Angel Heart

Note: This series is a spin-off from another show called City Hunter, and uses many of it's characters. All I did before watching this series is read the synopsis for City Hunter, and I've had no problems following the story. It still may be preferable to watch City Hunter first though.

Angel Heart starts by following professional assassin (trained from a child), Glass Heart, as she attempts to escape from her life of killing, by ending her own. But after a heart transplant, and a couple of years sleep, she's good as new. The new heart brings it's owner's spirit with it, and refuses to let ... Glass Heart die, and so, Glass Heart escapes, to try and find out about the person the heart belonged to.

The series is made up mostly of seperate story arcs, the first following Glass Heart's escape, the rest following her new life as she starts accepting missions to help people in dire situations, and in doing so, learning about life.
The first arc is generally more plot-driven and a lot more fast-paced. After the first arc, things start to meander into character development, with far less in the way of action. If you have a short attention-span, you should be able to watch the first arc alone without worries, as it's a self-contained story.

Since the series mainly follows character-development, the characters are important, and in my opinion, they've done well. The regulars are a variety of interesting characters that you should have no trouble watching for the length of the series. The characters that need help are also well made, with realistic reasons for needing help. Honestly, some of the coincidences in the series are a bit of a stretch, but still, they're well used.

I'll also note that there are a fair few flashbacks about how Ryo became the City Hunter, and his relationship with Kaori. These may have been covered in the original series, but if you haven't seen it, then these will fill in a few gaps.

This is a 50 episode series, but there's no real 'ending', things simply keep going without any further resolution beyond that of the first arc. And it is kind of disappointing. Also, with so many episodes, despite the series being good, it does start to drag towards the end.

The art goes for a more realistic style than usual, (most notably, the eyes are smaller) and it's well done.

One thing I wasn't expecting from this series was that it contains a fair chunk of humour. The humour is mostly character-based. For example, Seaba Ryo, the City Hunter, is a bit of a clown, and lot of a woman-chaser.
The realistic art-style makes seeing the silliness of some situations that much stranger, and in my opinion, that much stronger. For instance, the gigantic wooden hammer (that makes only a couple of appearances) is obviously ridiculous, but it does actually look like a real object.

To summarise, this is a good, mostly serious, character-driven series, that involves combat specialists helping people out of dangerous situations, though there's not that much action after the first story. There's also regular silliness to mix things up.
And people with short attention-spans may only want to watch the first few episodes.
You'll just have to decide whether to watch City Hunter first. If you haven't already.

Angel Heart is such a beautiful and heart-warming show that can bring even the most hardened people to tears. Can it be fate? Or can it be a new start in life?

The show starts off with a quick pace. It starts with Xiang Ying aka Glass Heart assassinating a man in the park, but while she’s walking away, she over-hears a little girl trying to give that man an ice-cream cone and telling her dad that he can’t sleep or the ice-cream will melt. As a result, Glass Heart (the assassin) then decides to commit suicide by jumping off of a building. A year later, ... after seeing some memories of the organ donors past, she wakes up in a mysterious place and finds her way to Ryo aka City Hunter. And that is where the story begins.

The main concept this show uses is using many different stories over the course of 7 years to help shape Xiang Ying’s personality and help her start her life over and become human once again. The stories that the show covers is typically romantic and heart-warming, yet filled with danger and excitement. They show basic morals and values and help Xiang Ying understand that her assassin skills can be used for good and not always just for bad. Throughout the show, you’ll see Xiang Ying become more like Kaori (the organ donor whose heart was stolen) and make almost everyone’s life she comes across, better.

The music in this show is absolutely wonderful. It ranges from Goofy to Romantic and always seems to fit perfectly with the moods. The dialogue moves quickly at times, but that doesn’t make the experience any less fantastic. It’s nice to see that there can be some comedy and romance in a show that so often has violence.

The characters are well thought-out. The background story of Kaori and Ryo is very romantic and subtle. The other supporting characters, don’t receive such a wonderful look at their personalities or backgrounds. Xiang Ying has the best character development, seeing how she had so little personality to begin with. At first, I didn’t like Ryo, I thought he would be evil and kill the person who received Kaori’s heart, but he turned out to be a wonderful guy who is goofy and clever. The synopsis and some reviews made me think that this show was brutal and unappealing, but in fact, it’s a very wonderful show and I hope others find it fascinating too.

Overall, I really enjoyed this show. Almost every episode I found myself crying because the stories are just so wonderful. It’s nice to see that assassin skills can be used for good and not only for evil. This show can teach people a few good lessons and don’t let the number of episodes scare you either. Each story roughly covers 3 to 5 episodes each and the action is plentiful. I never found myself getting bored and I often felt that I had to continue watching the show and as a result, I lost a lot of sleep. A three day sabbatical should be a requirement to watch this show.

Sub Group Used: [Ani-Kraze]

This review is primarily for those who haven't watched this anime yet. These 50 episodes, after 01~14, are separated into small "arcs" containing 3~5 episodes that are derelict from each other.

To help you maximize your enjoyment, I give you a list of which episodes are good/bad. Which ones I think you must watch, and which ones you can but don't need to, and which ones I think you should not.

[++] Excellent: You should watch these. Satisfaction guaranteed:
Ep 01~14, Ep 32~41

[+] Moderate: You can safely check these out if feeling curious or have enough time. But lower your expectations. They are in no way perfect, so ... you might feel "meh" or great depending on whether you like soap operas. Expect drawn-out dialogues and occasional cringe:
Ep 15~16, Ep 19~23, Ep 25~28, Ep 42~50


[-] Terrible: I advise that you skip these unless you're really really tolerant and don't mind hurting your own eyes and brain. You have been warned:
Ep 17~18, Ep 24, Ep 29~31


That's the list. If your mind is already set on watching the anime, go do it. It'll be worth your time, I promise, but I hope you keep this list in mind and know to either skip or tolerate bad episodes when they come up, and know that they won't last forever.

Giving an "Overall" score for this anime series is very difficult for me because it is a blend of extremely good episodes and unbelievably terrible ones:

- The female lead, Xiang-Ying, is amazing. She's essentially a female clone of Saeba Ryo in terms of fighting skills but is extremely down-to-earth and believable. I'll choose her over Star Wars Rey any day (I do like Rey though)

- Saeba Ryo is in a mentor role this time, and as I expect, he makes an amazing teacher. Humorous and mentally strong, in equal measure.

- Umibozu's soft side is shown a lot more here than it was in City Hunter. I like it.

- I love Xin-Hong and am a huge fanboy of Saeko. Their arcs resonate a lot with me. I'll let you find out which episodes are those (good news: They're all in the "[++] Excellent" category)

- Kaori's spirit is an overused plot device. Like, I was neutral about her in the beginning, by the end of the series I'm just very very sick and tired of her. This is an anime about living forward, not dwelling backward. Stop reminding us how great you are by telling us how great you are (good-ish news: Most of such over-usages are in the "[-] Terrible" episodes so if you follow my list you won't see too much of them).

I hope this helps and, hope you enjoy the anime. There's only 24 out of 50 episodes to watch if you're trying to maximize your enjoyment.

The music is marvelously done, and surpasses even some of my favorite series like Ghost In The Shell on many occasions. It's also extremely unfortunate because it seems the manga series had continued to run until year 2017, 11 years after the anime was cut short in 2006.

Most great things that the series actually developed down the road in the manga ended up never included in the anime, which was made when the series was too busy finding its own identity to tell the best story it could.

As it is mentioned in earlier reviews, this anime is a spinoff of "City Hunter" a four season anime made up of 140 episodes and 6 movies.

At first, when I heard Angel Heart was a spin-off of City Hunter I was disappointed because I thought it would start a whole new story without concentrating on City Hunter's story, just bring a few of it's elements back. I was wrong. Angel Heart not only succeeds in continuing where City Hunter left off, it also provides character and relationship development that City Hunter lacked.

Story:
It starts with a professional female Assassin named "Glass Heart". She has ... killed a handful of people and, although a professional, feels guilt and decides to commit suicide throwing herself off a building. But the "Organization" decides to save her by transplanting in her a stolen heart. That heart belongs to Makimura Kaori, Saeba Ryo's former partner. Many things lead to another and Glass Heart decides to meet with Ryo.

The story starts off on a rather sad note, but dont let that fool you. After the first arc the story shows its true colors being a heart warming, emotional and sometimes funny anime. 9/10

Art:
light years different from its predecessor, my opinion is that the art of this anime reflects its emotionality and and drama. It's a really good touch and only amplifies the enjoyment. 8/10

Sound:
I didnt hate the op and ed. Actually I feel in love with the last op as it had an 80's feel to it (I like 80's music) lol. The voice acting was good, but I thought they could've done better. 7/10

Character:
This anime excels in this aspect, especially if you've seen City Hunter. Old characters are thoroughly developed throughout the show while new showing a few things unknown about them from City Hunter. On the other hand, new characters debut in harmony with the old ones while also developing throughout the show. But, as I've said before, this is a dramatic show and it is to be expected. 8/10

Enjoyment:
I enjoyed it alot and I wish this review convinced you to watch it aswell. I strongly recommend watching City Hunter first because it would cause what I like to call the "Fumofu" effect. You would enjoy it without watching City Hunter but it you did then it would only increase the enjoyment.

Let's clear up a certain misunderstanding, 'Angel Heart' is NOT a sequel, reboot and it's barely a spin-off of 'City Hunter' (which is a series I absolutely love). This series is a stand alone story, an alternate reality, where in the characters (Ryo, Saeko, Umibozu, Kaori and Hideyuki) are all from the original series but they've been given different, yet still similar, origins. This series introduces new characters to the franchise that just absolutely fit.

This is an excellent series filled with drama, heart, action and fun. I am, without a doubt, biased towards this series.
Admittedly there are some parts of the series that are considered ... lacking or even dull and repetitive but the characters and story telling are solid and enjoyable. I love this series, it's not the greatest ever done but for the 'Hojo Lovers' out there it's one of the best.

You'd think fifty episodes would be a bit much but the series is separated by story arcs making it feel less episodic but rather like having chapters in a novel.

Everybody has their own tastes but I sincerely hope those that get the chance to watch this anime do and enjoy it as much as I have.

Please look into its predecessors too, 'City Hunter' and 'Cat's Eye', and enjoy the music.