Angelic Layer - Vol. 1

Basically this is Pokemon revisited for pre-teens, despite the fact that I don't believe they are in to that sort of thing, 15 minutes of final fantasy per episode, with seven minutes of linking scenes. Makes you long for the sophistication of Team Rocket as the antagonist. A young girl (aged 12), naive from the country - stop me if you've heard this plot before - discovers that everyone is playing with neo-pets, sorry, Pokemon, sorry dolls, in a combat ring/battleground/layer. She has neo-Pikachu, who's the greatest Pokemon/doll of them all and through luck so wins all her fights by her underdogged underdoggedness and instant Zen-like mastery of Star Craft/Gotta catch 'em all/Angelic Layer. Of course she wins straight off because she is Darth Vader's/The 70 game all star victor's secret child. Only Darth/Ultimate Deus is a crippled evil genius/dissociative, MD-suffering hermit who's not seen her for eight years and Obi Wan/Icchan is some mentalist/mad scientist/the progenitor who snatches her from a shopping mall to craft her as a weapon against Athena/Darth/her father/mother, the hardest deus/pokemon farmer/jedi master in the world.

Angelic Layer is a lovely anime-a great little gem that has the charm of Cardcaptor Sakura (though not as visually beautiful), and the mecha-madness of Chobits (though not as mature in it's theme), with a touch of Excel Saga's crazy humour thrown in.

The music is beautiful throughout (you're gonna want the soundtrack!), and the main character Misaki is soooo cute! ^__^ You just can't help cheering for her!

It's also very funny in places-Misaki's insane mentor "wiggly Icchan" adds a lot of laughs to this series. It only lost it's 5th star because, to put it simply, it's kind of childlike and perhaps not that entertaining for older audiences.

In conclusion; perhaps not the best that CLAMP has to offer, but definetly worth a watch-it's still very sweet and has a lot of promise...will Misaki ever meet her Mother??!

I can't wait to see more of it...a nice little DVD to add to your anime collection.

Similar to Pokémon in its themes (essentially all the screentime devoted to either 'Angelic Layer' doll battles or conversations regarding the subject) this features a 12 year old girl who devotes herself to succeeding in a competitive game that seems to have gripped a fictional modern Japan.

Animation is sharp and fluid - plenty of movement and without the long holds that can be a trademark of animé TV series.

The story itself is predictable with no real surprises so far but high production values and zany humour (largely thanks to the oddball chief Icchan) reign. Though well above the intended audience, I'm looking forward to watching future episodes.

The moral impact these mechanised cock fights could have on the young intended audience does concern me slightly, since this seems to be a prevalent theme in animé these days.

Another of CLAMP's brilliant works. CLAMP is a famous group of mangakas in Japan who have created many wildly popular manga, which themselves have spawned popular anime series like Cardcaptor Sakura and Chobits. I first decided to rent this anime when I read the Chobits manga and found numerous references to Angelic Layer. I was a little apprehensive about this but after watching it I was really dragged into the story and I think that, to me, Angelic Layer might equal the amazing Chobits.

To clear things up from a previous review for this series, Misaki's doll is actually called Hikaru which is a Japanese verb approximately meaning 'to shine', and Misaki's mentor in Angelic Layer is called Icchan. I was really surprised when, in the English dub, several honourific suffixes had been preserved from the original Japanese such as '-kun' and '-chan'. This is quite unusual for anime introduced into English-speaking countries and it's also quite uncommon in manga. As a student of the Japanese language I was, of course, very happy.

Anyway, so far I've really enjoyed the story. At times the English dub is tedious, the opening and ending themes are fairly weak Japanese pop which failed to interest me, but some of the Angel designs are really imaginative and beautiful to watch. Icchan made me laugh quite a lot in his pure weirdness, giving a man at his workplace odd punishments like inhaling spaghetti through his nose. Most of the characters really interest me, none of them are annoying and they're all very different in personalities and looks.

It's funny, pretty, absorbing, and I would definitely recommend. Probably more shoujo (for girls) than boys, and it made me think of the basic principle of Pokémon, so if anyone liked that and maybe a bit of sci-fi on top, they'll like this a lot. As has been said before, will probably appeal most to young teenagers.

My daughter is a great fan of Japanese animation and this ond doesn't disappoint her. It tells the story of a young girls who gets involved with Angelic Layer, a game play with dolls that you contol with your mind in special arenas, you then use them to fight other dolls. There are some very amusing parts which has my daughter in hysterics.