THE FOLLOWING WEBSITE IS SUPPORTED BY: 

Back to the review page

SUMMARY

Setsuna is like any other high school freshman. He is a handsome and intelligent young man in the prime of adolescence, but is insecure and not very popular. The reason? He is in love with his sister.

As if things weren't complicated enough, Setsuna soon comes to realize that there is a celestial being inside of him, the Organic Angel Alexiel, who started a revolution against god and was punished by being sealed away inside an "angel crystal". Now she has been reborn inside of Setsuna, and to make matters worse her psychotic twin-brother Rosiel is trying to awaken her. With the help of his best friend Kira and a pair of wayward demons (Kurai and Arachne) Setsuna must save his loved ones and the world; at a very high price.

DVD VISION TEST

Video: The picture quality is overall really good. In some of the black areas there is some pixelation, such as the outlines of the characters, but overall it is a nice, clear image. No color bleeding either.

Audio: The English and Japanese are pretty comparable in regards to sound quality, although I think the Japanese is a little bit clearer. However, the music is very muted in both the English and Japanese versions. Its a shame too because the music is really great! It adds a lot to the overall feel of the movie.

Edits: No edits as far as I can tell. Everything looks like the original version.

Extras: A very nice DVD in the extras department. It comes complete with Backstory, a list of the main characters complete with character descriptions as well as the voice actor names for both the English and Japanese versions, An Art Gallery, Character Sketches, Trivia, and finally (My personal favorite) A Behind the Scenes look of the American VAs in action. Its a lot of fun to watch and very informative.

WIDESCREEN REVIEW

ACTING: Read my comments at DVD Vision Japan Presents: "The Voice Box with Lauren Synger".

Fan Service: Well, with the style and animation being as fantastic as it is one would hope that fan service wouldn't be necessary. Saying this however there are a few scenes that might count as fan service, but they involve Setsuna with his sister. Nothing graphic though for those who might be worried. I think other than that Arachne is the closest you get to fan service and that isn't saying much...

SOUND OUT:
In case you couldn't tell from the Summary this anime is very weird. It is a complete story broken down into three episodes that leaves room for continuation, which I really like. Overall I think the plot is pretty good. I was a little concerned about the unhealthy brother/sister relationship between Setsuna and Sara, but I thought it was handled very well. Its the old star-crossed lovers theme, but with a sick twist. Due to the delicate balance of their love for each other combined with their innocence about their feelings you end up sympathizing with these characters.

Also, I really liked the twist on the biblical beliefs. In this story the whole idea of good and evil is skewed. The angels and god are the ones who are "evil" whereas the demons and humans are the victims of god and the angels' wraths. I thought it was very effective to have the demons and humans on the same side. You end up sympathizing with the demons because you get to see their side of the story; what befell their people and what will happen to humanity if the angels are not stopped. I also think the other characters add a lot to the story. I really like the multi-faceted points of view. Although the story is mainly about Sara and Setsuna you still get backstory and points of view from Kira, Kurai, Alexiel, and even Rosiel and Katan. I felt this was very effective in creating sympathetic characters you really care about. As I said before Kurai is definitely my favorite character and I believe one of the reasons is due to the voice work of Ms. Yuko Miyamura. She actually made me cry when Kurai was explaining what had happened to the demons. Kira is a close second though. He is just a really cool character with plenty of attitude and if you like swords you will like him.

As I said before this anime is definitely not for everyone, and is most certainly not for kids. If you have a weak stomach or offend easily to religious points of view that could be seen as insulting to your own beliefs then this is not the anime for you. Personally, I felt the religious issues were handled very well. It was fascinating to see how Revelations, Japanese Myth and Folklore, and even Greek Mythology were incorporated together for a very effective story. There is no mention of Christ, The Antichrist, or even Satan if that is one of your concerns. This is a story of a battle between God and the Angels, and the Humans and Demons. The humans and demons are clearly overpowered by the angels and god; so as you can imagine for them it really is an uphill battle; resting in the hands of someone trying to deal with his own inner demons.

Visually, this is one of the most stunning anime series I have ever seen. It was created as a Manga and based off of a video game by Artist and Writer Kaori Yuki.  The director is Kiyoko Sayama; the same person who brought us Saber Marionette J (one of my favorites). However, the style is highly reminiscent of Clamp; especially X the Movie. There is shading in their expressive eyes, and the hair is beautifully highlighted and bounces or flows gracefully around their faces. Sara, Rosiel, and Alexiel all have really long hair that cascades gracefully about them or streams behind them when they are running. All of the characters are done in dark, bold colors, with the exception of Sara and Setsuna, who are done in pale colors or white. Also, they both have blond hair. I felt this gave them almost an "angelic" quality in contrast to the all of the other characters. The strange background colors used for the sky (such as magenta, teal, or deep purple) and buildings (dark blue or steel) really add an eerie and supernatural quality to the story. I felt the dramatic style used for Angel Sanctuary was very effective.

The music is also fantastic! It grabs you from the opening song and holds you all the way to the closing credits. Its an eclectic mix of chant combined with Techno, Rock with male vocals, or just creepy background music done either with synthesizer or strings and sometimes even choral work. My biggest complaint was that the music track sounded muted on both the Japanese and English, and I felt it should have been much more prominent. It did such a fantastic job of mood-setting I wanted it to stand out more than it did. I really had to listen hard to hear the music. Still, that was not the composer or the musicians' faults. So, I just wanted to give Kudos to the composer Issay and performer Hikaru Nanase on a job well-done!

So what is my overall feeling of this anime? I really liked it! Although not one of my favorites it was still a very good short story. If you liked X the Movie for its gorgeous visuals, but felt the story and character development was severely lacking than this is the anime for you. The overall feel is similar to X, but it is a complete story (although a little strange) filled with multi-dimensional, memorable characters. It really has something for everyone, if you can get past the religious implications. It is stunningly animated and has a fantastic score. The voice actors in English are not bad, but I prefer the Japanese voice cast. As for extras it definitely has enough to keep the Otakus happy. I particularly like the Behind the Scenes Video on the English voice actors. The video quality is decent except for some pixelation in the black areas, and the wonderful music is muted on both English and Japanese tracks, which I feel is the biggest misfortune about the DVD. Overall I think this anime is one of the better ones out there. So is it a good one to add to your anime collection? I would definitely add it to mine.  

Return to Top

Back to the Review Page