Oh My Goddess! was first published on September 25, 1988 as a spinoff from the manga You're Under Arrest; Kosuke Fujishima had added a four-panel gag strip to You're Under Arrest in which the main characters prayed to a goddess. blank">You're Under Arrest spin-off The gag became very popular, and Fujishima liked the look of his drawings of the goddess so much that he began drawing a full-fledged manga based around her. Oh My Goddess! was published in the Japanese publisher Kodansha's monthly Afternoon magazine, where it was very warmly received--it has been a staple of Afternoon ever since. A complete collection of the manga published to date would run over 200 chapters (over thirty-four collected volumes). There have been twenty-eight volumes of the manga published in the US (as of January 2008), and publisher _Dark Horse Comics is now reprinting unflopped versions of the earlier graphic novels in order to spark new interest in the series.

As the manga's popularity increased, a five-episode OVA was made based on it. With the OVA's success, the stage was set for two TV series and a movie to follow. Due to its length, only the part of the plot common to the OVA and TV series as well as the manga will be included below.