About Open Your Mind
Aa! Megami-sama began its life in a spinoff comic of You're Under Arrest! by the creator Kosuke Fujishima. The characters in YUA! recieved the help and aide of a goddess, and it recieved such a response that Mr. Fujishima created the series Aa! Megami-sama in 1988. Since then, it has been translated and adapted into many languages the world over, and has gained an immense fan base in the vast amount of time it has been running.
While it could be considered the mother of all harem-based stories, this series can't necessarily be considered one itself. Such other series that follow similar formulas are Tenchi Muyo!, Onegai Teacher, Wish, and many others.
The story is simple enough. College-attending Keiichi Morisato dials a wrong number, and ends up with a goddess in his room! The goddess, named Belldandy, offers him one wish. He takes it as a joke, and wishes for a goddess like her to stay with him always, and thus begins the long story of the romance between a boy and a girl, as well as the meddlers who come between.
In a few years after its run, it has been created into a five-episode Original Video Animation (OVA). This OVA was a condensed version of major events, with the last two episodes molding various elements from the manga to create it's own suspenseful climax and ending. It was also at this time that they created an English title to accompany the Japanese logo, and thus the title Ah! My Goddess came into being.
Later in the latter half of the nineties, the first television series was created based off of the mini comic strips created by Mr. Fujishima, called the Adventures of the Mini Goddesses. This wasn't a true television series and more of a spinoff, and left fans clamoring for more.
Eventually, a movie was announced. It finally came out in the year 2000, and was quickly distributed to areas around the world. It was originally planned to create an actual anime television series right after the movie, but the director, Mr. Hiroaki Gohda, wished to take some time to mature and became the art director for Onegai Teacher.
Finally, in Spring 2004, they finally announced a TV anime to be produced. The character designs resembled the latest artwork trends in the manga, and while it was originally rumored to be en extension of the OVA, it was to begin at the very beginning to retell what hasn't been retold in any of the anime incarnations: Keiichi and Belldandy's blossoming relationship, bond, trust, and love. Over many months after the run of the first season completed itself, a second season was announced to begin running in late summer of 2006.
However, as with any manga-to-anime conversion, there are bound to be more than a few changes. That is why I have begun this site archiving my own observances of the similarities and differences in the conversion process, as well as my own opinions.
Thus, I present to you my site on Ah! My Goddess.