Oh My Goddess 43

Kosuke Fujishima – Dark Horse – 2013 – 48 volumes

I’m going to catch up on reviewing these (*cough* and hopefully post them *cough*) so that I can read and review the final volume right away.  47 is scheduled for the end of March, but there should be oooooone moooooore after that.  I’ve been reading this series for 14 years, and it will be devastating to give it up, but I am curious about the finale after all this time.  Maybe Belldandy and Keiichi will finally do more than hold hands.  Well, I guess Keiichi does plunge his hand into her cleavage in this volume, but somehow, when it’s Keiichi, that doesn’t really count.

Anyway, this volume is pure nightmare fuel, in a way that Oh My Goddess never is.  The party is split up when a karaoke match puts Urd and Skuld on one team, and Keiichi and Belldandy on the other.  It’s a bit horrifying at first, since the Demoness traps Keiichi and Bell in a room with a device that drains Belldandy, powered by the fact that Urd and Skuld are trying to “destroy” it in the next room.  Bell and Keiichi can’t leave, since allegedly leaving will kill Eihwaz, which Bell wouldn’t do anyway, but Eihwaz also has a Goddess doublet that will die, of course.

There’s a great/weird scene, where Bell puts the key between her breasts so she will be the one that Kills Eihwaz instead of Keiichi (she claims she’ll do it, she’ll do anything to save Keiichi), then she tells Eihwaz that she’s going to decode her curse.  Eihwaz goes on to explain that it took a couple months to make, and Bell shouldn’t lie.  There’s a creepy scene that zooms in on Bell’s eye and her cheerful face, then Eihwaz realizes that Goddesses First Class can’t lie, and Bell isn’t fucking around.

An odd detail:  Eihwaz uses a harisen fan on Mokkurkalfi.  I may not have seen one of those in about 15 years.  That is old-school.

Later, the gang meets Hagal, she easily incapacitates Belldandy and quite literally maims Keiichi.  It’s… very dark.  And this was a fun arc, despite the demon fights.  It’s winding down now, though.  It’s the longest in the series, and honestly, I’m a little sad to see it go.