It took me quite a while to churn out another Neo Angelique writeup, all because I felt guilty after poking fun at this series in my previous posts. Not only did I insult this anime with my sarcastic comments, I also scared off guys who I should’ve helped become more open-minded about this under-appreciated show. My sarcasm basically clouded the rest of the serious opinion I had for the series, and it makes me ashamed of having churned out that kind of post. This show deserves far more than that kind of bastardization, it needs MOAR LOVE, and so I took the time to do some soul-searching with regards to what I’m gonna write, not just another uninspiring LOL kind that I have written in the past.

Neo Angelique has been serious from the start. It’s just that much of the redeeming qualities of the series have been clouded with cheesiness and a chunk-load of bishounens, so it’s not surprising how only a handful of guys (and even girls) would watch and enjoy this.

This series knows well the weaknesses of its characters, especially the baby goddess Ange. Throughout the series we witness her development, from being a pampered [little orphan] girl blessed with bishie guardians (the Orb hunters), to an empowered woman who understands the true essence of being a goddess, both the pros and cons that comes with the desire to bring happiness to the people of Arcadia. She faced tremendous pressure due to people’s expectations of her abilities and came across this one antagonist who wanted to prove himself more superior than the goddess that Ange is (and more superior than just about anyone else).

By the end of the first season, the aforementioned problems were resolved, in a simple and straightforward (though not exactly ‘action-packed’ exciting) manner, and we also get to know much about the bishies (except Hyuuga, Bernard, and Nyx, whose characters were more fleshed out in the second season) who had an episode or two dedicated to them. The theme of friendship is continually explored in this series, hand-in-hand with Ange’s self-discovery.

The second season continues with a rather serious and dark tone, with revelations from the pandora’s box kept subtly concealed during the first series’ run. And more than friendship, we see the series delve into the issue of fate and freedom, in the case of Ange and Lune (and also Nyx). Instead of straightforwardly revealing this super spoiler tidbit, let me just ask you this: What would you do if you found out that you were fated to be the ruler of your country, which gives you almost absolute awesome powers to help alleviate the oppressed people in the land (assuming that you have a really noble malice-free mindset), but with this great power comes great responsibility, and one of the sacrifices you’d have to make in light of this fate is to seclude yourself from the rest of the world, and dedicate all your life for your people and your people alone. Will you be so altruistic as to accept the job at the cost of your own happiness, knowing well that this will make your people happy? (take note that you are a really kind and noble person, not just a nonchalant apathetic person that most of us are – me included).

So yeah, that pretty much sums up the major dilemma faced by Ange this time around (the same dilemma of Princess Emeraude of Magic Knight Rayearth). Not much has been said about this topic after 3 episodes, but I do believe it’s gonna be a major turning point for the second season. And I’ll certainly be looking forward to it, together with the development in the rest of the characters. I don’t really care if Angelique doesn’t end up with anyone, because that’s not really what this show is about.

[DISCLAIMER] Before you go on blaming me for giving a misleading review, let me just say that a tolerance for cheesiness, lousy fight-scenes and open-mindedness would be necessary for this anime to have the pathos-inducing effect it had on me (a great bias for bishies and smexy seiyuus would greatly help too). I personally loved episode 7, where we see the bittersweet past of the reject android artifact (or ‘Jasper doll’ as the series calls it) J.D. and understand how he became as human as he is. The same goes for episode 4 of the second season, where we see Hyuuga freed from the shackles of his past. And of course there’s Nyx who is in constant battle with his other self

Neo Angelique tells a wonderful story. The overall presentation and packaging is just… not so general-audience-friendly, so to speak, hence the very niche demograph that actually spends time watching this show.

The silver knight Hyuuga joins Angelique’s harem of bishies in episode 3, and their first meeting was *ahem* rather exciting.

OMGZ…

Oh my…

…H-he…

…has trousers orz.

As you can see above, it turned out rather anticlimactic, as the director decides to change his/her mind about showing Hyuuga in a revealing light. We first see him almost nekkid while taking a bath, then he magically grows some trousers when he went out of the water!

Episode 3 basically fleshed out Rayne’s character, revealing bits and pieces about his past Inventor persona and his connection with this Artifact Institution, which is currently brewing this evil plan to take over the world and take advantage of Ange’s powers! oh noes!

With Angelique’s harem of bishies complete, she was met with yet another challenge — unifying her diverse set of haremettes, and fulfill her newfound role as their Harem Otomeistress!

So Ange cooks up this plan to iron out the kinks of the bishie team, and she makes this huge mistake of sneaking out of the Hidamari mansion by herself. Since the Artifact Institution has set their eyes on Ange after having known about her powers, the android spy they sent to abduct Ange catches her off guard, while she was picking up flowers by the garden~ Ange escapes, but alas, a Thanatos creature suddenly appears! Obviously, with Ange’s lame white magic purification skillz, she couldn’t do anything without her guardians orz.

The guardians came to her aid just in the nick of time, but they were left drained of their energies as they fought against the android Jet as well. With her comrades left in despair, Ange’s desire to fight alongside them grows stronger than ever, and despite the fear in her heart, she gains the courage to believe in herself and her harem! Ange casts some recovery + power boost + intelligence++ spell, and they finally learn to know the virtue of teamwork. Jet proved to be of no match against the powered-up bishies and retreats.

After the battle, J.D. recalls the previous encounter with Jet, who is…

Show ▼

The journalist Bernard who went alongside of them throughout this battle became a personal witness to Ange’s powers and offers to write an article featuring Ange, so the whole Arcadia will know of this soon-to-be goddess.

As the episode draws to a close, we see Ange and her guardians, working hand-in-hand (finally!) to make their dinner dessert~

Thoughts

Ok, so the battle scene with Jet was really silly… I mean, I know they lack unity and all, but for them to attack ONE AT A TIME like some turn-based RPG game, where one character attacks while the other ones await for their turn, is just *facepalm* But then again this made the teamwork in their second round of battle more evident, so perhaps it was made to be lame on purpose? lol.

I shall return!

Also, what’s with Jet and his obligatory speech before he took his leave? I mean, he even faced the “camera” just for this ROFL.

Nonetheless, despite all that silliness, Angelique continues to be an enjoyable watch. I was especially moved by episode 4, seeing Ange’s genuine desire to help out her comrades despite knowing how lacking her powers are. While I wish Ange was equipped with some weapon or offensive spells which could’ve made her a more KICKASS heroine, I’m pretty contented with the way things are now. Ange has her own definition of strength, evident in her determination and steadfast focus on her goal of wanting to save the lives of people, as far-fetched as that might sound at the moment (the next episode discusses more about this). This show actually gains hashihime’s seal of approval, who also believes that this is the best Angelique series to date. So there, give this series a try, at the very least, I believe any open-minded fan will be able to find this an enjoyable ride

I thought it was also nifty that they included the cooking antics of the game, which I found to be one of its unique and fun aspects. In the game, aside from boosting the romance stats / compatibility with the Guardians (through these dates you have with your chosen partner after every mission, and some personal visit to the guy’s room ^^;; ), you also have to increase this so-called 幸福度 (happiness factor), through events and these conversations you have during dinner time. You choose a dessert (there’s a dessert which a certain guy will especially like *hint hint*) before dinner, then you facilitate the flow of conversation during meal time. You control who it is you want to talk to, or * ahem * flirt with during dinner (you have this *wink* or *smile* option) Anyways, enough of that ^^;;;;;

Ahh, Neo Angelique~ Yet another Koei shoujo show that’s not getting any love. Deja vu~ The only ones in the blogosphere who took the time to cover the first episode of this anime were Aroduc, psgels, and recently, BluWacky though all of them already decided that it’s not an anime they want to bother with anymore. I can’t blame them though, given the number of other great shows this Spring (heck even I’m having a hard time choosing which shows I’m going to stick to x_x). Neo Angelique is, after all, a generic-looking shoujo anime, whose bishies serve to lure the likes of fangurls, especially those who got to play the PS2 game(s) *points to self*

Background Info on Neo Angelique

Neo Angelique is the latest installment to the Angelique series of games by Koei, and by far, the one with the most pleasant aesthetics value, at least for me. For once, all the guys in the game are hawt and not gay-looking, unlike the earlier Angelique games/animes.

The game was released last March 6, 2006, and was adapted to a manga one month after (I didn’t know about the existence of the manga till recently >_>). A full-voiced version of the game was released just this March 27, 2008, due to incessant public demand and Koei’s money-making evil schemes. From what I’ve seen of the three episodes that aired, the anime is sticking closely to the game, with some added *ahem* fanservice and scenes to accommodate the anime-original characters.

More on the Angelique Anime

I enjoyed watching Neo Angelique wayy more than Vampire Knight and Special A. If we’re talking about visuals and the quality (and quantity) of the bishies alone, Neo Angelique wins hands down. While Neo Angelique is weak plot-wise, because of the rather cheesy and overused concept of a goddess teaming up with a bunch of guys to defeat the forces of evil, VK and Special A doesn’t really have much plot to begin with anyways. Special A has its fun antics, VK has its vampiric emo angstiness, but I still prefer Neo Angelique anytime. If I were to watch something real fun, I’d go for Itazura na Kiss. *shields herself from the horde of Special A and VK fans*

Then again, the reason why I think this way might be because of my evident bias for the Neo Angelique game, and the certainty that I’ll find this journey more fangurl-scream-and-giggle-inducing than the two aforementioned shoujo shows. Or perhaps I’m just jaded now, as I remember being a Special A and VK fangurl years back. Oh well. Hurray for me, probably the only one in the blogosphere who’s going to faithfully follow Neo Angelique!

As Aroduc and BluWacky has mentioned in their first impression of Neo Angelique, it’s actually pretty decent (and I’d like to think this was their honest opinion on this show). Neo Angelique just chose the wrong season to air, so it’s most likely going to be tossed aside in lieu of the other Spring shows by most people, especially guys who will immediately run away at the sight of the horde of sparkling bishies, like La Corda.

If I were to sum-up Neo Angelique in the simplest and bluntest of words, it’d be a ‘tentacle monster and bishie of the week show’, as we see Angelique’s [reverse] harem grow as the episodes go by, and together they unite to defeat the forces of the evil Thanatos~! On a positive note, despite being Mary Sue-ish, Angelique is a fairly likeable character, not the Angsty Sue type of character like whiny Miaka of FY or the weakling Akane of HaruToki. She’s more like Nozomi of HaruToki3 or Sakura of Card Captor Sakura, with her shy/bashful yet strong personality (and a really beautiful bijin at that~)

Shallow stuff aside, Neo Angelique has a couple of plot twists to spice things up for the show. And although it may not be enough to blow you away or earn it an award any time soon, expect it to be a pleasant watch (given that you surpassed the point of drowning in the bishies). I’m a bit sad that I already know the oh-so-surprising! plot twists at this point in time, but oh well~

Wanting to know more about the bishies characters is one of the main factors which will draw viewers to this show (which applies to other animes as well). With that said, it’s fairly obvious that this was made to appeal to fangurl viewers like me, who spent hours on the game to get Rayne’s ending, only to fail! With the anime, we get to see the events unfold without having to spend hours playing the game!

While I’d heartily recommend this to bishie-loving fangurls, especially those who can tolerate the lack of plot originality (which is quite overrated btw), I’m reluctant to recommend this to guys =/　The only merit for guys I see in this show would be… the lovely Ange lol

Expect me to post my regular Neo Angelique rave and fangurl posts from hereon. That said, I shall pour the rest of my energies to Toshokan Sensou next. Yush~!

P.S. Neo Angelique makes me go trigger happy mode when it comes to screenshots, love the pics +___+