Oh My Goddess! volume 1 (Wrong Number), by Kosuke Fujishima, 2002, Dark Horse Comics

However, Dark Horse has come out with some new TPBs that contain these stories. What they have done is to go back and redo their TPB line. So, what you see here, Wrong Number, is the new volume I in the series. This replaces the old volume I, 1-555-Goddess, which will be unnecessary once Dark Horse publishes the new TPB collections. 1-555-Goddess contains the very first story about how Belldandy comes to grant Keiichi's wish, but then it jumps straight to where Urd shows up. Wrong Number, however, includes the stories of how Bell and Keiichi find a place to live, how they deal with Belldandy going to school with Keiichi, the first encounter with Sayoko, and other stuff that really helps fill in the story.

With that out of the way, I can say that this book is a great place to start, if not the best place to start reading Oh My Goddess! You get to see how it all started off, and you don't have to put up with the annoying "fast forward" from the original volume 1 where everyone just shows up in the same place. I will say that the current day OMG stories are drawn much better. I guess 15 years of practice will help you improve. It's interesting to notice how everyone has gotten thinner over the years, especially Belldandy. Her forehead goddess mark is also smaller now. Anyway, this is a good book. Go read it.

Oh My Goddess! volume 2 (Leader of the Pack), by Kosuke Fujishima, 2002, Dark Horse Comics

I liked this book a lot. You get to see Fujishima-san's art skills progressing to more of the modern style, and you also get to see more of the foundational stories that set up the character conflicts that continue to this day. Also, if you've seen the OVA anime series, there are some events hinted at (like the falling off the rail into the water scene) that are here in their original form. There's also a motorcycle race. Frankly, I don't think there has yet been an OMG collection that didn't have a race in it of one form or another. But Fujishima-san draws great motorcycles and race cars and stuff, and is an avowed motorcycle fan, so we can live with it. Bottomline, if you like OMG, you have to get this book.

Oh My Goddess! Final Exam by Kosuke Fujishima, 2002, Dark Horse Comics

This book is the last of the new TPBs chronicling the old OMG comics that were first published by Dark Horse in Super Manga Blast. It contains only a couple of those stories, and then contains a number of stories from the early OMG TPB 1-555-Goddess, so the stories pick up right where Love Potion #9 begins. The comics are all pretty funny, though because I had read a number of them before it didn't take me that long to read them all again. I especially liked the story where Keiichi works really hard to buy Belldandy a ring for their first "anniversary," as I now know where the idea for the ring story came from for the OVA series. I had thought that they had made up that story for the anime, but now I see that wasn't the case.

I do have to take some issue with the translation, though. It really doesn't make much sense to me the way that some of the items were re-written for a more modern context, like when Keiichi complains about how the $1500 to buy the ring he wants to get Belldandy is enough for a new Apple iBook. When the comic was first written in the late '80s or early '90s there were no iBooks. I know that casual readers won't know about the timing of the various stories, but it bothered me. Maybe I'm just too sensitive to this kind of thing. If you've already got the early OMG TPBs, the fact that there's not that much new stuff here might keep you from getting this book. It's up to you, but I'm glad I have it. The cover is real nice, too. I like that picture a lot.

Oh My Goddess! volumes 7 (Ninja Master) and 8 (Miss Keiichi), by Kosuke Fujishima, 2000 (vol. 7) & 2001 (vol. 8), Dark Horse Comics

Even though the stories were great, the book is slightly disappointing because it only contains four stories. This does not compare well to most other OMG TPBs, which have more stories for only a slightly larger price. This doesn't really hurt the book for a series fan like me, but if you're just buying this book separately, you might feel a little cheated. But enough complaining.

This book is called Miss Keiichi because the first few stories detail Keiichi's adventures as a woman. See, Belldandy gets "sick," and Keiichi thinks that Urd's junk might help her get better. But Urd and Skuld got recalled to Heaven for training, so Keiichi tries out some stuff on himself before giving it to Bell. Oops! He now has large breasts and long hair. Later, after all the goddesses are back, Urd's old boyfriend the Plum spirit shows up. He's very jealous, and would try to get rid of Keiichi if he knew Urd was living with a man. So Keiichi's feminine looks turn out to his advantage, at least for a while...

Other stories involve Keiichi's motor club running in a hill climb race, a cute young freshman trying to rid the temple of ghosts, a challenge between Megumi's softball club and the baseball club, and a homeless puppy taking up residence in the temple, and the hearts of the goddesses. Skuld is so cute in the puppy story; the dog is ugly, though. This is one of the thickest OMG collections yet, and is a good value for the money. Also, with each book Fujishima-san's artwook gets better. These two books are both fantastic in the art category, and it's really interesting to read the first stories and note how much the art has improved over the years.

Oh My Goddess! The Fourth Goddess, by Kosuke Fujishima, 2001, Dark Horse Comics

Let's talk about Peorth, shall we? I didn't like her at first, as she tries to seduce Keiichi, and is somewhat of a slut. Later on in the book she starts to flesh out some more, and it seems that even more than being morally loose, she is hyper-competitive, and thinks that if she steals Belldandy's man, that will show she is the better goddess. Something like that. Her hair is also rather odd, as is her outfit, but that seems purposefully done to show her more "flamboyant" nature. Some of her outfits in the book are really cute, though. I do think that sometimes she looks a little too much like Skuld in the face, but I noticed this less in the latter parts of the book, so maybe Fujishima-san changed things a little bit later on to minimize any similarities.

The stories here are pretty funny, overall. I especially liked when Keiichi and Peorth go on a "date," but the other goddesses come along, anyway. The movie scene is hilarious. Also, I liked Urd's role in this book, which is pretty wild, as I didn't like her in previous books. I believe this is because she isn't the one stirring up trouble this time, and is actually helping the "good team" beat Peorth. She looks damn good, too. Actually, everyone looks great, and the goddesses look better than ever. There's some great double-page spreads here than will blow you away. Well, they impressed me, anyway. I believe this is the best OMG book yet, and definitely a keeper for the collection.

Oh My Goddess! volume 16, by Kosuke Fujishima, Dark Horse Comics

Yes, I know that good stories need conflicts to deal with, and the boy definitely provides some conflict, but the whole thing just seems forced to me. At least give the lovebirds one twelve-page story to let us see how they go about their days now that they have a set routine to go through. This was done early on in the series, but at that point the 'antagonist' was the whole "Belldandy's a goddess!" thing, and they were trying to not let anybody know about it. At this point I would like to see how they are living NOW, a few years on from the original events.

Or maybe I'm the only one who thinks like that. I won't spoil the ending for you, but the entire volume revolves around keeping the bad guy from stopping time for his own selfish reasons. As I mentioned above, Peorth makes an appearance and aids in the main fight against the bad guy, and this time she doesn't try to jump down Keiichi's pants. Progress! For those of you who have seen the movie, this storyline introduces the vision of heaven seen in the movie, including the main Yggdrasil control center, as well as Belldandy's heavenly outfit. At this point I don't even see any reason to mention the art. I know it's amazing, you know it's amazing, nothing really to say. Things are still evolving bit by bit, and I really like the evolution in Urd's character design. I just with the artist would break out of the standard formula for a bit and try something a little different. As much as I love this series, I have to wonder if it has 'jumped the shark.'

Oh My Goddess volume 19/20, by Kosuke Fujishima, Dark Horse

But enough about that. You want to know about the story, right? Well, most of this volume is all about Sora Hasegawa, the big glasses girl who is in the Motor Club that Keiichi was in when he was still a student at Nekomi Tech. Well, it turns out that Keiichi is still the club president, even though he doesn't go to the school anymore. He decides to handle that by making Sora president, but she doesn't want the job. However, the only out she has is to beat Keiichi in a race. So, the story is all about Sora's feelings about being club president and whether she would do a good job or not, and about learning to trust not only herself but other people. Great character development for a long-standing but mostly background-dwelling character, and the typical feel-good story that I expect from Oh My Goddess. Really good stuff. The end of the book is about Urd and Skuld fighting over the TV. Humorous, but not near as good as the Sora stuff. Still, an excellent pick up for Oh My Goddess fans, and one of the better of the recent volumes story-wise. Top stuff.

Oh My Goddess! volume 23, by Kosuke Fujishima, 2006, Dark Horse Comics

That said, the man can still create characters like nobody's business. While I can't say that Keiichi's father is anything great, his Mom is a great character, with lots of quirky charm. Now I know where Megumi gets it from. I also liked the fact that, unlike recent volumes, the focus here is on the humans, and not the goddesses. Belldandy gets some focus, as always, but only through her attachment to the main man, Keiichi. So I can't really fault the story concept, or the art, or the execution; maybe I'm just tired of motorcycles?

Outer Orbit issue 1, by Zach Howard, Sean Murphy, and Reed Buccholz, 2006, Dark Horse Comics

In the end, I don't know what to make of this book. The story has some potential, but I really don't know where it is going. The characters are funny, but also weird, everything is just really strange. And lighting girl scouts trying to sell cookies on fire just isn't funny to me, even if it is by accident.