With a menagerie of wonderful characters and interesting possibilities, Oh My Goddess! is filled with emotional moments… at least when they aren't having another drawn-out racing arc. Since this is at its heart a romance story, most of its crescendos belong on the Heartwarming page, but the series has its share of tearjerkers too.
This page contains unmarked spoilers. You Have Been Warned!
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The Manga (1988-2014)
- Chapter 60: Keiichi, Belldandy, Urd, and Skuld win a trip to a hot-springs resort and run into Mara, who would rather enjoy her vacation than fight the goddesses. Belldandy agrees and warns that she will punish Urd or Mara if they squabble. After we learn that Urd and Mara were once Vitriolic Best Buds, Mara challenges Urd to a karaoke duel. After two ties, Mara delivers a low blow by singing enka† (which makes Urd sleepy), and Urd retaliates with hard rock† (which gives Mara a compulsion to dance). They end up using magic to fight one another, and Belldandy carries out her punishment… forcing Urd and Mara to sing a "Best Friends" duet via magic. When K1, Skuld and Bell drag a tired Urd off to bed, Belldandy says to an exhausted Mara, "My job doesn't allow me to wish you luck, but I wish you well all the same." Mara actually heard her, and long after they leave, she begins singing the exact same "best friends" song, all alone.
- Chapter 132: Peorth confirms to Keiichi what he had already inferred – that Belldandy will outlive him by several lifetimes – and he replies with this…"I knew. I just didn't want to face it. But I wonder if it's not sadder that we leave you behind? Living all the years you live… How many times have you had to say goodbye?"
- Chapter 285: (a.k.a. the Wham Episode) Hild informs Keiichi that he had been mindraped by Yggdrasil so that he'd be unable to progress his relationship with Belldandy beyond "kindergarten level". Worse yet, Bell was aware of this the entire time. The expressions on everyone's faces put this in perspective – Keiichi is clearly hurt (even jumping away from Bell when she tries to touch him) and shocked nearly into catatonia; Bell looks utterly devastated; Urd looks angry enough to kill someone; and Skuld, who had no idea about any of this, just looks confused.
- Chapters 291 to 293: The Lake Goddess fell in love with a human bard, who decided to give up travelling and live the rest of his life by the lake with her. Eventually, he died of old age. At that point, an entire chapter (292) is spent showing the Lake Goddess going insane from grief. She uses the Honest Axe trial on herself to obtain the sharpest axe possible to try and cut the ties binding her to the lake. In so doing, she offends her master (possibly Tyr), and she gets sealed within her own sorrows for all eternity. Worst, Keiichi and Belldandy are forced not only to watch this play out but to live it as the bard and goddess (respectively). Granted, a twist in Chapter 293 flips this to Awesome later on, but there's a literal eternity of pain and suffering to go through first.
The OAV Series (1993-1996)
- Episode 1 – "Moonlight And Cherry Blossoms": Really, Keiichi's entire existence prior to Belldandy dropping into his life is pretty sad. We don't get to see it in nearly as much detail as in the later TV series, but it's still pretty clear he's a Butt-Monkey to everyone around him. Then just as things start looking up, Tamiya kicks him out of the dorm for violating its strict no-girls-allowed policy. Destitute and with nothing but a motorcycle and a goddess, he's forced to look for shelter in the middle of a downpour. Then he thinks Bell is sick (she was just tired from overtaxing her power) and tries to keep her warm, but gets deathly ill himself as a result. Things start looking up for him after that, but the poor guy has to go through the wringer first.
- Episode 2 – "Midsummer Night's Dream": Due to being overlooked by everyone, Keiichi (whose lack of swimming ability is legendary) nearly drowns. Belldandy had no idea, and Sayoko not only chews her out for (unintentionally) almost killing him, she even slaps her. Naturally, Bell is so devastated after this she can barely function.
- This gives Urd an opening to slip Keiichi a love potion that makes him fall for Sayoko instead of Bell. Upon seeing Bell distraught when he starts making moves toward Sayoko, he desperately tries Fighting from the Inside... and ends up passing out in a crag. Bell is extremely angry when she finds out Urd is responsible… and terrified when she learns Urd can't wake him.
- Episode 3 – "Burning Hearts On The Road": Skuld's first words to Belldandy in the OVA are a sobbing plea for her older sister to return home because she's lonely. Although there are selfish undertones (Skuld is unable to handle Yggdrasil's computer bugs on her own, and would rather have Bell around than Urd), it's still tear-inducing.
The Motion Picture (2000)
- Celestine's plot is this in spades – he hacks Belldandy's brain to wipe all her memories of Keiichi… and only those memories. We actually get to see a visual representation of it happening. She quickly becomes aware that she's lost something precious to her and that being around her in this state is painful to both her sisters and the man she used to love. When she botches a motorcycle race (her memories of racing were wiped too, plus she doesn't trust Keiichi implicitly as she did before), she's utterly devastated because she knows everything's wrong but isn't able to do anything about it.
- Belldandy's backstory is pretty tear-inducing too. Celestine rebels against the Heavens and tries (but fails) to get Bell to join him. After he's captured and punished, Bell crosses the Despair Event Horizon and goes nearly-catatonic. It's so bad that Urd has to totally mindwipe her just to get her to return to something resembling a normal mental state. Poor kid.
- Morgan Le Fay doesn't get off much better. She's the girl in Bell's backstory who was shown crossing the Gate Of Judgement with the man she loved. But the Gate found them unworthy, and so separated them FOREVER. The knowledge that she will never see her love again drove her to despair and, wanting revenge against the Heavens, into joining up with Celestine.
The TV series (2005-2007)
- Episode 12: Skuld's arrival amidst a bug infestation. Once the others are able to cut through all of her attitudes, she breaks down crying, saying that first Belldandy left, and then Urd bailed on her and left her to handle all the work of managing Yggdrasil on her own. It shows right then and there that, even though she is a Clingy Jealous Girl, Skuld is also incredibly lonely.
- Episode 29: Sayoko realizes she really has fallen for Keiichi and wants to give him the best Christmas present possible. Through some bizarre circumstances, she inadvertently ended up with the sweater Belldandy had hand-knit for him, and in her jealousy, she decides to hold onto it. She tries to knit a sweater herself but can't do it, so she tosses her work in the trash and orders a Cashmere sweater from one of her fancy boutiques. On Christmas Eve, she takes Keiichi out on what she hopes to be a date, but he won't stop talking about Belldandy. When Sayoko tries to give Keiichi the sweater she bought for him, he refuses it, saying she shouldn't give something so expensive to her friend from school, but should save it for someone she really likes. At that point, she gives him Belldandy's sweater (without telling him where it came from) and demands he wear it home. Heartwarming for the main relationship, of course, but absolutely heart-wrenching for Sayoko.
- Made worse by the fact that Belldandy later comes to thank her and this exchange happens, showcasing Sayoko's depression and inability to cope…Sayoko: "Just who are you?"
Bell: "I am Belldandy. I am a Goddess."
Sayoko: (sadly) "Is that so? Well, I just wanted you to know… I hate your guts."
Bell: "Nevertheless, I will still love you."
- Made worse by the fact that Belldandy later comes to thank her and this exchange happens, showcasing Sayoko's depression and inability to cope…
