Cross Ange: Tenshi to Ryuu no Rondo

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Alternative Titles

Japanese: クロスアンジュ天使と竜の輪舞〈ロンド〉

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Information

Type: TV

Episodes: 25

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Oct 5, 2014 to Mar 29, 2015

Premiered: Fall 2014

Broadcast: Sundays at 01:30 (JST)

Producers: Starchild Records, Bandai Namco Live Creative, Bandai Namco Games, Docomo Anime Store, Fields, Bandai Channel

Licensors: Sentai Filmworks

Studios: Sunrise

Source: Original

Genres: Action, Sci-Fi

Theme: Mecha

Duration: 23 min. per ep.

Rating: R - 17+ (violence & profanity)

Statistics

Score: 7.39¹ (scored by 81,867 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #2119²

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

Popularity: #1126

Members: 196,626

Favorites: 1,643

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Synopsis

Angelise Ikaruga Misurugi is the first princess of the noble Misurugi Empire. The kingdom has seen great power and prosperity due to the advancement of the revolutionary technology known as "Mana," an abstract bending of light that has reduced the world's problems of war and pollution to a timeless peace.

However, not all are blessed with the ability to wield Mana. Those who cannot are labeled "Norma," outcasts of society who are considered a threat to civilization and live under constant persecution, and Angelise herself is one of many who want the Norma exterminated. But as Angelise's sixteenth birthday commences, it is discovered in a shocking revelation that she is actually a Norma. Chaos ensues, the public is outraged, and the once adored princess is exiled to Arzenal: a remote military base where Normas are forced into conscription.

Now, the former royal must adapt to a harsh and vastly different lifestyle; piloting mechanical robots known as "Paramail" to fend off large, devastating beasts referred to as DRAGONs. However, a sinister truth about these savage creatures threatens to change everything.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Adaptation:

Cross Ange: Tenshi to Ryuu no Rondo

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Ikaruga Misurugi, Angelise

Main

Mizuki, Nana
Japanese

Schlievogt, Hildegard

Supporting

Tamura, Yukari
Japanese

Tusk

Supporting

Miyano, Mamoru
Japanese

Salamandiné

Supporting

Horie, Yui
Japanese

Vivian

Supporting

Kuwashima, Houko
Japanese

Embryo

Supporting

Seki, Toshihiko
Japanese

Oginome, Momoka

Supporting

Uesaka, Sumire
Japanese

Salia

Supporting

Kitamura, Eri
Japanese

Chris

Supporting

Ogura, Yui
Japanese

Jill

Supporting

Honda, Takako
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Fukuda, Mitsuo

Producer, Episode Director, Storyboard

Ashino, Yoshiharu

Director

Itou, Tatsufumi

Episode Director, Storyboard, Key Animation

Kudou, Shun

Episode Director

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Opening Theme

	1: "Kindan no Resistance (禁断のレジスタンス)" by Nana Mizuki (eps 1-12)
	2: "Shinjitsu no Mokushiroku (真実の黙示録)" by Yoko Takahashi (eps 13-25)

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Ending Theme

	1: "Rinrei (凛麗)" by Eri Kitamura (eps 1-12)
	2: "Shuumatsu no Love Song (終末のラブソング)" by Nana Mizuki (eps 13-24)
	3: "Kindan no Resistance (禁断のレジスタンス)" by Nana Mizuki (eps 25)

More reviews

Reviews

Mar 30, 2015

Nyron

Recommended

Cross Ange is a travesty. It's a horrible, stupid, illogical trainwreck of a show with shoddy production values that relies almost entirely on pandering to the lowest forms of human life and waving shallow moments of shock value all over the screen. The series has a narcissistic sense of self-awareness, and in each episode you can nearly hear a subtle narration by the director and other Sunrise execs laughing at how much of a moron you are for watching this garbage that they've put in front of you.

"Ha, I bet those glass-eyed imbeciles are getting bored, let's put in another lesbian threesome."

"No, not yet. Only ... after we show the loli whipping someone again."

That said, it's one of the best things I've seen out of this studio in years. With a big "Fuck you, Sunrise.", let's go into this.

Cross Ange is a lot of different things. Cross Ange is a magical princess show about knights and dragons. Cross Ange is a prison drama. Cross Ange is Mean Girls. Cross Ange is borderline yuri hentai. Cross Ange is Gundam Seed. Cross Ange is a catharsis for the type of person who has a Fetlife account. Cross Ange is what would happen if you made a Princess Peach anime starring Ronda Rousey. Cross Ange is proof that not only will Mizuki Nana play any role, but that she is also good at it. Cross Ange is anime madlibs where your only word choices are "lesbians", "dragons" and "kill".

The actual premise of the story is that a pampered princess named Angelise, a thoroughly awful person, is thrown out of her castle and put in an all-ladies jail when it's found out that she's a fraud. She's then forced to pilot a Gundam and fight dragons, because. And then she's bullied, molested or beaten up a lot, until she finally becomes "Ange", the greatest main character to ever appear in a Sunrise mecha show. Then the story becomes about rebellion, alternate timelines and dimensions, fighting god, virtual realities, and uhhhhh... Yeah. The story progresses through a flurry of ridiculous plot twists, comically evil villainous acts, and lesbian sex scenes. It's certainly not boring, but you will hate yourself for watching it. One of my favorite things about this series is what they do with the episode previews, where the characters break the 4th wall and banter about how ridiculous all this shit is.

My other favorite thing is that there are dragons in this show. But they're not dragons, they're DRAGONs, and they're called that because they're DRAGONs and not because they're dragons.

But really, the legitimate thing you're watching this for is Ange. Ange is amazing. She's logical, pessimistic, she cheats, she'll insult you and everything you stand for, disarm you and then shoot you through the face, twice. She's so out of the norm for an anime protagonist I can barely deal. She doesn't want harmony, she wants destruction. She wants to demolish everything that's wronged her. She's not a victim. The show is called "Cross Ange" because she's cross about 90% of the time. She is the one who knocks.

The rest of the cast is surprisingly good too. Cross Ange does a competent job at giving you multifaceted, developing characters to feel things about, even if those feelings are mostly hatred and/or pity. The other central females are almost all emotionally damaged in some way or another, and are in contrast to Ange, very fragile people. I thought this was very interesting, because not only is Ange a strong, domineering, unbreakable character on her own, but those qualities shine even more when you slowly see the deep-seated problems with everyone around her.

This series only has like two male characters. One of them is Kira Yamato from Gundam Seed, except that he's completely useless and a stooge 90% of the time. If you're ever worried about Ange being overshadowed or saved by her boyfriend, don't worry, he's the bottom in the relationship. This was also refreshing. Except for near the end where he actually starts doing things, that was lame and subverted a lot of the good things about his character and the show as a whole.

The other major male character is the central villain, Fetus-kun, who is also the most self-aware jab at otaku I've ever seen. The whole premise of his character is that he's his own OC, and is looking for the perfect waifu. It's insulting and hilarious at the same time, just like the rest of the series.

Animation-wise, Ange looks pretty okay at its best, and pretty bad at its worst. Gundam Unicorn this is not. The character and mech designs are also pretty bland, making the series not seem like anything relevant when looked at out-of-context.

The audio's good. Nothing to write home about. You get a bunch of Mizuki Nana and stuff. I can't recall much of the BGM at all even though I watch this series week by week. The recurring insert song sung by Ange is pretty memorable.

Cross Ange is a big damn spectacle with one of the best female leads in any anime. It's ridiculous and stupid, and even Sunrise probably hates you for watching it, so that means you should.

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Mar 30, 2015

L0G0S

Recommended

The last episode came, many people watched it and at the end one thought was strongly resonating in their brain: "Why did we underestimate this anime so much?". The beginning of this anime may be the biggest hoax in the anime history. Not only it made no sense, but it was like in the middle of night while you were sleeping someone blew up your roof, killed your family and then told you that it was your fault and you should be punished. No sense right? Still, slowly but surely this anime showed that it was a lot more than that. Sometimes surprising ... by the deep philosophical understanding of the human nature, and sometimes using its main card, the fighting, the best way possible. Many could say the entire premise of this anime was to not judge a book by its cover. No mater how ugly it may be, what is inside could be worth thousands of time more than a book with a cover that shines like gold. Anyway, lets do it the normal way:
Story - 9, The story of this anime centers around a girl, Ange a royal princess, who at her coming of age ceremony is shown to be a Norma, a person not considered human in a society where everyone is using mana to control everything around them, thus making life easier. Everything falls into chaos, many sad things happen around her and after that she is sent to Arsenal, no, not the team, but a place where all Norma are disposed of, or so was believed. A lot of whining, hundreds of screams, enough to make you wish she was killed right on the spot. After a few episodes no one would wish the same thing. Not only because her character became a lot more interesting, but because the purpose of Arsenal is becoming clearer.The story becomes more and more complex as time passes so it should be impossible for someone to try to present the story in only a few words. There are betrayals, there is love, there is friendship, sadness,quite a lot of yuri, and we have an awesome antagonist who appears at the right moment. Still, its not like everything was perfect. There are a few blanks in the story, blanks that not only were not explained but it felt like a railway was missing some parts. For better or worse, we were made to forget about this and move on. I don't know if that part is to be explained in a movie, ova or maybe a second season, but it certainly needs one to explain a few missing parts without going back to the plot of the first season. Its the best ending for this anime and I really do not wish for everything to repeat in the same world as before.
Now, after the story comes the art.
Art - 9, Sometimes I wonder, how should we describe art? Some anime have such an ugly art that it would not be a surprise of everyone to hate that anime, but instead there are fans saying it receives a ten just because they feel like it fits. Sadly, I do not have the same opinion. Art is about beauty, about fluidity, about complexity, about impact. This anime excels at most, but some may say they could be even better just because .. . Anyway, every characters, robot, dragon looked awesome. Especially the dragons which didn't try to fit in the same criteria we were used to. Each battle was like a movie. They can make you forget to blink or breath. The only problem was its too fast pace. They moved to fast from one place to another and because of this it became tiresome to try to take in everything and instead were are left with the decision to only concentrate only on a few things forgetting about the rest.
Sound - 10, extremely enjoyable. The bgm is very important, but its true role is to make you feel attracted to the story, which this one did. If a bgm attracts to much attention, be it good or bad, then it failed in its purpose. Some forget about this and rate it poorly or better only based on this. The ost, op, ed and especially the seyuu's are the most important. And all of them are doing their job perfectly.
Characters - 10, Vivid, strong, beautifully. Each and everyone of them had what you could call charm. Their personalities, feelings, point of view were attractive mostly because there are so many that its impossible to not see at least one that shared your emotions and state of mind. I can say that in my opinion this anime strongest point were the characters.
Enjoyment - 9, there is not much to say about this. It was a gem found in the garbage. If you can watch it with an open mind you will not only not regret doing it but you are also going to remember it as one of the most surprising anime in the entire history.
Overall - 9, The story was not perfect, this is clear. A story that is short but also complex can hardly manage what Cross Ange did. Its divergent points were not only large in numbers, but also had its own characters which had to do their job in a way that wouldn't hinder the progress of the story. I'm going to re-watch it later this year for sure. Until then I can only recommend it to anyone who loves anime.

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Mar 30, 2015

JustMayonnaise

Recommended

This is possibly one of the most underrated animes from the fall season.

You can read my overall + my final thoughts/notes at the very bottom of the review if you're feeling lazy and just want some quick feedback on the anime.

I can't lie the first 5 episodes was extremely hard to get through for many which lead to the anime being dropped early on, and also given a poor rating due to its evaluation being solely based off of these first 5 episodes. It is now one of the animes I look forward to watching every week, almost as much as "Your Lie in ...

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Poll: Cross Ange: Tenshi to Ryuu no Rondo Episode 21 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Stark700 - Feb 28, 2015	150 replies	by DarkInsomnia57 »» Yesterday, 8:11 PM
Poll: Cross Ange: Tenshi to Ryuu no Rondo Episode 25 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Mar 28, 2015	328 replies	by Killerslug90 »» May 24, 6:38 PM
lmfao why is Franxx the #2 recommended Nyron - May 1	7 replies	by Azriel-chan »» May 3, 11:41 AM
Poll: Cross Ange: Tenshi to Ryuu no Rondo Episode 23 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Stark700 - Mar 14, 2015	173 replies	by Keytee1 »» Apr 29, 12:21 PM
Poll: Cross Ange: Tenshi to Ryuu no Rondo Episode 15 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Jan 17, 2015	140 replies	by Keytee1 »» Apr 24, 6:33 AM

Cross Ange: Tenshi to Ryuu no Rondo

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Cross Ange: Tenshi to Ryuu no Rondo

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Synopsis

Background

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Ending Theme

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