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Ripples...
+ Learn Some Japanese
Reviews,,,
Here you will find a few opinions/overviews of an anime/jpop concerts (or CDs) that either myself or a friend viewed. Hopefully, you'll get a better idea of these shows after reading these.
D.N.Angel
Review by Kaminari! *spoilers by the insane girl!*
Title: D.N.Angel
Genre: drama/romance/comedy
Original Creator: Yukiru Sugisaki
Grade: C (70%)
Age Rating: 13 + (violence)
Episode count: 26
Format Viewed: English Subtitled
Well, I will say to begin with that I was slightly disappointed in the anime. If I had not read the manga, I probably would have liked it more. Not to say I didn�t like it. I actually did like it, after I convinced myself the manga didn�t exist. Here is my conclusion, I have decided that the manga and anime are separate universes that tell the same story but in a completely different order of events. Which I suppose should be done for most/all manga to anime transfers.
Anyway� now that I cleaned that out of my mind, time for the actual review. The story starts off pretty well. Boy meets girl, girl rejects boy, boy transforms into extraordinary pretty 18 year old guy, all well and good in the land of girl-targeted anime. Daisuke, the main character, just turns 14 and is bestowed the power to transform into Dark, extraordinary pretty 18 year old guy, and has to steal artwork created by the Hikari family and seal the magic the artists installed into the piece. Woot.
The story focuses mostly on Daisuke and his struggle with being two people and loving one girl. We know Dark is about 300 years old and steals stuff� and that is about all. We know Risa (Daisuke likes her) and Riku are twins� that�s about all. Wiz is Daisuke�s little pet that obeys Dark� that�s about it. And we know Daisuke is 14 years old, loves to paint, has been training to be a thief all his life and yet is still clumsy, and loves Risa. It takes awhile for the anime to stop focusing everything on Daisuke and go a little into the other character�s lives. You don�t even get to know that much about Dark until he finally rejects Risa because he loves her grandma too much (�you would have to watch it). You get ONE childhood memory from Risa/Riku and that isn�t until summer vacation. And poor Satoshi apparently has no memories (well�one on the very LAST episode. And it wasn�t even focusing on Satoshi�) and just creates a present existence. Which brings us to Wiz. Wiz looks like the spawn of a rabbit and a squirrel who were left together for too long. Adorable�yes. We know that Wiz is Dark�s faithful pet that can be his wings and such. He also says, �Kyuu� and only �Kyuu�, with variations of course; �Kyuu?� �Kyuu!� �Kyuu�� and so forth. Do we find out where he came from? �No. Do we find out why Dark has a pet and Krad (Dark�s evil double) doesn�t? �No. Wiz is a mystery until the very end� Speaking of Krad, the crazy morally confused angel, we know nothing of him really. He�s Dark�s other half, he lives inside the Hikari male bloodline, and� he�s insane.
To summarize, eventually each character had their moment to shine and stand out but it was always very vague and left something to be desired. In part because the story was squeezed into 26 episodes and it seems like most of the work done on the anime was to incorporate CG effects into it (which looked really good by the way).
To elaborate a little on the story structure, it was annoying how you got not very much information on what was going on until a certain episode where all the information was given to you all at once. However, it was always a very lame explanation. For example: Hi! I�m Satoshi! I pop up every so often to mess with Daisuke, in like episode three I transform into Krad, weeeee! Then I vanish for 8ish episodes. Why you ask? I needed to think on things, but when I came back I was no different from when I left. What was the point of him leaving?! It made me think he had some idea to keep Krad under control and he needed to be away from Daisuke/Dark to perfect it. But nooooooo, the moment he comes back he loses his mind again and transforms. He even put up more of a fight in episode three. Lame.
�Lame� pretty much describes the explanations throughout the bulk of the anime. Although, when you get to the last 3 or so episodes it gets REALLY good. Which is sad. It wasn�t fair to leave all the genius of the anime for the end, it should have been more equally fanned out, in my opinion. A little more thought into �why things happen� instead of Dark did this, and Dark did that, but now Dark will do this. Not that my mind is not plagued by the handful of bishonen that now frolic in my dreams and haunt my teachers through random thoughtless doodles that adorn my tests and homework, but I want mooooore.
Although I do think the ending was good, I didn�t like the feeling it left me with. My mind did not agree with the credits, which insisted the anime was over. I felt cheated. Soooo�Dark�died? He was sealed? Or�something. And to further my frustration, no one seemed to care! Dark was so much nicer in the anime, you think Daisuke would be just a �tad� upset. But no, he was all smiles. No, good-bye Dark. No, I�ll miss you Dark. No nothing. Poor Dark. I waited for something, anything to prove these characters were endowed with some form of emotions besides love and loneliness. I mean seriously, your other half just�um�was sealed/killed/sent to the land of milk�n honey? I can understand Satoshi being happy, his other self was not exactly sane. Although, I think he was happy because he got to keep Daisuke�s coat� it�s a nice coat I guess, I wouldn�t mind having one. I suppose the coat is a nice symbolic gift of friendship but� why not like� a feather or something? And where was the cute friendship hug?! You have to seal the deal with a hug! And now I am ranting.
This anime will be mostly enjoyed by fangirls who tend to not get complicated story lines. It�s very simple and visually appealing, perfect for the meek population. MY rating is 70/100 (My favorite animes consist of Gundam Wing, Yami no Matsui, and X so take that into consideration. All ratings are biased so I suggest you do watch it and be your own judge. ^_^)