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Title: Because I'm The Goddess
UK Distributor: Tokyopop
Author: Shamneko
Suggested Retail Price (SRP): £6.99
Number of Pages: 176
ISBN: 9781598164886
Reviewed: 7th January 2007
Reviewer: Tom (Webmaster)
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Its the old old tale.
Beautiful young goddess falls to Earth to help humans. Goddess is a ditzy
girl naive to the ways of human society. Goddess meets teenage boy.
Goddess falls for said boy and the lives to serve him. Boy is embarrassed
by situation but likes the affection shown for him. Hilarity ensues
(supposedly).
So Because I'm A Goddess is pretty clichéd, but there must be something
about it that sets it above the others? Well....kind of. The
'unique' feature is that the goddess of the title - Pandora - is normally a big
buxom Jenna Jameson type with clothing that leaves very little to the
imagination. Pandora draws her awesome goddess power from her, erm,
weapons of mass destruction so when her power depletes her body becomes that of
a young teenage girl. She can only turn back into her original adult form
by kissing Aoi - the protagonist of the story. Aoi is a very moody guy who
often resorts to violence to solve his problems and badly needs a girlfriend to
calm him down and help him over his social problems. Because of this Aoi
hates the attention which the adult Pandora draws and further to this hates
anyone who actively seeks attention, i.e.. the opposite of him. Aoi
therefore prefers Pandora in her younger form as she attracts much less
attention and loses her power to inadvertently destroy a city, until she kisses
Aoi again that is.
And it is Pandora's transformation into a younger girl that lets down this
manga. The thing Aoi prefers her in this form not just because she causes
less hassle but also because he fancies her more in her younger under-16 form.
A later character in the story includes an underage lesbian which just makes the
creepiness factor a little too high. The
lolicon stylings on many
of the characters is a bit too disturbing, particularly when the recommended age
for Because I'm The Goddess is 16+.
There is some entertainment to be had when Pandora and Aoi must retrieve the
gifts - cute winged creatures which enter women and manipulate their emotions in
order to have men serve them. Pandora defeats the creatures by turning Aoi
into a random object (different every time), thus using the object to rid the
woman of the gift. Pandora does this easily every time - we are talking
half a page - so the confrontation is devoid of any action.
In Japan this manga was no doubt aimed at
the young teen market but over here it is difficult to know who is going to buy
it due to the age restriction. It is far too immature for anyone over the
age of 15, the lack of action makes it unexciting and the lolicon overtones just
make the romance to disturbing. The repetitiveness of the story (defeat
gift, defeat another, etc.) hardly makes for exciting reading either. Some
younger readers may find it enjoyable but they would be far better off reading
Ah! My Goddess! or any other of the endless 'goddess becomes teenage boy's
guardian' manga out there.
Extras:
A short two-page manga message from the
author which is more entertaining then the main manga and adverts for the
Star Trek & Return To Labyrinth - a manga continuation of the 80's
film Labyrinth.
Ratings
Product: 
Extras:
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