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Odds are if I were to bring up the whole topic of four panel manga, the first thing that should come to your mind is the series “Azumanga Daioh”. One of the best known examples of the standard American newspaper comic strip use of four panel skits, it is not the only one that has used this format, though it is to date the first that I know of that used it as greatly as Azumanga Daioh did (which probably disappointed fans when his next work, Yotsubato, didn’t follow the same 4 panel suit as Azumanga Daioh).

But like I said, other series have also used the four panel format to a lesser degree than Daioh. Let’s see, there’s Di Gi Charat, Record of Lodoss War, Gundam (in the SD Gundam skits), Oh My Goddess… what? You didn’t know—oh, wait, you did. My bad.

Yes, even Oh My Goddess (Ah My Goddess to all you purists out there) got into the act with “Adventures of the Mini Goddesses ” in this thin thin thin volume… NOOOOooo!! Kosuke Fujishima why so little content?!? Can’t you do more!!

But don’t worry, the thinness of this volume is only the beginning of the confusion!
Why? Because despite the fact that it’s entitled “Adventures of the Mini Goddesses” and features all three Goddesses on the cover (in mini form), maybe the proper title for this should have been “Oh My Goddess : Adventures of Mini-Urd” instead.

Why? Because despite the promise of “Goddesses” the most prominent (and thus the one you’ll see for the entirety of the book) is Urd. Sure, her personality makes her the obvious choice (as she is most likely to get into the most mischief) but still, for a book with three Goddesses on the cover we find that Skuld is reduced to “sidekick” slash secondary character status (appearing in about half of the book’s content more or less) while star Belldandy is reduced to a guest appearance in a skit about the trio forming a micro rock band amongst themselves and secondary character Gan… who’s Gan? Gan’s a rat.

Yes. “Mini” is litteral here as you find out that, unlike other series where the whole world is SD-ified, this series is set in the regular OMG universe… with pink sized Goddesses.

Well, since we’re talking about Goddesses here it’s not a stretch for them to, say, alter their sizes. Hence we find the trio (well, mostly Urd) is mini form which leads to lots of zany antics (and lots of solid humor and skits). Thing is, however, most of the skits all revolve mainly about Urd and the trouble she can get into. Sure, at times Skuld does drop in here or there (to challenge Urd to baseball slash volleyball for instance) but for the most part it’s all Urd all the time. This, of course, is great if you’re an Urd fan… but if you’re a fan of Skuld or (even worst) Belldandy you’ll find less reason to pick this up than you probably would have hoped for.

Mini Goddesses, at least in this case, is a book just for the die-hard Urd fan.
If you are not an Urd fan odds are this may not be the book for you, though I guess if you are a serious major Skuld fan you should enjoy her so-so appearances here. There isn’t enough Belldandy in this book to warrant her fan base getting this, though, just so you know. Otherwise it’s another grand read from Kosuke Fujishima and another perfect score on my record of perfect scores I’ve given to Fujishima over the many many months I’ve been reviewing his work. So despite the fact it promises three Goddesses but turned out to be a one Goddess show it’s still recommended to the fan base of the series (even the die hard fans of Skuld and Belldandy). Mini Goddesses earns it’s rep for being perfect with it’s 5 happy go lucky mini form scores out of 5. Enjoy.

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