Episode 09:
Aa! Joou-sama to Megami no Himitsu!
Ah! The Secret of the Queen and the Goddess!
Manga Chapters: 015, 021
External Links:
Gateway to the Goddesses [015]
Gateway to the Goddesses [021]
TBS (Japanese)
Wikipedia
Token Asian's Anime Blog

Sadly enough, this episode has taken popular manga stories and twisted them around, in my opinion. The Queen of the Campus Beauty Pageant was a lot better in the manga, in my opinion, and deserved an entire episode. Instead, only a fourth of the episode was dedicated to the Campus Queen event, and it was drastically reduced and diminished. In fact, the only thing they kept from the manga was Urd pulling down Sayoko's swimsuit.

The mentionings of the characters being specific years is off from the manga, I know that for sure. In the manga, Keiichi is presumed to be ending his first year when he firsts meets Belldandy, and Urd appears almost a year later, so the contest would take place about the second year in the manga.

Urd's weakness to Enka (Austrian Polkas in the DH releases) is revealed in this episode, although in the manga it originally appears when Mara takes advantage of it later on. Also, Sayoko's exposure to Keiichi and Belldandy's kindness to her when she's drunk was moved up a bit, when it originally occurred (complete with note and hangover cure) in the Queen of Vengeance story, which occurred a little after the Lord of Terror story.

The "ooh" and "aah"-ing of Belldandy and Urd from the Nekomi students was taken from the manga too, chapter 21. This is the same chapter that the episode is the basis of. That's how the manga chapters originally began, so the drinking at the party prior to this scene is original to the anime.

Originally, it was Aoshima that was wondering what Belldandy exactly was, and Sayoko that came to him offering to help him. However, in the anime, it's the other way around.

Originally, it was just two incidents with the video camera, and they were different than what was put into the anime. Also, Urd seems to know what's going on a little earlier in the anime than in the manga. In the manga, the the first incident was where Urd finds them out, and steals their video cassette. The second was when they went to Tarikihongan and caught Belldandy taking a bath, and she splashed water on them, ruining their recorder. That's when they decided to take Keiichi hostage.

Urd's conversation with Keiichi concerning Belldandy's weakness is new to the anime. As such, the battle between Urd and Aoshima is new to the anime as well. The conversation between Aoshima and Belldandy before she goes running off is new to the anime as well, although it seems rather reminiscent of the feelings that Sayoko has for Keiichi a little later on in the series.

Sayoko's conversation with Keiichi is new to the anime. Also, her methods of torture were quite different as well... originally, it was the members of the Sadism and Mashochism Club (yay, they made it into the anime!!!!111oneone!!11eleven!) who were torturing him. I'm glad that Urd's expertise with whips was put into the episode also!

Belldandy obviously stole the "going through the glass" gimmick from the movie, Stargate.

All similarities end there. The manga originally ended Sayoko and Aoshima taking a video of Belldandy going through the mirrors, and rushing off to see the video and analyze it. Belldandy catches up to them, and they ask her one last time what she is. She responds that she's a goddess, and they don't believe her. Urd appears and tells Belldandy that she edited the tape, and Sayoko and Aoshima don't know what's going on.

Belldandy originally didn't change into a goddess before Sayoko until the Anki story in the manga.

Overall? This episode's beginning deserved it's very own episode. The rest of it was pretty good. Looks like a racing episode next, and right after that Marller appears!