The Ah My Goddess Film is a beautifully animated film that tries its best to expand on the ah my goddess world but unfortunately loses some of its charm of what makes the series really memorable in order to tell a more compelling/complex story.
The story fixates on a character from Belldandy's past by the name of Celestin who is placed in a lunar prison for rebelling against the gods. He is released by a fairy by the name of Morgan le fay where he plans to plot his revenge against the gods but in order to achieve this he needs to use Belldandy to do it. It is important to note that Celestin is Belldandy's former mentor and Belldandy's memories of her mentor were erased after the incident that caused Celestin to be sealed away to begin with.
One of the biggest things to love about this film is how well it is animated. The film is absolutely gorgeous with regards to its character designs and environmental landscapes. In this film we get to see in great detail the world that Belldandy comes from in all of its splendor. The English voice cast in this movie is incredibly stellar with a good mix of new and upcoming voice talent from the time this film was made to some incredibly seasoned veterans of the voice acting industry.
We have all the characters that make this series wonderful and memorable and for the most part their personalities are still accurate depictions of what we're accustomed to. The story of this film starts off strongly because we get to see all the characters that we have grown to appreciate still be the same way in which we last left them. Belldandy is always going to the main focus and strength of anything related towards the ah my goddess license and at the beginning we get to see Belldandy be warm and loving as always which is always a pleasant sight to see because we're all so use to seeing this character this way. Keichi's and Belldandy's relationship is still the central focus of the overall film and its nice to see in the very beginning how their relationship has grown stronger and how much they ultimately care for one another.
Unfortunately once Celestin enters the picture and starts to use Belldandy for his own selfish desires is when the film starts to fall apart because he infects Belldandy with a virus in order to stage an attack against heaven and as a result of this Belldandy loses all memories of her relationship with Keichi and for the majrotity of the film we see Belldandy as a shell of her former self and its a huge strike to do something to such a beloved character and the face of the ah my goddess series. As devastating as these series of events is to Keichi, he is always the type of character that tries to find the good in any bad situation and spends a good portion of the film trying to be supportive to Belldandy as much as possible with the help of Urd and Skuld. The more time he spends with her, Belldnady starts to have some faint memories of how much joy and happiness that Keichi has provided her in the past but its just devastating and more often than not frustrating to watch a relationship that we have grown to love and appreciate be set back to square one because we don't get to see Belldandy be the character that we're so use to seeing because she is infected with the virus that Celestin gave her.
It makes things even more frustrating because they force two love triangles into this film to put Keichi's and Belldandy's relationship in more danger as these events are taking place. Celestin wants her former pupil all to himself, and the fairy Morgan who has her own tragedy in love to deal with is very jealous of Keichi's and Belldandy's relationship and tries to do things to make Keichi fall for her and be a part of her life. This entire plot point just feels tacked on and it really exists to take advantage of a bad situation because its simply not something I want to see. If the film focused more on Keichi trying to help regain Belldandy's memories instead of this shallow love trinagle nonsense than the film would of come across as more endearing.
If its one thing that the ah my goddess series doesn't need is action. I love action in my anime as much as the next person but this is an anime that its strength is defined by its character development, its humor, and its unresolved approach towards love and romance. Unfortunately the humor that is known in this series is completely sacrificed for action because there isn't much in the way of humor throughout this film. The action looks nice because we get to see an extent of the power that some of these goddesses have and you have to find a way to stop the antagonist of this film. The surprising thing regarding this film is ultimately action is not the force that stops the antagonist, its making the antagonist see the error of his ways so that he sees things from the protagonists point of view is ultimately what stops him.
Celestin wants to end suffering that humanity has had to endure at the mercy of the gods. He feels that the gods has not been doing its best to protect humanity and he wants to change that by rising against the gods to create a new earth free of suffering. It's a world domination plot point that has been recycled far too many times. Everybody has their own definition of how to change the world in order to better humanity in their image but one thing we all need to understand is that humanity is always flawed and in my opinion I don't believe a utopia should ever exist because society needs a perfect balance of good and bad in order to truly flourish. People will make mistakes, atrocities will happen, but we use horrible moments in history in order to better ourselves in society. You can't learn to appreciate the good in what humanity has to offer without enduring the bad.
The ending while satisfying and endearing pushes a big reset button with regards to Belldandy's and Keichi's relationship which feels really cheap, but the endearing part of it truly shows that no matter what obstacles obstruct their relationship they fight these challenges together and their love ultimately comes out on top.
Ultimately, the film does a good job on the world building of the ah my goddess world and the connection Earth has with heaven but it loses a lot of its charm by sacrificing some of the traits that makes these characters memorable by bringing in a student/mentor conflict that feels incredibly shallow and forced. It's a beautiful film to look at and a great film to listen to but hopefully you can forgive this movie for its shallow character development in order to look into Belldandy's history with her misguided mentor antagonist.
7/10
Favourite Character: Urd
Least Favourite Character: Morgan Le Fey
