English Dub Review: Mother of the Goddess’ Dormitory (Uncensored): “The Goddesses of the Goddess Dormitory”

Overview: After coming down with a cold, Koushi (Brittney Karbowski) is nursed back to health with the help of the Atena (Christina Kelly), Kiriya (Katelyn Barr), Frey (Melody Spade) and the rest of the dormitory. 

Our Take: It’s a red alert y’all! Koushi is sick and he needs to be nursed back to health. You know what that means ladies and gents. Absurd remedies that will nourish our eyes more than Koushi’s fever and cold. In Frey’s case, that’s taking the nurse’s name literally by dressing up in a revealing version of one and smothering him because I hear that solves all problems, at least it would for me. Kiriya’s making nasty health shakes and Mineru is poisoning rice porridge, it’s nothing but hysteria as is the case with these girls. What also remains the case, unfortunately, is the basic and chessy writing of Koushi constantly expressing his feelings about family. It’s especially noticeable considering how well it transitions into being much more sweet and endearing when the girls take Koushi’s recovery more seriously and through doing the housework that he’d usually handle.

Atena, at Koushi’s bedside all hours of the day and caring for him, most definitely seems to put her as the most likely love interest, if it wasn’t obvious already from her role in the series and the advertising as a whole. However, due to the nature of these types of series and, notably this episode, we sure as heck won’t be seeing romance bloom any time soon. These fun and playful harems thrive on not having two characters get together like a LaCroix addicted soccer mom. While each entry has done a decent job of slowly but surely moving ahead of Koushi’s relationships, Atena’s heart-to-heart with Koushi while he was unconscious foes just the opposite. It has her pleading her true feelings before cutting away before she can finish. With it reiterating what we already knew about their relationship and not pushing anything forward, the second after that I knew exactly what path it was going down. The long and windy one. Granted, that’s not always a bad thing as there can be some intriguing twists and turns that don’t feel like a romance is moving backwards. Although, for crucial moments such as this not lifting a finger to do anything significant, it does set a worrisome precedent about the pacing moving forward should the anime continue. 

All in all, the finale was fine enough, similarly like the rest of the series. I’d hope this is just an anomaly in the matrix and there is a set plan in place to gradually and meaningfully build a romance, whether it’s with Atena or not (C’mon Kiriya!), over time, just as the series had done decently well from the beginning. It’s off to a good start in that regard and should it be able to continue that and not run in place like this, it could be so much more than just fanservice and lighthearted moments, as fun as that may be.