Reception
Overall critical reception for The Candidate for Goddess has been average. Its primary high point for many reviewers has been the anime version's animation quality. Protoculture Addicts staff contributor Miyako Matsuda enjoyed both the traditional cel animation and the 3D CGI, stating that the two styles blended nicely together. Jeremy A. Beard of THEM Anime Reviews and Anime News Network (ANN) reviewer Daniel DeLorme were equally pleased by the character designs and hand-drawn portions of the show. However, Delorme felt the "primitive" look of the 3D mecha battles to be the biggest flaw of the series. Beard, who appreciated the Ingrid designs themselves, did not think the CGI conformed with the rest of the animation and that the space combat sequences were not "particularly fluid". Beard further enjoyed the background music and ending theme of the anime, but that its opening theme did not fit with the visuals or feeling of the series.
Opinions for the plot of The Candidate for Goddess have varied. DeLorme and Animerica columnist Benjamin Wright commented favorably on the show's pacing. Both writers proclaimed that although the anime initially seemed "formaliac", it contained a generous amount of intricate mystery and character development. Wright summarized, "Zero's trials and tribulations, his friendships and rivalries, and the mysteries of the G.O.A., the Ingrids, EX, and Zero's own past all worm their way into the viewer's mind and heart." Adversely, Beard did not feel the anime adaptation well-utilized the anime storyline template of mysterious aliens, an academic setting, a last line of defense, and other related devices. Liann Cooper of ANN similarly found the manga version of The Candidate for Goddess to suffer from "a bad case of the 'been there done that' syndrome" with regard to its plot and characters. Cooper additionally noted sloppy artwork, messy action scenes, and confusion when the narrative switches between the past and present. Beard admitted some "irritation regarding unnecessary internal plot inconsistencies", such as the characters constantly voicing the importance of having only male pilots despite the most elite pilot being female, or having no explanation for Kizna being the only catgirl among all the humans.
A common complaint by the press is that the anime adaptation of The Candidate for Goddess ends on a cliffhanger. Wright and DeLorme were anxious for more of the television series after the build-up of several intriuging and unresolved plot elements and a "to be continued" message at its conclusion. "Effective though Pilot Candidate is," Wright stated, "there's little satisfaction to be had in the end." Having criticized the incomplete storyline of the television episodes itself, Beard was heavily disappointed in the apparent continuation in the form of the single OVA episode, which he found did little to tie up the numerous, loose plot ends present at its close. The Candidate for Goddess has yet to recommence. AnimeNation journalist John Oppliger has attributed the deficient interest in continuing the anime, beyond its delayed OVA, to the mediocre ratings it received during its original Japanese broadcast.
Read more about this topic: The Candidate For Goddess
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“Aesthetic emotion puts man in a state favorable to the reception of erotic emotion.... Art is the accomplice of love. Take love away and there is no longer art.”
—Rémy De Gourmont (1858–1915)
“To aim to convert a man by miracles is a profanation of the soul. A true conversion, a true Christ, is now, as always, to be made by the reception of beautiful sentiments.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“To the United States the Third World often takes the form of a black woman who has been made pregnant in a moment of passion and who shows up one day in the reception room on the forty-ninth floor threatening to make a scene. The lawyers pay the woman off; sometimes uniformed guards accompany her to the elevators.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)