The kind and shy main character finds himself living with a beautiful (and KIND in a godly way) goddess, who never ever harbors a negative thought. They start developing feelings for each other, and they shy guy will eventually come a long way, proving to be a great mechanic, bike rider, faithful lover and, all in all, an acceptable match for the otherworldly Belldandy.
It's not a harem manga in any way, since there are zero other characters romantically involved with the MC, other than Belldandy. Her sisters will eventually start to care for him, but more like a little brother that is the perfect target for their pranks, than anything else. The story evolves very slowly. It's not far in the series that Belldandy will confess she loves Keiichi, and the situation kinda stabilizes at that, until an abrupt change towards the end.
That's not a huge issue, since this is not a story-driven manga. To me, it works best when it's a pure gag manga. There are two sadly underutilized characters that I simply love (the two golden-hearted, brotherly-love-forever dummy hulks, Tamiya and Otaki) but there's a great number of supporting characters and episodes that shine with unadulterated fun. One involves a recovered WWII fighter plane, with Keiichi "volunteered" by T&O as the pilot, another one involves the Mother Of All Rubber Band Wars, but really, there's a lot, and that's where the manga shines.
Unfortunately, there's also a lot of episodes that move into battle manga territory, and since I hate the genre (come on, every effing time it's obvious from the start that the Good Guys will eventually win, thanks to some stratagem, after an initial setback) I can't help but find them boooring. Also, the "perfect love" angle is sadly overdone, with Keiichi moving from the standard lackluster nerd to perfect gentleman, most helpful hero and fearless superchampion, in everything motorbike-related. Belldandy too, towards the end, becomes an overachiever, essentially the best goddess in every single area, which diminishes the character.
When the manga works, it makes me roll with laughter. Also, if Belldandy really existed, with her infinite grace unmatched by any other divinity, I'd honestly be a believer. She'd never flood the world or turn someone's wife into salt, right? The art is clean and magnificent. Every panel is a painting, there is infinite care in every little detail, I consider it one of the best-looking manga I have ever read.
All in all, it's a very nice manga that deserves reading. The problem is that about 50% of the material is subpar and, given the high cost of the entire series, it becomes hard to recommend indiscriminately.
