Anime Hajime Review: The Candidate for Goddess

Series Synopsis

In the far distant future, a great cataclysm almost wiped out humanity. In its aftermath, Zion became the only planet left that could support human life. Today, most people manage to live in sparse space colonies, but if Zion were ever to be lost it would mean the end.

To make matters worse, large and destructive extraterrestrial creatures known as Victims are always attempting to destroy Zion. To combat this threat, humanity has relied on the five mysterious, but powerful mechanized robots known as Goddesses. However not just anyone can pilot them, so it is up to the Goddess Operation Academy (G.O.A.) to supply suitable candidates.

Joining the newest batch of recruits is Candidate Number 88, Zero Enna (voiced by Yukimasa Obi) who has always dreamed of becoming a Goddess pilot. Optimistic and energetic, Zero doesn’t let anything get to him, but his impulsive nature does have a tendency to get him into trouble. One such occurrence took place on his first day at the G.O.A.

Zero losses his way in the giant space facility and comes across the hanger where the Goddesses are kept. Due to an accident, Zero ends up inside one which would normally put his life at risk since a Goddess can only have one pilot registered to it at a time. However, not only is Zero allowed to control the machine, it seems as if it was calling to him.

This group of new candidates, including Zero, is unlike any that have come before. Humanity's fight against the relentless Victims could very well be coming to a head.

Series Positives

I can’t go on without pointing out how incredibly CGI the fights in this show look. It’s just so painfully obvious, which is completely attributed to the show’s age, and it's undoubtedly distracting. 

Therefore, color me surprised when I realized that this cheesiness would become one of the more enjoyable aspects of The Candidate for Goddess, because there is some real bull s@#$ here.

It’s not all bad, mostly annoying as hell, but never infuriating. And besides, there were somethings the show did rather okay with.

The Opening Episodes

For what it’s worth, I was actually getting into the story in the beginning. It wasn’t anything new, amazing, or all that unique, but the show was able to create a bit of a mystique for itself.

This was at its best when Zero accidentally fell into one of the Goddess. The entire scenario was set up well and amped up the mystery to a decent degree. It wasn’t anything you haven’t seen before, in fact it's pretty much textbook, but it didn’t get it wrong.

What I got out of that moment was the Goddesses are actually some kind of sentient beings, and the one Zero got in was calling to him. Then these strange images that could easily be some kind of prediction start flashing on screen. 

So of course, as a person watching all this go down, I got legitimately curious about what was happening. I could've probably taken a pretty accurate guess at the time and I never once believed that The Candidate for Goddess would throw me any curve balls.

To add to all this, the current pilot of the Goddess Zero was in, is totally freaking out because all of this simply should not be happening. If felt sorry for the guy. Didn’t know much about him other than he seemed a bit like an egotist, but I did feel for him.

All of this could easily be described as nothing but confusing and trippy for the sake of being trippy. I don’t disagree with that assessment but I was digging it all the same. That and I also assumed it would all be explained.

I was wrong.

Series Negatives

I'm sorry but I have to bring it up again. That CGI man, holy hell it's just...it's just bad. Moving on.

The Candidate for Goddess is the first in what should be a series. Unfortunately, it's the only entry. This is a story that doesn’t have a conclusion in anime form. Now normally this would infuriate me to no end, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little ticked off.

However I’m not as bothered as I probably should be since I ultimately don’t give two s@#$s about it. By the time the show was over I stopped caring about what was going on and there wasn't a single incentive left for me to find out what ended up happening.

I could probably tell you though. Let’s see…Zero ends up becoming a pilot because of course he would. There's going to be some kind of deep conspiracy that's revealed; something along the lines of humanity is the real evil or some nonsense like that. There's a morality crisis in which Zero and his team are going to have come together if they wish to save the day. Then they save the day, and the story ends.

Not for a single second do I believe that anything different will happen. Even if it did, again I don’t care enough since I really can’t stand anyone in this show.

Zero

This guy is beyond annoying.

The main reason I liked all the weird, mysterious hints and images was because it meant I didn’t have to listen or see or acknowledge Zero’s existence. He would be a lot more tolerable if he would only shut the hell up.

He does not stop talking, and when he talks it’s always a complaint about something dumb. If he wasn’t the main lead in an anime, he would most likely have died in some freak accident because he doesn’t understand that some rules are around for a reason and no one gives a crap about what you have to say about them.

“Why do I have to stand attention? Why can’t I look like a bored slob when my commanding officer is speaking? Why can’t I operate the highly sophisticated machinery that I have no training in? Why do I have to listen to my partner whose sole job is to make sure that I don’t die in battle?”

I hate that fact that I can keep going like this.

Zero has no concept of the fact that he is part of a crucial organization that has been charged with keeping the whole of humanity alive. You don’t get to do whatever you f@#$ing please you little piece of s@#$.

What makes it even worse is the fact that all of the candidates where like this. Actually that's not true. This was completely a male problem, the female characters were fine.

Then when you add this to the fact that the story is already made up of a ton of exposition that is nothing but made up technical mumbo jumbo giving you zero (no pun intended) hope of understanding what is being said. Plus the plot goes where ever it damn well pleases, so honestly good luck trying to follow along.

Is it really any surprise that I don't care that this show never got any sort of continuation?

Final Thoughts

I’m glad this one is over. I’m not totally upset that I saw it, but I could have easily skipped it and avoided all the annoyance. I prefer that's what happened, but what are you going to do.

The Candidate for Goddess has a decent start. It hooks you in effectively and gets you excited for what’s coming next. Too bad what comes next is not what I would call interesting. Annoying for sure, as well as a complete waste of your time, but not certainly interesting.

Also did I mention the CGI? I cannot let that go.

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