Ranked #9004

Angel's Hill (Manga)

Such a waste! Especially considering how awesome the first volume was.

Note: This review is based off an amateur translation.


Story: The story started out pretty solid, surprisingly. It's not until the second volume where it starts going down hill. Tezuka introduces new characters at a rapid pace, only to use them as a cheap plot device.There's not a single chapter in the second volume that doesn't rely on a cheap Deus ex Machina. I have no problems with using Deus ex Machina, but these are just horribly executed.
There's zero suspense in the manga, considering Luna runs into an old friend every time she's in danger.

Now moving onto the good part of the story! The mysterious sense of adventure, the unique island and its inhabitants and the core themes presented in the story. And it's because of these that this manga was so fun to read. Not much stuff like this is scanlated so I really appreciate the scanners effort.

Art: Holy fucking Christ, it's actually good this time! The island is wonderfully designed, the characters look great, and it's just fun to look at. It's just so much fun looking at the art for quick cameos of Tezuka's characters. But that's not even the best part, the best part is the unique angles Tezuka uses for a few panels. As usual, there's a lot of size problems conflicting with the style, probably because of the small panels Tezuka uses.

Character: Quirky! If we ignore the characters introduced in volume 2, this section would have a solid 8. There's the wonderful group of mermaid twins, the troubled mother, and her problem-ed child. The mother daughter relation ship is quite possibly the best part of this manga, it's wonderfully executed, too bad it's shafted in the second volume.

Enjoyment: Pretty great until the lame excuse of a second volume. Way too many new elements and plot devices. The ending is also quite unsatisfactory. read more