Monday, June 11, 2007

Angelic Layer


Angelic Layer (エンジェリックレイヤー, Enjerikku Reiyā?) is a manga series released by Clamp. The manga is published in Japan by Kadokawa Shoten, and in English by Tokyopop.[2]
The manga was adapted into a 26-episode anime series titled Battle Doll Angelic Layer (機動天使エンジェリックレイヤー, Kidō Tenshi Enjerikku Reiyā?, lit. Mobile Angel Angelic Layer) which aired on TV Tokyo from April 1, 2001- September 23, 2001.[3] 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.[4]

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 Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle 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 which she was reading on the train to Tokyo, because she wants the angel to be "a short girl, but strong and happy" like Hikaru and herself (Rayearth is a manga 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
Main article: List of characters in Angelic Layer

Staff

Planning: Fukashi Azuma (TV Tokyo), Takeshi Yasuda (Kadokawa Shoten), Tetsuya Watanabe (Dentsu)
General producer: Takayuki Nagasawa (avex entertainment)
Original story: CLAMP (Published in Kadokawa Shoten's "Shonen Ace")
Planning support: Kazuhiko Ikeguchi (Amber FilmWorks)
Series supervision: Shinichirō Inoue
Series composition: Ichirō Ōkouchi
Character design: Takahiro Komori
Mechanic design: Junya Ishigaki
Design support: Shigeru Morita (Studio Nue)
Art director: Nobuto Sakamoto (Big Studio)
Color design: Sayoko Yokoyama
Directors of photography: Atsushi Takeyama -> Haruhide Ishiguro -> Shūichi Heisei
Sound direction: Yōta Tsuruoka (Rakuonsha)
Recording: Satoshi Yano (Studio Gong)
Sound effects: Eiko Morikawa (Rakuonsha)
Recording studio: Studio Gong
Sound production: Rakuonsha
Sound production desk: Yoshimi Sugiyama (Rakuonsha)
Music: Kōhei Tanaka
Music producer: Takayuki Nagasawa
Music production: avex entertainment
Music production support: TV Tokyo Music
Producers: Shinsaku Hatta (TV Tokyo), Taihei Yamanishi (Dentsu), Masahiko Minami (BONES)
Director: Hiroshi Nishikiori
Production: TV Tokyo, Dentsu, BONES

Music

In episode three, the song that Icchan (Masaya Onosaka) is singing while Misaki is training is "Catch You, Catch Me", the first theme to another Clamp creation and popular TV Series, "Cardcaptor Sakura".[5]
All of the musical score was composed, arranged and conducted by Kōhei Tanaka, the composer of One Piece and Sakura Wars.
Atsuko Enomoto, the seiyu for Misaki, also sang the opening theme song.

Other Clamp series

Hikaru is named after the main character in "Magic Knight Rayearth". She also looks somewhat like her. (However, in the anime version, Misaki says that Hikaru is named after her favorite doll, which she left at her grandparents' home in Wakayama when she moved to Tokyo.)[6]

Piffle Princess is the store where Misaki buys supplies for Hikaru. This store is also found in other Clamp creations such as Cardcaptor Sakura, xxxHolic, and Chobits.[7]

Just like how Sakura in CCS uses the word "hoe!", Misaki likes using "na!" or "eeks!"[8]

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.
Ringo Seto's Angel Ranga looks very much like the characters of Magic Knight Rayearth, Princesses Tarta and Tatra. With the nearly same dress design and moves, Ranga and Tarta/Tatra were dance warriors
Hatoko looks rather similar to Tomoyo Daidouji, Sakura's friend in CCS.[9]

Mihara is a known last name to be used by 2 popular Clamp Characters. Chiharu Mihara of Cardcaptor Sakura and Icchan Mihara. Chiharu's last name Mihara is used (or possibly is related to) by Icchan Mihara also suspected to be the late husband of Chitose Hibiya of Chobits. Chitose used the Mihara last name in another Clamp work Kobato.

In volume 7 of Chobits, on page 16, Kaede Saito's story of her death was told by her brother Minoru. We can see in the background Misaki, Sai, and Ohjiro standing by her bed in one panel and crying with her back turned when she died.

Also, Kaede seems to be similar in appearance to Fuu Hououji, a character from Magic Knight Rayearth, another Clamp work.

In volume 7 of Chobits, the legendary Angelic Layer dolls (Shirahime, Blanche, Wizard, Suzuka, and Hikaru) or what is a sillohuette of them is shown as Chitose tells Motosuwa the truth about her husband's earlier works Angelic Layer.

Clamp crossovers

Besides Angelic Layer being the prequel to the Chobits manga many of its characters and establishments are shown in other Chobits works
Hikaru is introduced in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle Chapter 144 as an "automata" one of the Chess pieces Eagle ( who is a crossover character form Magic Knight Rayearth) uses on an one on one battle with Sakura and the Real Syaoran.

Tamayo, Oujiro, Shouko Asami, The Angelic Layer announcer appears in TRC as well in Piffle Country while Kaede and Sai appeared in Rekord.

In the country of Infinty in TRC, there is a tournament similar in style to the battles of Angelic Layer where the Deus sits on an egg shaped chair and telekinetically controls the players (in TRC they are called chess pieces instead of "Angels," however, and often normal people are the pieces.)

In volume 9 of Cardcaptor Sakura, Kero-chan is reading an Angelic Layer book, which appears to be one for a computer game (though some have thought he's reading the Angelic Layer manga).


Online

In the MMORPG Hogwarts Live, one of the comics you can read in the bookstore is Angelic Layer.
On the Online Forum Gaia Online, one Monthly Collectible item was an "Angelic Microphone". One way the avatar could wear them was as a headphone identical to the headphones used in Angelic Layer.


Manga volumes
Volume 1 (Japanese Edition: ISBN 4-04-713283-7; American Edition: ISBN 1-931514-47-X)
Volume 2 (Japanese Edition: ISBN 4-04-713319-1; American Edition: ISBN 1-59182-003-0)
Volume 3 (Japanese Edition: ISBN 4-04-713375-2; American Edition: ISBN 1-59182-004-9)
Volume 4 (Japanese Edition: ISBN 4-04-713414-7; American Edition: ISBN 1-59182-086-3)
Volume 5 (Japanese Edition: ISBN 4-04-713454-6; American Edition: ISBN 1-59182-152-5)



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