The Adventures of Mini-Goddess:
The Belldandy Files (1998)
Review by Dindrane
Film:
DVD:

Based on the manga by Kosuke Fujishima
Directed by Yasuhiro Matsumura

Features:

• Character profile
  
• Character art gallery
  
• English and Japanese audio
  
• English subtitles
  

Dindrane's Anime Warnings:

• Talking rats
• Childish-looking Urd wearing a sleazy dress

Rating: 13+

Anamorphic: N/A; presented in original TV aspect

My Advice: Rent it.

The Adventures of Mini-Goddess: The Belldandy Files includes twelve short episodes featuring the lively, beautiful goddess characters from the popular teen series Ah! My Goddess. Based upon a manga called Ah! Megami-Sama: Chicchai-Tte Koto Wa Benri Da Ne, the idea here is that the three goddesses who live with Keichi (Urd, Belldandy, and Skuld) shrink themselves to mini size whenever he leaves the house, their purpose being to hang out with their rat friend, Gan-Chan. The episodes on this disk don't seem to feature Belldandy as much as the title might have you think.

The plots of these episodes are rather simple, but enjoyable. In one episode, for example, Urd is left to babysit some rat children, and if you know what a troublemaker Urd is, you'll be horrified at this thought. In another episode, "Ah, my Buddha," Urd has mistakenly decided that Skuld is in love with a Buddha statue, and so she "helpfully" brings him to life... And in a two-episode mini-series, the goddesses decide to start a band. Maybe not deep philosophical treatises, but then they aren't supposed to be. They're colorful, happy, and fun, and that's enough sometimes.

The animation is about TV quality with some touching up. The style is much like that of the original AMG series, but the mini-goddess forms are much cuter and less realistic-looking. The only odd thing is that Urd's very revealing and adult costume has not changed, but her body has. The effect is rather more disturbing and puzzling than pretty, sexy, or even cute. But that's Urd for you...

The sound is good, but again nothing spectacular. The voices chosen to play the goddesses, however, seem very aptly chosen. Their personalities come through quite well, especially Skuld, who manages to sound brilliant and bubble-headed at the same time. There was minimum crackling and spitting, but the intro sequence is so short that it's difficult to truly enjoy the theme music. Not the fault of Pioneer, however.

The extras are rather disappointing. Each disk has a character profile with an accompanying gallery, and that's good, but only one profile is rather thin. The gallery is nice, but nothing spectacular--no concept drawings showing the evolution of the characters and not even particularly interesting portraits of the characters. The menus are nice, but again, nothing special.

The Belldandy Files is terminally cute, but any child who loves Sailor Moon, Cardcaptors, or Yugi-Oh will eat this up. Even teen or adult fans who enjoy the AMG world will probably enjoy this younger version of the series. You'll have much less of Belldandy swooning over Keichi, but you'll still have Urd and Skuld getting her into trouble and waiting for her to get them out. In all, The Adventures of Mini-Goddess: The Belldandy Files is good fun and not to be missed if you have little ones in your house or if you could just use some lightweight fare to supplement your DVD collection.