I sooo want to play Angelic Layer!
Written: Mar 31 '08
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Intriguing, interesting science fiction story. Strong female characters. CLAMP!
Cons: I do not have full faith in the English translation.
The Bottom Line: Great manga for girls or boys of practically any age. And, a bonus, it's science fiction!
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| Jellyn's Full Review: Clamp - Angelic Layer 1 |
Angelic Layer is a manga by CLAMP, produced in English translation by Tokyopop. I just finished reading volume one.
I really like CLAMP, and I've seen some of the Angelic Layer anime several years ago. The music is really good. When Bookcloseouts offered the manga for sale really cheaply, I snatched them up. In English that is. I probably have some of the Japanese kicking around here somewhere, which I can only partially read.
Plot
Misaki Suzuhara has just arrived in Tokyo to live with her aunt and go to school. Freshly new to the city, the first thing she sees is two awesome 'people' squaring off for battle on a video screen. She's impressed and awed by this and it turns out that these battles are part of Angelic Layer, a game and a phenomenon that's sweeping the nation.
This creepy dude in a lab coat helpfully explains some of this to her and takes her to a store where she can buy her very own angel in an egg.
Once at her aunt's house, she takes the angel, which is like a little articulated doll, out of the egg. She gives it some hair and puts it into this cylinder thing where she electronically sets some parameters. Inspired by the manga Magic Knights Rayearth (also by CLAMP), she names her angel Hikaru.
At school, she meets some new friends, including a 5 year old girl and her older brother who's in Misaki's class, and a girl who nicknames her Misakichi. A name that's amusing for the fact that it's longer than her real name.
Creepy lab coat dude randomly appears again to give her some material to fashion battle clothes for her angel. And takes her to a training center where she can get some practice controlling Hikaru. Because they're more than dolls, they're also rather like robot (or tiny androids) that you can control with your thoughts while wearing a VR-looking headset.
After just 2 hours of practice, Misaki and Hikaru enter their first battle. And win.
Some more training sessions quickly see Misaki, spurred on by creepy dude in the lab coat, entering into a tournament. Where her first opponent is.. that five year old girl. Who will win?
Read this manga volume to find out.
Art
CLAMP art is very pretty. This manga though has one quirk where whenever Misaki gets excited about something, she gets all small and sort of ghosty in appearance. It's rather distracting.
The angels all look quite different and CLAMP went to town designing outfits for them. I have to say they're even prettier in color though, rather than the black and white of the manga.
Translation
I don't know how good the translation is, but I was annoyed by one use of 'Mr.' when '-san' would have been more appropriate. Also, I noticed two word bubbles in a panel that seemed to have been mixed up -- confusing who was speaking which line. Also, I think it's supposed to be 'Angelic Fight!' when a battle begins, but one time it said 'Angelic Flight!' So all of those things make me question the accuracy and editing of the rest of the translation.
Final Thoughts
Tokyopop calls this an action/fantasy manga, but it's really a science fiction manga. There's something about the dolls that can do electronic telepathic battle that really appeals to me. And you have to keep in mind that very little of it is farfetched. There are computers that can be controlled by brain signals alone.
This is a cool story. And it's CLAMP, so you know there's a deeper plot coming along in the further volumes. Like what the heck that creepy lab coat dude thinks he's doing.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Jellyn
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Location: New Hampshire
Reviews written: 210
Trusted by: 47 members
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