Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer

Misaki discovers the game Angelic Layer, where two players telepathically control dolls and make them fight. The winner knocks the other doll out of commission first. She enters the Kansai regional tournament, unaware that the mother she hasn't seen in years is the reigning national champion.

Overall, I rate this a 5 and recommend you skip it. At the end I'll talk about some issues that contain spoilers, and mark it as such. The rest of the review shouldn't affect your enjoyment of the show. I will talk about the major aspects of the show, and what is good or bad about them.

The story starts out ... good, but fills with holes in the second half. The plot has a few threads: you have Misaki's tournament battles, the obligatory romance subplot, and her (nonexistent) relationship with her mom. Also, there are a few glaring similarities to Cardcaptor Sakura that I'll mention.

*Tournament Arc:*

The focus of the show is the battles, so if you're not interested in action you'll probably get bored. The action isn't anything amazing. Each episode is animated well enough, but the fights in each episode tend to use the same movements on a loop. Misaki, being the main character, mostly wins battles. In the beginning there are good reasons for this: she's a natural, she uses the strengths of her doll to the max, and she can learn moves instantly. She'll memorize the moves that other players pull on her and then use them on future opponents.

One of the reasons the show goes downhill is that they run out of ways to make Misaki win the fight naturally. Now her doll can take punch after punch while barely taking damage, and then she'll one hit KO her opponent. It was plausible at first, if you consider the strength and placement of hits. It quickly pushes the suspension of disbelief when a nearly beaten Misaki can take a powerful hit and stay in the game, and moments later use the SAME EXACT ATTACK on the enemy and drain their entire health bar.

There are MANY instances where an opponent is suddenly nerfed when they fight Misaki. More than once a doll is so fast that Misaki can't even see the movements, but a few episodes later they fight and Misaki can keep pace with them. Also, weapons are forbidden, but a few dolls use abilities that should definitely count as weapons (and are only loosely explained). The most egregious example is a giant unavoidable energy ball that explodes the entire playing field.

There are also cheap moments to create suspense. Throughout almost the entire show, damage is calculated instantly. The moment one doll hits another their health bars update. Then there are a few moments where the health is "Calculating" to make you wait, wondering who wins the fight. It was already obvious who the winner would be from the story structure and these scenes just throw away the internal logic of the world for no gain.

All of these problems appear in the final, climactic fight too. Even worse, Misaki's doll can push through a hard situation from sudden "power of love" that doesn't make sense in this world. All this did was give me some very unpleasant flashbacks to Lostorage Incited Wixoss.

*Romance Arc:*

The romance subplot is... there. There's the one dude that obviously likes Misaki, and there's a girl that likes him. It's exactly the subplot with Meiling, Shaoran, and Sakura again. Some spoilers about this later. There's also another guy that likes Misaki. Probably because she's the main character. I'm reluctant to call any character a "Mary Sue" because of how overused the term is, but... there's literally a scene where like every character in the show talk about how much they love Misaki.

For almost the entire runtime of the show, the whole romance arc is this conversation: "You like her, don't you?" "N-N-N-No I don't know what you're talking about." That stops being funny quickly.

*Mother Arc:*

Misaki's relationship with her mother is an interesting premise. You know that if Misaki keeps winning, she'll play against the champion and discover it is her mom. Misaki will meet people that know her mom, and she almost runs into the mom once or twice.

Her mother had to leave, which is fine. But she could have at least written letters to Misaki. Now that Misaki is in Tokyo, they can meet in person whenever. The mother doesn't want to. She's a terrible mom. Wondering how/when Misaki and her mother will finally reunite isn't nearly as gripping when you think about how shitty the mom is.

I'd be hooked if I felt like Misaki was going to come to terms with her mother leaving her and accept that she's just a shitty mom and that Misaki should move on. This is not how the show like to portray the mom. The only character who really expresses any frustration with the mother's decisions is Misaki's aunt. Overall, it gives you the feeling that the writers don't think Misaki's mom is bad.

*Characters:*

Misaki is a likable enough protagonist, with a few quirks that stop her from being a blatant Sakura Kinomoto clone. She's small, and she likes Angelic Layer because age and size don't matter in the game. She likes to say that a lot. It's a pretty good message for a show. She loves her doll, like most players. She loves her doll to the point she has to overcome the fear of watching it be injured. Not only that, but she feels bad when she injures other dolls. Why does she play a game where the only goal is injure the dolls? Great question. I would have loved to see how Misaki feels about that.

Misaki gets some development (and I hated it; more on that later) and that's about all the development. Side characters are mostly entertaining but don't change. Not much to say about them. None of them are bad, but none of them stand out either.

You have the weekly enemy who has some sort of personal issue and they think winning will fix it. Misaki wins instead and then is nice to them. Suddenly, "Oh I see I was thinking about this game all wrong. Misaki showed me the goal is to have fun and I love her now." Then they make cameos in future episodes to support Misaki. It's par for the course.

*Overall:*

It was cute in the beginning. It's funny, you like the characters, it's pleasing to look at, and you want Misaki to do her best and win. Then she starts winning for no reason, character development doesn't happen, and the show just fizzles out with an undeserved and unexplained "power of love" ending. I had a good time in the first half, but when I think about the show, I think about the ending. I do not recommend.




*SPOILERS:*

So, the romance plot? Goes nowhere. The guys that likes Misaki, he never tells her. There's the girl that likes him. She tells him, he doesn't know how to feel about it, and they never resolve that. It ends with them being awkward around each other. Super depressing.

Misaki admits to herself how lonely she is without the mom and stops pretending to be strong. She wonders why her mom is avoiding her. She realizes her mom knew she was in Tokyo and had the opportunity to see Misaki multiple times. Then they meet up and they talk, the mom offers no good reasons for abandoning her daughter. Misaki says "well I could have been more selfish in demanding to talk to you" and they make up. None of the characters ever seriously call out the mom for what she did wrong. This really killed the heart of the show for me.

Intended for a much younger audience. I loved it when I was 12. Not anymore. I wouldn't be able to sit through its sluggish pacing.

It wasn't bad but there isn't a plot. I've seen this series more than once entirely. I was more attached to the characters than any of the Angel fights. There's a lot of plot armor and the fights didn't make much sense.

Episode 25 to me was the best episode. The ending, what ending. That was disappointing. So Misaki's mom can suddenly walk by Christmas? All the emotional intensity was gone, just for one more fight.

I do like the ... story arc of Misaki and her mom more than her romance. I ended up rooting for the other pairing - Tamayo and Kotaro. They actually had a lot more chemistry and were more interesting to watch than Misaki and what's his face.

It's average.

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.