Customer Reviews

Angel Sanctuary [VHS]

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I love this series! I've seen it many times since I bought it. It's incredible! It's based on a very popular 20-volumes manga series by my favorite manga illustrator, Kaori Yuuki. This series is only 3 episodes long, and it was made for fans of the manga; so if you haven't follow the manga version, it may seems lacking in many areas. It follows the early parts of the manga, but many things were left out, like other characters. I love Angel Sanctuary so much that I brought wallscrolls, posters, CDs, keychains, etc., that were related to it.

You should buy this DVD just for the incredible artworks alone (mainly the character designs). It's beautiful! The first time I saw Sara Mudo in the video, I, literary, fell in love with her. She's such a hottie! The artworks for the guys are awesome as well -- they look really good! The musics are good and match perfectly to the scenes you're watching.

The story is.... WOW! I love it! Angels, incest, homosexuality, reincarnation, love, blood, mutilation..... they're all here. The story revolves around Setsuna's forbidden love for Sara, his younger and very attractive sister. This love is a secret that he does not want anyone to find out, not even Sara. He really loves her (as a man loves a women) and wants to make love to her. That might sounds... awful(?), but when you watch the show, you'll really want them to be together and love each other. His mother knew about his feelings for Sara, and therefore, she has separated them. The story also revolves around him being the reincarnated legendary angel, Organic Angel Alexial (yes, this is a female angel), who fought the gods and lost. This means he has more problems besides relationships. As being the reincarnated Organic Angel Alexial, Setsuna is being pursued by other angels and demons. The demons want Alexial to fully come out and help them once again in the revolt against the gods. On the other side, Alexial's powerful brother, Inorganic Angel Raziel, wants revenge on Alexial for locking him up (for a really long time) when they fought in the war against the gods. But what he really wants is for Alexial to be with him and to love him. Raziel's freedom from his prison was acheived through a forbidden mean by his servant. Man, what a life Setsuna has, huh? At least he has a good sempai around to help him through his troubles.

The English dubbed is really good and sounded more "powerful" than the Japanese counterpart. However, in the emotional scenes, I was a bit dissapointed in their performance. Overall, it's really good!

A combination of Paradise Lost and the Book of Revelations was how this anime was first described to me. Filled with judeo-christian mythology, Angel Sanctuary is a story of epic proportions.

The fallen angel Alexial has been punished for her defiance of God, but Setsuna, her newest reincarnation, is the Messiah destined to save the world from the end. However, Setsuna only cares about one thing: his forbidden love with Sara, his sister. To make matters worse, Rosiel is after Alexial, his sister, and will stop at nothing to get her. Watch how Setsuna deals with his hallucinations and the never-ending grief that seems to torment him.

This anime is made more for the readers of the manga by Kaori Yuuki, which is now completed at 20 volumes. Unfortunately, this is only 3 episodes long and much of the storyline is not seen. The artwork is stunning, though still pales in comparision with the manga drawings.

I highly recommend viewing this with some previous knowledge of Angel Sanctuary, otherwise the story can be quite confusing.

Angel Sanctuary is originally a 20 volumes manga drawn and written by Yuki Kaori. Even though I am one of her few male readers, I am particularly addicted to her art style and her perspectives regarding moral and religion. Although branded as a shojo manga, AS have enough spaceships, violence, blood and monsters (not to mention many gorgeous women... er and men) to keep me company. The story is simply wrong from the very start (not the story itself, but the idea of it). It goes from a brother and sister falling in love intertwined with a group of demons and angels rebelling against God. Yuki Kaori puts in a lot of effort and research in AS, and you will definitely acknowledge them once you read the manga, but as for now, since there are no US release of her works, the DVD will have to do. Unfortunately, because the development team of the OVA series had to cram an entire chapter of AS into a three part OVA, many subplots and characters were simply "deleted" for this purpose. For example, characters like Ruri and Kirie were gone from the OVA, so is the long and saddening conversation regarding Katan's past. Furthermore, what I find mind boggling is the fact that they actually altered the character, Arakune for the OVA. Instead of giving her a neutral voice (because she is a transvestite in the manga) like Rosiel, she was drawn as a women and given a female voice. Fortunately, the OVA also omitted one of the most popular hand signals given by the character and supporting characters, thus making this anime a bit suitable for younger audiences (yeah right). All in all, this is a good remake, but I would recommend the manga even more.

I was drawn to this wonderful series by the amazing artwork of Kaori Yuki. It is nothing but breathtaking!!! Setsuna Mudou is a blond and gorgeous hunk! (Although he's a little weird...) At first the story sounds really nasty to me (what is this? a brother in love with his sister?) But if you watch the anime or read the manga you'll eventually come to understand the pain and sorrow that he has to go through to commit a forbidden love. Although the anime is VERY brief comparing to the manga (I have to admit it left out so many wonderful details) and the anime art is not as exceptional as Kaori Yuki's, but the visuals and music alone make up for everything! This series is out of this world. It has everything, drama, horror, fantasy, and romance. Its my favorite so far and I currently own both shonen and shojo manga and anime such as Biohunter, Vampire Princess Miyu, X, Clover, Sakura Diaries, Serial Experiment Lain, 3x3 Eyes, DBZ, Slayers, Fushigi Yugi, KOR, Vampire Hunder D, Ninja Scroll, Trigun...But I'm telling you I like Angel Sanctuary best!!! If you're tired of watching the same old anime with recurring themes and looking for something new and exciting, I strongly recommend "Angel Sanctuary," especially to those with a strange, twisted taste.

I was weary of buying this disk. I was drawn to the cover, the beautiful boy angel, his arms wrapped and his eyes so vacantly focused... But I've been burned before, having bought really horrid animes that I had never heard about before that had really beautiful covers. I also have a tendency to space out during short OAV series. I don't know why, but really long series hold my interest better. I think it has to do with the greater degree of character development that longer series usually have. So, I almost bought Gasaraki 3 over this one. But curiosity took the best of me, and I bought it. I'm so glad I did.
It's been a while since I've seen an anime that I really wanted to watch more than once in my lifetime. I've had Angel Sanctuary for 3 days, and I've watched it three times. The story is very in depth for an OAV series, and the characters are flawed enough to be believable. They aren't perfect. You won't like them all. But they're more human than some anime characters. The art is dark and beautiful, at times downright gorgeous. Top notch anime. Definately worth the money.

First of this Anime may apeal best to Goth lovers. I mean there's an intelligent story, some controversial sexual bit and stuff and heavy religious matter. Top that with some rather alternative characters and you have something along the lines of The Crow(and no not that horrible TV series of which the tapes should be burned for the blasphemy they contain). Well not exactly story wise but more the atmosphere.

What we have here is a great story about the war of angels against god.

Short synopsis: *SPOILERS* Alexiel(pardon the spelling mistakes if there are any) wages war against god and loses. She is reincarnated into several mortals over and over again. One in particular is at the Center of this Anime. An alternative boy who is secretly in love with his sister. During the story other character(demons, fallen angels, etc) try to awaken his powers (Alexiels soul) they do this by coming after the person he loves most.. His sister. You guessed it all hell brakes loose.

While judging from this short explination you might get the idea that this is some sort of hentai horror anime along the likes of Urotsukidoji.. This is totally not the case.

All subjects in this wonderful Anime are handled very subtle and you can really start to identify with the characters and their motives.

All in all highly reccomended. You have to have an open mind tho and not be offended by the controversial sexual issues. But I guess any intelligent person would love this wonderful story.

Alright my first review. My name is Kurai *ahem* and I absolutely loved this movie! Setsuna, a troubled teen from Tokyo is currently stalked by pestering and cross-dressing demons and sadictic angels! Well, one cherub, one angel. Mudo Setsuna has always known he's abnormal but he never knew he was the reincarnation of Organic Angel Alexiel or that she rebelled against God, lost, and now the demons want to revolt again and Rosiel (the angel and Alexiel's inorganic brother) is insane and in love with her-er...him or whatever. Setsuna is also 'abnormal' because he has a very...serious crush on his little sister Mudo Sara. He's guided along by his best friend Sayuka Kira *drool* who is Luicifer's reincarnation and the sprirt of the Seven Bladed Sword (Alexiel's and if I'm confusing you I'm sorry. It's a confusing show.). Actually there IS more to the story than these three excellent episodes...six more but they aren't translated or even English- subtitled yet. They're working on it though. Watch this movie please. It really is good and if you question your faith...you'd fit right in. ^^

Teenage romances are hard enough as it is, but for Setsuna his takes the cake. Why is that? Because Setsuna is in love with his sister Sara. Sounds rough, doesn't it? To make matters worse, Setsuna learns that he is the reincarnation of the angel that challenged God. Between the agents of both Heaven and Hell going after Setsuna, is there a chance for his love with Sara?
It's always a shame to see a poor anime translation of a wonderful manga. With more time, Angel Sanctuary could have easily been one of the most thought provoking anime I have ever seen. Sadly, it was nothing more than roughly 90 minutes of jumbled ideas that leaves you raising your eyebrow in confusion.
On the plus side of things, Angel Sanctuary has amazingly clear artwork and animation. The character designs are also well thought out and move fluidly throughout this OVA. The anime version of this story has such potential, but was shot down cold. Still, it still raises some good points about the nature of Angels and Demons, but not enough solid storyline to make me want to even watch it again.
Angel Sanctuary didn't even have the time to advance the beginnings of its storyline. With only three OVAs, the story starts to get very interesting... and then out of nowhere it just ends. Many people won't even bother to pick this title up due to its outlook on religious matters, not to mention the brother/sister relationship between Setsuna and Sara. Personally, these subjects don't bother me at all, but I know they will push many people's buttons.
More than anything, Angel Sanctuary really needs more episodes to fully develop. It gets points for its artwork and bonus points for effort, but overall it comes very close to failing completely

Yep. Total newbie. I didn't have clue as to what was going on in this anime, not really. The whole reicarnation thing went right over my head since I didn't know any background info and it starts off with a little history recap thing I totally didn't get. But that's okay. You can still understand the character relationships, and even though I might have missed somthing in that war that happened like 300 years ago, I still get the main points of it all. Slight warning, it might put some people off since the main guy's emotional problem is due to the fact he's in love (yes, in a sexual way) with his own biological sister. But I think the relationship is played out very well. It works, and even though I can't help felling icky about, I want them to be together. ^.^ And just cause I have to mention it - Kira's a hotie. So yeah, whether you're looking for bishonen or angsty romance, this'll work.

My best friend got me this for my Birthday b/c she said it was the best anime she had ever seen. After watching it, I would have to agree.
The story follows Setsuna, a tough-boy teenager who is in *love* with his sister.(Be warned, this film has swearing,revealing clothing,incest,and yaoi...)He is the the reincarnation of a powerful angel, Alexial. Alexial wages war against God,but is captured. She is sealed in a crystal, her body and spirit seperated. She is doomed to be born onto Earth for eternity, until Kira interferes. Well...I know that may sound a bit confusing, but if you pay attention as you watch you understand. The story is told very clearly, introducing characters along the way and basically explaining things as you go. It's a sad dark tale, but an interesting one. If you're sick of the same old boring anime get this. Not only does it have a good plot and well formed characters, the artwork is to DIE for!!