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Angelic Layer Review – An Impromptu Anime’s From The Past Review Series #4

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Angelic Layer Review - An Impromptu Anime’s From The Past Review Series #4 1Welcome to the fourth (completely unplanned) installment of the “Anime’s From The Past Review Series”, where I take a look at a number of titles that are or have the potential of becoming out of print or at the very least hard to find. I write this review now because Madman Entertainment who are the Australian distributor of the anime series seem to have discontinued it (Removing the product page on their site) and according to North American anime seller RightStuf, also seems to have very dwindling stock as I type this. The series was originally written by CLAMP and adapted to an anime series in 2001 by Studio Bones. From there, ADV Films picked it up, dubbed it and released it to the English market with Section23 Films being the current North American distributor and Madman Entertainment the Australian one.

The series is a mixture of action, comedy and drama and depending on who you ask and your sources, act as a bit of a sequel to Chobits, where instead out of human sized persocoms, a doll game known as Angelic Layer is spreading around the youth of Japan, with the story following a young girl who comes into the game as a novice and later rises up the ranks in Angelic Layer tournaments. To get a few of the normal boring details out of the way, the reviewed version is the North American thinpack release which comes with the English and Japanese dubbed releases over five discs – and was purchased out of my own pocket.

Take robotic dolls controlled by their owner’s thoughts, place them in a holographic playing field and you have Angelic Layer, the runaway smash game that is taking Japan by storm! That’s what Misaki finds as she arrives in Tokyo to start high school. Instead of being greeted at the train station by her aunt, she finds herself confronted by a bizarre man in a white coat who lures her into the addictive world of Angelic Layer, a world which will change her life forever, and lead her on a quest to discover the mysterious secret behind her mother’s disappearance!

Angelic Layer Review - An Impromptu Anime’s From The Past Review Series #4 2

Angelic Layer is one of those series that you can sit down and watch all the way through for the simple pleasure of watching it – without having to think about anything too complex if you don’t want to (Unlike most animes I seem to watch) but also offering something in terms of more serious battle strategies for those who want to take the series a bit more serious than intended. The story follows middle schooler Misaki Suzuhara who having just moved to Tokyo to stay with her aunt, gets introduced to the game of Angelic Layer and proceeds to spend her train fare on everything she needed after being egged on by a mysterious man. The game Angelic Layer is nothing all too complex to grasp with it basically being a doll fighting game where the characters individual dolls fight in an area controlled by the thoughts and commands of the player.

The “game” element has its strong points and weak points – at least 75-80% of the episodes are based around a “character of the week” scenario where you are introduced to an opponent – sometimes get some development for them (or if not for them, for a main cast member) and then proceed to duel it until one of them wins. Given that the series would end short if Misaki suddenly started losing the battles, most of the time she was guaranteed to win and I would have liked to see them make use of the concept and the world they developed more, they did leave open a couple of loose ends and could have expanded upon the main conclusion more so it is not like they were short of things to write about. HOWEVER, despite my complaints it is not possible to deny they used what they presented well, and the battles actually used some interesting plot devices or battle strategies in order to come to its conclusion.

Angelic Layer Review - An Impromptu Anime’s From The Past Review Series #4 3Moving away from the series frequent battles, the series comes equipped with a good pile of character development, a liberal amount of comedy and a dash of drama which results in a surprisingly good watch, even with this being my first rewatch in a couple of years (and since then having improved my anime repertoire), still provided a great experience despite it seemingly like a doll action game. It is a series about friendship, support and nearer to the end, family… and it was good how they took the time to develop most of the main character cast through the episodes in regards to these three points. I wouldn’t have minded a bit more development of Misaki’s best friends Kotaro and Tamayo, who are mostly present throughout the series but don’t recieve the development to match because they are not actual Angelic Layer players – supporters instead.

Either way, this series provided some good light-hearted watching in the storyline department that seems to be more targeted at the younger audience but should appeal to most anime fans irrespective of age. While I will never wonder why thousands upon thousands of people will flock to massive stadiums in order to watch middle schoolers battle their dolls, but there is little wonder as to why Angelic Layer will be well recieved in my score of the Storyline.

Angelic Layer Review - An Impromptu Anime’s From The Past Review Series #4 4In comparison to other series I have viewed recently from Angelic Layer’s release time period, I think the design and animation quality delivered by Studio Bones (More recent titles include Gosick and Un-go) was a step above the rest – providing designs respective to that of the original CLAMP design source and with bright and colourful character and environment designs. Okay, so perhaps the character designs were a bit on the generic side (Seriously, there are only so many times you can re-use school uniform designs), but other characters such as the “Wiggly” Icchan are an example of the creativity they put into character expressions and quirks. But perhaps this is to not take away from the design of the actual Angels, which are all completely unique in design, each making use of designs appropriate to the characters battle style with accompanying battle animations which were also of sufficient quality given the heavy-action focus to them.

The series had a sufficient number of musical tracks that went well alongside the action and the more light-hearted scenes, but nothing much out of the compilation really stood out and caught my attention – making it more suited to the series than something you would watch by itself. Perhaps something a bit more memorable to the series is its opening sequence Be My Angel by Atsuko Enomoto and I am sure most who have been watching anime for a few years should have come across it prior. It is an upbeat slightly-battle inspired track that is accompanied by some strong animation that introduces the main characters to the story. The series also has two ending sequences – The Starry Sky and Ame Agari by HAL and Moeco Matsushita respectively, however didn’t stand out to me and were skipped after a couple of watches.
Angelic Layer Review - An Impromptu Anime’s From The Past Review Series #4 5In terms of voice acting, my normal comments in relation to ADV Films dubs stands for this title – with perhaps not the greatest quality of the dub but an appropriate voice cast that bring out the characters personalities effectively. Jessica Boone who is known for her many roles including Chiyo in Azumanga Daioh and Nayuki Minase in Kanon (There are most recent voice inclusions as well) does a great job at pulling off the shifting emotions of Misaki while Monica Rial, Sasha Paysinger and Kevin Con pull off the roles of Yamayo, Hatoko and Kotarou (The three other main “child” characters effectively). However, the highlights easily have to go to Andy McAvin for Icchan and Chris Patton as Mihara Ohjiro. But irrespective, the character casting should not disappoint.

In the end, this was a very enjoyable series that provided you don’t mind a little less plot than your usual series and one that is aimed at a more general audience – I can recommend this series to most. Its simple storyline mixed with some good designs for its release year really made it a worthwhile watch that made it worthwhile getting my hands on a copy. As I said above, Madman Entertainment seem to have discontinued their distribution within Australia at least according to the series disappearance from their website (This is not to say they won’t re-release it again somewhere down the track), HOWEVER this does not mean it is not possible to find a copy in stores, so check with your local retailer of anime products. Otherwise, looking online might also be an example, if your regular Aussie retailer does not have a copy – other international distributors such as Rightstuf.com may have / be getting stock in.

Final Score
Storyline / Character Development: B+
Design: A-
Music/Voice Acting: B
Personal Preference: A-
Overall Score: A-

Sam
Sam
Founder of The Otaku's Study. I have been exploring this labyrinth of fandom these last fifteen years, and still nowhere close to the exit yet. Probably searching for a long time to come.
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