When Megumi was nine years old, (s)he came across a magic book with genie inside it. When Megumi, a rough and tumble elementary school boy, wished to be "the manliest man in the world" the tricky genie granted his wish backwards! Megumi transformed into a woman, and everyone around her seemed to forget she had ever been a boy at all. The only ones who remembered her past life as a male were herself and her best friend, Miki Hanakain.
Now, six years later, Megumi is a gorgeous High school student whose still stuck on being a boy. She's loud, rude, violent, and too blunt for her own good. Miki tries her best to make Megumi into an upstanding lady, but her efforts are in vain: Megumi's determined to stay in touch with her manly side!
Unfortunately for Megumi, her looks get her into more trouble than she can handle. First, the notorious school bully, Genzo Soga, falls head over heels in love with Megumi, transforming from a bad-boy into a blathering love-struck idiot. Then a group of well-meaning boys form "The Megu Group" in order to help protect Megumi from anything. And she'll need protecting! Megumi gets into more trouble than any teenage girl should! (Mostly because she picks fights with anyone who goes against her "manly" code of honor.)
Tenshi Na Konamaiki is a shonen comedy anime with a romantic undertone. It's abundant with jokes, action, and sweet moments between characters. At first, I had a lot of trouble classifying this anime because it did so much at the same time. Shonen? Shojo? Comedy? But I soon realized that Tenshi was pulling off all three at the same time, and quite effectively.
What really makes this series stand out is the cast of characters. All of them are insanely endearing -- from "average" Fujiki to the sweet best friend Miki. Genzo, an annoying weirdo who would get on anyone's nerves in real life, is fabulously fun to watch. I genuinely felt for Genzo as he tried to get Megumi to like him by being a "true man". Each character has many levels of development, and Miki-chan, who starts out as the normal "best friend" character grows into one of the most dynamic characters on the show.
The romance is done very well -- it isn't shoved in your face with a bunch of "omg!squee!" moments, but is instead built gradually, like a real relationship. I felt as though I really was watching these characters become closer and closer with each episode until they were inseparable. There's something about watching a group of best friends that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. And I always felt, before the romance, friendship was the first priority for the "Megu-Group". Even the villains are done well - some are hilarious while others are downright sinister.
The music for this show was really done well, especially the classic "heart-wrenching moment" track. God, that gets me every time. While the BG music is fabulous, the opening and ending themes vary in quality. There are a total of two opening themes and four ending themes. Of these, Grand Blue, the first opening theme, and Tears Go By the third ending theme, were my favorites. The others weren't bad songs, just uninteresting -- the kind you skip through.
There was actually a fair amount of action in this show -- Genzo and Megumi were beating up bad guys at least once every other episode. And Megumi kicks major ass by the way. Her super-powered kicks send bad guys flying. But the rest of the Megu group hold themselves pretty well, including street legend Genzo and Samurai-in-Training Kobayashi. Even Miki has her moments of bad-guy-butt-kicking. The fight scenes are animated very well.
Speaking of animation, the style of animation is actually very detailed and well-done. The style is a little accosting at first, but you get used to it rather quickly and even find it endearing after awhile. Megumi's long hair is also animated gorgeously, with plenty of highlights and motion effects. And the many moments of Chibi-Genzo are so adorably drawn. (I especially love the little board meetings that go on in Genzo's mind, where the many sides of his personality meet to discuss a current problem. Oh Genzo, you adorable dork.) I found that the animation actually got consistently better as the series went on. Might just be my imagination though.
The voice acting is great. I can't really comment on Japanese voice actors in terms of acting skill, but the voices for the characters were all enthusiastic and fit their personalities fabulously. My favorite Seiyuu was definitely Genzo's -- he gave Genzo such a wide range and put 100% into every line. Megumi's seiyuu, Megumi Hayashibara, (ironic, no?), was also one of my favorites. She gave Megumi a tomboyish sounding voice that fit her perfectly.
As for the plot, I'm not going to deny that there are a few holes in the story. I've heard the manga clears up some plot points a lot better than the anime does. For instance, the secret behind the magic that turned Megumi into a boy is a little fuzzy. And apparently, the ending in the anime is slightly different than that of the manga. I really should pick it up sometime. It's licensed by ViZ and all 20 volumes are out right now.
Also, sometimes, I will admit that the plot slows down for a good ol' fashioned pointless romp through fun-times. Now, while this is perfectly acceptable from time to time, I felt that in the beginning Tenshi had far too many "filler" episodes if you will. I really wanted to know more about Megumi's curse and I felt the series took a bit too much time to get there. But I'd say, after episode 13, I got totally hooked. There are parts of this show where you will literally not be able to stop watching. Happened to me around three or four times, where I watched around four episodes in a row just because I needed to know what was going to happen next. This happened especially towards the end. Episodes 39-50 are must-see-right-nows (I watched these eleven episodes in the span of two days. No joke. It's been a long time since I stayed up until 1:30 AM watching anime.)
The ending of the series was cute -- a little rushed -- but certainly cute. It was very open-ended, which is something I usually don't like in animes. But at the same time, I felt satisfied enough by the ending and felt that it just enough open for interpretation.
What I really love about this show are the themes it addresses: what is it to be a man? What is it to be a woman? How do we decide who we are on the inside? What is "manly" -- standing up and fighting or letting go? I love the issues with gender that are brought up here as Megumi struggles with her identity. It's just so interesting to think about as you watch our heroine go through her trials.
This show is currently unlicensed, but I can see why. It's very Japanese. It has a lot of Japanese puns and Japanese culture references, and just the way the characters act is very Japanese. It would be a challenge for any company to bring this over for an American release without butchering the content. A dub of this series would have to write around all the corny little Japanese puns -- no easy task. I don't really mind though. Although this series might be cute in English, the Japanese version is fine as is.
