Ranked #206

Angel Densetsu (Manga)

Wow. I've never written a review on MAL before but I had to start for this particular manga. Reading Angel Densetsu was one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life. Pure, comedic gold. I'm the type of person who loves comedy manga but had always generally stuck to the mainstream. THIS manga, however, needs more love and attention.

STORY: Episodic, but it works brilliantly for this manga. We see short, hilarious bits of Kitano's life as he meets (and battles) a list of oddball characters who each bring something important to Kitano's life, and vice versa. The story is entirely character driven, which was a good choice on the author's part, as he was able to write some of the best characters I've ever read.

ART: Eh well, it does get better. Don't let the beginning chapters scare you away. I honestly had to ease my way into it, because I wasn't really used to a main character whose point is to be physically unattractive. But by the very last volume, I looked back and realized that I had learned to love Kitano regardless of how he looks. I know that sounds weird, but that's actually the point of the manga anyway. Plus, as a reader of Claymore, I know that this artist's potential is only just budding in Angel Densetsu.

CHARACTERS: Excellent. Perfect. I even loved the big, stupid guy who used to be the Guardian. By far the best characters are Ryoko and Ikuno. They surprised me by being strong female leads in a genre that isn't always fair to both genders. Males and females are pretty much on equal status in this series....and they are ALL funny. Each character brings a unique style of comedy to Angel Densetsu. And Kitano...there are NO words to describe this guy. One of a kind.

ENJOYMENT: I've never, ever read a manga with this type of comedy before. It's similar to that of Yankee-kun to Megane-chan, but it's much more refined and makes a lot more sense. Characters like Ikuno deliver classic lines at just the right time and the comedy never seems out of place at all. The fighting is even enjoyable, which is a lot coming from someone who generally finds fighting manga distasteful. I actually found myself taking screenshots of some of my favorote scenes, because the comedy needed to be immortalized on my computer.

OVERALL: Angel Densetsu is a gem of comedy and character development. I couldn't have asked for more out of this manga. There's no more to say. Just read it all the way through and you won't be disappointed. read more

This manga was the first published work of Yagi Norihiro's who went on to write the "Claymore" series. His art improves drastically as the story progresses but the manga remains utterly enjoyable throughout.
The story revolves around Seiichiro, a kind hearted teenager whose face and behavior, unfortunately, inspire the uttermost fear. I won't go into detail about the story because it would spoil your fun but do expect to be surprised. The reactions of some characters during their first encouter with Seiichiro might make you think about how one sometimes (very unfairly) judges a book by its cover.
One simply cannot help laughing when reading this manga. Sure enough the stories are a little far fetched and never realistic but that is not the point. As bizarre as they may be, these stories carry positive messages of understanding and courage. All characters are interesting and Norihiro manages to make almost each and everyone of them endearing.
The author managed to stop before repeating himself so "Angel Densetsu" is a very complete work which absolutely anyone should enjoy. So read it people!
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To be honest, I had avoided this manga like the plague when I first laid eyes upon it about a year ago. The artwork, in my eyes, was so non-appealing, that I always figured that even if this story was funny and exciting, I would never be able to fully enjoy it because of the art. I noticed that the ratings on MAL for Angel Densetsu were relatively high (~8.30 at the time) so I figured that I shouldn't judge a book by its cover. So a few days ago, on a whim, I decided to read the first few chapters to see if it was anything special. Five days later, I had finished reading all eighty-four chapters with a satisfied feeling. Angel Denestu (translated as Legend of Angel) is your classic example of why its wrong to judge a book by its cover. Although the artwork may not look appealing, and a lot of the characters do not have eyebrows, Angel Densetsu is a relatively enjoyable comedy story about the encounters with devil-look alike, Kitano Seikichi.

Although born with an evil face that has been commonly compared to the devil's, Kitano Seikichi is a soft-hearted, caring teenager (hence where the "angel" word comes into play) who is constantly pegged as a thug because of that evil coutenance. Because of this, on first glance, everyone he meets instantly misunderstands him and more often than not, this leads to hilarious confrontations eventually ending up in fist fights. Although Kitano-kun is the featured main protagonist, the story more-so revolves around his friends, his teachers, his peers, his neighbors, and a plethora of other people and their encounters with Kitano-kun. As the mangaka (Yagi Norihiro) has stated, its more of a story of Hekikuu Town (the town Kitano-kun lives him) then about any particular character. Though the manga has an "episodic" feel to it, the mangaka nicely ties everything together quite well. The story is fueled by comedy and the first half the the manga, the comedy, although nothing new in this day and age, is quite entertaining. It does get a bit old towards the second half of the story, as the mangaka re-uses a lot of the puns and such, but still holds up relatively well.

As I have already mentioned, in my opinion, the artwork looks pretty horrid. This manga was essentially a one-shot to begin with, which might explain the simple character designs, but through a series of events, the mangaka was able to land a deal and thus we get our eighty-four chapter story. The art does improve once you hit the second half of the story, but it doesn't really take away from the fact that a lot of the characters are drawn pretty much the same with maybe one different feature. It feels like Norihiro-sensei was rather lazy with his drawings here. Especially when you compare this work to his other work, Claymore. Although I will admit there are some instances where he outdoes himself with character portraits in more of the bigger events. Once, and if your able to get past the art and take it for what it is, the story becomes so much more enjoyable to read. Taking the opposite point of view, the artwork is simple to understand what's happening in each panel and very consistent from start to finish.

As with these kinds of stories that are essentially a collection of one-shots or what not, its all about the characters. Here's the important point. Although the characters are drawn horribly, and essentially all of them are relatively simple in personality, its the character interactions with Kitano-kun on which the story hinges upon. Norihiro-sensei introduces all types of different characters, whether they are thugs from rival schools, innocent children, in-school peers, teachers and even other parents, he is able to create an exaggerated, yet quite amusing reaction and series of events with their encounter with Kitano-kun. Because all of them instantly compare Kitano-kun to the source of all evil, its pretty entertaining to see how they go about avoiding, fighting and talking and sometimes befriending, Kitano-kun.

Again, if you are able to get past the artwork and lazy character designs, Angel Densetsu is a more enjoyable read than one would like to believe at first glance. Its rather funny to watch Kitano-kun and a bunch of his friends as they actually get into real fist-fights with other thugs, and while all of the other thugs know exactly what is going on, Kitano-kun, without fail, is pretty much clueless on what exactly is happening to him. His friends will ask him to help "take out the trash," referring to other thugs loitering around town. On the other hand, Kitano-kun will fully believe that he is going to help to literally clean up trash and litter on the ground. Seeing how Kitano get himself into and out of these kinds of situation is quite amusing. On the other hand, those amusing situations do get repetitive after awhile. And people may not even be able to get past the artwork to begin with. At the end, if you're looking for an entertaining, comedic, turn-off-your-brain type of read, Angel Densetsu is something I would recommend trying to take up, as long as your able to get past the art and some of the designs. read more

Holy shit this is the funniest manga ever! This is slapstick comedy at its best, with equal lashings of deadpan humour. The play off between Kuroda and Takehisa is hilarious. Intellegent and well written, this is an wholly enjoyable series.
The artwork is excellent, clean and distinct. (As to be expected from Claymore's artist)...highly recommended

"Never judge a book by its cover."
Such a common saying but it is expressed no truer than in the Action, Comedy orientated gag manga, with a smidgen of Romance; Angel Densetsu.

We live in a society where keeping up with appearances has become a way of life and one is generally judged & treated based on how they look. Now enter Seiichirou Kitano, a young boy who just moved to a new town with his loving parents and is now optimistic about his transfer to a new high school. On paper Kitano is a model student; he has excellent grades, a perfect attendance record and would even attempt to help the elderly cross the street. But just one look of his face is enough to send someone running for the hills or to paralyze them in fear, as they feel as though they are looking at the devil himself. So this young devil boy must deal with the ordeals that go along with living a life full of misunderstandings, just so us reader will have something to amuse ourselves with and amusing, this manga certainly is.

From people misinterpreting his good deeds for acts of evil, to thugs assuming he is as tough as he looks, this manga is full of hilarious misunderstandings. The structure of Angel Densetsu is quite difficult to pin down because it is episodic, as a gag manga should be, but the story actually has something I always like to see in my stories... overarching progression (both story and characters).Things actually develop, events lead from one chapter to the next and yet it still feels oddly episodic. Quite an odd yet appealing combination.

The same can be said about the characters, that are both an odd and appealing bunch. Like Kitano with his eerie appearance & perception of his surroundings/situations; but you just can't help but like him. The rest of the characters are given almost as much attention as Kitano but they are still a bit of a mixed bag. With some you'll find entertaining and interesting to read and others, whose very presence becomes a bit of an annoyance or will just piss you the reader off.

Well at least for a gag manga of its time, the artwork does a great job in achieving what the mangaka wished to achieve. By creating a lively manga, with a variety of characters, each with their unique design without going to extremes. However the most notable thing about the artwork is how much it improved from chapter 1 to completion. It was nice to witness how the man, who will later create the Shounen Jump hit Claymore, improve in his style and technique.

Angel Densetsu was a manga I judged by the look of its cover. I assumed it would bore me with its tired old fashioned jokes, however I found it surprisingly entertaining and instead of feeling like a generic gag manga; as the story progressed, it started giving off vibes akin to the old show/movie The Adam's Family. Yet I'm not here to say this is the funniest manga around and that everyone should read it, because even the humour eventually begins to wear a bit thin. But the mangaka actually notices this himself and begins to change things up, later on and in my opinion, for the better. Overall we have an odd gag manga with a fair amount of issues but still remains enjoyable to read and for a manga that was serialized for several years, it was good to see the mangaka improve in comedy, story and artwork.
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I never really thought that i'll be able to finish this manga. Like I never like long mangas. At first, I was like "art is soo >.>" . Well, it was all because of the discouraging front cover but, once you tried reading it, sooner or later you'll get used to how it was drawn and realize that the art wasn't really that bad at all.
It was a very humorous manga. More of fightings and stuffs. It was one of my favorite manga so far.

Here's the scene: The student council president has sent one of his lackeys to scout out Kitano, the student with the demon face, because he thinks Kitano plans to send the school into disarray. The lackey's plan was to approach Kitano nonchalantly so he wouldn't think anything was up. However upon approaching Kitano, he catches a glimpse of his face and sees the killing intent in his eyes. Kitano knows! Kitano can sense that the lackey is tailing him and he's not too pleased at all. But the lackey is too scared to move as Kitano gets closer. The lackey's knees wobble as Kitano closes down the distance between them, eyes narrowing every second, reaching into his pocket to draw what he's almost certain will be a knife.

And then, when Kitano is barely 5 metres away from him, he lets out a blood curdling scream and draws the knife from his pocket. The lackey can't move! He's like a rabbit frozen in the headlights. He can't even bring himself to look at the knife Kitano drew from his pocket. Then Kitano, without warning, lets out a second screech like a banshee and suddenly the lackey can feel life in his legs again. Without looking back, he turns and runs faster than he has ever done in his life before the demon can attack him.

Kitano, meanwhile, wipes his nose with the handkerchief he drew from his pocket and mumbles something about how his cold is acting up and making him sneeze a lot.

Legend of an Angel is a delinquent story about a kid called Kitano who has the face of the devil, which causes everyone to think he's plotting to kill everyone and eat their faces for brunch. In reality, Kitano is a nice, if a bit oblivious dude who is just trying to make friends in his new school. What's great about the set-up is that making the scary-faced guy normal doesn't detract from the inherent awesomeness of watching the supposed mind-games taking place. All the mind games are worked out through the victim's mind rather than scarer-in-chief, so we get to see his brilliant yet ridiculous plans unfold regardless. Watching the legend of Kitano build is just as hilarious whether the stuff happens is intentional or not.

It's not admittedly the cleverest humour in the world. The claim to satire about appearances is pretty shallow and never really evolves beyond that. But the scenario is changed around enough that it continues to be funny. Plus it has that good quality every running joke has in that one of the biggest parts of the humour is waiting for that inevitable to happen. When someone new claims they want to hunt down this Kitano guy they've heard so much about, I honestly got excited at the prospect of seeing someone new react to Kitano.

There are a few problems. For one, the art is shit. It doesn't necessarily need to be great for what is a gag comedy, but even so it shouldn't be quite this bad. Consider how much more effective Kitano's devilish glares from the shadows could look if under the pen of a more skilled artist. A lot of the time Kitano looks more derpy than scary, and characters don't really have a wide array of facial expressions. It does marginally improve over the course of the series, but not in any meaningful way.

A far bigger problem is that the author clearly had no intention of having the story go on for that long. It's 15 volumes of a gag manga that really only has a single gag. Kitano does meet a few friends and they go some way to establishing his personality and why he ends up drawing people close to him, but fairly soon all the characters grind to a halt. The more characters they introduce, the more abundantly clear it becomes that the author is just trying to keep the status quo intact.

The whole thing loses its shine and I ended up not actually finishing the manga. That's not as harsh an indictment as it sounds though. It was still relatively enjoyable. I just realised I had gotten the most I was going to get out of it and carrying on further would just dampen my enjoyment of what had been a decent comedy manga. I probably would have enjoyed this more if I was a teenager, as Kitano has that Nice Guy quality that we all like to think we have when we're that age. He is a genuinely nice guy who wants nothing but the best for others. His only real character flaw is his social anxiety and major gormlessness, which is miles more personality than some Yuji Everylead. I don't mean this to sound degrading or anything, but if you're a teenage boy I would highly recommend this. read more

Holy mother of poo-py.

This is the holy grail,sire.

It's all good, it's all funny.

Angel Densetsu is by far one of my favorite mango's. I sat through one session and actually read the whole thing.

Actually that's not true it took me like 2 days.

Anyway...

This series is a must-read. It's a feel-good story. On with the review!

Story: Oh boy is this a fun ride! You'll be laughing and reelin' at every single panel that has Kitano in it. It's pure gold. I was nearly choking on my spit at every page. You're gonna have a fun time, trust me.

Art: Woo. Fair. It has got some style and looks different than most. Art isn't as bad as most say. It's pretty good, actually. It doesn't turn you off at all.

I felt a bit off at first, but the art becomes a part of you and the story.

Character: They have feelings, yes. Many of the characters are different, yes. Many of them are smart. Some of them are dumb. There's a great variety of people and you can't help but to admit that KITANO is your god-damned favorite character.

He's lovable, funny, silly, scary. Hell, he's everything.

He definitely makes the series. He is the series.

Actually disregard that since the other characters support him and make him look even better and they lift the story up into something greater as well.

Enjoyment: I am so giving this a 10. It was fun and good and made me feel UNGHHH.

It's great. A feel-good manga that gets ya a dancin'.

Overall: 9!

Calculator gave me a 8.6, but I really enjoyed this so I'm givin' it a little somethin' somethin'.

Great read, guys. read more

Angel Densetsu is one of the best comedies I've read. Really, when reading things alone it takes a lot to make me laugh out loud. But while reading this I laughed aloud multiple times (fuck me I hate the Internet, the fact that I would even consider using "lol" in a proper sentence - even ironically - fill's me with shame).

While the main thrust of the series is clearly comedy it also mixes in a fair bit of action and as the series progresses elements of romance are added. It's certainly worth noting that the quality of the artwork improves dramatically over the life of the title. The material in later volumes looks almost like it was drawn by a different person. So if the artwork in the initial volume causes some hesitation I urge you to stick with it.

I've seen some comments online by people who seem wilfully obtuse in failing to accept the main premise of the story. If you can’t bring yourself to swallow "the big lie" then you're going to encounter issues with enjoying the majority of fictional entertainment. It's not as if the big lie in this puts much of a strain on one's suspension of disbelief. read more

yea ..its about a boy who looks like the devil but has the heart of an angel ..lots of fighting (althu he doesnt actually fight) lots of misunderstandings and misadventure ..its a supper cute and funny manga
Kitano Seiichirou is the best charecter XD