Oh My Goddess! First End is a novel written by Yumi Toma, the voice actor for Urd. The novel features a cover illustration by creator Kosuke Fujishima and several interior illustrations by series animation director/character designer Hidenori Matsubara. It was first published by Kondansha in Japan in 2006[1] and licensed by Dark Horse Books, a division of Dark Horse Comics, for a North American release the following year[2].
While First End is an officially endorsed work by Fujishima, it is a seperate story from the manga and not considered part of the same continuity. It was preceded by Ah My Goddess! Side Story: Dreaming Wings, also written by Toma, as a side story to First End featuring a new Goddess named Freya.
Back Cover Description
Keiichi Morisato was a typical college student: a failure with women, struggling to get through his classes, and in general living a pretty nondescript life. That is, until he dialed the wrong number and accidentally summoned the Norse goddess Belldandy. Not believing she was a goddess, Keiichi wished for Belldandy to stay with him forever. As they say: careful what you wish for! Now bound to Earth and at Keiichi's side for life, the lives of this most un-normal goddess and most lucky human will never be the same again.
And international sensation for almost two decades, Oh My Goddess! has conquered the worlds of comics, television and motion pictures, and is now brought to life in an all-new novel, written by Yumi Tohma, the voice of the Goddess Urd in the worldwide bestselling Oh My Goddess! anime! Join Keiichi, Belldandy, Urd, Skuld, and the rest of the goddesses on an adventure that will take you to the end of the universe and back again!
With an all-new cover by Oh My Goddess! Creator Kosuke Fujishima and fifteen pages of illustrations by series animation Hidenori Matsubara.
Contents
First End's story begins with a prologue followed by four large chapters, each divided into smaller sections within for a total of eleven sections. This is followed up by a brief "ending" chapter. In-between the book's full title and table of contents page is a two-page "Our Characters" section introducing Keiichi, Belldandy, Urd, Skuld, Peorth, and Tamiya and Otaki. At the end of the book are two brief afterwords by Toma and Fujishima respectively, and finally, a short "About The Creators" section introducing Toma, Fujishima, and Matsubara.
The book's back cover description claims there are "fifteen" pages of illustrations by Matsubara, when in reality there are only thirteen when excluding the "Our Characters" pages because those illustrations are more akin to those found in the manga itself and don't resemble Matsubara's art style.
Summary
Prologue
Having been working on his BMW motorcycle on the Tarikihongan Temple grounds for a few hours, Keiichi suddenly makes a mistake and leaves his running engine to go quiet. He gets up and tiredly heads for the main house, taking a rest at the building's entryway. There, he runs into Skuld with a shopping basket in her hand, as she is about to head out and purchase the latest issue of the manga magazine Dobon. Keiichi has something clenched in his right hand that he doesn't want Skuld to see and tries to retreat, but his attempt to hide it is far too obvious. Skuld attempts to use a "Reveal Hidden Object" spell three times, but fails and gets angry about it, and then accuses Keiichi of blowing her off because he still treats her like a kid.
Skuld starts yelling for Belldandy when Keiichi reluctantly decides to show her what's in his hand. To Skuld's disappointment, the hidden item turns out to be an ordinary Phillips screwdriver. Keiichi explains that he kept it hidden because this tool meant something important to him, and that he'd just broken it slightly while working—even the slightest chip can significantly hamper its performance. Skuld offers to buy him a new screwdriver while she's out shopping, but Keiichi refuses the gesture, reminding her of the time he explained how scratches are part of a person's history[3], and that the same thing applies to tools—the experiences of using them, both good and bad, make them irreplaceable. Skuld listens, but says that usability is everything for a tool. She heads out to shop, and Keiichi thinks about what she said, telling himself himself he still prefers his old screwdriver.
Chapter One
"Utakata—Ephemera"
One morning, Belldandy makes a scrumptious breakfast for Keiichi at home. She then answers the telephone, and Skuld is on the other line in Heaven. Two days ago, Skuld had recieved a call from Peorth informing her that Yggdrasil had experienced a sudden outbreak of bugs and that she needed her to go there and help her manage it. Now, Skuld wants Belldandy to send Urd—a system administrator who's more qualified than Skuld—to help, though in her typical fashion she maintains that Urd is needed only to "assist" her and that she herself is a genuis. Urd overhears this and immediatley declines Skuld's request. Belldandy puts down the phone to prepare Keiichi's packed lunch, and she is unaware that a bug quietly slipped into the mortal realm through the telephone.
Megumi arrives at the Temple, having pushed her Kawasaki KSR motorcycle up the hill, and calls out for Keiichi. When he greets her, she explains that one of her tires is blown, and that she didn't want to risk popping it by riding it to Nekomi Tech today. She had hoped that Keiichi also needed to attend Nekomi Tech today and could ride with him, but he doesn't—Keiichi, who was supposed to graduate the previous school year but didn't because he was missing one language credit, was forced to spend another senior year at college doing only one course—and he instead must head to his part-time job at Whirlwind, where he was hired by Chihiro Fujimi. Megumi tells him that she needs to make it to her aerodynamics class, and Keiichi, remembering how fun that course was, decides to help get Megumi there and then drive himself to work, but they must leave right now. With Belldandy's help, Keiichi quickly gets dressed, and he and Megumi depart using Keiich's BMW motorcycle. While on the mountain road, they suddenly come across a swarm of bugs. Keiichi swerves to dodge the bugs, and they nearly gets hit by an oncoming truck, but then....
The phone rings again and Urd answers, expecting Skuld but it is actually Peorth, who tells her to immediately create a maximum-level barrier shield around the temple, as she is about to evacuate people from Heaven down to Earth. Urd runs outside and helps Belldandy, who sensed the coming gate opening, establish the barrier shield. Countless gods and goddesses enter Earth, including Skuld and Peorth. The four goddesses go inside, where Skuld and Peorth explain that their bug problem suddenly got far worse, and Yggdrasil had gone completely out of the control, forcing Peorth to order an evacuation.
If Yggdrasil isn't brought back under control, it risks destroying Heaven, which in turn would be a disaster for both the the demon world of Hell as well as Earth. The telephone then rings once again, and Belldandy gets up to answer it, thinking that it's Keiichi calling to confirm that he managed to get to work on time. Suddenly, Belldandy collapses on the floor and is quickly found by the other three goddesses. She tries telling them something about Keiichi, but she abruptly goes limp as a marionette doll.
"Tasogare—Twilight"
"Kizashi—Omens"
Chapter Two
"Harubi—Spring Day"
"Banryoku—Verdant Horizons"
"Kyouen—Banquet"
Chapter Three
"Tsukihana—Moonflower"
"Kazabana—Windflower"
Chapter Four
"Kamitoki—Thunderbolt"
Mizukagami—Water Mirror"
"Hakumei—Dusk"
Ending
Gallery
References
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20090709023431/http://shop.kodansha.jp/bc2_bc/search_view.jsp?b=3470032
- ↑ https://www.darkhorse.com/Books/14-704/Oh-My-Goddess-First-End-Novel
- ↑ Chapter 74: "Scratches are history, Skuld. You know... like a diary, almost. Good times, bad times, all etched into your bike. They're like medals of honor. For Sentaro, some of them must have been really important memories."