appearance for the first time in OAV #3 (and manga collection
      #5), where she materializes out of the water in Keiichi's bathtub -- much
      to Keiichi's surprise, since he's taking a bath at that moment. ^_^; (In
      the manga, Urd is in the bath instead of Keiichi).
         Skuld has black hair, brown eyes and she's 150 cm tall. Her vital
      measurements remain secret, which is just as well (remember, she's only
      12). Her domain is The Future and she's a Second Class goddess.
         In addition to being the Yggdrasil system's debugger (what do you
      think she uses that hammer of hers for? ;), Skuld is very good (?) at
      building all sorts of mechanical inventions - most of them not
      functioning quite the way they should. :)
         Skuld is very fond of 131's Ice Cream, and she dislikes useless mecha.

   Peorth (ペイオ―ス)
         Peorth is the fourth goddess to appear (and so far, only in the
      manga) and probably the oldest of them, since she's said to be
      Belldandy's aunt (*). She looks like adult Skuld, only with red hair,
      deep brown eyes and diamond-shaped markings on forehead and cheeks.
      Peorth is about Urd's height. Her goddess rankings are First Class,
      Second Category, Unlimited (the same as Belldandy) and her method of
      manifestation is through camera lenses.
         Peorth is rather eccentric and nutty, likes Keiichi and dislikes
      other goddesses (she's from a rival Goddess Office!).

         (*) This is actually a misinterpretation. At some point in the
             manga, Peorth is referred to as "obaasan" (aunt/auntie).
             However, it's likely that it's just meant as the normal way of
             addressing older people, rather than that she's actually
             Belldandy's aunt.

   Morisato Keiichi (森里螢一)
         Keiichi is the rather short, somewhat shy, but kind NIT student who
      accidentally ends up living with Belldandy. He's got wild, dark hair,
      brown eyes and is 158 cm tall. He's 21 years old and the star driver of
      NIT's Motor Cycle Club (NIT MCC). Oh, and he can't swim. ^_^; Keiichi is
      also learning Fortran 77.

   Morisato Megumi (森里恵)
         Megumi is Keiichi's younger sister (by one year) and also a student
      at NIT with her brother. She's about the same height as Keiichi, and has
      average length dark hair and brown eyes. Megumi is the typical "younger
      sister" (all big brothers know what that means! ^_^;), but she is by no
      means a stereotype. Furthermore, she's a Mechanics Major at NIT, she's
      good with engines (under the supervision of Keiichi) and an excellent
      softball player.

   Mishima Sayoko (三嶋沙夜子)
         Sayoko is the official "queen" of NIT, and every male student there
      has tried to get a date with her. When Belldandy arrives, her position
      as campus queen is threatened and her current goal in life appears to
      be to win Keiichi from Belldandy. More often than not, she gets help
      from Aoshima to realize her plans.
         Sayoko is 163 cm tall, has long, black hair and brown eyes. Her
      vital statistics are B 83, W 59 and H 84.
   
   Aoshima Toshiyuki (青嶋紀元)
         Aoshima is a slick sleezeball usually seen hanging around with
      Sayoko, helping her out with her plans to split up Belldandy and
      Keiichi. His reason for doing this is simple: he's nuts about Belldandy.
      In addition to helping out with Sayoko's plans, he's already made
      several (unsuccessful) attempts at winning Belldandy's heart.
         Aoshima has normal length hair, dark brown eyes and wears glasses.
      He's also the head and founder of Aoshima Formula - a rival club to
      NIT MCC.

   Tamiya-sempai (田宮先輩)
         Tamiya is one of Keiichi's sempai - senior students - at NIT, and
      the head of NIT MCC. He's a large man with short black hair, small eyes
      and a big mouth (physically :). Tamiya takes the concept of perfecting
      engines to rather passionate extremes (check out the speech he makes to
      Keiichi in OAV#3!) and he has a habit of appointing Keiichi to be the
      driver of the NIT MCC's modified vehicles. Not always with the predicted
      end results... ^_^;

   Ootaki-sempai (大滝先輩)
         Ootaki is Tamiya's best friend and also one of Keiichi's sempai.
      He's got long spiky white hair, wears assorted bolts and metal parts
      in a thick necklace and has a sparkplug attached to each of his ears.
      Furthermore, he wears a black leather jacket with a complete set of tools
      under it and he *always* wears his round mirrorshades. He's afraid of
      dogs.
         Ootaki's girlfriend is Satoko Yamano - a freshman and Electronics
      Major who Belldandy and Keiichi helped him get together with.

   Hasegawa Sora (長谷川空)
         Hasegawa is Keiichi's kohai. In OAV 4, she suggests employment
      possibilities to Keiichi, and delivers a note from him to Belldandy. She
      has short brown hair, brown eyes, and large, round glasses that give her
      the appearance of great studiousness. She is demure and obedient in the
      extreme, in a decidedly more muted way than Belldandy's frenzied urge to
      please. She wears incredibly short yet sexless miniskirts.

   Marller (マーラー)
         Marller is a demon from Niflheim (Nordic mythology's version of Hell)
      whose main pastime is to cause trouble for Keiichi and the goddesses.
      She's got blonde/white long hair which to a certain degree resembles
      Urd's (well, they are half-sisters after all), two thin diagonal stripes
      in a ¥ / shape on her forehead and double triangles under her eyes. Being
      evil, she has a preference for dark clothes with a slight touch of
      SM-style in it (by SM I *don't* mean Sailor Moon! ^_^;;).
         Marller is a character from the manga and has only a small cameo in
      the anime, where she appears briefly during the opening animation
      sequence.

   Banpei-kun (ばんぺいくん)
         Banpei-kun is a robot that was originally constructed by Skuld to
      keep Marller away from the temple Keiichi and the goddesses live in.
      The robot consists of several sphere-shaped parts and wears a large,
      wide-brimmed hat or helmet. Like Marller, Banpei-kun is a character
      from the manga and has only had a small cameo in the opening animation
      sequence of the anime.

   Senbee
         Senbee (who appears in vol.7 of the manga) is a genie which can cause
      bad luck, and speaks like a stereotypical gaijin (i.e., in mixed
      Japanese/English). He's under Marller's control, at least theoretically.
      :-)
         He is a parody of Hyakubee, the main character of Magical Super Asia,
      who is also cursed/blessed with the power of misfortune. Senbee's first
      appearance in AMG followed shortly after Magical Super Asia's successful
      debut in Comic Afternoon. :-)

o BELLDANDY SAYS SHE IS A "FIRST CLASS GODDESS, SECOND CATEGORY, UNLIMITED."
  WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

      These classifications refer to possible limitations and such to the
   goddesses' powers:

   nth Class Goddess
      This refers to a goddess' power level. In other words, how strong she
      is; a classification of the, uh, engine's size, so to speak. Fujishima
      is so hooked on motorcycles and engines that I thought this would be a
      fitting analogy. ^_^
      The classification also defines the precision of the goddess' power.
      For instance, Skuld is Second Class because she doesn't have much power,
      but Urd is Second Class not because her powers are weak, but because she
      can't use them precisly.

   nth Category
      This classifies the type a goddess is. A goddess is either "normal"
      (First Class) or "commercial" (Second Class). I guess this refers to
      the functions of a goddess, but I'm not sure.

         Ito Takayuki has something interesting to add:

            This is an analogy of Japanese driving license system. The 1st
         class license is an ordinary one, and the 2nd class license is for
         commercial use (i.e. for taxi/bus drivers).

   Limited/Unlimited
      This is the limit to the kind of power a goddess can use. For example,
      Urd is "Sys-Admin limited", at least before she came to Earth.

         Ito Takayuki has more to add on this as well:

         This is also based on the system.

         * Ordinary License (for 4-wheel automobiles)

            type of license                   type of cars
            ---------------                   ------------
            MT license                        MT, AT cars
            AT limited license                AT cars only

         * Motorcycle license

            type                              limitation on displacement
            ----                              --------------------------
            Light type limited license        under 125cc
            Middle type limited license       under 400cc
            Unlimited license                 N/A

            FYI: Aside these motorcycle licenses, there is a license named
         "Gendouki-tsuki Jitensha" License. Gendouki-tsuki Jitensha ("bicycle
         with an engine", abbr. to Gen-tsuki) is a lightweight motorcycle,
         whose displacement is under 50cc, and is not institutionally regarded
         as a motorcycle, as its name shows.

o I HEARD "AH! MY GODDESS" IS BASED ON NORDIC MYTHOLOGY. IS THIS TRUE?

      Yes, this is true; many of the divine characters and names are based
   on names and characters from Nordic mythology (there are some exceptions.
   Just read on to learn more! ^_^).
      All three goddesses are based on the Nornes from Nordic mythology. The
   original goddesses were Verthandi (optional spelling: Verthande), Urd
   (optional spelling: Urthr) and Skuld, who were the goddesses of fate. Just
   like in AMG, they each had their own domain in time. Urd the past,
   Verthandi the present and Skuld the future.

      In the myths, Yggdrasil was the tree of life, spreading its branches
   all over the world. In AMG, Yggdrasil is the computer system maintaining
   the enforcing power between Belldandy and Keiichi. Urd is the system
   administrator, and Skuld the debugger (what did you think she uses that
   hammer for? :).

      Although they so far haven't showed up in the anime, characters like
   Sleipner (optional spelling: Sleipnir), the Fenris wolf (optional spelling:
   Fenrir) and the Midgard serpent have also appeared in the manga. These
   are all characters from Nordic mythology.

      If you require more information about AMG's connections to Nordic
   mythology, please feel free to e-mail me <[email-masked]> and ask. Although
   I'll do  my best to answer all questions regarding the mythology, I cannot
   promise to be able to answer everything, as certainly I don't know the
   Nordic myths in great detail! ^_-
      I've also written a fanzine article about Nordic mythology and its
   connection to AMG. If you're interested in a copy, you can request it
   directly from me.

         A comment from Iain Sinclair:

         The three witches that appear in "MacBeth"'s opening scene are in
      fact the Norns (i.e., Bell, Urd and Skuld)! Strange, but true.

   ---

      One of the characters who does NOT have her roots in Nordic mythology
   is the evil Marller. I'll let these two postings from the Megami Mailing
   List shed some more light on her origin:

   From Iain Sinclair:
         Marller's name is from Sanskrit, not Norwegian. The original name,
      as written in Buddhist texts(?), is transliterated with "ma" (devil) +
      "ra" (silk/phonetic ra). I think this also means something obscene in
      Japanese, but I'm not sure.. ^_^;;

   From Shuvo Ul Alam <[email-masked]>:
         When I first heard of the name Marller in the same context as that
      of the three nornes of the Nordic mythology you could almost be certain
      what went through my mind first:

         Moira!

         Okay, for those of you who are not familiar with this name, it is
      the personification of the three Greek sisters of fate (Klotho,
      Lachesis, Atropos) as one, I'll give examples from one of my favorite
      Greek poets:

         "And each of us differs from birth
         In the endowment of life- one thing is yours,
         another is mine/ and for one man
         to attain/ every happiness/ is impossible.
         I cannot say to whom
         Moira has offered this achievement
         in secure possession." -Pindar, Nemean 6

      Also personified as three when called Moirai:

         "May the Moirai turn away in disgust
         if any enmity between kinsman
         spoil their regard for one another!" -Pindar, Pythean 4

         Now to make her one big baddy is kind of not-nice (Lachesis is one
      of my favorite Greek goddesses, right behind Nike), but it seems like
      a pretty close call considering the similarities between Moira and the
      three nornes.
         Besides Urd/Urthr was pretty nasty in her earlier incarnations in
      Nordic mythology ^_^ and that certainly isn't followed (or the original
      jobs for that matter ^_^), so I can't really expect the original
      characteristics to be adhered to! ^_-

o SHOULD IT BE "AH! MY GODDESS" OR "OH! MY GODDESS"?

      This is debatable and it really boils down to whether you are a die-hard
   fan of AMG or not. The whole discussion originates from a post Robert
   Woodhead made on rec.arts.anime some time ago, announcing Animeigo's new
   license. Woodhead referred to it as "Oh! My Goddess", as this was the name
   used in the contract. This caused a bit of an uproar, since the accepted
   title on the net had come to be "Ah! My Goddess".
      To be fair, it should apparently be "oh" according to the dictionaries,
   but the title has on the other hand been very consistently written as "Ah!
   My Goddess" on all LDs, CDs, manga covers, etc., as well as in the opening
   credits of the anime.
      Another argument that weighs in "ah"'s favor, is the different meaning
   "ah" and "oh" has in this respect. "Ah" signifies more a sigh of relief,
   while "oh" is more a small exclamation of surprise.
      Animeigo say they've asked Fujishima Kosuke what title he prefers, and
   apparently he says the correct title is "Oh! My Goddess", as he wanted the
   title to be a play on the exclamation "Oh, my God!" Woodhead goes on to
   say this means the anime opening and end credits are mistitled and that
   Kodansha will provide them with untitled material, so that "they can
   correct the error."
      So what title should you use then? Well, that's entirely up to you. If
   you choose to believe what Woodhead says, you'll use "Oh! My Goddess."
   If you have a hard time swallowing what he claims, you'll continue to use
   "Ah! My Goddess". Or simply use the original title: "Aa! Megami-sama".

      Comment from Iain Sinclair:

      The title "Oh! My Goddess" also appears on Kodansha's English flyer for
   AMG. I will always use "Ah!.." regardless. :-)

      Note: Woodhead has changed the American title *again*. Please refer to
   section ANIMEIGO'S "OH MY GODDESS!" RELEASE further down for more
   information. 

      Here's a post from Peter Evans <[email-masked]> on rec.arts.anime
    which adds more fuel to the ah/oh fire:

        On Sunday, we went to the alfreco for AMG5 at the KSS Studios
        near Gotanda. This was Sunday March 27, 1994.

        So, after enjoying ourselves being within touching distance of
        3 deities, accidentally taking pictures, trying to get someone
        to talk to them (who shall remain nameless ^_^).

        A little prompting from yours truly and a copy of Anime UK later:

        ----

        Which do you think is better? Should "Aa Megamisama" be rendered
        as "Oh my goddess" or "Ah my goddess"? (Forget the ! for now.)

        Fujishima said that he wanted whichever one express the feeling
        best in English. However, on pointing out that the use of "Ah!"
        in the OAV and the merchandise (posters, shitajiki, lamicards,
        CDs etc.) was already wide-spread and well known, he said that
        it might be better to keep it consistent.

o WOW! IS THERE AN AMG MANGA TOO? HOW MANY VOLUMES ARE THERE? WHAT ARE THE
  ISBN NUMBERS? WHAT IS THE PUBLISHER? (ETC.)

      Yes, of course there is an AMG manga too. It first appeared in Comic
   Afternoon on 25th September 1988 [or that's what I think the liner notes
   that came with the third LD says; I'm not very good with kanji], and has
   since spawned 10 collected volumes. The manga is essential reading for any
   AMG fan, as it explains a lot of what is going on. People who have not read
   the manga will probably be a bit uncertain about who this Sayoko character
   is and what her connection to Keiichi is, for instance.

      Aa! Megami-sama Volume 1   [Afternoon KC, ISBN 4-06-321009-X, Y450]
      Aa! Megami-sama Volume 2   [Afternoon KC, ISBN 4-06-321013-8, Y450]
      Aa! Megami-sama Volume 3   [Afternoon KC, ISBN 4-06-321017-0, Y450]
      Aa! Megami-sama Volume 4   [Afternoon KC, ISBN 4-06-321023-5, Y450]
      Aa! Megami-sama Volume 5   [Afternoon KC, ISBN 4-06-321021-9, Y450]
      Aa! Megami-sama Volume 6   [Afternoon KC, ISBN 4-06-321025-1, Y450]
      Aa! Megami-sama Volume 7   [Afternoon KC, ISBN 4-06-321028-6, Y450]
      Aa! Megami-sama Volume 8   [Afternoon KC, ISBN 4-06-321030-8, Y450]
      Aa! Megami-sama Volume 9   [Afternoon KC, ISBN 4-06-321037-5, Y450]
      Aa! Megami-sama Volume 10  [Afternoon KC, ISBN 4-06-321040-5, Y450]
      Aa! Megami-sama Volume 11  [Afternoon KC, ISBN 4-06-321044-8, Y470]

      Each collected volume counts about 170 to 180 pages divided into five
   or more chapters. Starting with volume 10, the spinecolor is now blue
   (previous volumes have red spines). Note: Starting with volume 11, the
   price has risen to 470 yen, as opposed to 450 yen.

      There are also color OAV manga of the first three episodes. They are
   made from stills (about 140 each) from the three OAV episodes:

      Film comic #1  [ISBN 4-06-310201-7, Y800]
      Film comic #2  [ISBN 4-06-310202-5, Y800]
      Film comic #3  [ISBN 4-06-310203-3, Y800]

   The goddess message on the cover of the first book (by Inoue Kikuko):

      An affection that is deeper than the ocean,
      a heart that is wider than the sky,
      a kindness that is the greatest in the universe,
      also the feeling that genuinely loves Keiichi
      more than anything else..
      The Belldandy in the manga gave me a great impression.
      I thank God that I was able to meet such a Belldandy,
      and now I'm thinking that I must try hard every day so
      I can come close to the beautiful heart of Bell-chan!!

o ARE THERE TRANSLATIONS OF THE ANIME/MANGA AVAILABLE?

      Scripts for the first three OAVs exist, but are due to the AnimEigo
   license not available from any FTP site. The same goes for the manga
   translations - Dark Horse are releasing the manga translated by Studio
   Proteus. However, they are skipping a *lot* of chapters in order to
   introduce the main characters as fast as possible. For those who don't
   like this, the following chapters have been translated by and for fans:

      Volume 1: All chapters
      Volume 2: Chapters 10, 11, 12 and 13
      Volume 6: Chapters 41 and 42
      Volume 7: Chapter 47
      Volume 8: Chapter 48, 50 and 51

o WHAT FTP SITES CARRY AMG PICTURES?

      These FTP sites are the ones *I* know of that carries AMG pictures. If
   you know of any other site, email me address and path information, and
   I'll add it (after checking).

      ftp.sunet.se
         /pictures/anime-manga/AhMyGoddess/Images

      ftp.tcp.com
         /pub/jpop/images/gif
         /pub/anime-manga/sorted/AhMyGoddess/Images

      server.berkeley.edu
         /pub/anime/AMG/images
         /pub/anime/AMG/k1bs

o THE AMG SOUNDTRACK CD FREEBIES

      The first print of the "Ah! My Goddess" soundtrack CD came with a nice
   set of 29 picture cards from the first two episodes; one picture for each
   track on the CD.
      However, you should consider yourself lucky if you manage to get
   hold of this CD now, since it was a limited release (only 10,000 copies).
   It's been re-issued in a regular release, but *without* the 29 pictures.

      There was a freebie with the first print of the second soundtrack
   album too, but it was not very interesting for people not fluent in
   Japanese. The freebie was a booklet - without pictures - concerning the
   creation process of many of the songs, etc.

      For a complete list of AMG CDs available, please refer to the anime
   CD list compiled by Steve Pearl <[email-masked]>. The list can
   be obtained via anonymous FTP to remus.rutgers.edu, in directory
   /pub/anime/CD. The directory contains both the list in one single (huge!)
   file (CD.ALL.Z) and split into several smaller files (CD.0?.Z).

o HOW CAN I GET ON THE AMG MAILING LIST?

      The Megami Mailing List is run by Hitoshi Doi. Send your joining
   request to:

         [email-masked].

      Mail to the actual mailing list should be sent to:

         [email-masked]

      The list is primarily intended for discussion of "Ah! My Goddess",
   but discussions of and questions regarding other Fujishima series, AMG-
   related seiyuu, etc. are also ok.

      There is also a mailing list for Skuld fans, maintained by Joe Petrow
   <[email-masked]>. Joining requests should be sent to:

         [email-masked]

      Mail to the actual mailing list should be sent to:

         [email-masked]

      The average daily load has been fluctuating quite a bit - nothing
   you can't handle, though. Join now. ;-)

      IMPORTANT NOTE: The mailing lists are intended for *discussion* only,
   uuencoded binaries are strongly frowned upon. If you have a picture,
   soundfile or similar you think the rest of the AMG community should know
   about, please upload it to an FTP site and provide pointers instead of
   posting the file to the list. A lot of people are paying for their Internet
   access and are retrieving their mail with modems. These people will NOT
   appreciate huge chunks of uuencoded stuff filling up their mailboxes.

o WHAT IS THE GODDESS FAMILY CLUB?

      The Goddess Family Club consists of the three goddess seiyuu: Inoue
   Kikuko (Belldandy), Touma Yumi (Urd) and Hisakawa Aya (Skuld). They've
   made one CD so far - "Kamisama no Okurimono" (Pony Canyon PCCG-00246, Y3000).

      All songs on the CD are about love. The order of the songs is arranged so
   that it tells a "story". The songs are sung with the girls' normal voices,
   not as the three goddesses, so the CD feels different from other Megami-sama
   CDs.

      The CD comes with three booklets.

      1) The music sheet booklet
      2) The image picture booklet
         Contains pictures of the three girls and the lyrics.
      3) The snapshot picture booklet
         Contains many pictures of the girls at Kannonzaki studio.
         (all pictures are b/w)

      All three of the seiyuu have released one or more albums on their own.

o WHAT IS KISS/XKISS/KISS DATA?

      Kiss is a program on Japanese PCs for doing "kisekae" (changing clothes).
   It has the picture of a character, with several clothes (dress, shirt,
   socks, shoes, hat, etc..) that you can manipulate. xkiss is the X version.
   Please note that xkiss can't save pictures, i.e. you can't change Skuld's
   clothing and save the result in a file.

      Kiss is available for the following machines and platforms:

         PC-9801
         MS-Windows
         X/Windows system
         FM-TOWNS
         X68000 (Human68k, SX-Window)
         Macintosh
         IBM-PC with Dos/V

      For more complete information about Kiss, please refer to Ito Takayuki's
   Kiss FAQ and the Kiss homepage:

         http://www.cs.utexas.edu/‾mcurley/kiss/kiss.html

o ANIMEIGO'S "OH MY GODDESS!" RELEASE

      From an article posted on rec.arts.anime by Robert Woodhead
   <[email-masked]>:

      The five episodes of "Oh! My Goddess" will be released on tape in two
   stages: the first three episodes on 6/29/94, and the final two on 8/31/94.
   Each episode is priced at only $19.95.  The first four episodes are
   approximately 25-30 minutes long, and the final one (still in production
   in Japan) will be approximately 40 minutes in length.

      As with all recent AnimEigo releases, the 5 tape packages will combine
   to create a SpineScene (tm) image.

      At the same time as the tape release, AnimEigo will release "Oh! My
   Goddess" on two LaserDiscs, each priced at $39.95.  The first, available
   6/29/94, contains the first 3 episodes, and the second, available 8/31/94,
   contains the final two. One episode on each LD will be in CAV mode, the
   other(s) will be in CLV.

   ORDERING INFORMATION

      Rls Date    Title                    Cat#              Price
      6/29/94     Oh! My Goddess #1        AT094-002         $19.95
      6/29/94     Oh! My Goddess #2        AT094-003         $19.95
      6/29/94     Oh! My Goddess #3        AT094-004         $19.95
      8/31/94     Oh! My Goddess #4        AT094-005         $19.95
      8/31/94     Oh! My Goddess #5        AT094-006         $19.95

      6/29/94     Oh! My Goddess LD #1     AD094-003         $39.95
      8/31/94     Oh! My Goddess LD #2     AD094-004         $39.95

   ---

   [* Please note that the Animeigo releases of "Ah! My Goddess" will have
    different opening and ending credits than the original Japanese releases!]

      From another article on rec.arts.anime by Robert Woodhead:

      Kodansha is providing us with "untitled" video for the opening and
   ending credits, and as our software can title in Kanji, we are planning
   to do bilingual English/Japanese credits and fix the mistitle.

   ---

      From yet *another* article on rec.arts.anime by Robert Woodhead:

      I'll start out with a Mea Culpa. I previously reported that the USA
   name of the series was going to be Oh! My Goddess. This was based on
   a phone conversation with Toren Smith of Studio Proteus, who is doing
   the comic book, and had talked to the author. However, I just assumed
   the position of the !, and it turns out I was wrong. The official
   USA name is "Oh My Goddess!"

      Toren and I have also agreed to regularize the naming of the characters
   in the video and comic so they are the same. Our final choices were
   in large part influenced by many dissertations emailed to me by fans.

      So the three goddesses are:  (drum roll)

         Belldandy, Urd, and Skuld.

      Both the video liner notes and the comic book with have extensive notes
   about the mythological derivations of the names.

      Our graphic design people have designed a superb USA Logo. It has
   "Oh My Goddess!" in a beautiful looping English script, with a thin
   line below it that becomes the "Aa Megamisamaa" kanji. The descender
   of the y in My goes into the horizontal line, below it, then ascends
   back to form the horizontal stroke of the first A character.

o LIST OF AMG VOICE ACTRESSES/ACTORS

      The list below contains only the seiyuu that appear in the OAV series.
   I chose not to include the additional seiyuu from the Tokuten-ou CD,
   primarily for practical reasons; this FAQ is big enough as it is already.
   All names are listed in family name - given name format. The JIS codes
   were put on separate lines to make the seiyuu list readable also for people
   who can't view JIS.

           Character                         Seiyuu
       -----------------------------------------------------------------
           Belldandy ....................... Inoue Kikuko
             (ベルダンディー)                  (井上喜久子)
           Urd ............................. Touma Yumi
             (ウルド)                          (冬馬由美)
           Skuld ........................... Hisakawa Aya
             (スクルド)                        (久川綾)
           Morisato Keiichi ................ Kikuchi Masami
             (森里螢一)                        (菊池正美)
           Morisato Megumi ................. Fuchizaki Yuriko
             (森里恵)                          (渕崎ゆり子)
           Mishima Sayoko .................. Asami Junko
             (三嶋 沙夜子)                     (麻見順子)
           Tamiya-sempai ................... Yanada Kiyoyuki
             (田宮先輩)                        (梁田清之)
           Ootaki-sempai ................... Futamata Issei
             (大滝先輩)                        (二又一成)
           Hasegawa Sora ................... Ootani Ikue
             (長谷川空)                        (大谷育江)
           Aoshima Toshiyuki ............... Tobita Nobuo
             (青嶋紀元)                        (飛田展男)

      Note: The name of Ootaki-sempai's seiyuu - Futamata Issei - is his
   screen name. The seiyuu's real name is Futamata Kazunari.

o HOW DOES THE AMG WORLD "WORK"?

      The world is run by God (Kami-sama) who's got many departments to help
   him. Neither the manga nor the anime say but there is reason to believe
   that various departments of goddesses help him out with various affairs.
   The recent manga arrival of Peorth - a fourth goddess from a rival goddess
   office - supports this theory.

      The Yggdrasil system is the main "tool" for God to run the world. Like
   all computer systems and programs, it has bugs. Thus the human world have
   inexplicable mysteries now and then. Urd is the system admin, or she could
   be one of the many system admins, in charge of a specific function of
   Yggdrasil. Skuld too, works for Yggdrasil, as a debugger. Those squishy
   8-legged bug-eyed insectoids are exactly what they are: BUGS.
      In order to debug the system Skuld has several handy tools, including
   an extendable hammer that is used for the actual debugging, special HUD
   glasses for detecting bug portals, and a modified rice-cooker which works
   as a bug-catcher [I think Fujishima was influenced by the ghost-catcher in
   "Ghostbusters" when he designed this one ^_^].

      There is also the Relief Goddess Office. I suppose it is God's way of
   helping out mankind in more visible means. They will grant one wish,
   anything, to nice guys who meet the qualifications. These qualifications
   is a safety-protection and basically ensures that people who would wish
   for the total destruction of the earth and so on will never manage to
   reach the Relief Goddess Office.
      Belldandy used to work for the office, but when Keiichi wished for her
   to stay with him forever, naturally she had to "quit" that job. At the very
   least, she had to go "on leave" for a while. :)

o WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MARKINGS ON THE GODDESSES' AND DEMONS'
  FOREHEADS?

      The markings on the goddesses' foreheads contain programs defining
   their domains, powers, classes and categories. Chapter 41 and 42 of the
   manga suggest that the goddesses maintain a constant link to Yggdrasil.
   If Yggdrasil goes haywire, so do the programs in the markings, which in
   turn affect the goddesses.

      The demons' forehead markings don't work in quite the same way as the
   goddesses - they aren't linked to any "mainframe". Instead, all demons
   carry a ¥ / marking on their forehead, clearly indicating the fact that
   they're evil. It is not known whether the markings have any other function
   apart from this.

      [Note: The information above is the result of "educated guesses". I've
   that heard all the goddess markings, as well as other details from the AMS
   world, are explained in detail in the book "Aa! Megami-sama no Himitsu"
   [Published by Data House, ISBN 4-88718-204-X, Y1000, 217 pages]. I haven't
   seen this book myself, though]

o WHAT AMG RELATED WWW SERVERS ARE THERE?

      So far, the following AMG related WWW servers exist:

   The Relief Goddess Office Homepage
      http://www.hsr.no/‾geir-f/amg.html
      http://www.portal.com/‾graham/k1/amg.html (mirror)

   The UCI Bookstore's AMG page
      http://bookweb.cwis.uci.edu:8042/Anime/AMG/intro.html

   Kurth Thorn's Aa! Megami-sama page
      http://www.princeton.edu/‾ksthorn/ams.html

   Aa! Megami-sama gallery page at St John's Anime Film Society
      http://www.cs.mun.ca/‾anime/afs/amg.html

   Sammy's AMG Picture Gallery
      http://server.berkeley.edu/‾sam/amgpage.html

   Tomar's Ah! My Goddess page
      http://helser14.res.iastate.edu/tomar/anime/ahmygoddess/ahmygoddess.html

   Marc Hairston's AMG page
      http://utd500.utdallas.edu/‾hairston/omghp.html

   The Skuld Shrine
      http://server.berkeley.edu/‾joepet/skuld_shrine.html

   Belldandy
      http://www.tcp.com/doi/chars/bellchan/bellchan.html

o WHAT OTHER TITLES IS FUJISHIMA INVOLVED IN?

   Taiho Shichau Zo:
          Also known as "You're Under Arrest!", "I'll Arrest you!" and
      "You're Busted!" This was Fujishima's breakthrough manga, and it
      ran for nine volumes. It's also being turned into an OAV series
      (four episodes planned - two have been released so far). TSZ is
      about two young police cutes; Tsujimoto Natsumi and Kobayakawa
      Miyuki, and their adventures in the city of Tokyo. Very entertaining,
      highly recommended.

   Villgust:
         A two part OAV series set in the SD fantasy world of Villgust.
      It's a VERY entertaining story, based on an RPG of the same name.
      Highly recommended, especially if you've seen a lot of fantasy anime,
      since Villgust pokes fun at almost every cliche you can think of. :-)
      Fujishima Kosuke created the characters. Note: he's NOT the character
      designer - the characters were designed by the guy who did the 
      character designs for, among other things, Moldiver (I can't remember
      his name. Gomen nasai! v_v).

   [I *think* Fujishima also did a manga called "Striker", but I'm not
    entirely sure. Can anyone add some information here? Anyone? Anyone?]

<EOF>

--
 Greenwood member | >> Mustela putorius furo << | AMG FAQ maintainer  
    Mail: [email-masked] / [email-masked] / [email-masked]
       IRC: Keiichi / Koneko | WWW: http://www.hsr.no/‾geir-f/
         - Censorship is the weapon wielded by weak idiots -