Bart:	Well, it's once again time for Jae and I to take pen in hand (or, uh, keyboard in, um, fingers?) and write an article on the Aa! Megami-sama showing.
Jae:	Also known as Oh My Goddess! to all of you out there who don't happen to read Japanese. Now before we start, I need to say just one thing: Bart, please tell me that you didn't invite another "guest" this week.
Bart:	Er, *ahem*. *speaking offstage* Ataru, I'm sorry, but we won't be needing you. Maybe some other time.
Jae:	*groans* Getting back to the topic, you were saying?
Bart:	If you'll allow me to play devil's advocate for the moment, I think I should point out that, in my opinion, this is arguably the worst episode of the series.
Jae:	Any reason why you would say that? Personally, I thought it was pretty cool -- and that's not just 'cause of the T&A you pointed out three weeks ago.
Bart:	Well to be honest, it kind of strikes me as filler. About the only important event is Skuld's arrival... the rest of it is kinda weak in the plot department. And don't get me wrong. Overall, Oh My Goddess! is an excellent series, and this episode is quite good... but it just doesn't measure up to the rest of them.
Jae:	Ah, but you forget that AMG is just an OVA series. I'd like to compare it to the movie, Maison Ikkoku: Through the Passing Seasons, that we showed last spring.
Bart:	Never seen it, so you'll have to fill me in.
Jae:	No problem. MI: Through the Passing Seasons is a movie that manages to summarize the whole TV series in just two hours, which is a rather... remarkable... feat. Now when they made the AMG OVAs and the MI movie, they often tried to portray a lot of what goes on in the manga and the TV series in just a short amount of time, and so many reoccurring plots were shortened or simply cut. Case in point: despite his almost negligible role in the OVA, the character Aoshima Toshiyuki is actually a semi-major one in the manga and repeatedly tries to split Keiichi and Belldandy apart.
Bart:	Still... a lot of us don't have the manga, and we sort of have to go by what we see. Counterpoint: the first KOR I saw was the final movie, Summer's Beginning (or something like that). I didn't know about the plot beforehand, and they summarized it enough that I was able to understand what was going on in the movie without any problems... and the summary didn't come across as filler. On the whole, it was quite an excellent movie, and a level above the third AMG video. So there.
Jae:	But then again, the KOR movies were intended more to close the series than to introduce it. Like the Patlabor movies. Honestly, they don't make nearly as much sense when you see them before the series itself. Oh certainly, they're still damn good movies, but I don't think that they were made for first-time Patlabor viewers.
Bart:	Well, all that aside... on to the actual episode. As mentioned earlier, the third OVA marks the appearance of Skuld, possibly the most kawaii anime character of all time.
Jae:	...and quite possibly my favorite character from the series. What can I say? Skuld rocks!
Bart:	Well, I wouldn't go quite so far as to call her my favorite. Belldandy still holds a special place in my heart, and all the kawaii-ness in the world couldn't change that.
Jae:	It's not just the kawaii-ness that makes me like her so much, it's more the amazing accuracy of what she says and does that makes me have to smile.
Bart:	How so?
Jae:	Lemme just ask you one thing: do you have any siblings?
Bart:	Yup. One younger sister... and I'd be lying if I didn't say there was a resemblance.
Jae:	*grins* See what I mean? As for me, I've only got an older sister, and speaking from experience, Skuld does a very believable performance of the younger sibling having to face the fact that someone else has taken an important place in her older sister's heart.
Bart:	Yeah, I guess I can see that.
Jae:	Before we go any further, I guess we should mention the OVA's name at the very least. Tonight's episode is entitled Burning Hearts on the Road, and besides being the first appearance of Skuld and Aoshima Toshiyuki, it's also the last of the three "introductory" OVAs in the series.
Bart:	And let me say, once you hit episode four, things start to get pretty intense.
Jae:	Whoa yeah. You could say that again.

Next week: We don't want to ruin too much of the next episode, but sometimes they couldn't be more right when they say that some things are too good to last.

Bart:	And let me say, once you hit episode four, things start to get pretty intense.
Jae:	You can stop now.
Bart:	And let me say, once you ... oh.
Jae:	Wow, have we hit the end already? Well, I guess that's that for this week. Say goodbye, Bart.
Bart:	Later.