Tenshi Kinryouku (Angel Sanctuary)

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Alternative Titles

Japanese: 天使禁猟区

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Information

Type: OVA

Episodes: 3

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: May 25, 2000 to Aug 25, 2000

Producers: Bandai Visual, Lantis, Audio Tanaka

Licensors: Media Blasters

Studios: HAL Film Maker

Source: Manga

Genres: Action, Drama, Romance, Supernatural

Theme: Reincarnation

Demographic: Shoujo

Duration: 29 min. per ep.

Rating: R+ - Mild Nudity

Statistics

Score: 6.26¹ (scored by 27,078 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #8489²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #3132

Members: 49,588

Favorites: 195

Resources

AniDB

ANN

Synopsis

Setsuna Mudo is a 16-year-old high school student just trying to get by without running afoul of his bullying seniors. It doesn't help that he's in love with his younger sister, Sara, who only sees him once a month. But there's more to his life than just keeping his head down.

Setsuna is ambushed by mysterious beings, angels, and demons, all professing to know his true destiny. The angels say he is the reincarnation of their leader Alexiel, while the demons claim he led them to war against God himself.

As Setsuna struggles with his identity in such strange times, the eternal conflict between Heaven and Hell threatens to reignite. Will he be prepared when it does?

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Adaptation:

Tenshi Kinryouku

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Mudo, Setsuna

Main

Nojima, Kenji
Japanese

Kurai

Main

Miyamura, Yuko
Japanese

Mudo, Sara

Main

Kawasumi, Ayako
Japanese

Kira, Sakuya

Supporting

Koyasu, Takehito
Japanese

Belial

Supporting

Soumi, Youko
Japanese

Rosiel

Supporting

Chiba, Susumu
Japanese

Alexiel

Supporting

Orikasa, Ai
Japanese

Katou, Yue

Supporting

Ueda, Yuuji
Japanese

Katan

Supporting

Miki, Shinichiro
Japanese

Sevothtarte

Supporting

Shiozawa, Kaneto
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Sayama, Kiyoko

Director, Storyboard

Tanaka, Hideyuki

Sound Director

Watanabe, Akio

Key Animation

Yuki, Kaori

Original Creator

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Opening Theme

"Messiah" by Yula Yayoi (eps 1)

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Ending Theme

"Knife of Romance" by Φ

Reviews

Dec 8, 2022

Josiel-Sama

Recommended

A very critical work in my view, as it contradicts everything we are taught through the bible, where the "good guys" would be demons instead of angels. And all the teachings passed by the bible how not to relate to brothers, the work makes exactly that happen, because we are seeing it from the perspective of the fallen angels, where they are contrary to God, that is, it makes no sense for them to follow the teachings of their own, so that they can live as they want and love who they want. This becomes clear when people (who worship God) discover this character's incestuous ...

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Sep 10, 2014

ktulu007

Mixed Feelings

Angel Sanctuary was a manga written by Yuki Kaori from 1994 to 2000. At the tail end of its run, in 2000, it got an OVA from Hal Film Maker. The same studio that brought us Princess Tutu and... Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-Chan. The manga is dark and disturbing with a lot of screwed up events and circumstances. It's also really good, provided you don't mind media that takes liberties with Judeo-Christian mythos. So, does a three episode OVA manage to capture the spirit of the manga?

Story:

Our tale opens with our hero, Setsuna, fighting against a group of thugs. He's winning handily, until his sister, ... Sara, interrupts the confrontation, angry at him for forgetting about their date. Turns out their parents divorced and they decided to meet up once a month to keep in touch. Don't have a sigh of relief yet, it's quickly revealed that Setsuna has more than a familial love for his sister. Yes, this series features incest. Although I will give it credit over everything else I've reviewed with that kind of content. There actually are good narrative reasons for it and the reactions they get are largely realistic. It's also a screwed up element in a series that is deliberately full of screwed up elements. So it does kind of work for this story. After separating from his sister Setsuna encounters demons who tell him he's the reincarnation of an angel, Alexiel, who followed in Lucifer's footsteps, rebelling against God. He finds himself dealing with his feelings for Sara while both angels and demons try to reawaken Alexiel, which could very well bring an end to his life and identity as Setsuna.

Let's begin by looking at the negative aspects of the series. The most obvious issue is that it doesn't stand alone by any means. It's like Battle Angel or Fire Emblem and serves more as a teaser for the manga rather than as a self-contained story. Which, to be fair, is kind of to be expected when you turn twenty volumes of manga into a three episode OVA. There are certainly other issues too. The pacing isn't very good. The series throws major scenes at you one after the other with no time to take anything in and with very little explanation for any of the supernatural elements aside from “it's magic, they don't have to explain it.” As a result exactly how this world works is kept kind of vague. Again, to be fair to the OVA, these are all problems present to some extent at the beginning of the manga.

On the positive side, the premise is really solid. There are lots of good ideas and the setup leaves a lot of room to further delve into the world with lots of intrigue to build upon. Pacing issues aside, the events themselves also unfold very naturally with plenty of foreshadowing for important plot points. Which does give the narrative a pretty strong flow. It does provide a solid opening for a series.

Characters:

A lot of the characters in this series aren't particularly likeable. They're largely complex and even interesting, however. The problem with the OVA in particular is that the complexity for the characters is heavily limited since there's a lot less time with them. As such you get traits that are far more basic for the secondary characters, who are largely the strongest characters in the manga. It does spend sufficient time with Setsuna, Sara, Rosiel and Sakuya to give you a good feel for their characters. The rest of the cast develop and become important at later points than the OVA reaches and they come across as quite flat and you would question why some of them are even there if you haven't read the manga.

Art:

The art is really good. The action sequences are very well animated and the character designs look really nice. I especially like the way they draw wings. The art does get absolutely brutal at times and the violence can be disturbing. The backgrounds are well detailed.

Sound:

There are some very strong performances in this. Nojima Kenji, Psycho Pass's Nobuchika, gives a great performance as Setsuna. You also get powerful performances from Miyamura Yuko and Koyasu Takehito. The biggest weaknesses are Kawasumi Ayako, who seems to be decidedly not trying, and Chiba Susumu who over-acts as though he's been training with Brian Blessed. The music is just okay.

Ho-yay:

The ho-yay factor is a 3/10. There's some stuff between Setsuna and Sakuya that seems suspect, but nothing big.

Final Thoughts:

Angel Sanctuary definitely has things to recommend it. It also has significant issues. By itself, it really doesn't hold up. Really, I would only suggest it for fans of the manga. If the premise sounds interesting to you, I'd look at the manga first. As a supplement to the manga, it does work okay, providing a nice little look at the first story line. My rating for it is going to be a 5/10. Next week, K-on the movie.

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Aug 9, 2016

VladWolfsbane

Not Recommended

I know I've overrated this anime, but for me Angel Sanctuary harbors memories I hold close to my heart.
This review was originally written in the diary of a young warrior who is no longer among us. Accused of committing high treason he was exiled from the country, but he was given a choice, either that or just watch Angel Sanctuary 100 times over and write a detailed essay on it. Unaware of the danger that lay before him he went with option B......The poor soul was found hanging in his lockup the following day.

Not to brag, but I am far superior to him for I ...

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Poll: Tenshi Kinryouku Episode 3 Discussion minkie - Mar 19, 2010	10 replies	by JVskunkape »» Feb 28, 8:47 PM
Poll: Tenshi Kinryouku Episode 2 Discussion minkie - Mar 18, 2010	12 replies	by JVskunkape »» Feb 28, 8:03 PM
Poll: Tenshi Kinryouku Episode 1 Discussion minkie - Mar 18, 2010	13 replies	by JVskunkape »» Feb 9, 2:53 AM
A shame DESU_USED - Nov 4, 2009	10 replies	by Disapeared_Ghost »» Oct 18, 2022 12:28 PM
For those who have read the manga AriAkiko - Sep 6, 2010	3 replies	by Disapeared_Ghost »» Oct 18, 2022 12:27 PM

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Background

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