Angelic Layer

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(Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer ) is an anime and manga series released by CLAMP. The manga is published in Japan by Kadokawa Shoten, and in English by TOKYOPOP[Angelic Layer Manga], Anime News Network.

The television series aired on TV Tokyo from April 1 2001- September 30, 2001 and is 26 episodes long[Angelic Layer Anime], Anime News Network. Seven volumes of videos were released by ADV Films on VHS and DVD in 2003. It was re-released in 2005 as a five volume box set[Angelic Layer Complete Collection], ADV Films.

Angelic Layer is related to CLAMP's later work Chobits, and like it, deals with the relationship between humans, human-created devices, toys, and godlike power.

Several characters also appear in CLAMP's including most of the main characters as well as the angel Blanche.

Plot summary

The main character of Angelic Layer is Misaki Suzuhara, a seventh grader who just moved in to Tokyo in order to live with her aunt, Shouko Asami. After arriving in the city, she watches the battle doll Athena on a big screen television outside of Tokyo Station and becomes interested in learning about the amazingly popular toy called Angelic Layer, a game in which players (called Deus) buy and custom-design dolls known as Angels. Angels can move by mental control when on a field called the "layer". Layers are very expensive, and most people pay to use them by the hour in establishments resembling cybercafes.

An eccentric man wearing a white lab coat and glasses, calling himself "Icchan" (Itchan), encourages Misaki to purchase and create her own angel. She names the angel Hikaru, after Hikaru Shidou from CLAMP's Magic Knight Rayearth, because she wants the angel to be "a short girl, but strong and happy" like Hikaru and herself (it is implied that Rayearth is a fictional history in Angelic Layer's world, and Misaki identifies herself with Hikaru). Even though she's clueless about the game, Misaki soon begins to compete in tournament, and is assisted and watched carefully by Icchan. Later Icchan's identity is revealed as Ichiro Mihara, the co-creator of Angelic Layer.

Misaki also begins studying in the Eriol Academy, an educational institution which includes grades from kindergarten through high school (it seems to be named after Eriol Hiiragizawa from Cardcaptor Sakura). There she becomes friend with Hatoko Kobayashi, a very intelligent kindergarten girl who is also a famous Deus and an expert about Angelic Layer. Her incredibly fast angel Suzuka is a favourite contender in tournaments. Misaki also befriends Hatoko's older brother Koutarou Kobayashi and his friend Tamayo Kizaki, a girl fascinated by martial arts. Both turn out to be Misaki's classmates.

Misaki pursues her ultimate goal of finding her mother, whom she has not seen since preschool. Eventually she learns that her mother assisted in the development of Angelic Layer in her quest to develop a perfect prosthesis for her multiple sclerosis, which has confined her to a wheelchair. Her mother is also the Deus of Athena, and the champion of Angelic Layer.

The manga series is set a few years before Chobits, a CLAMP work in the same universe as Angelic Layer. In the manga, Icchan plays an important role in Chobits' storyline, but this connection was reduced to a single scene in the Anime. Icchan has a brief cameo but is not mentioned by name in the Chobits anime. Kaede's younger brother Minoru is also a Chobits character. In the manga series, Misaki's mother does not have multiple sclerosis, nor is she depicted in a wheelchair. The ending to the manga also has different couplings.

Characters

Misaki Suzuhara

• : Misaki is a 12 year old girl who has just moved to Tokyo to live with her aunt. She had been living with her grandparents in Wakayama while she went to elementary school, but saved up money that her mother had been sending her while she was away so she could afford to go to middle school in Tokyo. She also worries about the fact that she is small, and is sometimes mistaken to be in elementary school, but sees Angelic Layer as a way to prove to others and herself that there is nothing wrong with being small. She started playing Angelic Layer after seeing the white angel Athena on a video screen outside of Tokyo Station. Her angel is Hikaru.

Ichiro Mihara

• : Icchan is the "father" of Angelic Layer, having developed a game over seven years with the help of Shuko Suzuhara. Icchan had been an employee at a hospital trying to treat Shuko's neurological condition and were developing the angels as part of research to create prosthetic limbs which could be controlled by brain waves. However, research funds were cut off after the hospital thought that the research was costing too much. As a result, Icchan and Shuko created Angelic Layer in order to help fund and conduct further research. Icchan was the "second" for the Angelic Layer Company's angel at the national games.

Hatoko Kobayashi

• : Hatoko is a 5 year old known as the "miracle kindergartner" and is Misaki's best friend and Angelic Layer mentor. She is an expert at Angelic Layer, often winning her games in mere seconds. She wins all ten of her games at the Tokyo prefecture games, and is the defending champion of the Kantō regional games. She is fiercely competitive, working to increase her angel's speed and power often. She also likes to poke fun at her brother Kotaro for his apparent ineptness when it comes to his crush on Misaki. Hatoko's angel is Suzuka.

Kotaro Kobayashi

• : Kotaro is a 12 year old middle school classmate of Misaki, whom he has a crush on, as well as Hatoko's brother. He is always being assaulted by Tamayo and her various martial arts techniques, which he ha been a victim of since he was four years old. He becomes jealous of Ohjiro's advances towards Misaki, going so far as to try to attempt to play a quasi-match of Angelic Layer against Ohjiro, despite the fact that he had never played it before. His family owns a karate dojo and Kotaro has practiced karate some himself, showing Misaki some of his knowledge in hopes that Misaki can use it to help Hikaru win.

Tamayo Kizaki

• : Tamayo is 12 years old and is a friend and classmate of Misaki. She nicknames Misaki "Misakichi" and is rather eccentric. One of her favorite activities is practicing her martial arts techniques on her unwilling friend Kotaro. She always loudly cheers for Misaki at Angelic Layer matches and defends her against those who question her ability. It is later revealed that Tamayo has always held intimate feelings for Kotaro, which may be one reason why she always added "chan" (which Kotaro complains is only meant for "girls and little kids") to the end of his name instead of "kun", despite him being in middle school. She offers to be Misaki's "second" in her national game match against the Angelic Layer Company's angel due to Hatoko becoming ill before Misaki accepts Ohjiro's offer to be her second.

Ohjiro Mihara

• : Ohjiro is Icchan's younger step-brother. He has been involved with Angelic Layer for many years, in a large part because it was what brought he and Icchan together after their parents married each other. Ohjiro competes in Kobe and has been the champion of the Kansai Regional games, as well as being the runner-up in the national tournament for two consecutive years. He has a desperate desire to defeat the Shuko Suzuhara's angel Athena to get over a childhood crush he had on her. His angel is Wizard. In the anime it is revealed that he is falling in love with Misaki.

Shuko Suzuhara

• : Shuko is Misaki's mother. When Misaki was 5, Shuko left Misaki to be taken care of her grandparents under the guide of work, when in reality she was going to Tokyo in order to find a way to cure the neurological disease she had been inflicted with. This disease inhibits nerve signals from reaching to or from her legs. Ichiro Mihara was a doctor attempting to work with her to find a cure when the two started Angelic Layer as a way to do research and raise funds when their original research funding was cut off. Shuko, or "Shu" as she is called when playing Angelic Layer, is the undisputed champion, having won each of the past three national championships. Over the past seven years, she has avoided meeting Misaki, afraid of what Misaki would think of her.

Sai Jounouchi

• : Sai Jounouchi, known as the "ice machine," started playing Angelic Layer at the request of her terminally ill sister Rin. Rin designed what the angel would look like, but died before Sai could create her. As a result, Sai states that her reason for playing Angelic Layer is "to become strong." Sai is from Kanagawa Prefecture and was the runner-up in the Kantō Regional games in the past year. She is friends with Kaede, who went to the same middle school as Sai. Her angel is Shirahime.

Kaede Saito

• : Kaede is a quiet and wise girl from Kanagawa and is friends with Sai Jounouchi. Her parents divorced and she lives with her father. She received an angel egg as a gift from someone in her father's company. Her personality doesn't appear to be one suited for Angelic Layer, as pointed out by her father when he comments that he never believed that he would see Kaede compete in a fighting game. Despite this, she is very adept at Angelic Layer. She treats her angel, Blanche, as her own daughter.

Masaharu Ogata

• : Ogata is one of Icchan's subordinates in the Angelic Layer control room and lab. Icchan often ensnares Ogata into situations that result in Ogata getting "penalized." These penalties involve a range of embarrassing or terrible things, such as having a live octopus being stuck down his pants or being made to eat spaghetti through his nose. Icchan also named a remarkably ugly angel after him as a penalty.

Shoko Asami

• : Shoko is Misaki's aunt and Shuko's little sister. She demands that Misaki and her friends call her "Miss Shoko" instead of "aunt" because she is still "an attractive young newscaster." She often covers Angelic Layer events for the local news station that she works for. Misaki lives with Shoko when she moves to Tokyo.

Ringo Seto

• : Ringo is a pop idol from Tochigi who plays Angelic Layer over the objections of her manager. Ringo likes living freely and often escapes from her manager to get out of doing work. When Misaki was fighting her male classmate Ryo Misaki in a set of Angelic Layer matches, Ringo encouraged Misaki on between matches. Ringo's angel is Ranga.

Madoka & Arisu Fujisaki

• : Modoka is a competitor in the Kantō Regional games. She and her sister, Arisu Fujisaki (or Alice) (藤崎有栖 Fujisaki Arisu), who creates Madoka's angels, were defeated in the Kantō Regional games by Hatoko in the previous year. As a result, the two desperately want to fight and defeat Hatoko to rectify what they see as a family dishonor of losing to a kindergartener. The two attempt to sabotage Hikaru in an attempt to defeat her. Madoka and Arisu's angel is Mao.

Minor characters

Angels

Angels of Angelic Layer. From Left to Right: Shirahime, Blanche, Hikaru, Suzuka, Ranga, & Wizard.

• Hikaru - Deus: Misaki Suzuhara
• Suzuka - Deus: Hatoko Kobayashi: Nicknamed “The Speed of Light,” Suzuka often defeats her opponents with incredible speed. Suzuka has also attended the National Games.
• Shirahime - Deus: Sai Jounouchi: Nicknamed “The White Princess,” she is an Angel which wears a white kimono. Shirahime has finished 2nd in the Kantō regional games for two consecutive years.
• Blanche - Deus: Kaede Saitou: Nicknamed "The White Angel," Blanche is a powerful angel which is so fast that she has only been touched by four other angels. When in a very tough fight, Blanche will use a technique called "Hypermode" which is a result of a glitch present in the first angels built. Blanche is a contestant in the Kantō regional games. Her name can also be written Branche with the romaji "r" sounding like an "l".
• Ranga - Deus: Ringo Seto: Ranga uses a technique called "the Dance of Death" which uses wind to attack her opponents from a distance. Ranga is a contestant in the Kantō regional games.
• Wizard - Deus: Ohjiro Mihara: Wizard is the Kansai Regional champion and has finished as the runner up in the National Games for two consecutive years. Wizard uses a technique called “Magic Guard” to block his opponent’s attacks. Wizard is one of the few male angels in the Layer.
• Athena - Deus: Shuko Suzuhara: Athena has won the National Games championship in all three years of its existence and is the undisputed champion of Angelic Layer.
• Mao - Deus: Madoka Fujisaki - The newest angel created by Madoka's sister Arisu. Mao is a contestant in the Kantō regional games.

Angels Wizard (blue) and Hikaru (red) battle at the Angelic Layer National Games.

• Shadow Panther - Deus: unknown: The first angel that Hikaru fights and defeats
• Queen - Deus: Kyoko: An angel which uses electric whips, which are illegal, in unofficial games to easily defeat inexperienced players. She fights Hikaru in her second Angelic Layer match.
• Colossus - Deus: Asuka Kitamura: An angel which participates in the Tokyo Prefecture games, losing to Hikaru.
• Nightingale - Deus: unknown: An Angel with experience in the Kantō regional games and who is competing in the Tokyo prefecture games. She is defeated by Suzuka in 5 seconds. Nightingale is also defeated by Hikaru in the Tokyo prefecture games.
• Katalina - Deus: Yuko Hikawa: Katalina fights by “skating” on the layer, and uses her skates to attack while spinning. She loses to Hikaru in the first round of the Tokyo prefecture games.
• Vasquez - Deus: Tomoko Yamada: A very powerful angel which lures her opponents into surprise attacks. She is defeated by Hikaru in the second round of the Tokyo prefecture games.
• Tsubaki - Deus: Maria Shibata: An angel defeated by Hikaru in the final round of the Tokyo prefecture games.
• Ace, Mark II, & Tri - Deus: Ryo Misaki: Ryo uses these three angels in a best of three match against Misaki in attempt to show that girls can't beat boys at Angelic Layer.
• Natasha - Deus: unknown - Champion of the Chiba prefecture games. She is defeated by Suzuka in the first round of the Kantō regional games.
• Yusari - Deus: unknown - An angel competing in the Kantō regional games, losing to Blanche there.
• Eagle - Deus: Tsubasa "The Blond Gale" McEnzie - An angel who competed in the Kyushu Regional games, she competes against Shirahime in the Angelic Layer National Games. She has the ability to glide through the air using wings.
• Elain - Deus: Chitose Tanaka - An angel from Hokkaido, she fights Hikaru in the first round of the Angelic Layer National Games. She uses a technique called the "Northern Aurora" to immobolize her opponents in mid-air.
• New Type SI-174 - Deus: Shuji Inada - An angel competing in the National Games representing the Angelic Layer company. SI-174 is a new model of angel which is capable of quicker and more efficient movements. The SI-174 fights Hikaru in the second round of the National Games.

Seiyū

Television episodes

1. "How Do You Do? My Very Own Angel"
2. "Do Your Best, Hikaru! It’s Your Very First Fight!!"
3. "Who Are You? Misaki’s Nervous Lesson"
4. "The Day an Angel Flew Down"
5. "I Don’t Want to Lose! I’m Believing in Hikaru"
6. "Suzuka, the Speed of Light! Hatoko’s Declaration of Rivalry!"
7. "Right at the Edge…Misaki’s Last Chance"
8. "Misaki vs. Misaki? A Dangerous Classmate"
9. "Sing, Misaki! Is the Deus and Idol?!"
10. "Mean Sisters! Hikaru, the Target"
11. "Finish It Off! Hikaru & Mao’s Important Game"
12. "Misaki & Kotaro. Their Exciting Date"
13. "Pure White Blanche. Kaede’s Smile"
14. "I Won’t Give Up! And an Angel Was Born"
15. "Shirahime Versus Suzuka! Secret of the Ice Machine"
16. "The Final Game! Hikaru’s Last Attack"
17. "I’ve Made My Mind Up on You! The One Misaki Selected"
18. "Many Strong Opponents! The National Games of Everyone’s Dreams"
19. "System down! Decisive Fight on a Ship in a Storm!"
20. "Is Icchan the Enemy? The Puzzling Second Game"
21. "Summertime at the Sea! Someone is in Love With Someone!"
22. "Suddenly Just the Two of Us. Secret Double Dates"
23. "Break Up the Magic Wall! Misaki Versus Ohjiro"
24. "Reach Misaki! This Thought Goes Over the Rainbow!"
25. "Reunion of Destiny. Angels Wet With Tears"
26. "Angel Wings! Please Guide Me and Hikaru!"

Trivia

• In episode three, the song that Icchan is singing while Misaki is training is "Catch You, Catch Me", the first theme to another CLAMP creation, "Card Captor Sakura".[Battle 03 – Who Are You? Misaki’s Nervous Lesson], ADV Angelic Layer DVD Website

• Misaki's angel Hikaru is named after the main character in "Magic Knight Rayearth". She also looks somewhat alike with her.[Battle 01 – How Do You Do? My Very Own Angel!], ADV Angelic Layer DVD Website

• Piffle Princess is the store where Misaki buys supplies for Hikaru. This store is also found in other CLAMP creations such as Card Captor Sakura and Chobits.[Battle 03 – Who Are You? Misaki’s Nervous Lesson], ADV Angelic Layer DVD Website

• Just like how Sakura in CCS uses the word "hoe!", Misaki likes using "na!"[Battle 04 – The Day An Angel Flew Down], ADV Angelic Layer DVD Website

• In the manga, if you look in the manga pre-story pages you can see faux newspaper articles that bring tidbits up from other series.

Manga volumes

• Volume 1 (Japanese Edition: ISBN 4047132837; American Edition: ISBN 193151447X)
• Volume 2 (Japanese Edition: ISBN 4047133191; American Edition: ISBN 1591820030)
• Volume 3 (Japanese Edition: ISBN 4047133752; American Edition: ISBN 1591820049)
• Volume 4 (Japanese Edition: ISBN 4047134147; American Edition: ISBN 1591820863)
• Volume 5 (Japanese Edition: ISBN 4047134546; American Edition: ISBN 1591821525)

External links

• [Angelic Layer DVD official web site]
• [Animetric's Review of Angelic Layer]
• [TOKYOPOP's Angelic Layer web site]
• [Angelic Layer Role Playing]

References

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