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Title: Adventures of Mini-Goddess vol 4 - The Skuld Files
UK Distributor:
MVM (DVD Only)
BBFC Certificate: PG
Suggested Retail Price (SRP): £19.99
Episodes: 37-48 (of 48)
Audio Options: English 2.0, Japanese 2.0
Subtitles: English
Reviewer: Rich (Webmaster)
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2005 has now ended and a number of anime
series follow suit. Following the disruption caused by the devastating
fire at the DVD manufacturer used by many of the UK’s anime companies a number
of titles ended a lot later than planned, and Adventures of Mini-Goddess
is one of them.
The cutesy spin-off from the romantic comedy Oh! My Goddess was a
wonderfully cheerful alternative to many of the darker shows on MVM’s
schedules last year, providing enough comedy and brightness for children to
enjoy but also enough clever parodies and surrealism to appeal to adults too.
This volume is no exception, although it doesn’t quite hit the heights achieved
by the last instalment.
Once again the focus shifts onto Gan the rat, the comedy stooge of the miniature
goddesses Belldandy, Urd and Skuld, and his divine companions’ attempt to
improve his love life and wellbeing. Obviously most of these attempts are
doomed to failure and ends up with Gan injured or inconvenienced in some
unfortunate (but amusing) way! As mentioned these kinds of slapstick
shenanigans will really appeal to children, but adults will get more from the
surrealism and parody – something there is a lot of once more. The only
problem is that some of the parodies are very Japanese. Few in the UK will
get the parodies of anime series like Galaxy Express 999 or Space
Cruiser Yamato, whilst parodies of series available in the UK – such as
Love Hina – are perhaps a bit too subtle for many to pick up on.
Veteran anime fans will spot most of these instantly, but unlike the previous
volumes there are fewer film parodies and this does detract from it a bit.
As always the ten-minute episodes themselves can be a bit of a mixed bag, but
most are very good and there are some classics here. The highlight for me
was the truly bizarre ‘Game of Life’ episode, where the characters took part in
a version of the board game where all of the events came true, and the gleefully
dark twist in the final episode of the series – you didn’t think Gan could
survive all of those deadly experiences did you..? A couple of
episodes – such as the political drama one – are a bit weak, and it is a shame
to see sorceress Marla reduced to a bit part character after the life she
breathed into the series, but overall there is plenty of fun to be had on this
disc.
Adventures of Mini-Goddess won’t win awards for deep intellectual story
but it has been great, non-taxing fun from start to finish. Kids will love
it, and there is a surprising amount of reference-spotting enjoyment to be had
for adults too. There isn’t really anything else like this series
available in the UK and if you hanker for sweet, light-hearted comedy then it is
most definitely worth a look.
Extras
On the surface there appears to be a lot of
extras, but to be honest they are pretty lightweight. A short character
profile and image gallery for youngest goddess Skuld sits next to the usual
clean ending sequence and trailers.
Ratings
Feature:
Extras:
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