Title: Angel Sanctuary
Author: Kaori Yuki
Genre: Epic Sci-fi/Fantasy
Length: 20 Volumes
I recently read Angel Sanctuary by Kaori Yuki and I liked what I saw.
The basic plotline is this. God has sealed himself away, things are going downhill, and only the angel Alexiel can stop it. However, Alexiel was sealed away for revolting against God, her body in crystal, her soul in a cycle of reincarnation and death. Every incarnation suffering, every incarnation dieing young. Her current incarnation is a human boy named Setsuna Mudou. But Setsuna only cares about one thing, his forbidden love for Sara, his sister.
Now that I’ve done what all of the synopses do, it’s time to be a bit more specific. It’s a well written epic but there’s definitely much more that I love. Through the course of this story, the main character defies heaven and hell to keep his love. Along the way, he gains the affections of a demon, defies God himself, and participates in the greatest power struggle of all time.
I often find manga stifling after a while. I don’t really know why but there’s some aspect of Japanese culture which I pick up on and dislike. It’s partly the restrained social rules and sexism but there’s more that I can’t grasp. Regardless, this manga didn’t feel like that.
Unlike the vast majority of manga and anime out there, Angel Sanctuary has female character who, despite being a princess, and falling in love, doesn’t seem to surrender to the ideals of Japanese culture. No matter how much manga I read, it seems that at least 90% of tomboys become culturally acceptable japanese girls either to attract the one they love, or as a side effect of finding love. Angel Sanctuary proves that being a tomboy and being in love aren’t mutually exclusive. Also, unlike so much manga out there, it doesn’t just ignore the fact that women have less social and political power, it actually integrates it into the story.
Another aspect I enjoy is how heaven and hell differ from expectations. There is no such thing as pure good and pure evil. If a character acts evil, we will eventually see why. There are evil angels and victimized demons. Heaven has slums and hell has palaces. These are characters you can understand, characters you can sympathize with. Not only that, but the plot twists make sure that there will always be more to learn. No matter how far I read, I never got bored.
In summary, Angel Sanctuary is a realistic epic based on christian mythology, the characters are believable and well thought out, and it breaks free from the stifling mire which consumes so much other manga. I’d probably give this a 9 out of 10 but I haven’t decided on a rating system. Either way, if you don’t mind a littly dirty realism in your manga and you’re tired of the standard fare, give Angel Sanctuary a try.
Manga – “Angel Sanctuary” by Stephan Sokolow is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
I’ve never really been into manga but this review makes me want to read this. It sounds like a sensitive, modern exploration of love between equals and the whole ‘good and evil as grey area’ thing. Based on this review, one could identify with this as more than escapism and experience some catharsis. I definitely will read this.
Hello, It’s popalopa from IRC.
Your blog is cool, and well written. WordPress seems a powerful tool, I like that everything is under a specific categories. It would be better if you wrote the grade in the beginning where we can see it easily.
I’m working on a blog by myself , for the same reasons as you, well gonna come back for sure!!
Thanks. I’ll take your suggestion into consideration. The trick will be to make sure that things still flow properly. I haven’t decided how I’m going to convert manga ranks into numbers yet.
I also have to finish experimenting with the more advanced WordPress features. I am a computer geek after all and it would be a waste to do things the boring way when I could have fun with it.
Update: I’m putting the summarized data at the top but I still have yet to figure out a way to numerically rate manga. On the other hand, I’m doing quite well with my 0 to 6 rating system for fanfiction.
I have read the first 2 books and I can’t get enough!! Unlike most manga’s, Angel Sanctuary is real, it shows both the good and bad side of every one, no ones pure good or evil. It has times when you feel like your going to cry, and times when you want to laughe. It draws the reader in, and makes you want the next bit of the story. I love it!!!!!!!!