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Post by Lyss on Jul 20, 2012 22:52:10 GMT -5
Angelic Layer Manga Review As far as CLAMP’s manga go, Angelic Layer is pretty average. And that’s all there is to it. Average.
For our basic premise, we have Suzuhara Misaki, a young girl who has just moved to Tokyo to live with her aunt in order to go to middle school there. Upon arriving in Tokyo, she is swept up into the game called “Angelic Layer”, where you raise your own “Angel” from an egg and fight with other Angels. Along the way, Misaki makes a couple friends, a few enemies, some rivals, and learns new things about herself. She also discovers that she is naturally martial arts oriented, and uses her capabilities to fight better in Angelic Layer.
Angelic Layer doesn’t really teach us anything new, except for, perhaps, reinforce the ol’ saying “size doesn’t matter”. There were a few emotional moments here and there, but all in all, Angelic Layer is five volumes mostly comprised of fights. Fights between the Angels, that is; detailing how they battle with each other and the strategies Misaki and Hikaru – her Angel – must use against them. The art is fairly typical CLAMP fare and will probably remind a lot of people of Chobits. Not only is Chobits also written by CLAMP, it also contains a similar theme: the relationships between people and toys (or robots). Misaki is shown to have a high amount of regard and care for Hikaru, a trait that most of the other Deus (people who control Angels) lack.
Plot twists? What plot twists? Most of them were fairly easy to see and read – I’ll eat my hat if no one guessed that Misaki’s mother was the one who controlled the white Angel, Athena, at the end. The characters weren’t particularly memorable. None of them really stay with you at the end. As is the norm for CLAMP’s works, sharp-eyed people will be able to catch references to CLAMP’s other manga – one of the most obvious being Hikaru, who is named after and looks like Hikaru from Magic Knight Rayearth.
Angelic Layer isn’t deep. It isn’t meaningful. But if you’re looking for a few volumes of cute characters and battles between Angels, here’s your manga.
5/10 stars
Credits This review was written by me, Lyss. Please do not redistribute without my permission, or claim as your own. Thank you. Angelic Layer is the property of CLAMP and Kadokawa Shoten.
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