Summary: >

Three years have passed since the goddess Belldandy had come to live with Keiichi. Things seemed quiet and content on Earth, but on the Moon a mysterious entity had been set free by a fairy spirit. The two devised a plan to change the universe, but first they need to reach Belldandy. Indeed the plot thickens once it's revealed that the entity set free from the moon was none other than Belldandy's former mentor in heaven. Which made it even more puzzling once he blocked all of her memories from on Earth (and of Keiichi). What could her former teacher possibly have in store for the Earth. And what will happen to Keiichi and Belldandy now that she can't even remember him?

Thoughts: >

The story isn't exactly revolutionary. Rather tame in terms of plot twists, and very strait forward - but in the end it's probably similar to a regular storyline in the manga. Celestin is one of those "obsessed with some twisted ideal" sort of villains that I find rather unrealistic. Perhaps not so much unrealistic, but over done may be a more appropriate term since these sort of villains are so prevalent in anime. Morrigan is cool. I liked her character, although her role was so minor that it's like she was practically an afterthought.

Animation wise the film was pretty decent too. Having seen magazine articles showing pictures of the production sort of filled me with dread. I'm very skeptical about any computer generated anime. Although this film was no exception, i was actually quite surprised that the character designs were well done, and on par with Fujishima's work in comic book form. Now with all the delays in the release of this title, I figured there would be awe inspiring animation sequences. Well that didn't happen. And at one point where Urd starts conjuring lightning I thought things were going to be good... it sort of fell flat. I mean I'm thinking this is going to be Final Fantasy level of super attack, and it ends up being some small strands of lightning coming down - and unimpressive lighting at that. So overall: well animated - yes; with exceptional animation - no.

And the music. I saw the DVD. Whoever decided to put "that" music on the DVD menu needs to be put to death painfully. It's the sort of music like one of those 50's high school hygiene films (such as "The Joys of Bushing Your Teeth"). If you don't know what I mean, I can't explain it better than that. Aside from that I was quite taken by surprise to find one of the strengths of the AMG movie was in fact the singing. During the climax of the plot there is in fact a chorus of the goddesses that is quite beautiful. Even Pioneer was smart enough not to dub over that one.

And then there were voices. In my compulsive nit picking I must say that I thought Belldandy should have had a softer voice. *shrug* but that's just me. Overall the Japanese voice cast was rather good. Dubbing wise I can't quite say the same. It didn't approach the top quality that AnimEigo did on the OAV, but was still above average. I'm biased against dubbing so I'll leave it at that

Little odds and ends were sort of a treat for hardcore AMG fans like me, although I have to wonder what someone completely unfamiliar with the AMG universe would think of this film. Although most of it is pretty strait forward, I'm sure some people were wondering what the significance of cutting down a giant tree was... Other interesting side notes were also speckled here and there. After a bit of action, Belldandy goes to sleep, and Urd shows up with some sake and gives Skuld some ice cream. The other interesting thing I noticed was Belldandy taking off her right earring before trying to fend off Celestin - and I'm sure most people don't know the significance of that...

Overall the AMG film was pretty good, and I would say worth buying. Worth buying at $27? eh.. that's sort of debatable. Well it's nice to see dub anime lovers getting screwed like the rest of us for a change =P

Screen Caps: >