Aa! Megami-sama - Tatakau Tsubasa

• Drama: Med (serious aspects about what it takes to support an angel)
• Comedy: Low (much less than the series but Marller is there)
• Action: Med (demons vs. goddesses battle)
• SciFi: Med/High (high magic being the core of the show)
• Ecchi: None/Low (nothing but the ending scene)

As I become more aware of the sources anime takes its adaptation from, I become less tolerant of changes made, especially when those changes aren't an improvement but degrade characters or stories from something enjoyable to something less so. That was a problem I had with the two TV series for Ah! My Goddess, but the 2 OVA episodes included with the Japanese DVD release of Everyone Has Wings made me think that maybe someone finally started getting it. So would they get it for this 2-episode TV special?

Fortunately, the answer is "yes, they got it." These two episodes take the Angel Eater story arc (chapters 155-166) and effectively bring them to life. There is some light trimming though. For example, the manga contains a scene where Lind faces the Angel Eater with her poleax, gets disarmed, and has a witty exchange with Hild. Because there were no setup stories, those who haven't read the manga may be a tad confused on why Lind doesn't take out Hild when she has the chance and vice-versa. But lets face it, this was written for fans of the manga and those fans know this story quite well as it is one of the better ones in the manga. This is how the TV series should have been done -- few changes and follow the manga story.

The only downside to this series is the design of the Angel Eater. Instead of that wicked yet bizarre creature of the manga, we get a simplistic, comical-looking (as well as bizarre) flying turnip (for lack of a better description). I didn't like it at all, but I'm sure it was done to make it easier on the animators. After all, the Angel Eater of the manga is a much more complex kind of creature.

Bottom line: Another winner. Too bad that in order to get winners like this, the powers that be have to skip around the manga and pull stories.