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Title (English) Angelic Layer

Title (Japanese) Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer

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Fantasy Novel

Notes a.k.a. "Mobile Angel Angelic Layer"
This is adapted from a manga by CLAMP, but since it appears to be aimed at boys, and the "Angelic Layer" manga was serialised in "Shounen Ace" it's clearly not a shoujo anime.

Classification -

Synopsis Twelve year old Misaki comes to Tokyo for the first time and is immediately caught up in the "big city lights", which in this case happen to be a huge video billboard on the top of a nearby building which is showing a fighting match between what appear to be two girls in outlandish costumes. But a couple of little kids soon disabuse Misaki of her confusion - what she is watching is the fight between two dolls. In the meanwhile, an adult ( Icchan ) who looks like a cross between Touya from CCS and Dr. Tomoe from SM, follows Misaki around and talks her into spending all her money on gear to build her own "angel doll". While Icchan is finally dragged off by some suspicious cops, Misaki brings her goods home to her young aunt Shoko's house, where Shoko is disturbed by Misaki's choice of things to buy on her first day in Tokyo. Then, all sorts of melodramatic foretellings occur, while Misaki creates her own angel and names it Hikaru.

Review This is a shounen series?!? My guess is that TV Tokyo is hoping that the Clamp "magic" that made CCS a cross-gender success will strike again with this new series that is just screaming for a barrage of associated toys and games. But it is still very disorienting to see a show that "feels" so shoujo have the normal sort of trappings of a boy's toy-based series. (----) The scenes for the upcoming episode promise to introduce a bunch of additional characters, including a Tomoyo ( from CCS ) look-alike.
So, how was the first episode? Well, in some ways "slick", particularly in terms of the presentation of the "angels" - it reminded me of shows like "Beyblade". I was surprised that they weren't already advertising angel dolls during the commercials. On the other hand, a lot of the animation was fairly "flat" and more typical of what I normally expect from "no-name" TV Tokyo kids series. I guess I was "spoiled" by the quality of "CCS".
And that's one of my problems with this show - I keep on expecting "AL" to be CCS, which is my fault to an extent, but the "Clamp-iness" is so evident that it is hard not to. The opening starts with a feather dropping onto a water surface and sending out rings. Misaki could be Sakura at age 12. The background music sounds like "extras" from CCS. Only the almost "Pioneer"-style comedy surrounding Icchan doesn't fit with the rest of the CCS flavor.
In any event, I will keep on watching the show for a bit, just to see where it goes. My gut feeling is that the show will be like most of the other "boy's toys" shows and spend inordinate amounts of time on boring fight scenes. Granted, mahou shoujo shows like "Dr. Rin" also spend time on analogous repetitive transformation scenes, but at least those scenes don't last 7 or 8 minutes out of a half hour show. But who knows, maybe Clamp will succumb to their "instincts" and develop and expand the shoujo-like mysteries of this series.
Oh yeah, one more thing - Hikaru and the rest of the angel dolls constantly make me think of "Hand Maid May", but I can't imaging Clamp going off in that direction. (L) (Dave Baranyi)
It's hard to get a handle on this show, because it is essentially a shoujo story masquerading as a shounen story. As with so many run-of-the-mill shounen series, the protagonist gets a new super toy and fights with it every week. But in this case the toy is a robot doll and the protagonist is a CLAMP heroine. I'm always tempted to call this series Angelic Captors, because of its CCS-ness, but it isnt really bad, just not that original either. I expect that the merchandise spin-offs to do really well. (Surprisingly there havent been any ads for tie-in merchandise yet, despite this being a TV Tokyo series.) Rating okay, big CLAMP fans ought to like it a lot.
I just finished watching episode 13 of Angelic Layer, so I thought that I'd share some thoughts on the series so far, while attempting to minimize spoilers. I am enjoying the series, but with reservations. So here are some nearly random impressions of AL :
It's CLAMP, so there is the requisite water ripple image at the beginning of each show.
It's shounen, so there is a dearth of flying cherry blossoms so far.
The opening theme song is almost irritatingly catchy.
The protagonist Misaki is best described as being 12 going on 8. My daughter used to ask about Sakura in CCS, Do they ever show her grown up as a teen?. Well, the answer is now sort of, with Misaki in AL looking like an older Sakura but acting like the original.
Hatoko, the Tomoyo clone in AL, is best described as 5 going on 50. Unbelievably precocious, Hatoko would be the ultimate heavy in another series. Every time I see her on screen I wonder why someone hasnt taken her parents by their throats and questioned them very vigorously about their parenting methods. ( My solution to Hatokos attitude would be to send her off to a camp up north for a few weeks no computers, no TV, etc., e.g., Welcome to Camp Hungry Bear on Big Mosquito Lake. )
I get the impression from some of the manga sites that the mystery of Misakis mother is still open in the manga. But as far as the anime goes, the issue was cleared up several episodes ago.
Its nice to see a couple of adult characters in a CLAMP series, but it would be even better if Icchan, Shouko and Mystery Lady ( see, no spoilers ) acted more like adults.
I wonder how many people would actually go to see other kids essentially play video games with dolls in arenas?
Tamayo is certainly tolerant of Koutarous obvious infatuation with Misaki. I guess that Tamayo realizes that all she has to do is shift ever-so-slightly where she is always grabbing Koutarou and hell forget about Misaki immediately. (g)
Misaki and Shouko in Shoukos apartment always bring to mind Shinji and Misato from EVA.
It is a shounen series, so we have to put up with the learn to master yourself, young grasshopper-style battles, as Misaki runs into stronger and stronger opponents. But at least Misaki hasnt been winning all her battles. Which brings to mind a marvelous image from another current master yourself anime series Baki, from Grappler Baki entering an Angelic fight. If he didnt win with his Angel hed simply go over and beat the living crap out of his opponents. (L)
The way that the opponent of the week is being introduced with background and raison detre, reminds me to an extent of Utena. Does this mean that once all of the secondary characters get a first chance to battle Misaki they will start over again? ( I may have stumbled onto something with that train of thought AL is a cross between CCS and Utena? )
Mystery Lady in her wheelchair always makes me think of the Joe Flaherty routine in the old Second City TV series when he played Guy Cabellero, the station manager in the wheelchair who would occasionally get out of the chair and walk around quite normally.
Well, enough for now. The previews promise even more mysteries will be cleared up in episode 14.
(whole series):- The technical aspects of the series were okay but unexceptional by conventional TV anime standards. The animation of the series varied from average for "everyday" scenes to superb for the CG fight scenes. The music was also relatively unmemorable, except for the maddeningly catchy opening theme.
In the end, while I enjoyed "Angelic Layer", it wasn't unique enough for me to go out and buy the DVD's after having seen the TV broadcast, but I still recommend it as a fun series to watch.
(Dave Baranyi)

Credits CLAMP

Episodes 26

Release

TV Showing See the whole series for free? This series may be syndicated to regional cable, satellite or terrestial TV stations. For Europe click here.

Date 2001 April 1 - 2001 September 30

Production CLAMP

Broadcaster TV Tokyo

Animation

References & Help Look up the latest data on this title at:
Richard Llewellyn's Animated Divots, or
Anime News Network (see Encyclopedia section) ,
or in "The Anime Encyclopedia" (Clements & McCarthy, Stone Bridge Press, 2001).
Help & further information.

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Information
Title (English)	Angelic Layer
Title (Japanese)	Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer
Advertising Fantasy Novel
Notes	a.k.a. "Mobile Angel Angelic Layer" This is adapted from a manga by CLAMP, but since it appears to be aimed at boys, and the "Angelic Layer" manga was serialised in "Shounen Ace" it's clearly not a shoujo anime.
Classification	-
Synopsis	Twelve year old Misaki comes to Tokyo for the first time and is immediately caught up in the "big city lights", which in this case happen to be a huge video billboard on the top of a nearby building which is showing a fighting match between what appear to be two girls in outlandish costumes. But a couple of little kids soon disabuse Misaki of her confusion - what she is watching is the fight between two dolls. In the meanwhile, an adult ( Icchan ) who looks like a cross between Touya from CCS and Dr. Tomoe from SM, follows Misaki around and talks her into spending all her money on gear to build her own "angel doll". While Icchan is finally dragged off by some suspicious cops, Misaki brings her goods home to her young aunt Shoko's house, where Shoko is disturbed by Misaki's choice of things to buy on her first day in Tokyo. Then, all sorts of melodramatic foretellings occur, while Misaki creates her own angel and names it Hikaru.
Review	This is a shounen series?!? My guess is that TV Tokyo is hoping that the Clamp "magic" that made CCS a cross-gender success will strike again with this new series that is just screaming for a barrage of associated toys and games. But it is still very disorienting to see a show that "feels" so shoujo have the normal sort of trappings of a boy's toy-based series. (----) The scenes for the upcoming episode promise to introduce a bunch of additional characters, including a Tomoyo ( from CCS ) look-alike. So, how was the first episode? Well, in some ways "slick", particularly in terms of the presentation of the "angels" - it reminded me of shows like "Beyblade". I was surprised that they weren't already advertising angel dolls during the commercials. On the other hand, a lot of the animation was fairly "flat" and more typical of what I normally expect from "no-name" TV Tokyo kids series. I guess I was "spoiled" by the quality of "CCS". And that's one of my problems with this show - I keep on expecting "AL" to be CCS, which is my fault to an extent, but the "Clamp-iness" is so evident that it is hard not to. The opening starts with a feather dropping onto a water surface and sending out rings. Misaki could be Sakura at age 12. The background music sounds like "extras" from CCS. Only the almost "Pioneer"-style comedy surrounding Icchan doesn't fit with the rest of the CCS flavor. In any event, I will keep on watching the show for a bit, just to see where it goes. My gut feeling is that the show will be like most of the other "boy's toys" shows and spend inordinate amounts of time on boring fight scenes. Granted, mahou shoujo shows like "Dr. Rin" also spend time on analogous repetitive transformation scenes, but at least those scenes don't last 7 or 8 minutes out of a half hour show. But who knows, maybe Clamp will succumb to their "instincts" and develop and expand the shoujo-like mysteries of this series. Oh yeah, one more thing - Hikaru and the rest of the angel dolls constantly make me think of "Hand Maid May", but I can't imaging Clamp going off in that direction. (L) (Dave Baranyi) It's hard to get a handle on this show, because it is essentially a shoujo story masquerading as a shounen story. As with so many run-of-the-mill shounen series, the protagonist gets a new super toy and fights with it every week. But in this case the toy is a robot doll and the protagonist is a CLAMP heroine. I'm always tempted to call this series Angelic Captors, because of its CCS-ness, but it isnt really bad, just not that original either. I expect that the merchandise spin-offs to do really well. (Surprisingly there havent been any ads for tie-in merchandise yet, despite this being a TV Tokyo series.) Rating okay, big CLAMP fans ought to like it a lot. I just finished watching episode 13 of Angelic Layer, so I thought that I'd share some thoughts on the series so far, while attempting to minimize spoilers. I am enjoying the series, but with reservations. So here are some nearly random impressions of AL : It's CLAMP, so there is the requisite water ripple image at the beginning of each show. It's shounen, so there is a dearth of flying cherry blossoms so far. The opening theme song is almost irritatingly catchy. The protagonist Misaki is best described as being 12 going on 8. My daughter used to ask about Sakura in CCS, Do they ever show her grown up as a teen?. Well, the answer is now sort of, with Misaki in AL looking like an older Sakura but acting like the original. Hatoko, the Tomoyo clone in AL, is best described as 5 going on 50. Unbelievably precocious, Hatoko would be the ultimate heavy in another series. Every time I see her on screen I wonder why someone hasnt taken her parents by their throats and questioned them very vigorously about their parenting methods. ( My solution to Hatokos attitude would be to send her off to a camp up north for a few weeks no computers, no TV, etc., e.g., Welcome to Camp Hungry Bear on Big Mosquito Lake. ) I get the impression from some of the manga sites that the mystery of Misakis mother is still open in the manga. But as far as the anime goes, the issue was cleared up several episodes ago. Its nice to see a couple of adult characters in a CLAMP series, but it would be even better if Icchan, Shouko and Mystery Lady ( see, no spoilers ) acted more like adults. I wonder how many people would actually go to see other kids essentially play video games with dolls in arenas? Tamayo is certainly tolerant of Koutarous obvious infatuation with Misaki. I guess that Tamayo realizes that all she has to do is shift ever-so-slightly where she is always grabbing Koutarou and hell forget about Misaki immediately. (g) Misaki and Shouko in Shoukos apartment always bring to mind Shinji and Misato from EVA. It is a shounen series, so we have to put up with the learn to master yourself, young grasshopper-style battles, as Misaki runs into stronger and stronger opponents. But at least Misaki hasnt been winning all her battles. Which brings to mind a marvelous image from another current master yourself anime series Baki, from Grappler Baki entering an Angelic fight. If he didnt win with his Angel hed simply go over and beat the living crap out of his opponents. (L) The way that the opponent of the week is being introduced with background and raison detre, reminds me to an extent of Utena. Does this mean that once all of the secondary characters get a first chance to battle Misaki they will start over again? ( I may have stumbled onto something with that train of thought AL is a cross between CCS and Utena? ) Mystery Lady in her wheelchair always makes me think of the Joe Flaherty routine in the old Second City TV series when he played Guy Cabellero, the station manager in the wheelchair who would occasionally get out of the chair and walk around quite normally. Well, enough for now. The previews promise even more mysteries will be cleared up in episode 14. (whole series):- The technical aspects of the series were okay but unexceptional by conventional TV anime standards. The animation of the series varied from average for "everyday" scenes to superb for the CG fight scenes. The music was also relatively unmemorable, except for the maddeningly catchy opening theme. In the end, while I enjoyed "Angelic Layer", it wasn't unique enough for me to go out and buy the DVD's after having seen the TV broadcast, but I still recommend it as a fun series to watch. (Dave Baranyi)
Credits	CLAMP
Episodes	26
Release
TV Showing	See the whole series for free? This series may be syndicated to regional cable, satellite or terrestial TV stations. For Europe click here.
Date	2001 April 1 - 2001 September 30
Production	CLAMP
Broadcaster	TV Tokyo
Animation
References & Help	Look up the latest data on this title at: Richard Llewellyn's Animated Divots, or Anime News Network (see Encyclopedia section) , or in "The Anime Encyclopedia" (Clements & McCarthy, Stone Bridge Press, 2001). Help & further information.