Anime: Megami Kouhosei

Candidate for Goddess a graphicaly, auditorily pleasing anime. However, the story left something to be desired.

Animation (9): The CGI work, the space scenes, were pretty well done and compare with other series, such as Vandread. The characters and backgrounds otherwise were typical post 2000, what I like to call, 'computer enhanced' animation with vibrant color.

Sound (9): Again, great work was put into both the voice acting (english at least) and the BGM. The OP/ED music I couldn't comment on, as I fast forwarded through them.

Story (5): Here comes a matter of taste. The story felt like someone had a concept, but never finished it. As the title might suggest, the main characters were mostly students, and the story felt like it was a year of their training taken out of a much larger story. I kept wondering how it was going to end, as the episodes clicked by. It did, abruptly, and in my opinion without realy finishing a complete story.

Character Developement (7): The developement among the characters was diverse for each, something I appreciate. However, as with the story overall, the developement seemed stunted.

Enjoyment (5): I realy felt like Candidate for Goddess had potential through the first few episodes, and wanting the give them the benefit of the doubt I finished the complete series. By the end, I was disappointed. Perhaps, if they ever make a second season, I will look back at the series as a part of something bigger, and hopefully better.

Parting Thoughts: If you like space mech animes I would suggest Vandread over Candidate for Goddess. The show was just too much of a glimpse at what appeared to have so much potential to be something more.

The animation was little disappointing, it could have been a lot better for year 2000. Especially the mechas were drawn badly, looking like dolls that somehow were made to move. Characters were drawn much better and were nice to watch.

First of all, the opening song... what song? It was just music. I didn't really like it, and the opening animation was misleading and spoiling the series. If they'd added singing in the opening, then it could've been a little better. Ending song was really good, I really loved it. It gave you a good feeling of hope, which was quite a much one of the themes in the anime. Voice actors did a great job here, all of them fit for their character. It was really enjoyable to listen them talking.

The story is a tricky one. Now that the anime was only this short, it was left without an end. They made the story a little too fast-paced because of the lack of episodes. Otherwise it was quite good and well done. It gives you more hints and opens the characters pasts, making it really interesting, but they don't close any loose ends in the anime.

The characters are different from each other, and interesting persons. There're no great developments in the series, some characters changes a little but that's it.

One should watch it again after seeing the OAV, since it gives some more info of the Goddess' pilots. And there're few points in the series which you won't understand unless you know the Goddess' pilots past.

The series itself is short and quite fast-paced sci-fi/mecha. I liked it quite much, it was a great beginning to a greater storyline, but it ended before it even started. I really enjoyed the series, it gave lots of mysteries and was interesting all the time. After seeing the anime, it makes you want to read the manga.

Megami Kouhosei is an anime that could have been a big hit, as every episode I watched got more and more interesting and then suddenly...it ended, just like that in the middle of a good story. It almost seems as this series is meant to be as an introduction to something far greater but the only sequel so far has been Megami Kouhosei OVA which is just a recap with a few new scenes but still without a proper ending.

Animation in general is wonderful, the drawing style of the characters is exactly according to my taste - colorful and spiky(the hair of course ^_^). So why give it a 7? Because of the CG, which in my opinion is just awful(considering that it was made in the year 2000). The five "main" mechas are the worst, they look just like statues and move accordingly, unsmoothly that is. The "lesser" mechas look better but the movements are still stiff. Honestly, if they had just drawn the mechas without using CG then the mecha-action part would have been much better.

The second thing I hated was the opening song. They used a symphonic orchestra -_- and on top of that it was purely instrumental without any vocal accompaniment. BG was nothing to complain about and the ending song...I must say that it was quite emotional, not the "love-you-eternally" type emotional but the "your-dreams-can-come-true" type...at least that's how I saw it, in short, it was really good :)

The story had potential, the characters are perfect in my eyes. Sadly potential is all this anime had. They just maliciously cut off the story when it was about to "really" start.
The main character didn't even had a chance to fulfil his dream which actually was the point of the whole story.
The plot itself was the regular training-in-the-Earth(Zion here but there's really no difference)-defence-military-group-that-fights-against-space-monsters, in other words nothing new, but still very enjoyable and at some parts funny.

You will find this anime even more enjoyable if you like seeing pretty boys wearing tiny shorts in physical training ^_^;;
No don't be scared now, there are plenty of cute girls there also but still...the boys are often shown in some very "embarrassing" positions like on top of each other..scary indeed. But still you don't see any love between them(thank god!) but you can see love between boys and girls.
There is also that extra something that adds a little mystery to the story and that is the past of the characters. A lot of childhood memories(I wouldn't actually say "childhood" since the characters havn't physically changed there but I don't know what other word to use ^_^) and dreams which sadly remain unexplained cause of the sudden ending. Now I already know that some of you might come asking "What's up with her ears? o_O"...well..the only thing I say is pay attention and you'll see a little clue about why she has these ears, it's a really small clue though and not really explained.

In spite of the ending I liked Megami Kouhosei and I'm sure most of you will also. It's the mainstream type anime that just copies something that has already proven to be successful and therefore it's likeable but still not loveable, at least not until they continue with the story.