Yuki Kaori - Angel Sanctuary, vol. 01-03 (Eng. trans.)
Mon, Apr. 25th, 2005 03:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterPure crack. OMG wings and swords and guys who are girls and girls who are guys and reincarnations and the war against heaven and incest and implied twincest and arcane religious references and gaaaah the pretty! *is dead*
Er. Ahem. Yes.
It wasn't nearly so addictive when I first read it in high school in the Chinese translation!
This may be because there is Mudou Setsuna, the reincarnation of the organic angel Alexiel (I have no idea what an organic angel is... maybe she was mulched often?). There are flashbacks to said angel Alexiel. Then there is Alexiel's twin brother, the inorganic angel Rosiel (I get that a little more, considering that he starts out in the manga as a computer virus). They all look the same, with the exception of hair length. Rosiel manages to get out of the prison Alexiel locked him in aeons ago and takes over the bodies of assorted people.
Now, this was confusing enough in English. In Chinese, it was just.. huh? So... Ruri is Rosiel? No, wait. Maybe not. What is this mechanical angel thing anyway ("organic" and "inorganic" both have the Chinese character "machine" in them)? It also took me a while to figure out that "Alexiel" and "Rosiel" were names instead of arcane religious terms, since Chinese doesn't have handy things like capital letters or spaces between words.
Anyhow. As stated previously, this is the story of Mudou Setsuna, who is also the incarnated version of Alexiel, the angel who turned sides and rebelled against heaven. Alexiel's body has been locked in crystal while her soul has been tormented to endless reincarnation and horrible, horrible deaths.
Unsurprisingly, Setsuna's life sucks, largely because he's in love with his sister Sara. Then there are the demons chasing him around who thinks he's their savior, the angels who want to kill him, the evil twin who can't figure out if he loves Setsuna/Alexiel or hates him, the best friend, who keeps not dying, and a really weird computer game.
Frankly, I have no idea what's going on with the plot, and I don't care because arcane religious references! Corrupt angels! Demons! Wings! Swords! Reincarnation! Apocalypse! Heaven! Hell! I mean, I thought X was the epitome of gothic modern manga fantasy, but clearly it has nothing on this.
I hope Borders' 3-for-2 manga sale keeps going, lalala. I mean, who needs food when one can have manga?
Spoiler stuff ahead for X and AS!
I am less irritated with Sara than I was with Kotori in X, probably because she dies by the end of vol. 3, while Kotori takes an extra 7 volumes to die. I sound mean, but they are exactly the same. They both have curly blond hair, are beautiful and innocent, have older brother things (although CLAMP displaces Kotori's a bit to make it less angsty). Also, thankfully Sara isn't saddled with a weak heart that has to be protected no matter what.
Part of me is irritated at Setsuna and Sara's True Love of Doom, especially the whole airport scene. This is because Sara is not interesting to me, as previously mentioned. Oh well. I accept the necessity of having the cute innocent girl love interest who is killed off early as a way to somehow magically handwave away the amazing amount of slashiness. Actually, I'm not even sure if it can be labeled as slashiness, given that Setsuna was previously a girl and that there is a cross-dressing demon and another demon who is a girl but wants to marry Alexiel and protect her.
I love the current divide between body and soul and how it is a great physical metaphor for gender and sexuality. "Metaphor" isn't quite the word I'm looking for, but it's something like how Buffy uses monsters and whatnot to externalize internal struggles. Alexiel's body is female, yes, but Alexiel's soul can be reincarnated in either a male or female body. Kira also seems to be like that as well (I wonder if Kira was ever female?).
I wasn't too into Kira at first until the flashback sequence to Edo Japan. Apparently double suicide interests me. Well, either that, or the whole derailing the course of destiny thing, which is why I adore Diarmuid in the Fionavar Tapestry. I love that Kira is the one who did this!
I also love Kurai and her desire to protect her savior reminds me of Utena's vow to be a prince.
And Sara has died and the apocalypse is about to begin and Setsuna has wings! Gah!
Er. Ahem. Yes.
It wasn't nearly so addictive when I first read it in high school in the Chinese translation!
This may be because there is Mudou Setsuna, the reincarnation of the organic angel Alexiel (I have no idea what an organic angel is... maybe she was mulched often?). There are flashbacks to said angel Alexiel. Then there is Alexiel's twin brother, the inorganic angel Rosiel (I get that a little more, considering that he starts out in the manga as a computer virus). They all look the same, with the exception of hair length. Rosiel manages to get out of the prison Alexiel locked him in aeons ago and takes over the bodies of assorted people.
Now, this was confusing enough in English. In Chinese, it was just.. huh? So... Ruri is Rosiel? No, wait. Maybe not. What is this mechanical angel thing anyway ("organic" and "inorganic" both have the Chinese character "machine" in them)? It also took me a while to figure out that "Alexiel" and "Rosiel" were names instead of arcane religious terms, since Chinese doesn't have handy things like capital letters or spaces between words.
Anyhow. As stated previously, this is the story of Mudou Setsuna, who is also the incarnated version of Alexiel, the angel who turned sides and rebelled against heaven. Alexiel's body has been locked in crystal while her soul has been tormented to endless reincarnation and horrible, horrible deaths.
Unsurprisingly, Setsuna's life sucks, largely because he's in love with his sister Sara. Then there are the demons chasing him around who thinks he's their savior, the angels who want to kill him, the evil twin who can't figure out if he loves Setsuna/Alexiel or hates him, the best friend, who keeps not dying, and a really weird computer game.
Frankly, I have no idea what's going on with the plot, and I don't care because arcane religious references! Corrupt angels! Demons! Wings! Swords! Reincarnation! Apocalypse! Heaven! Hell! I mean, I thought X was the epitome of gothic modern manga fantasy, but clearly it has nothing on this.
I hope Borders' 3-for-2 manga sale keeps going, lalala. I mean, who needs food when one can have manga?
Spoiler stuff ahead for X and AS!
I am less irritated with Sara than I was with Kotori in X, probably because she dies by the end of vol. 3, while Kotori takes an extra 7 volumes to die. I sound mean, but they are exactly the same. They both have curly blond hair, are beautiful and innocent, have older brother things (although CLAMP displaces Kotori's a bit to make it less angsty). Also, thankfully Sara isn't saddled with a weak heart that has to be protected no matter what.
Part of me is irritated at Setsuna and Sara's True Love of Doom, especially the whole airport scene. This is because Sara is not interesting to me, as previously mentioned. Oh well. I accept the necessity of having the cute innocent girl love interest who is killed off early as a way to somehow magically handwave away the amazing amount of slashiness. Actually, I'm not even sure if it can be labeled as slashiness, given that Setsuna was previously a girl and that there is a cross-dressing demon and another demon who is a girl but wants to marry Alexiel and protect her.
I love the current divide between body and soul and how it is a great physical metaphor for gender and sexuality. "Metaphor" isn't quite the word I'm looking for, but it's something like how Buffy uses monsters and whatnot to externalize internal struggles. Alexiel's body is female, yes, but Alexiel's soul can be reincarnated in either a male or female body. Kira also seems to be like that as well (I wonder if Kira was ever female?).
I wasn't too into Kira at first until the flashback sequence to Edo Japan. Apparently double suicide interests me. Well, either that, or the whole derailing the course of destiny thing, which is why I adore Diarmuid in the Fionavar Tapestry. I love that Kira is the one who did this!
I also love Kurai and her desire to protect her savior reminds me of Utena's vow to be a prince.
And Sara has died and the apocalypse is about to begin and Setsuna has wings! Gah!
(no subject)
Wed, Apr. 27th, 2005 03:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Wed, Apr. 27th, 2005 09:54 pm (UTC)I'm in the middle of vol. 6 right now, which is boring me to death, so I'm glad to hear of improvement.