A soldier. A girl protecting an egg. Shadow fish. Men who chase shadow fish. Sacred spaces inside giant fossilized remains. A world tree. Glass bottles that count the days. Lost memories. The great flood. The familiarity of isolation and the comfort of human contact. Hope. Is the bed an alter or the alter a bed? Long, long silences mark passing hours. The egg is broken. Water rises. Who is the soldier? Hope shatters. Reason D'Etre shatters. Suicide. Rebirth.
Released in 1985, this surreal masterpiece it is still beautiful to look at, making me think of Salvador Dali and HR Giger at the same time. Its dark and somber palate, seems to be the forerunner of Gilgamesh, but otherwise they are disimilar.
People have strong feelings about Angle's Egg. The better they understand art, psychology, philosophy, and theology, the better they seem to like it. Those with a narrower view of the world aren't interested in it at all. It is about art, message, and enlightenment. It does make you think but doesn't offer suggestions as to what you should think. What you take away from it is up to you. If you were turned off by the philosophical ambiguity of Evengalion, Angel's Egg is not for you. If you liked Mushishi, you might enjoy Angle's Egg.
It is perhaps a touch pretentious but still excellent.
Other works by Oshii, Mamoru I like: Blood: The Last Vampire, Ghost In the Shell, Halo Legends, Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade, Patlabor, The Sky Crawlers.
