Unfortunately, from an objective point of view, I couldn't have been more wrong. It was childish idealism at the time. Angel Sanctuary the OAV is impossibly hard to review because it is based on what is in my opinion, one of the greatest and most beautiful pieces of artwork of all time. Kaori Yuki's Angel Sanctuary manga is a stroke of pure genius. Angel Sanctuary the OAV is a twisted, broken, unfortunate piece of nonsense that will turn off anybody who has standards for anime. The real tragedy is that such a horrible piece of animated trash was based on something so beautiful.
I rated the OAV a 5 overall because I had to be fair. It is entertaining and watchable. It just isn't good. It is the equivalent of watching a bad soap opera that you know isn't very good, but you can't get your eyes away from the screen.
My main issue with the OAV is that it is pretty confusing. They attempted to cram the first 3 Angel Sanctuary books into 3 episodes. That is 3 out of 20 by the way. To do this, they not only had to cut corners in explaining a ridiculously confusing and complex plot, but they had to cut some characters out or change them completely (poor, poor Katou) Furthermore, the story never actually comes to a finnish, and the viewer is left wondering what the hell happens to these characters. Unless you are willing to invest your time in the manga...heck, that is if you know the manga exists, you will be spending a good 2 hours watching a ton of drama that never even gets solved. Add on a few dozen plot holes and some pathetic dialogue and you have Angel Sanctuary's OAV.
Something else that I noticed is that Kaori Yuki's famously elegant sexy style just seems creepy in this show. This is an author that is known quite famously for her very obvious hoe yey overtones and extremely liberal opinions on human sexuality. The Angel Sanctuary manga is littered with men lusting after men, incest, transgender characters, etc. All of this is done in a very natural and respectable way. In the anime, the portrayal of these characters can best be described as dirty/creepy. Watching the main characters struggle with his feelings for his sister makes him seem more like an out of control, horny teenaged sex offender rather than a young man in love. The character Rosiel who acts as one of the series antagonists looks and sounds like a rapist. It's somewhat unsettling to watch.
As for the aesthetics, the art is very etchy and old fashioned. I think some of the art they used to advertise the OAV is actually very pretty, but it does not look very nice in show. You can tell that it was done on the cheap.
the AS OAV might be worth the watch if you are a hardcore fan of Kaori Yuki, but even then, it might just make you rage. It's not a horrible show, but it has some major faults that really demolish any value it could have had. My advice to everybody thinking of watching this is to skip straight to the manga that it is based on. You won't regret it.
