Yuki Kaori - Angel Sanctuary, vol. 17-20

[oyceter]

Wow. I have finally finished! I remain boggled by the ending, and I'm not quite sure if I got everything.

But I can't believe I forgot to squee at the appearance of Lucifer in person in vol. 16! I must have somehow lost my mind, because how could I have overlooked the reappearance of Kira as Lucifer in patent leather and Edward Scissorhands cosplay (am so amused that that's how Yuki Kaori thinks of it)! And Sevothtarte/Lailah meets her death as well.

The entire taking over of Sara's body for a miracle baby is incredibly creepy, particularly because it doesn't seem to be a commentary on the general creepiness of using women only as a womb and a vehicle for children.

I squealed with joy at the Lucifer/Alexiel flashbacks, and I only wish there were more.

This is my current understanding of what happens:

Sara has sex with Sandalphon while Sandalphon looks like Setsuna. She is taken over by Sandalphon and makes her way to Etemenenki so that Sandalphon's child can be born.

Setsuna chases after Rosiel to get to Etemenenki, and I've already forgotten why, even though I just finished this a few hours ago. Up there, he finds Rosiel, who is mostly insane now. Rosiel wants to merge with Alexiel to somehow get his beautiful body back; this means he has to kill Setsuna so Alexiel can reawaken. He orders Lucifer to kill Setsuna, which ends up not working. Somehow, Katan gets up there as well and tells Rosiel that he still loves Rosiel and thinks Rosiel is beautiful. In return, he gets his head lopped off.

They make it to Eden, where there is a long flashback sequence on why Alexiel was imprisoned there (still not sure). They find God somewhere, and Lucifer stabs Him, only it's just a body of God, and then Adam Kadamon appears and talks about destroying all of the earth, only it's actually God, not Adam Kadamon at all. Stuff happens, and Uriel, Michael and Kurai stay behind to seal in Adam Kadamon, which will destroy the power of God.

Somehow, there are tons of cannibal angel embryos floating around, and they almost get released onto earth to wreak havoc with their cannibal angel mouths. By the way, this part completely confuses me and nearly had me jumping out of my seat in the cafe to yell, "Cannibal angel embryos?! WTF!" Because wow! I thought nothing could top cannibal zombie angels, but cannibal embryo angels really does!

More stuff happens and Setsuna and Sara somehow find each other, Adam Kadamon turns back time on earth a little so it won't blow up the second time starts again, and Setsuna wants everyone to be happy.

I think I missed a lot of stuff. My head is still reeling.

Also, Raphael sacrifices himself for Barbiel, which totally had me grinning like mad.

Lucifer continues to be hot like a hot thing.

In conclusion, cannibal angel embryos!

Comments

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

An armada of angel embryos is released to destroy the earth! I forget exactly how it happens, but mostly I am astonished that I didn't remember it from my first read when I reread it. You wouldn't think that was the kind of thing that was forgettable.

I am really confused by the ending and by how Lucifer and Alexiel can be together when Setsuna is still alive.

God is really evil and reality is actually a video game he is playing on computer. Or something like that. But it tied in the video game discs from the very first episode! I was astonished by Kaori Yuki's crack-addled and dedicated foreshadowing, and not for the last time. So anyway God is evil and Adam Kadamon is good and sacrifices hirself for creation. I think.

I have been eagerly anticipating the Viz release of V20 for the past two years just so I can tell *what the hell happened*.

[oyceter]

An armada of angel embryos is released to destroy the earth! I forget exactly how it happens, but mostly I am astonished that I didn't remember it from my first read when I reread it. You wouldn't think that was the kind of thing that was forgettable.

Hee! It's like the giant walrus!

Wow! I totally missed the part about Lucifer and Alexiel getting to be together! Possibly I was blinded by the armada of angel embryos, which is, by the way, possibly the most cracktastic and just plain weird method of destruction that I can think of.

God is evil! And impersonates Adam Kadamon! Except Adam Kadamon is good and is the mother of angels, but hopefully not of angel embryos, but I can't honestly tell.

I really hope v20 from Viz makes sense too. Or, at least, I hope they don't use that completely illegible font for God.

[shati.livejournal.com]

I missed the Lucifer and Alexiel together, too -- last I remember is Lucifer shambling off with Mad Hatter the butterfly.

God is really evil and reality is actually a video game he is playing on computer. Or something like that.

! I knew God was evil, and possibly a robot or a computer program, but that -- that actually makes a certain amount of sense! Well, not sense, but yes, it ties back into the beginning of the manga. And the title!

[oyceter]

Lucifer shambles off with the Mad Hatter? When??

Woe, so confused!

[shati.livejournal.com]

I thought he was in the last chapter or few pages or something -- watching the rest of them, and then leaving. With a butterfly. Who I think is Mad Hatter. I have NO idea why she is suddenly a butterfly, except that she died and butterflies are ghosty and soultastic, and Hatter is associated with butterflies a lot anyway.

Possibly I hallucinated this! My volumes are at home, so I can't check.

[oyceter]

Huh! I have no idea.... I mean, it very well could have happened, but I was too distracted by cannibal angel embryos.

[shati.livejournal.com]

When I describe Angel Sanctuary to people, I generally end up sputtering, "Giant angry eyeball angel fetus! Flying around Tokyo!" (In reference to Sandalphon, not the cannibal angel embryos -- somehow, by that point in the manga, they didn't even make me blink. Like, duh, forget fire and ice, cannibal angel embryos are the natural way to end the world. Also, they were kind of cute.) It is the one scene I cannot get over.

Probably the other scenes would have stood more of a change if I had known any Japanese at that point (or if scanlations of the last five volumes had been available). But giant angry eyeball angel fetuses speak to all of us.

[oyceter]

OMG I forgot about the angry eyeball angel fetus! It's amazing what you can forget while reading this series, just because it's always topped by something else.

I suspect the scenes won't even make all that much sense in the Viz translation either, though hopefully it'll be better than the scans!