(Taken from the same review on Hummingbird.me by the same user, but changed to better fit MAL guidelines.) D.N.Angel is a shoujo anime series, based off the manga by Yukiru Sugisaki. While this series isn't especially popular anymore, it was pretty popular in the 2000s, especially with young teenage girls. NO, WAIT, COME BACK! I'M NOT DONE YET! I personally believe that just because a show has a...erm, vocal fangirl fanbase, does not automatically make it a bad show. In fact, most of these shows are pretty mediocre and harmless. Is D.N.Angel a mediocre shoujo franchise, an underrated masterpiece, or a piece of garbagethat only the most impressionable of teenagers can enjoy? Let's break it down and find out.
Story
This series has a pretty interesting concept, and the story itself is pretty okay. Since this is a fantasy show, it's hard to criticize the story for being "unrealistic." That being said, this anime does have filler episodes that add nothing to the story. It's expected from a show with 26 episodes to have some filler for the most part, Most episodes are for character development, but saying that is somewhat generous. There's an episode where the animal sidekick falls in love with another animal. Now that I think of it, didn't Tokyo Mew Mew, another shoujo anime from the same time period, do something similar with cats? Weird. Other than that, I don't have too many complaints about the story itself. It's execution is okay, and it's pretty easy to follow
Animation
The animation was done by Xebec, a subsidiary of IG Port, the holding company of PRODUCTION I.G, I kid you not. Xebec also worked on shows such as Love Hina, Shaman King, Negima!: Master Negi Negi, To Love-Ru, and many other series. There isn't too much to say about the animation, other than it's pretty good. The action scenes look pretty good, while the calmer scenes look...good enough. It's not a strain on your eyes or anything. It does definitely look like a 2003 anime, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Sound
The opening theme song is called "White Night -True Light," performed by Shunichi Miyamoto. The opening song is actually a really good song, and the opening animation is really good as well. There's also an official English version performed by Vic Mignogna, Dark Mousy's English voice actor. That version is actually just as good as the Japanese version, a rarity for dubbed anime songs. There are a few ending songs, but they are ultimately forgettable and do not stick around in your head for long. The BGM is fairly decent, but the show does like to repeat certain pieces like...every episode, pretty much. If that doesn't bother you, then the soundtrack is decent.
As for the Japanese dub, I cannot say if it is actually good or not, because I do not speak Japanese and I'm not an expert on Japanese voice acting. The only thing I can say about it is that it sounds good from an English speaker's perspective. Now let's talk about something that doesn't sound good AT ALL.
The dub is one of the worst dubs I've ever sat through, up there with Higurashi and Elfen Lied. The casting itself isn't that bad, however. It's just irritating. Thankfully, we also have some half decent performances. Hilary Haag did a good job with Riku's character. No, it's not the best performance ever, but it's still good enough for what it is. The best performance has to go to Vic Mignogna as Dark. He captured the sarcastic tone and attitude of Dark very well, and he brings emotion to the character, like he does in most of his other roles. It's not as good as his performance in FMA, but he's still fun to listen to. Thank god for him, because he's the only saving grace in the English dub. If you are going to watch this anime, please watch the Japanese version, for your ears' sake.
Character
The protagonist is a typical love-struck teenage boy. Yes, he's very obsessive over Risa, but he's not the worst of this archetype. I suppose he has a "good heart," but in all seriousness, he's just an average character who's not very interesting. Risa Harada is your typical fangirl. She loves Dark to pieces, watching him on T.V, trying to meet up with him as much as possible and always talking about him. She's just as annoying as she sounds, and she gets in the way of Dark's schemes. I know she's supposed to be cute, but she's really not. Her sister is the polar opposite. She's probably the most relatable character in the whole show. She feels insecure about her feelings for Daisuke due to her tomboy-ish attitude, and she cares about his happiness much more than Risa does. She also worries about her sister and has a very close bond with her.
Dark Mousy had a lot of potential as a character, but does not develop into later in the series. He's just there for two reasons:
1. To steal stuff
2. To provide eye candy for both Risa and the target audience
All of the other characters are pretty forgettable, with Hiwatari being the typical cold teenager and Krad being the typical bad guy. However, the characters are actually pretty fun to watch if you forget about their flaws. The interactions and different relationships are all very entertaining.
Enjoyment
If you don't think too much about how good the show actually is, it's surprisingly enjoyable. I had a lot of fun making fun of the show's silliness at times. I 'm sure teenage girls will go crazy over Dark and enjoy that aspect of the show as well. I don't care about that, but hey, to each their own. I personally had a blast watching this anime. It's definitely guilty pleasure worthy.
Overall
As a whole, D.N.Angel is a fairly decent series. It's not anything special, but it could have been a lot worse than it is. I have heard that the manga is better, so if you are unsatisfied with the anime, the manga is probably worth checking out. The characters are decent, the story is decent, the animation is decent. The best word to describe this series is "decent." I would recommend this series to someone who has just started watching anime or someone who likes romance/action series. To answer the question asked in the beginning; D.N.Angel is indeed a mediocre shoujo franchise.
Recommended
It seems that most people who have read the manga are disappointed with the series, and that's completely understandable. I usually like to read a manga and then ignore the anime version of it, or possibly try the first few episodes. It's sad but true: the animes just don't quite live up to their manga counterparts. That aside, I have never read the manga, so take into account that my review is written without knowledge of the story manga-style. Fantastic! This anime is truly amazing! I want to start by telling you this: The reason that this anime is so great is the innocence and purity of theromance. Most animes lack this, in fact every other anime I have seen doesn't come close to this. Now this could be because I haven't seen enough romance animes, but D.N. Angel touched me in such a way that still leaves me impacted, one year after viewage. (Yes, I know that's not a word.)
STORY: 9/10
Great story, I'm mainly grading by how engaging the story is, not how inventive it is. Its actually a very simple story, but its this simplicity that makes it beautiful to watch. To boil it down to the essentials, its just a story about a boy who is confused about love. As the story progresses, he slowly finds his way, and begins to understand more about his life.
ART: 9/10
I love the art, its unique yet not too forcefully new. Its very refreshing, and the smooth textures really blend in with the moods of the anime. I'm not a very artsy person, but a big thumbs up in this section.
SOUND: 9/10
The OP is just amazing, I can never get it out of my head. It sounds a bit weird at first, like the vocals are a bit weak, but the more you listen to it, the more it will be stuck in your head. The in-anime music is also fantastic, great great job here too.
CHARACTER: 10/10
This is where D.N. Angel really shines. The characters are simple, some cliche, but these are the characters I have found myself being attached to the most in any anime. The focus ends up being confusion and misunderstandings, and how the characters deal with these. And instead of turning into some dum fanservicey, ecchi, borderline hentai situation like most modern semi-romances do, the characters are forced to turn away from each other and they think long and hard about their feelings. Through this process, you really start to develop your own feelings toward each character. I really really got into this anime after about 13 eps or so, I became slightly obsessed... whoopsie :D
ENJOYMENT: 10/10
Nothing much to be said here; I kinda already said it. It's really great to see such innocence on the screen when other things like violence and fanservice are in high demand. Not that I mind either of those, but D.N. Angel puts those concepts to shame. Shame shame shame, this anime is so good.
OVERALL: 10/10
I am definitely going to have to rewatch this anime when I run out (like that's gonna happen...). But this anime has something that others lack, and its probably its ability to draw the viewer deep into the romance, and you can really see and develop feelings and attitudes during the episodes. Please, you don't want to miss D.N. Angel for the world.
Recommended
Let me lead of by first saying that I love D.N.Angel and its an amazing anime, however, I just feel that it had the potential of being so much better than what was presented with the final product in the anime. The story of D.N.Angel is relatively original as you don't see other anime shows adopting what D.N.Angel has - an angel stealing artwork in hopes of preventing world destruction, if you put it in very simple terms. In a nutshell, the Niwa family has long been the bloodline that holds the dark-winged angel, Dark, in their male children and every 40 years or so,it is time once again for Dark to re-emerge and once again steal the artwork or art pieces from the Hikari family, who also houses an angel of their own, Krad <-- Dark spelled backwards if you guys did not notice that immediately. The town that the story takes place seems like it was taken somewhere from Italy and they simply just inserted Japanese speaking people there. ^_^ But don't worry, the town setting perfectly suits D.N.Angel as soon enough, you will be wishing that you were living in that quaint, little town.
A very important part of the plot is the triangle romance between our protagonist, Niwa Daisuke and the Harada identical twin sisters, Risa and Riku. At first, Niwa has a crush on Risa (the prettier of the two sisters) but as the anime progresses, we see a change in Daisuke's heart. And its rather very interesting how the change comes about. The romance is such an integral part because in essence, that is what brings out Dark from Daisuke - his love for Risa. To understand exactly what that is about would be giving away too much. You should watch the anime. ^_^
The animation is actually quite interesting. There are a few scenes in some of the episodes which you'll believe *have* to be computer animated, but amazingly enough, it isn't. In addition, the quality of the animation is crisp, clean and smooth and is up to today's standards, given that the anime is a few years old.
The music to D.N.Angel is very good, however, it does fall short of being exceptional. There are many scores that you will find enjoyable, but some of them just sound too much of the same. The introductory song is fantastic (True Light), however, it is sung in the same pitch of voice, and if you're a big music person who understands that, it may or may not get on your nerves a little.
Character development is a integral part of D.N.Angel as the relationship between Risa, Riku and Daisuke is the overall focal point of the anime. Satoshi Hiwatari is Daisuke's rival in a sense, however, as Daisuke embraces his counterpart in Dark, Satoshi is seen to reject his. The Niwa and Hikari families have been battling each other for centuries over these artworks and Satoshi is adamant in capturing Dark without his counterpart. Its interesting to watch his relationship with Krad throughout the series.
There is no doubt in my mind that everyone who is looking for a cute romance and an interesting plot will enjoy this show immensely. The only qualms that I have with it is that there are not enough battle scenes in the show that is seemingly advertised by the introductory song and the pace of the anime seems a bit slow in some of the middle episodes. The ending was also very abrupt and easily could have been stretched a bit longer, given us more information and more battles. But looking back on it, once can say that it was sufficient enough. However, once you get passed those two or three episodes that do seem a little too slow, you're in for quite a treat. If you're a sucker for romance, look no further than D.N.Angel.
