Slightly Biased Manga

The plot in this one was the kind that I generally don’t like (the kind that involves NIT), but for whatever reason, this one was awesome. I was sort of confused… I understand that Keiichi needed one more credit or something like that to graduate several volumes ago, and when Sora approached him here, it seemed to me that he graduated at some point between then and now. If that’s the case, all the better because I don’t like the Nekomi Tech plots that much anymore as I mentioned earlier, but still… you think that may have been a story-worthy event.

I usually don’t like Sora. She’s a stereotype, whiny, and annoying. I sort of wanted to go back and reread some old volumes about when she joined the Motorcycle Club because I can’t remember when or why she did… here it seems like she’s never gone near a motorized vehicle in her life. At any rate, despite my inherent dislike of Sora, this story about whether or not she’ll become director of the Motorcycle Club was really, really good. Maybe it’s just that I tend to like the races in this series, and this one was a particularly good one. The characters were all spot-on, the race was fun, and there were a bunch of little story details that clicked into place at the end, and I love that sort of thing.

I kind of wonder if the fact Keiichi’s graduated is a shift away from NIT and a shift towards more plot-oriented stories… since I’m holding the next volume in my hand right now, I know that one at least is, and I know there’s a story that involves another Goddess coming up not too long after this storyline, in volume 23 or so.

There’s a note at the end of this volume talking about how this is the last westernized volume. It occured to me after reading the great story that this series is like talking to an old friend. There’s nothing particularly exciting about it, but I’ve been reading it for almost ten years and it’s still a great series with a surprisingly great or touching volume every now and again, and it’s just… it’s Oh My Goddess. I know the characters like the back of my hand, they do things I like, it’s occasionally quirky and the storylines are very homey and familiar (though I do like the epic, plot-centric ones). I like it very much, and I’m glad it’s still going in Japan. Makes me wonder how he’ll end it eventually.

Something else about this volume… around the time I started reading the series, I stumbled across a single page scan from the monthly serialization of OMG on a random website where I was surprised to find it. The OMG page was in Japanese, had its own section of the site, and the caption was something like “I just posted this to drive so-and-so crazy… people following along with this series in English won’t see this page for years, so you’ll have to wait and see!” The page features a rather deep and amazing kiss between Urd and Keiichi, and is in this volume. In context, it’s quite shocking, but out of context it drove me crazy for years thinking the series was going to take a dramatic turn and the characters were going to turn into something else. It’s just… it’s an amazing scene. You’ll see.