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PAN-CHAN'S REVIEWS
DN ANGEL
ADV's official English DVD release
[insert SPOILER WARNING here]
A few years ago, when it was announced that the DN Angel manga would be turned into an anime, I was excited and frightened at the same time. The reasons behind these feeling were the same. DN Angel was the first manga I really fell in love with. I was excited to see it animated (since I seem to prefer anime over manga), but frightened at what they would do with it. There was the possibility of changes to the plot in order to fill 26 episodes, and the manga was still unfinished, which meant there was an even greater possibility of a made-up ending.
I first watched the anime when it first came out fansubbed. I liked the anime, but it was different. It had a different feel than the manga. I lasted only twelve episodes before the series was licensed by ADV and the fansubs disappeared. I started to buy the DVDs and it took me quite awhile to buy all seven of them and watch the series from beginning to end. I have mixed-feeling about the anime and it's about time I explain why.
MANGA VS ANIME
What struck me about the anime was how much they changed from the manga. In many ways, the anime borrows the manga's characters and bits and pieces of its plot to make a different story. In my mind, I find that there's a divide between the anime storyline and the manga one.
The first thing I noticed about the anime was its use of Krad. The first scene of the first episode features Dark and Krad fighting. This bothered me because Krad doesn't come in to the story until volume four of the manga. Up until that point, it's only hinted that there's something weird about Satoshi. You don't even know that Krad could exist until he appears. It's one of those amazing things about the manga that made me love it so much. However, the anime, by showing Krad in the first scene, destroyed the possibility of those feelings of surprise and shock ever happening.
Krad gets introduced for real in episode four of the anime, when Satoshi locks himself and Daisuke in the school's underground freezer. This episode wasn't bad, but it was completely original and had no manga counterpart.
The same can be said for a lot of anime. Many scenes only borrowed ideas from the manga. For example, there an episode where Riku and Risa switch places for cooking lessons. This never happens in the manga, but in that episode, With says, "daisuki" to Riku, which is taken from the manga.
Also, during a series of episode where Daisuke's class goes on a trip to a resort, the anime mixes numerous manga chapters together. In merges the winter chapters where Riku falls off a cliff, with the ones where Daisuke's class goes on a trip to an island. The anime adds caves and shooting stars and takes away the entire plot with Dark, Satoshi and the lighthouse, but there's still that underlying flavor of the manga in there.
Some other major changes from the manga are in relationships. In the anime, Dark is given a backstory with Riku and Risa's grandmother, Rika, who looks a lot like Risa. This is used as a way to bring Dark and Risa closer together in the anime than they ever were in the manga. The anime also has some Risa/Satoshi hints, but a lot of them come out of left field. In the last scene of the anime, for no apparent reasons, Risa and Satoshi end up casting each other looks. It is out-of-character for the both of them. Speaking of out-of-character, I found Risa to be a lot "stupider" in the anime that she was in the manga. In the anime, she went so far as to dress up as a phantom thief to try and win Dark's heart.
There were some other issues I had with adapting manga storylines. I thought the Freedert arc of the anime was beautifully done and did the manga justice. There were changes though. Because the anime seemed to want to constantly pair up Dark and Risa, Risa came with Dark and Riku into the painting. Also, they kept in the school play of "Ice and Snow" with Daisuke and Satoshi as the lead roles. Although they practice for this play, they never perform it in the anime. It's just forgotten at some point and never returned to.
The anime created an original character for plot and interest purposes. Her name is "Mio Hio" and she is a student who recently arrived in Japan from America, so her Japanese is weird. She falls head over heels in love with Daisuke and Saehara falls head over heels in love with her. She's really quite annoying when she's first introduced, as she does nothing but stalk/hang off Daisuke.
Her purpose in the show is to bring Riku and Daisuke closer together and she helps lead up to the end of the series with Satoshi's father. A few episodes after her introduction, it is revealed that Mio is a doll brought to life by Satoshi's father and that it is her job to get Riku and Daisuke to wear pendant and complete a ceremony. Long story short, she sacrifices herself to stop the ceremony and no one really remembers she existed after she leaves. I would have liked her character more if she wasn't so blatantly random and annoying.
As I mentioned above, the plot of DN Angel wasn't like the manga at all. They made the series rather episodic. In every episode, Daisuke goes through problems with love, Riku gets flustered, Risa fangirls Dark, and Dark seals the powers in a piece of Hikari-made artwork. The only thing that saves the series is that the stories themselves are usually beautiful.
Many episodes are centered on a story of legend that plays itself out by the end of the episode. Some of these stories are from the manga, other are not. They're really quite beautiful, and I felt touched by many of these tales. It's like watching short stories of fairytales unwind in front of your eyes. Needless to say, many episodes are lovely.
The anime did redeem itself in some little moments that enhanced the manga, my favorite of which happened in the second last episode. In the series, Dark uses With for his wings, but Krad forces Satoshi to grow his own. In the manga (and anime) it is hinted about how painful it is for Satoshi to grow wings of his own. The manga has never made Daisuke grow his own, but the anime did. Unable to use With and wanting to save Riku's life, Daisuke wills himself to grow brilliant red wings to save her life. Watching that made sitting through Mio Hio worth it.
The anime also created an ending for the series. After the Freedert arc, the anime's last two episodes are designed to end the series. The problem is that they feel tacked on at the end. Basically, the story goes that Satoshi's father has worked with Krad to activate a piece of artwork known as the "Black Wings", which Dark and Krad are apart of. There's a fight and in less than fifteen minutes, Dark and Krad are sealed away. This has nothing to do with the manga at all.
The only thing that made the ending feel like it was connected to the rest of the series was the beginning of the last episode. The episode starts with the opening sequence like all the others, except instead of the opening theme playing, there's Daisuke and Dark speaking, and you realize that all along, the beginning of the opening sequence was the first scene in the last episode. Moreover, much of the last battle is the exact same battle between Dark and Krad shown in the first scene of the first episode. This connects the series together, since in many ways, it ends where it began.
My only huge complaint about the anime was just how much filler there was -- especially in the first half. There were a lot of useless episodes that were kinda boring to sit through. I almost wish they used that time to follow the manga more faithfully. I really do prefer the manga over the anime, but that doesn't mean the anime is bad. It's just different.
I could ramble on and on about more changes, since every episode did something, but for the sake of my sanity and your sanity, let's move on.
ARTWORK
Much like the manga, the anime is, in a word, gorgeous.
Yukiru Sugisaki's artwork has a one-of-a-kind style that is to die for. I own her artbooks, and even some of her non-DN Angel stuff because I am absolutely in love with her style and the way she captures expressions and characters with almost magical strokes.
There is no way her style can be transferred over perfectly to anime style art, but the anime did a surprisingly good job. The character still look like themselves, and they move in a way true to Yukiru Sugisaki's style. I was really impressed.
The anime is a lot more colorful than the manga. I guess that's a given, but every character in the anime is shockingly bright. Daisuke's hair is bright red and Satoshi's is bright blue. No one is really sure why, but the twins are given different hair colors, and even these are bright. Something about the color makes you notice more when you go back and read the manga afterwards. It as if your mind can superimpose the color over the black and white to give a new depth to the experience. I never really noticed or cared about their school uniforms until I saw the anime. Now I think they're really cool.
Also, I have to praise the anime on its backgrounds. Many of them are done via CG, but they're beautiful. The town DN Angel takes place in could easily be a city in Italy. The architecture and the colors scream Europe to me, as the only time in my life I've seen architecture and colors quite like DN Angel was on a trip to Italy. (This effect, combined with the fact than many of the characters live in mansions and have fancy cars, also shows how upper-class a lot of the characters are.)
There are little details in pieces of artwork and even in background artwork that are really pretty. As noted in one of the voice commentaries on the DVDs, many of the characters have "symbols". For example, Riku is usually wearing clothing with stars on them, and Mio is covered in crowns. It is little things like this that make the anime so visually interesting to watch.
The anime also gets points for sheer prettiness. My favorite example of this has to be when Daisuke and Riku confess to each other under a night sky lit up by a meteor shower. It's very very very pretty.
Basically, this show is really visually pleasing. It's worth watching just for the art.
VOICES
My first experience with DN Angel voice actors was with the radio dramas that were released for the manga. I got used to these voices, so when they announced that the anime voices would be different, it totally threw me off at first. But it's been a few years since then, and I have gotten more than used to Ryotaro Okiayu as Dark and Miyu Irino as Daisuke. I absolutely adore them now.
I really enjoyed the casting for DN Angel. Between Ryotaro Okiayu and Akira Ishida, I was in heaven. And to top it all off, the voices fit the characters wonderfully. Even the girls were voiced well.
As for the dub (dun dun dun), it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. The dub cast has some great VAs in it, and in all honesty, they were chosen well.
Kevin Corn makes a great Daisuke to the point where my jaw dropped to the floor and I wished I could give the guy some sort of gold star. I mean, he's not Miyu Irino, but he's the next best thing. Wow.
The rest of the dub was hit or miss for me. Dark's voice through me off, because Dark has always had a low playboy voice and his English voice isn't anything like that. Out of all the dub voices, his probably took me the longest to get used to. I wasn't too sure how I felt about Greg Ayres voicing Satoshi, and at first I was skeptical, but after a few episodes, his voice grew on me.
Mio Hio's dub voice is painful, but not necessarily in a bad way. Because of her character, she speaks like a valleygirl, complete with "likes" and "you knows", but since her Japanese voice is almost just as bad, for whatever reason, the valleygirl voice worked (and was hilarious to listen to as long as you don't try to take it remotely seriously).
I never grew to like the twin's voices. They were much too high and strained for me to love. They weren't that bad though. Overall, the anime was surprisingly easy to listen to dubbed.
I still can't listen to Dark's voice without raising an eyebrow, and all the girls have voices octaves too high to be remotely natural, but the dub isn't bad at all
THE ADV RELEASE
DN Angel was released on DVD by ADV Films. I have mixed feelings about the company, but they handled DN Angel really well, and I need to praise them for doing such a good job.
The packaging is really nice, and the anime artwork they used for the covers is great. They usually mixed a main image with screencaps in the background. It worked. Some of the screencaps seem a little awkward in placing, but otherwise, the packaging is fine.
The only problem I had with the packaging, I encountered with the third DVD. For some reason, I had a lot of trouble removing the DVD from the packaging without snapping it in half. Eventually, I got frustrated and ended up cutting a bit of the plastic just to get my DVD out. Thankfully, the packaging was different by the next volume.
As for the DVDs themselves, the picture quality is top notch and the colors are more vibrant than any fansub. The subtitles are good. I only noticed a single typo in the entire series. (Also, they call With "With" and not "Wiz". That made me really happy for some reason.)
The DVDs also have lots of shiny special features that came as a pleasant surprise. Besides the standard clean opening and ending and trailers, there's also voice actor commentary and Japanese behind-the-scenes footage.
The Japanese behind-the-scenes footage is wonderful. The first DVD has footage of Miyamoto Shunichi recording the opening theme "True Light" for the anime. You get to follow him around to a recording studio, see him record the song, and they also show him talk to some of the crew. It's really a special treat, and Miyamoto Shunichi is adorable to watch.
Other DVDs also have footage of Miyamoto Shunichi singing and performing his songs unplugged at a live concert. Because his voice is heavenly, I really enjoyed these segments. I also learned that Miyamoto Shunichi wrote the piano score to the piano version of "True Light", and more about him and his music.
My favorite of the special features like this are the interview sessions between Miyamoto Shunichi and Miyu Irino (Daisuke's voice actor). They're both around the same age and relate to each other well. Miyamoto Shunichi leads most of the discussions and they talk about everything from their first experiences with the DN Angel manga, to work, to school, to lots of random other things. I like these segments so much because both boys are soft-spoken and you can't help but smile watching them. Also, you really do learn a lot from them. If you're only going to watch one special feature, watch these. They are my favorite thing about the DVDs.
Another special feature on one of the DVDs is a behind the scenes look at a Japanese ADR dubbing session. It's a rare treat to get to watch the Japanese seiyuu record the voices of their characters. I found it interesting to watch them record the voices to computer animated line art of the actual anime.
Finally, the English voice actor commentaries varied in quality. It was clear that some of the VAs had never seen the show past what they saw in the booth when they were recording voices, as they asked some really obvious questions. I think it's the commentary on the third DVD that has Jessica Boone (Mio Hio) and Mariela Ortiz (With). They tangented like whoa and somehow ended up talking about bars and then about Halloween costumes. As much as it made me raise an eyebrow, it was, for some reason, the most memorable out of the commentaries.
My favorite commentary is on the last disk, where the commentary is by Greg Ayres (Satoshi) and Illich Guardiola (Krad). Grey overpowered Illich a bit, but they both had a lot to say. They were talking over the last episode, which has some really interesting imagery. Illich made comments about religious symbolism and art history.
Grey had some great lines about cosplay (of all things). In the last episode, Satoshi basically gets a good chuck of his shirt ripped off. During this scene, Greg and Illich were taking about cosplay. Greg makes a reference to Satoshi's outfit being hard to make, even if it's ripped to shreds, and then says: "In a minute it's just a bunch of rags hanging off of his arms, and I've decided that's even better cosplay." I laughed so hard, I cried.
Greg also talked about anime conventions and yaoi fangirls asking him to say "I love you [insert character here]" in one of his voices. Predicting he'd be asked to do the same for DN Angel, Greg said some awesome lines about Daisuke and Satoshi. I love Greg. He's hilariously entertaining.
Overall, the special features on the DVDs were great. They get a thumbs up in my book.
OVERALL
If you're a huge fan of the manga, don't expect the anime to stay true to the storyline. While it does have many of the elements of the manga, most of the ways they're used is completely different. The anime is like a new story that borrows the manga's characters and loosely borrows the manga's plot.
The main down side is the large amount of filler episodes, as well as random characters like Mio Hio. It also is horrible with closure. Many plotlines are built up only to have them fade away into the background without actually being dealt with. However, that is not to say that anime doesn't have its moments. There are beautiful episodes and storylines that are guaranteed to fill your heart with indescribable happiness.
What the anime lacks plot-wise, it makes up for visually. The anime is gorgeous and visually stunning. Every shot is beautifully done. Moreover, the voice work and music is lovely.
The official DVDs released by ADV do the series justice and are filled with lots of shiny extras.
FINAL THOUGHTS
If you've never seen the anime, you'll probably want to give it a try and watch a few episodes before you decide if you want to buy it. It's not for everyone. (If you had trouble stomaching the anime, try skipping the half of the series. It gets better. It just takes awhile.) Otherwise, you might want to stick with the manga.
If you're a big DN Angel fan, the DVDs are great. The prettiness of the art and the special features alone makes it worth it. I'm personally really happy I picked it up. It's an awesome series.
RATING
On the plus side: Great characters, gorgeous art, and a well-handled release.
On the down side: The anime strayed from the manga, was inconsistent and had too many filler episodes.
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