Angel Sanctuary, Vol. 20 (20)

I love love love this manga. I've been working on finishing my collection for a few years, so I have re-read the first 10-16ish volumes multiple times. Very intricate plot with twists and turns, but as long as you keep up with it, it captures your imagination and keeps you wanting more. Beautiful artwork. I'm Christian, and there are quite a few controversial topics and characters opposing traditional beliefs in Angel Sanctuary, but after reading this manga, I feel like it opened up my mind, and I'm more tolerant of other people's views and life choices.

First let me say that artistically I have yet to see a manga that rivals the beauty and mystique of Angel Sanctuary. Kaori Yuki is an incredible artist and her imagery is worth reading the series all by itself. However, Angel Sanctuary definitely suffers from some flaws with it's story. To quickly get it out of the way Ill address the whole incest criticism by saying yeah it did take away from the series slightly. It is easily able to look past (granted you have an open mind) but still the idea is rather awkward for a variety of reasons not just limited to them being siblings. Now Ill discuss what annoyed me in particular were the character depictions. Nearly all the angels are shown to be essentially wusses and have such one dimensional personalities, maybe with the exception being Metatron + Sandalphon. Michael is reduced to an annoying hyper-active crybaby while his twin Lucifer is given the calm, cool, and mystery, qualities that make him way more interesting. Michael + Lucifer in the manga are God's attempt at recreating the Serphita (Adam Kadamon - Alexiel/Rosiel) and I feel like Yuki just gave Michael the short end of the stick (No pun intended). Furthermore, I found the whole battle with God in this volume to be completely uneventful. I read that originally Yuki was going to end it with a sad ending and honestly I think I almost would've preferred that to the ending that was given. God is depicted as an enormous immobile transformer-esque robot, and while I understand for the sake of the story he cannot be entirely omniscient there are just way too many mess-ups for me to take it seriously. Overall though I'd say give it a go. The art is fantastic, some of the characters are interesting, and if like me you are interested in apocrypha, gnostic writings, kabbalah, and ect. you'll probably really enjoy some of those characters come to life in this story.

Kaori Yuki isone of the best manga artists out there, there's no question about it. Her beautiful, detailed drawings call to mind some of the better works of manga from the the 70's-90's. Whether it's beautiful winged men, voluptuous girls, or gruesome dismemberment, she puts a HUGE amount of effort into making sure that all the artwork is amazing, rarely (if ever) relying on screen tones any more than absolutely necessary.However, art aside, Ms. Yuki lacks much technical storytelling ability. Of all the manga artists I've seen, her concept of pacing and panel layout is one of the weakest. Action scenes will inevitably be crowded into a scant few pages, leaving the results confusing at best. Dialogue exchanges, however, will drag and frequently be used to explain what the crowded panels didn't clarify.As far as the story goes, much of the actual plot revolves around the main character's incestuous love for his younger sister. Disturbingly, Ms. Yuki makes it clear that "Incest is 'wrong' only because God says it is." And since God and the angels are the villains... well... Sadly, the backstory is far more interesting, and contains much more appeal than the onscreen action.The universe of Angel Sanctuary can swing from complex to disappointingly mundane. Ms. Yuki's taken a liberal interpretation of Abrahamic Mysticism. The structure of the universe God created is fascinating and the architecture (particularly in Hell) is one of the higher aesthetic points. In contrast, heaven is little more than standard SciFi "advanced civilization" with a few marble columns to remind us where we are. And there's something decidedly underwhelming about angels using pistols, driving cars and wearing modern military uniforms.The characters themselves vary from likable to uninteresting. The protagonist Setsuna is a cliched "troubled idiot hero" while Sarah is his short-tempered, borderline-tsundere little sister. That's about it. Thankfully, the supporting cast members have a bit more to say for themselves - Princess Kurai is a downright lovable girl whose inevitable crush on Setsuna is more sweet than trite. Kira is surprisingly complex once his role emerges and Katou swings quite endearingly from cowardly to noble and back again. Side characters frequently steal the show, the forerunners being Zaphkiel and Belial. The tormented Rosiel would be a lot more tragic if Ms. Yuki could just stop telling us he's tragic.To sum it all up, if you're into pretty art, this manga is full of it. If you don't care about art and want a compelling story, then Angel Sanctuary will inevitable disappoint you.

Angel Sanctuary was the first manga I ever read. The story, the characters, the amazing plot twists, nothing I have read since has come close to the awesomeness that is Kaori Yuki's Angel Sanctuary. Having devoted 2 years to reading the series, I was more than a little apprehensive that the final volume would leave me disappointed in some way. However, I was completely blown away by the final volume which is just as explosive and action-packed as the previous 19 with plenty of plot twists and all loose ends being tied up leading to a very satisfying ending. I was always impressed with Yuki's ability to maintain the momentum of the series as well as keeping up the levels of originality which characterize her work.Although I'm naturally disapponited that the series has ended after following it for so long, I can think of no better ending than what Yuki comes up with here. Thank you, Kaori Yuki for a wonderful story!