Angelic Layer

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If you are expecting many plot twists and drama, you are wrong here.
It's a combination of shojo and shonen, the fighting and the relationship with the character is amazing for that what it is.
If you like reading angelic layer, and you want more than you should check choobit, it's from the same mangaka group and plays in the same universe.
Unlike choobits it's not filled with fan service, it's more child friendly and wholesome. Every Character is nice to each other and its more about the fun of playing angelic layer than other things.

It's also finished with in 2h+ of reading.

Beware, the following review may contain /spoilers/.

As far as CLAMP’s manga go, Angelic Layer is pretty average. And that’s all there is to it. /Average/.

For our basic premise, we have Suzuhara Misaki, a young girl who has just moved to Tokyo to live with her aunt in order to go to middle school there. Upon arriving in Tokyo, she is swept up into the game called “Angelic Layer”, where you raise your own “Angel” from an egg and fight with other Angels. Along the way, Misaki makes a couple friends, a few enemies, some rivals, and learns new things about herself. She also discovers that ... she is naturally martial arts oriented, and uses her capabilities to fight better in Angelic Layer.

Angelic Layer doesn’t really teach us anything new, except for, perhaps, reinforce the ol’ saying “size doesn’t matter”. There were a few emotional moments here and there, but all in all, Angelic Layer is five volumes mostly comprised of fights. Fights between the Angels, that is; detailing how they battle with each other and the strategies Misaki and Hikaru – her Angel – must use against them. The art is fairly typical CLAMP fare and will probably remind a lot of people of Chobits. Not only is Chobits also written by CLAMP, it also contains a similar theme: the relationships between people and toys (or robots). Misaki is shown to have a high amount of regard and care for Hikaru, a trait that most of the other Deus (people who control Angels) lack.

Plot twists? What plot twists? Most of them were fairly easy to see and read – I’ll eat my hat if no one guessed that Misaki’s mother was the one who controlled the white Angel, Athena, at the end. The characters weren’t particularly memorable. None of them really stay with you at the end. As is the norm for CLAMP’s works, sharp-eyed people will be able to catch references to CLAMP’s other manga – one of the most obvious being Hikaru, who is named after and looks like Hikaru from Magic Knight Rayearth.

Angelic Layer isn’t deep. It isn’t meaningful. But if you’re looking for a few volumes of cute characters and battles between Angels, here’s your manga.

I dare say that my view on this manga has been coloured by its anime counterpart, but I honestly am surprised that a show as good as that came from this manga. I didn't remember it being like this, only that I wasn't happy with the ending. Well, as it turns out the ending is not the only thing that I'm not happy about.

It must be said that I do like the idea behind this. It's a more creative look at fighting toys than others, and the overall plot is alright. But it moves at a breakneck pace. Training, first ... game, tournament BAM, BAM, BAM. There is little in between the fights, so much so that most of the manga is the fights. Precious little time is spent on any of the characters, including Hikaru. You've got your usual 'fight your hardest and you will win' and 'size doesn't matter' themes going along but because we run through it fast and spend so little time on the characters, these themes feel quite unfulfilled.

On the characters a little further, they are rather flat and boring. Each character has either one or two roles to play, one of which is always analysing and spouting off how great Misaki is during her fights. The other is dependant on who the character is, and possibly if they've been defeated or not . Tamayo is the tomboy, Koutaro is the punching bag etc. There are some chapters where we aren't in a fight and you get some semblence of who these characters are, but these moments are few and far between. You just don't get a feel for who these people are, and why they do what they do.

Now one of the things that does run through the plot is Misaki's mother, it's something that is constantly alluded to by several characters from the very start (yet there is no subplot to put any meat behind those allusions). When you finally get to the big reveal about Misaki's mother.....you're kidding me, right? That's it?! After the (what counts for) buildup to this rather important plot point, that would have to be the lamest motivation and ending I have ever read.

Onto the artwork, overall I didn't like it. When the characters were standing still it was good, but we spend so much time in blurred action littered with speed lines, it can be difficult to make out what's happening. The action on the whole was pretty poorly choreographed, I had no idea what was going in most of the fights. The characters spend quite a bit of time in chibi mode, and sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. I think the characters spend too much time in chibi mode overall, but there occasions were it was amusing.

Overall, I was really disappointed. It's got a good idea but it's rushed all the way to the end and it's so unsatisfying. Watch the anime instead, it fleshes out the characters, gives a better mother plot.....it's a far better take on Angelic Layer than the manga.