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.
