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Ah! My Goddess's Origin
Ah! My Goddess was created in 1989 (thought of in 1988) by budding Manga
artist Kosuke Fujishima, creator of the successful series You're Under
Arrest!. There was a contest to win You're Under Arrest! stuff, and the
cartoon advertisement for it showed Miyuki and Natsumi (the two policewomen
from YUA!) praying to a Goddess so that they could win the contest. The
Goddess turned out pretty good evidently, because Kosuke-sama developed
her into Belldandy and AMG! appeared on the scene, published in Afternoon.
During its early years, Ah! My Goddess wasn't all that popular,
until the debut of the 1993-1994 OVA, directed by Gooda Hiroaki. (who doesn't
get enough credit for bringing Ah! My Goddess to animated life for us.)
Once that happened, Ah! My Goddess's popularity shot through the roof and
continued to gain growing support until today. Without Kosuke's incredible
imagination and serious research as well as wild personality, we might
never have known the beauty of this manga and its resulting anime.
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Kosuke Fujishima : The 'mysterious' man behind the
magic of Ah! My Goddess
A man of many talents and hobbies, Kosuke Fujishima is an avid scale
model fan, an automobile fan, manga artist, and a whole lot more. He's
always seen at the back of his manga interviews with dark glasses, so we
don't really know what he looks like. In his "An Artist's life is tough"
mini-adventure series' through the first few editions of his manga, we
see Kosuke depicted as Keiichi busy in his manga-artist's job.
As an automobile junkie, it appears that Kosuke Fujishima is
able to draw almost any form of automobile and mechanical object, their
parts (nuts, bolts, chains, spark plugs, etc.) and even their modified
versions with intense accuracy. Also, as a scale model fan, you'll notice
some characters have the names of scale model manufacturers.....
He also leaves footnotes about the workings of the events in Ah! My
Goddess (of which I don't really understand because I can't understand
the chinese translations.) as well as schematics on all the mechanical
things he draws/creates in the series, just for those of us who don't know
how they work and want to know.
Kosuke-sama started out as an editor for Puff, a manga
news magazine. Later, Kosuke-sama asked Tatsuya-san for a job after seeing
his works, and Tatsuya-san asked him for a piece of his work. He got the
job as Tatsuya Egawa's assistant.
Kosuke-sama first achieved fame when he did a comic-strip report
on the theatrical live-action release of "Be Free" in Kondasha's Comic
Morning, originally by Tatsuya Egawa-san. (without whom we might have not
heard of Kosuke Fujishima-sama. *Impossible!*)
In his report, he drew two characters which proved popular with
the fans, who wrote in to him about them. They were, of course, the policewomen
predecessors to the characters in You're Under Arrest!.
Thus it came to be that Kosuke-sama created You're Under Arrest!,
featured in the Morning Party Extra in 1986.
You're Under Arrest! did very well.
You'll also notice his artworks in other things such as Sakura Taisen,
or Sakura Wars, for which he helped to design some of the characters. (The
facial design, eyes, and hair are all is trademarks after AMG! If you don't
believe me, look at the female lead in the series.) He also did Tales of
Phantasia's characters.
It appears that in YUA!, most of Kosuke's works ended up in AMG!.
Notice the similarities between the earlier versions of the manga's Morisato
Megumi and the women (most notably Miyuki and Natsumi) for most of his
YUA! manga?
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Ah! My Goddess - The Plot synopsis
Morisato Keiichi, student at the Nekomi Institute of Technology
and the only guy who can't get a girlfriend because he's too short, is
left behind in the Men's dorm to recieve incoming calls under the orders
of his "sempai", or social elder. Hungry and frustrated after a long wait,
Keiichi decides to order a takeout delivery meal to break the monotony
of his boring duty.
Where he ends up calling is beyond his wildest imaginations.
A sweet voice answers him on the phone : "Hello, this is the Goddess
Help Office. I will visit you now for a consultation."
And his life is changed when a Goddess comes through a mirror and
tells him that he can have one wish granted to him. Any one wish he makes
she can grant.
He wishes for a Goddess like her to stay by his side.... forever.
So begins the adventures of Morisato Keiichi and Belldandy, the
Goddess of the Present. Both in High school life and in their love life
as well as a little on the side. What comes next, is up to you to find
out.....
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