Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer

If I were to describe this anime in one sentence, it would be: "Pokemon with Battle Dolls!"

Story: 6/10
We follow little Mizaki, a little girl wanting to see her mother after years and years of being away from her. Upon arriving in the city where her aunt lives, she sees a jumbo vision screen that has two little battle dolls (known as Angles) fighting one on one. She is intrigued by them and decides to try it out for herself, unknown to Mizaki her mom is actually much closer than she thinks. This is the base of the storyline, along the way she meets new friends ... and rivals alike. To her; Angelic Layer is nothing more than a fun activity she likes to play as a sort of hobby, she soon becomes more involved with it and eventually signs on to a tournament...where her mother is the grand champion. It does good with keeping the tension between her and her mother actually meeting one day, as many episodes have them barely missing each other. The story starts off well with introducing each main and supporting cast roll, and there are quite a few of them. However, during the half way point you may start to notice a filler or two happening ever so often, or battles that seem kind of pointless to the base of the story. Speaking of battles, this is another negative about the series, in that Mizaki is one of those main lead characters that rarely ever loses, which might ruin the anticipation of each battle for some viewers. To its credit though they do end on some nifty cliffhangers every now and then, and do a pretty decent job of making the battles exciting for the viewer. Oh and the ending is just awesome, it concludes very well and doesn't leave you with any sort of questions. So you need not worry about investing your time in a 26 episode long series, only to have it disappoint in the end, because it doesn't! Its a good story as a whole, but does lack somewhat being that the only real goal in mind is Misaki meeting her mother.

Angelic Layer shouldn't contain anything that viewers would find offensive, there are little romance scenes going on, but they are never shown or implied as dirty...since these kids are pretty young.

Artwork: 8/10
If you're familiar with a company known as "Studio Bones" then you'll notice right away that Angelic Layer is very appealing to look at, even considering the fact that this anime isn't the newest out there. With very colorful setting and character models. However, the characters themselves (with the exception of Misaki) look pretty standard and generic, I was never really able to find one that stuck out for me. The fighting scenes are cool though, they move swiftly and have nice balance of unique fighting moves and martial arts. Along with some containing actual power style techniques. Almost makes me wish they would bring over a fighting game of this series, heck I would buy it!

Soundtrack: 8/10
The closing themes change twice during the whole series, which helps give good variety to the show. They are pretty darn catchy, as is the opening theme song "Be My Angel." Character voices were also spot on! I listened to it in both English and Japanese. I felt they were just about equal, but I would give a slight tip of the hat to the Japanese version, as it seemed to match a wee bit better! Regarding the background music, you only really get one memorable soundtrack, it plays this sort or arena style action theme, it fits well with the fighting and builds up the anticipation of each match.

Characters: 7/10
They are varied in their personalities, and you get a pretty good variety of them because of this series' larger style cast line up. Though I feel that I should mention that the major bulk of the cast are indeed females. Even so they seemed to lack a real sort of depth to them, there aren't really many episodes where we get a true understanding about the supporting cast or rivalries, usually it will include only a brief flash back or passing mention. But I must say they do interact well with one another, and you get a fair amount of character chemistry too. I would also point out that this title is quite good with its whole "friendship" feature.

Bottom Line: 7/10
If I were a big fan of these "one on one" battle style anime, then I probably would have given it a bit higher of a score. Still, it kept me entertained! If you can make it through some of the filler style episodes, and don't mind the story dragging on some what, then you will like Angelic Layer!

Title: Angelic Layer
Genre: Action, Comedy, Shojo-ish
Rating: 6/10

Plot Summary: Suzuhara Misaki moves to Tokyo city in order to attend school and for a hope that she will see her mother, who left 7 years previous to work in Tokyo. After exiting the station, she sees on a big screen two people fighting. However, these are not people - rather they are Angels, which are dolls controlled by a Deus. These dolls are custom made, and they fight in Angelic Layer, which is the name of the sport. She is told all this by the scientist Icchan, who walked up to her and started telling her this ... stuff. Ignoring the possibibility that he might be a lolicon [AKA, pedophile][He isn't], she followed him into the Anglelic Layer store, where he went and showed her what to buy to create her own angel. After creating her own Angel, who she called Hikaru [which means Light], and making friends, Kotaro and Tamayo, she enters tournaments and goes on to become the Kiseki no Rookie [Miracle Rookie].

Analysis [Contains Spoilers]

Its a decent enough anime. Its done by CLAMP, which makes some good anime/manga, but I do have some problems with it. Early on in the series, Kotaro developes a crush on Misaki, which is teased upon by Tamayo. However, later on in the series, Tamayo admits that she's had a crush on Kotaro for a long time. If thats the case, why did she even push him onto Misaki to start with? The other thing I can't get around is the fact that she is the Kiseki no Rookie. She starts playing, and then she never looses. She only lost once, and that was too Kotaro's little genius sister, Hatoko. She beat every opponent after that, continuously gaining in strength, without really appearing to. Additionally, the Champion, Shuko, who is her mom, lost to her. When she hadn't lost to 77 or so other players. Finally, there is the matter with her mom. Her mom, quite frankly, is a wuss. A gigantic one. She's afraid to see Misaki, because she's afraid of what Misaki will think of her. She doesn't want Misaki to see her in a wheelchair. However, by postponing it, isn't she just making it worse?

End of Spoilers

Analysis [No Spoilers]: Some of the fights are cool. I think that the plot is a bit iffy, but its a 26 episode show expanded from a 25 or so chapter manga. There really isn't much you can do with it. I think that the comedic moments are great, but sometimes it just pushes it. Some of the fights are good, some are bad. It seems like in order to make a new plot point in the fight, they introduce something, that they can miraculously explain away in all of the previous fights. While sometimes, it works, but other times ... I just can't buy it. Theres only so much you can ignore.
Additionally, when you 'launch' angels onto the layer, you say an opening shpeal. Which is kinda lame. And I really dont see how Hikaru can fall like the way that she does in that.

There isn't really much to the anime except for the tournament. The first 4 or so episodes deal with her starting, and then there is the tournament. The rest of the plot then deals with the tournament. The unimportant matches get an entire episode, and some of the 'big' matches, you never see the character again. If you do, its very very minor.

This is a cute anime, and ok for a laugh. Some of the fights are good, while others are meh. Watch it if you want.

review taken from animeruwelz, check my profile for details

CLAMP are amongst the most famous old-school mangaka artists in Japan. They have produced many known titles and have created many all time classic characters. Sadly, the thing that makes their stories so interesting is the same that eventually bogs them down. They rarely develop and if they do, it is usually rushed and in the final parts of the story. That is seen as a hook for most who keep watching in hopes of something good to happen, only to be eventually disappointed most of the times with stories which have catchy themes and potential for greatness but are otherwise ruined in the name ... of cute characters doing silly stuff.

I won’t lie, cute sells. So does taboo romance, a thing CLAMP throw around in their stories all the time. Most of my interest in works like RG Veda or Card Captor Sakura was about finding out what the outcome of all those kinky relationships would be. Plot? What plot? Who cares about that? Gimme cute characters in kinky relationships!

And this is eventually what makes Angelic Layer to be one of their least good works. The story is again two lines long, the characters are static as usual… but there is no kinky romance to make up for it! Yes, it sounds pretty lame saying such a thing but trust me, most of the appeal CLAMP stories have is their characters’ weird sexual preferences. And this particular title has almost zero. It has just a “normal” kiddy romance with the only twist being a possible triangle that never escalated into a cat fight. No catfight = no romantic triangle. Well that ruined most of the appeal!

Even the concept of the story isn’t very interesting. It is basically proxy battles around a children’s fighting game, which is not very violent or exciting. The battles are somewhat done nicely, with basic choreography and high octane music. But they are all so… bloodless! No fatalities, no dismemberments, not even shred clothes most of the times. Some say it is just a show for kids but I say I had Jumaru levels of violence 4 decades ago which, guess what, was also a show for kids. If you happen to have watched the similar Plawres Sanshirou, a much older and yet much more action-based series, you will understand what I mean. The robots there were shred to pieces, oil was spilling around, they needed maintenance, they had upgrades, they needed basic programming based on martial arts! Those were some really damn entertaining proxy battles! Angelic Layer on the other hand is just Barbie the Wrestler serving tea to Ken.

Furthermore the story doesn’t even try to explore its own concept. The Angels are supposed to be fighting dolls that move through their master’s brainwaves. Plus, it is stated several times that they resemble their masters’ in behavior. If they had bothered to show the dolls having emotions or a bit of free will outside of battles, I would have liked all this mess a lot more. Imagine Misaki’s doll saying or doing anything she is too afraid to say or do by herself. Imagine the same for everyone else, having his or her doll being the expression of their real inner selves that they can’t show directly. But nooo, they are just mooks. They play no part in the story whatsoever. They are not even characters! Just dolls their masters play with, like middle aged otakus.

And that is how they wasted the only thing that could have made this anime great. The dolls are just… dolls. Their only purpose is product placement. And, hello, is it me or are almost all dolls females dressed in skimpy outfits? Was that some sort or attraction for plamo fans? I’m sorry, we have Queen’s Blade and their peripheral titles for that. That does it; Jumaru, kick the living shit out of them!

Outside the battles, animation and music are plain average. The setting is somewhat futuristic and the characters are cute but it ain’t something worth remembering. The story is as I said, a typical CLAMP one. A good premise that goes nowhere. It’s just a girl who is looking for her mother and, oh, just starts playing a game with dolls for fun and, oh, wins all the time against pro players despite being a rookie and, oh, a friend of hers likes her and, oh, the champion in the game so happens to… be her mother. Like, what are the odds of that happening.

Overall, this is quite the passable title, it has zero replay value and has nothing you can’t find way better elsewhere.