Angelic Layer and why I loved it
I trust you all noticed that I was watching Angelic Layer and loving it hard. The reason I watched it is all there in the manga review commentary, and is basically "because the Misaki/Kotaro thing really fucking annoyed me in the manga". But: 26 episodes, took me less than two weeks. I even watched the last disc (ep. 21-26) twice, so yeah: I thought it was pretty awesome.
For those who didn't know but still clicked the cut: it's the tale of country bumpkin Misaki who goes to the Big City for middle school, to stay with her aunt and maybe, just maybe, see her mother again. For the first time since she was in kindergarten.
The first thing Misaki sees when she steps of the platform is two dolls fighting on a big screen. Misaki, short for her age, is instantly impressed with how the smallest doll still manages to defeat the bigger one. And then she's ambushed by a weirdo in a lab coat who informs her that the game is Angelic Layer, and promptly hauls her off to equip her with a starter set. Watch Misaki start playing, make some friends, join a tournament and go on to defeat the champion. Who of course isn't a certain person who Misaki has a troubled relationship with, psh.
Long story short, there's absolutely nothing new in Angelic Layer, but it does it better than some. Certainly better than Beyblade, not that I don't think Beyblade is awesome. But does Beyblade have a pair of childhood friends where one grew up in a karate dojo and the other is a martial arts enthusiast who keeps on practicing her techniques on him? Yeah, I thought not. And also: Ogata.
Angelic Layer is a sports-tournament-series for kids. The main difference from the others is the female perspective: During the 24 episodes, I can remember seeing three boys who actually plays it, or at least played it to the extent of having lines. Only one of them moves on to play a major part in the story, and does it in the form of a quasi love-interest (quasi because, let's face it, he is the one who does all the loving. She mostly just blushes and stutters). It's not anywhere near intelligent entertainment or brilliant drama; it's predictable and it's not entirely logically sound, but it's CLAMP: if nothing else, we get a lot of fascinating character relationships that go further than these series tend to do. And - although I'm not sure how much it says these days - the animation/pacing/dubbing etc. is all brilliant and absolutely not reasons to pass it by.
To take it back to the spinning tops: If you liked Beyblade I have a hard time seeing you not liking Angelic Layer. If you want stories about real problems and lasting consequences and intelligent commentary on the world, you probably won't get much out of this one.
And also? TEN TIMES BETTER THAN THE MANGA, with spoilers below.
Main difference between anime and manga? Well, since I remember nothing from the manga except from the epilogue, I'm going to have to say "Misaki's mom". In the manga, the reason Shuuko had not been seen for so long was that she was afraid of people. Including her own daughter. For serious: that is it. The happy ending? Is Shuuko being able to sit down and have breakfast with her family.
Not so in the anime, where Shuuko left for Tokyo under the excuse of getting a job, but in reality to get treatment for MS - she's in a wheelchair.
And she has much, much sorrow about how she is too much of a coward to tell this to her daughter. This whole thing gives the story a hint of serious issues that the manga lacked.
The manga also did what this kind of manga usually does, namely racing through the story twice as fast as it should and leaving almost no time for the characters to unfold. The anime does not have this problem, which automatically is a big, big plus in my book. And then there was the romance.
I'm pretty sure I must have shipped Tamayo/Kotaro as I read the manga, considering the commentary I made afterwards. I know for certain that I was not shipping Misaki/Kotaro, probably because of how God damn obvious it was - I usually don't like God damn obvious romances, although I think that AL-the-anime helped me with curing this with how I was so not minding anything that happened here. Possibly because of everything that happened in the manga (particularly the part about Tamayo and Oujiro in the epilogue), but it would do me good not to be watching shows half-dreading the moments bound to come between the main character and the obvious love interest (oh, FMA, how I love you and also, love Ed/Rose. No, I'm not kidding. Roy/Hawkeye? Ugh). (This, BTW, was actually not in work with Chrono Crusade, because I actually wanted to be shipping Rosette/Chrono. I think AL might have been part of the reason why, but their totally adorable canon relationship didn't hurt - but as it turned out, didn't help much, either)
So gleeful as I was about Tamayo/Kotaro getting somewhere, the best part of it was how he made her promise not to be practicing her new martial arts techniques on him any longer. Which she agrees to, only to have him in a headlock some ten minutes later when Misaki's battle is heating up. God but I love them ♥
Other things I love: Misaki/Oujiro, blame it on the preteen within me or something. I shouldn't, but I do. And I shipped Icchan/Shuuko even before the show itself did it.
'Holic, still going strong:
1. YUUKO HAS A CHAT WITH HARUKA, AND I BELIEVE THE SERIES JUST GOT ANOTHER BIT MORE EPIC
2. Okay, so I can't say I'm surprised that they weren't really after somebody mentioned how traumatic parental death usually is handled in detail and so becomes suspicious once it is just vaguely mentioned and left at that. But after hearing the entire story from the presumption that Watanuki has been orphaned since he was in grade school, I really, really, really don't want to see some sappy reunion with the parental units here. But if they're going to become a part of the story (please no), then I'm assuming it'll be with Syaroan's business, and that the whole "Watanuki learning to live for himself and the people who care about him" is going to be about how he finally is liberated from the fate of being The Replacement. Or maybe it's just Norwegian's children television that destroyed me.
I'm just trying to figure out how dumb I was for actually believing that they'd be killing of Sakura Kinomoto for real, anyway.
For those who didn't know but still clicked the cut: it's the tale of country bumpkin Misaki who goes to the Big City for middle school, to stay with her aunt and maybe, just maybe, see her mother again. For the first time since she was in kindergarten.
The first thing Misaki sees when she steps of the platform is two dolls fighting on a big screen. Misaki, short for her age, is instantly impressed with how the smallest doll still manages to defeat the bigger one. And then she's ambushed by a weirdo in a lab coat who informs her that the game is Angelic Layer, and promptly hauls her off to equip her with a starter set. Watch Misaki start playing, make some friends, join a tournament and go on to defeat the champion. Who of course isn't a certain person who Misaki has a troubled relationship with, psh.
Long story short, there's absolutely nothing new in Angelic Layer, but it does it better than some. Certainly better than Beyblade, not that I don't think Beyblade is awesome. But does Beyblade have a pair of childhood friends where one grew up in a karate dojo and the other is a martial arts enthusiast who keeps on practicing her techniques on him? Yeah, I thought not. And also: Ogata.
Angelic Layer is a sports-tournament-series for kids. The main difference from the others is the female perspective: During the 24 episodes, I can remember seeing three boys who actually plays it, or at least played it to the extent of having lines. Only one of them moves on to play a major part in the story, and does it in the form of a quasi love-interest (quasi because, let's face it, he is the one who does all the loving. She mostly just blushes and stutters). It's not anywhere near intelligent entertainment or brilliant drama; it's predictable and it's not entirely logically sound, but it's CLAMP: if nothing else, we get a lot of fascinating character relationships that go further than these series tend to do. And - although I'm not sure how much it says these days - the animation/pacing/dubbing etc. is all brilliant and absolutely not reasons to pass it by.
To take it back to the spinning tops: If you liked Beyblade I have a hard time seeing you not liking Angelic Layer. If you want stories about real problems and lasting consequences and intelligent commentary on the world, you probably won't get much out of this one.
And also? TEN TIMES BETTER THAN THE MANGA, with spoilers below.
Main difference between anime and manga? Well, since I remember nothing from the manga except from the epilogue, I'm going to have to say "Misaki's mom". In the manga, the reason Shuuko had not been seen for so long was that she was afraid of people. Including her own daughter. For serious: that is it. The happy ending? Is Shuuko being able to sit down and have breakfast with her family.
Not so in the anime, where Shuuko left for Tokyo under the excuse of getting a job, but in reality to get treatment for MS - she's in a wheelchair.
And she has much, much sorrow about how she is too much of a coward to tell this to her daughter. This whole thing gives the story a hint of serious issues that the manga lacked.
The manga also did what this kind of manga usually does, namely racing through the story twice as fast as it should and leaving almost no time for the characters to unfold. The anime does not have this problem, which automatically is a big, big plus in my book. And then there was the romance.
I'm pretty sure I must have shipped Tamayo/Kotaro as I read the manga, considering the commentary I made afterwards. I know for certain that I was not shipping Misaki/Kotaro, probably because of how God damn obvious it was - I usually don't like God damn obvious romances, although I think that AL-the-anime helped me with curing this with how I was so not minding anything that happened here. Possibly because of everything that happened in the manga (particularly the part about Tamayo and Oujiro in the epilogue), but it would do me good not to be watching shows half-dreading the moments bound to come between the main character and the obvious love interest (oh, FMA, how I love you and also, love Ed/Rose. No, I'm not kidding. Roy/Hawkeye? Ugh). (This, BTW, was actually not in work with Chrono Crusade, because I actually wanted to be shipping Rosette/Chrono. I think AL might have been part of the reason why, but their totally adorable canon relationship didn't hurt - but as it turned out, didn't help much, either)
So gleeful as I was about Tamayo/Kotaro getting somewhere, the best part of it was how he made her promise not to be practicing her new martial arts techniques on him any longer. Which she agrees to, only to have him in a headlock some ten minutes later when Misaki's battle is heating up. God but I love them ♥
Other things I love: Misaki/Oujiro, blame it on the preteen within me or something. I shouldn't, but I do. And I shipped Icchan/Shuuko even before the show itself did it.
'Holic, still going strong:
1. YUUKO HAS A CHAT WITH HARUKA, AND I BELIEVE THE SERIES JUST GOT ANOTHER BIT MORE EPIC
2. Okay, so I can't say I'm surprised that they weren't really after somebody mentioned how traumatic parental death usually is handled in detail and so becomes suspicious once it is just vaguely mentioned and left at that. But after hearing the entire story from the presumption that Watanuki has been orphaned since he was in grade school, I really, really, really don't want to see some sappy reunion with the parental units here. But if they're going to become a part of the story (please no), then I'm assuming it'll be with Syaroan's business, and that the whole "Watanuki learning to live for himself and the people who care about him" is going to be about how he finally is liberated from the fate of being The Replacement. Or maybe it's just Norwegian's children television that destroyed me.
I'm just trying to figure out how dumb I was for actually believing that they'd be killing of Sakura Kinomoto for real, anyway.