Ah My Goddess

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Oh My Goddess! (ああっ女神さまっ, Aa! Megami-sama!), also known as Ah! My Goddess, is a seinen manga series by Kosuke Fujishima currently serialised in Kodansha's monthly Afternoon magazine. Originally a fairly typical magical girlfriend romantic comedy, it has grown to feature more action over time, and of recent years has put a greater focus on developing the mystical aspects of the world in which it is set. Since the manga was first published, there have been four anime offshoots.

"Ah" versus "Oh"

The original Japanese title is "Aa! Megami-sama!". The question of how best to translate this phrase has led to a great deal of debate and flamewars amongst English-speaking anime fans during the early 1990s. The US-anime import company AnimEigo obtained the OVA rights and entitled them: "Oh My Goddess!". Many felt the title should be "Ah! My Goddess".

References to "Oh my god" and "Oh my goddess" in a number of songs (such as Hottokenai No Sa, Megami-sama tto Oyoubi) only fueled further debate.

Series creator Fujishima was ultimately consulted, and while his initial reaction was to agree with the "Ah" camp, once the English phrase "Oh my God" was explained to him, he decided that "Oh" would be closer to what he was trying to convey. However, when a Japanese fan later pointed out to Fujishima that the Japanese merchandise uses "Ah", Fujishima said that it would be better to keep things consistent.

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