A down in his luck university student accidentally signs a contract with Belldandy, an all-powerful, all loving and absolutely gorgeous goddess, to be his partner for life. Surely this is a trashy, shallow wishful fulfillment fantasy? You would be dead wrong.

While not the most profound, this is a modest slice of life kind of show that explores many aspects of life important and relevant to all of us. It is fun, optimistic and full of heart, with the only notable weakness being filler episodes where it's just a villain of the week being defeated. There is also a quirky emphasis on motorsports and technology, whenever something like a motorcycle shows up, it is drawn and described with attention to realism, which I think helps the show feel grounded despite the cast of supernatural characters.

The staff really know their engines.

Belldandy was working charity when it was her job that day to help out Keiichi as he's been down in luck, by granting him a wish. At first she sticks with Keiichi both because it was her job, but also because she's literally all-loving, with just the nicest personality imaginable so of course she will help Keiichi out from his recent unlucky streak. Over the course of the series she will gradually fall in love with Keiichi, a feeling new to her as she is relatively young for a goddess.

"I'm here to grant one of any wish you desire"

When Keiichi was asked what one wish he would like to be granted, was taken by Belldandy's beauty and accidentally utters he wants her to "be with him forever", not thinking that would be a valid wish to grant. He immediately starts feeling guilty that he's got this goddess here kind of stuck with him, but he will also fall in love with Belldandy and gain the confidence that he is capable of making her happy.

The show immediately makes it clear that while Belldandy is basically all-powerful and Keiichi can tell her to do a lot of things, they are incredibly modest people, and the show is not about these powers, because real people cannot use goddess powers to solve their problems. Belldandy absolutely can make Keiichi super rich, but that's never come up even as a consideration in the entire series. Usually when powers are used, it's to counter some kind of melodramatic threat like Keiichi falling off of a building, or being kidnapped by super rich playboy. This kind of modesty feels rare today with the only comparison I can think of being Freiren. It also has that emphasis of constant small self-improvement, but never to show off or compete with others kind of vibe, which I really love. Oh and there's also Apothecary Diaries I guess.

The goddess can do anything, even kart racing.

Most of the show and the best parts of it will be centered around the main couple's romance, and also various struggles of the side characters. For example Keiichi's school club need to participate in a women's cart race event, but their only female member Sora is not really race driver material. Belldandy can actually drive because she's kind of competent in everything but it would be boring if she just went to race instead, because she's a goddess. Instead, Belldandy along with the rest of the cast work together to build up Sora's skill and confidence to race. The episode ends before the race starts, because we know the actual race doesn't matter. This is the kind of tasteful story telling I enjoy the most. Unfortunately it also has a few too many filler episodes where one of two inconsequential villains just show up to try to do some minor evil deeds only to be quickly defeated.

Urd in kid form + Belldandy in chibi form, aren't they just adorable!?

Two other goddesses you see on the post show up for the second half of the show, they are welcome but I think season 2 is where they will shine the brightest. For now they are primarily here for comedy, the younger sister Skuld is here to make sure Keiichi doesn't get too close with Belldandy because she's jealous of her sister's love, while the older sister Urd is here to push the couple closer together because she knows this is good for Belldandy. Skuld has yet to develop her goddess powers but she has super ingenuity, she can actually build a time machine if she wanted to. Urd on the other hand is a master of magical potions, making their light hearted battles over the couple quite entertaining.

A book of secret techniques to make your woman happy. The show has a consistently above average level of animation quality. All 3 goddesses are somewhat complex for TV animation design, with detailed hair styles and additional features on their faces. The story gets dragged down by ~almost 10 filler episodes, basically any episode where it comes down to a Shounen style fight rather than character development. Except the one where Skuld builds a robot to fight for them, don't skip that one. Bonus point for Belldandy simply existing. Belldandy's Ultra Instinct from can easily destroy planets, but totally irrelevant to the story.

Spoilers, season 2 mostly resolves the filler problem and thus I think is a solid step above, you definitely want to keep watching.

regarding watch order

/anime/49
5 episodes OVA from 1994
/anime/50/tv
24 episodes TV series covered in this review
These two series are two alternative versions of a similar story, you do not need to watch both

/anime/1003
2 extra OVA episodes for season 1

/anime/880/
Season 2
/anime/2198
2 extra OVA episodes for season 2
/anime/3090/
2 more OVA episodes directly following season 2
/anime/9611
3 more OVA episodes

/anime/304/
Movie from 2000, basically end of the series.