Written by Kevin Neece
I was recently online today when somebody, once again, was complaining that Ah My Goddess has not had any new material released lately. When I explained to him that Bad Goddess was still working on new material, he stated that because he has never heard of it, because it's not canon, and because it's not official, then it doesn't count and his original complaint was still valid. Well, fuck you very much too, but this stupid logic has been a brick wall that I've been trying to push up a fucking hill for the past FOUR YEARS.
Allow me to explain something to all of you CANON freaks about how REALITY works.
If it exists in Video Media Format, if it has a Voice Track, if you can Stream It to Your Television Set, if you can Download it and Burn It to DVD-R, and if it's listed on Internet Movie Database, then it's REAL. IT IS AN EXISTING PIECE OF VIDEO MEDIA.
There are scripts behind these episodes. These scripts are acted out. They are visualized on screen in animation format. They exist to entertain you. THEY ARE REAL. There are FIFTY different episodes in the Bad Goddess series, some of which are Feature Length Movies and ALL OF THEM are listed on IMDb, and in order to get those listings, you first have to provide video evidence to IMDb that the videos were REAL. I DID THAT.
There are currently FIFTY different animated Batman feature films in existence, all of which take place in different universes. THEY CAN'T ALL BE CANON. Comic Book series have always featured Alternate Spinoff Universes that don't interconnect with the main storyline. But do you deny those movies their existence? There have been so many fucking Batman releases over the years that it's damn near impossible to complain when something doesn't adhere to the original storylines put on paper back in the goddamn 1940s.
There is NO REAL DIFFERENCE between AH MY JOB HUNTING GODDESS, AH MY GODDESS FIRST END, and BAD GODDESS.
All three are Ah My Goddess spinoffs that you can read, or watch, that were NOT MADE BY MANGAKA KOSUKE FUJISHIMA.
AH MY GODDESS FIRST END was dismissed as a work of FAN FICTION by the entire online community that only got a book publication because Yumi Toma was one of the Voice Actresses on the Anime Show and had Inside Connections. If Yumi Toma had not been Urd's Voice Actress, if she had written that book as an unknown actress with no connections to Kosuke Fujishima, and she had approached Kodansha Ltd with that exact same book, everyone who worked on Oh My Goddess would have dismissed her and slammed the doors in her face in the exact same manner that they treated Kevin Neece.
AH MY JOB HUNTING GODDESS is NOT MADE BY KOSUKE FUJISHIMA although it may be based on notes he made for future issues. The only reason that it is considered CANON to the storyline is because KODANSHA AFTERNOON MAGAZINE publishes it. In fact, the only reason it is doing well is because KODANSHA AFTERNOON MAGAZINE already has a BUILT IN AUDIENCE. It's not the MANGA that's making sales. It's the ENTIRE MAGAZINE ITSELF. Those Magazine Sales would EXIST WITH OR WITHOUT Ah My Job Hunting Goddess.
BAD GODDESS was INDEPENDENTLY PRODUCED ON A BUDGET OF ZERO and got the shit end of the stick everywhere it turned. It couldn't be properly advertised on YouTube because it was the equivalent of an R-Rating and COPPA only made things worse. All of the Voice Actors refused to respond about it because the entire anime industry told them that if they publicly acknowledged or supported FAN PRODUCED MATERIAL, they would be BLACKLISTED from working in the Anime Industry. And when I pointed out how this hypocritical treatment towards me contrasted to the message of the anime show, some of those Voice Actors blocked me. ALL of the Film Reviewers refused to touch it or watch it on claims that it was fake because I didn't have the money to grease their palms like the Anime Studios did, and I tell you now, I approached them ALL.
But did that stop me from sending my UPDATE REPORTS to KODANSHA LTD? No it did not. And did they turn around and sue me? No they did not. They allowed the show's existence. Because the practice of producing a future television series involves screen testing episodes to an audience to see how they feel about it, and if the show fails, part of fixing the problem is figuring out how and why the show failed so that Kodansha Ltd does not make the same mistake when spending actual money on an Anime Production. It is better to make these MISTAKES and FAIL on a Budget of Zero than to find out the hard way when the video is released on DVD, I assure you. BAD GODDESS was a film pitch designed to showcase to Kodansha Ltd what happens when they stray from Kosuke Fujishima's storyline and attempt to modern day hip the show up like South Park.
EVANGELION MUST DIE, for example, is an absolutely airtight piece of Meta Fiction that examines the Ah My Goddess series, where it was, where it is, where it should have been going, and had that script been produced by Kodansha as an actual animated cartoon, the audience would have laughed their asses off. But if I released the same cartoon with the same script and same animation outside the studio system, which I did, then they all insult it as a work of Fan Fiction and refuse to watch it to see what it is because they are waiting for what they believe to be "The Real One". That to me is the ultimate sign of hypocrisy.
I was talking to producer JASON STUART recently, an actor who has over 150 IMDb credits to his name, and works on a committee for independent film festivals and his response was that because BAD GODDESS was a film pitch series, it falls under the category of NEW MEDIA, meaning that I could have hired voice actors if I had the money, had it not been for the ANIME INDUSTRY BLACKLIST BEING IMPOSED BY JAPAN.
I would also point out that when JASON SEGAL pitched his screenplay for The Muppets reboot, everyone in Hollywood slammed the doors in his face because they considered his screenplay to be a work of FAN FICTION and when it went into production, many of the original Muppet cast members talked shit behind his back for applying his own sense of humor to their series. But they're not the ones that wrote the screenplay and got it financed, Jason Segal did that himself. And when the goddamn film finally became a Box Office Hit, everyone changed their tune, including Frank Oz who turned down the chance to direct it.
Don't sit here and tell me that a feature film I wrote and produced and photoshopped from Stock Animation DOESN'T COUNT or DOESN'T EXIST just because it was made INDEPENDENTLY from the ANIME INDUSTRY. Especially when you're unwilling to watch the episodes to see what you are criticizing. LIKE CLOCKWORK and THE HELLSING PECCADILLO are just as valid film entries as any of those BATMAN animated movies that you see being hocked on the shelf at Target. For Christ's sakes people, Ah My Goddess The Movie and Adventures of Mini-Goddess exist, and the Anime Series was adapted TWO different times. And your basic argument of applying CANON is that NONE of those series really count because they aren't 100% true to the MANGA storyline. Well I CALL BULLSHIT ON THAT and I CALL BULLSHIT ON ALL OF YOU.
This is exactly why I turned down the chance to do the scanlation for AH MY JOB HUNTING GODDESS. It's because you don't deserve it. You think you want it, but the minute you have it sitting in your hands, you're only going to criticize it and bitch about the translation job, or whether the new writers made the series to your own liking. Well guess what pals, AH MY JOB HUNTING GODDESS is not OH MY GODDESS. AH MY JOB HUNTING GODDESS is not YOUR SERIES, it's THEIR SERIES. They're the ones who went out and CREATED IT. NOT YOU. You're just the people who buy their art. So they're the ones who get to decide where the storyline goes in THEIR SPINOFF SERIES.
And BAD GODDESS was MY SPINOFF SERIES because I took the time and energy to make the damn thing EXIST when nearly ALL of the Forces of Fate were working against me. Just like JASON SEGAL. The entire point of the goddamn show was to differentiate from CANON in the format of SATIRE so that it didn't infringe on Kosuke Fujishima's original manga series. It may never get the RESPECT that it deserves from the CAST and CREW, but BY GOD, at least there were SOME people outside in the Online Fan Community who gave me credit for ORIGINALITY. Keiichi Morisato's sexual mishap in BAD GODDESS was a hell of a lot more logical and entertaining than getting smashed by a truck in AH MY GODDESS FIRST END. And making an R-Rated anime universe hopping DOCTOR WHO spinoff with Mara Marller was a lot cooler than watching Keiichi and Belldandy raise children.
AMENDMENT:
Dear Kodansha Ltd,
Once upon a time, Andy Warhol made a five hour movie that was just one shot of a man sleeping in a bed. This film, Sleep, is classified as a motion picture by Internet Movie Database and the Film Critics in General.
Don’t you ever insinuate that Bad Goddess is not an existing film series just because it was made outside the studio system. Alyas Batman en Robin was produced in a foreign country without the legal rights and it is still considered to be a Batman movie because it classifies as a comedy spoof, just like the Adam West TV series.
The only specifications that a filmmaker needs to create a feature film is to video record over 45 minutes of footage and put credits on the video. The technical aspects of writing the Bad Goddess anime video comic episodes, photoshopping the stock imagery, editing them together, adding a voice track, and adding a music track are the same as making a movie. The only difference separating them from fan fiction and legitimacy are ink signatures on printed out sheets of contractual paper.
Sincerely, Kevin Neece
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