D.N.Angel

Daisuke Niwa is a clumsy, block-headed, and wimpy middle school student who has few redeeming qualities. On his 14th birthday, he finally decides to confess his love to his longtime crush Risa Harada, but is rejected.

In an unexpected turn of events, however, Daisuke finds himself transforming into Dark Mousy, the infamous phantom thief, whenever his mind is set on Risa. Though Daisuke is unaware of this strange heritage, his mother is certainly not: since before the boy was born, his mother had been planning for him to steal valuable works of art and let the name of the elusive art thief be known.

With doubt and confusion constantly clouding his mind, Daisuke finds himself struggling in his relationships with classmates and family. And it is not long before Daisuke realizes that he is not the only one with a fated family legacy—his greatest adversary could be the one classmate he is most unwilling to fight.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Mousy, Dark Main

Okiayu, Ryoutarou Japanese

Niwa, Daisuke Main

Irino, Miyu Japanese

Hiwatari, Satoshi Main

Ishida, Akira Japanese

Harada, Riku Main

Nakayama, Sara Japanese

Harada, Risa Main

Asano, Masumi Japanese

Krad Supporting

Kusao, Takeshi Japanese

With Supporting

Hio, Mio Supporting

Kawata, Taeko Japanese

Niwa, Daichi Supporting

Asano, Masumi Japanese

Niwa, Kosuke Supporting

Terasoma, Masaki Japanese

Beniya, Yoshikazu Producer

Hiramatsu, Kiyonori Producer

Itou, Atsushi Producer

Yamanishi, Tahei Producer

Reviews

Jul 8, 2008

theeggman85

Recommended

It seems that most people who have read the manga are disappointed with the series, and that's completely understandable. I usually like to read a manga and then ignore the anime version of it, or possibly try the first few episodes. It's sad but true: the animes just don't quite live up to their manga counterparts.
That aside, I have never read the manga, so take into account that my review is written without knowledge of the story manga-style.

Fantastic! This anime is truly amazing! I want to start by telling you this:
The reason that this anime is so great is the innocence and purity of the ... romance. Most animes lack this, in fact every other anime I have seen doesn't come close to this. Now this could be because I haven't seen enough romance animes, but D.N. Angel touched me in such a way that still leaves me impacted, one year after viewage. (Yes, I know that's not a word.)

STORY: 9/10

Great story, I'm mainly grading by how engaging the story is, not how inventive it is. Its actually a very simple story, but its this simplicity that makes it beautiful to watch. To boil it down to the essentials, its just a story about a boy who is confused about love. As the story progresses, he slowly finds his way, and begins to understand more about his life.

ART: 9/10

I love the art, its unique yet not too forcefully new. Its very refreshing, and the smooth textures really blend in with the moods of the anime. I'm not a very artsy person, but a big thumbs up in this section.

SOUND: 9/10

The OP is just amazing, I can never get it out of my head. It sounds a bit weird at first, like the vocals are a bit weak, but the more you listen to it, the more it will be stuck in your head. The in-anime music is also fantastic, great great job here too.

CHARACTER: 10/10

This is where D.N. Angel really shines. The characters are simple, some cliche, but these are the characters I have found myself being attached to the most in any anime. The focus ends up being confusion and misunderstandings, and how the characters deal with these. And instead of turning into some dum fanservicey, ecchi, borderline hentai situation like most modern semi-romances do, the characters are forced to turn away from each other and they think long and hard about their feelings. Through this process, you really start to develop your own feelings toward each character. I really really got into this anime after about 13 eps or so, I became slightly obsessed... whoopsie :D

ENJOYMENT: 10/10

Nothing much to be said here; I kinda already said it. It's really great to see such innocence on the screen when other things like violence and fanservice are in high demand. Not that I mind either of those, but D.N. Angel puts those concepts to shame. Shame shame shame, this anime is so good.

OVERALL: 10/10

I am definitely going to have to rewatch this anime when I run out (like that's gonna happen...). But this anime has something that others lack, and its probably its ability to draw the viewer deep into the romance, and you can really see and develop feelings and attitudes during the episodes. Please, you don't want to miss D.N. Angel for the world.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Mar 14, 2008

DistinctlyBenign

Mixed Feelings

I really don't understand the raving about this series. D.N.Angel has a typical anime plot, and executes it poorly.

The story starts out typically enough, based on the first two episodes it could have really been something good. Young boy who is a high school student by day, and a paranormal thief by night.

Its just that the storyline itself develops slowly and never really built up much interest. The actual stealing was a bit interesting, in the style of Lupin the Third, but in the end D.N.Angel just fails to deliver.

I'm not sure on the English dub, but I must say that the Japaneses voice acting ... cast for this series is probably one of the worst I have ever heard. The leading female was alright, but the main characters voice often lacked emotion completely. If the line was about how he was in great danger he would almost sound like he was being sarcastic because of how lacking his voice was in the sense of that danger.

I'm not saying D.N.Angel is a bad anime. Remember, 5 is an average score. However, why watch a 5 when there are still unwatched 8's 9's and 10's?

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Mar 6, 2013

inarizushi

Not Recommended

Way, way back in middle school, I read this manga. That was back when I snapped up every manga I could find, and adored phantom thieves (Kurama, and Tuxedo Kamen, and Saint Tail, oh my!). A friend gave me the box set of the anime for Christmas and I was so excited.

Until I watched it.

D.N.Angel can't decide if it wants to be an epic story of light vs. darkness or a show about a middle school love triangle. It starts out good enough with the phantom thief angle, but that turns into a completely different story about ancient magical rivals. Which would be fine except ... that the pacing is way off. Instead of the thief bit being the introduction to the magical rival bit, we get lots of episodes stretching out the first part and the latter being rushed and confusing.

For the sake of a middle school love triangle.

The story has it's original aspects, but it quickly gets derivative. Our lead, Daisuke Niwa, is utterly bland. He makes up for this by having a cute furry mascot and turning into the dashing thief Dark Mousy--via a strange genetic condition--that is so good at stealing things, he sends out calling cards to the police and still gets away with the prize. And, in the history of great shoujo tropes, Daisuke turns into Dark by getting flustered by his crush or thinking about her too hard. Romantic hijinks ensue!

Daisuke is in love with one Risa Harada, who predictably has the hots for Dark. (Super Man, anyone?) Risa is, of course, the school idol and moe princess with a tsundere twin who would love Daisuke's affections if only she could stop berating him long enough. Which twin will he choose!?

Meanwhile, sickly child prodigy super detective (WHO IS IN THE SAME CLASS AS ALL THE OTHER MAIN CHARACTERS) Satoshi Hiwatari is out to catch Dark, but oh no! His body is home to the phantom Krad...who is the opposite of Dark. You know. Because their names are reverse. It turns out that even though Krad is lighter (blond, light eyes, wears white, where as Dark dresses in black, black hair, violet eyes), he's the more dangerous of the two and his family has made or collected potentially threatening objects over the years that Dark must steal to neutralize.

Things that work:

Daisuke's mom, Emiko is a fantastic character. She's hilarious, involved in the story (she has agency! Even though she's a mother!), and a competent thief herself. Because of the "family secret/trade", she's been training Daisuke since birth and possibly before and guides him along.

Dark, for being a typical "cool bishounen" is actually interesting and can be really funny when he looses that cool.

Krad and Dark obviously hate each other, what with being exact opposite beings and all, but Daisuke and Satoshi manage to form a strained but genuine friendship. Not an easy task with Dark screaming inside Daisuke's head about it.

Daisuke can only stop turning into Dark if the person he loves returns those feelings, but as I said before, love triangle. Risa is the one that triggers the transformation into Dark, so Risa is the one he needs to end up with, but what of his developing feelings for Riku the twin that actually knows he exists? There is the implication that he could be trapped into a relationship with Risa, which is an interesting take on the situation. Things get more complicated when he wonders if he wants to get rid of Dark at all, since they become close.

The theme of dark does not equal evil never gets old.

In 1997, having the boy be the protagonist of a shoujo story and turn into someone else was a cool new idea. We get a lot of Daisuke's inner monologue, which while never being shocking, it's nice to hear a boy muse about his feelings.

The art is decent. I don't care for the character designs, but the colors are bright and crisp.

The music is surprisingly good.

What didn't work:

Besides all the cliches an utter predictability, the world wasn't clearly defined. There was a lot of use of German, European type spell books, references to fairy tales, and Dark and Krad having English names, but a clear mythology wasn't revealed. The city also looked very German, but the kids attended a Japanese style school and behaved very...err Japanese. I was perpetually confused over the setting and culture.

The romance wasn't all that engaging (to moe or tsundere! that is the question!) and ate up way to much of the time.

I wasn't a fan of the character designs, especially Daisuke's weird, out of place hair.

Pacing. Pacing was a problem.

Ultimately:

I guess watch this if you like the manga? Or pretty 1990's style bishounen? Or if you're REALLY into pre-teen romance?

Don't watch it for the magic or phantom thieves though. There are better anime out there for that.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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