Angel Sanctuary

Angel Sanctuary
File:Angelcage0405.jpg Angel Sanctuary manga, volume 1 (Japanese version)
Genre	Fantasy, Romance, Shoujo
Manga
Angel Sanctuary
Written by	Kaori Yuki
Published by	Hakusensha Viz Communications
Anime
Angel Sanctuary
Directed by	Kiyoko Sayama
Studio	Bandai Visual

Angel Sanctuary (天使禁猟区, Tenshi Kinryōku) is a manga and anime series created by Kaori Yuki. This 20-volume series was originally serialized in Hakusensha's Hana to Yume. The manga was adapted as a three-episode OVA series that loosely covers the first story arc; it was intended to be an introduction to the manga rather than a complete story, and thus ends on an abrupt cliffhanger. Both the manga and anime feature mature content.

The manga is available in English, published by Viz Communications and in Brazil and Italy by Panini Comics. It is also available in Chinese, published by Tongli Publishing, and in Spanish, published in Spain by Mangaline and in Mexico by Grupo Editorial Vid.

A series of drama CDs based on the other story arcs was also released.

Story

Setsuna Mudo is a problematic delinquent high school student, who is in love with his sister. To add to his problems, he is also a reincarnation of a fallen angel, which gets him caught in a messy war between heaven and hell.

Angel Sanctuary is one of Kaori Yuki's most celebrated works. Among other things, it discusses the morality of incestuous relationships, the nature of God, and other philosophical topics.

The background story is that of Organic Angel Alexiel, who is one of the highest beings in existence, third only to God himself and the primordial man known as Adam Kadamon. She is, in rank, equal to her twin brother the Inorganic Angel Rosiel. Before the beginning of the series God has fallen asleep to "gather his powers" which indicates that he is, in this series, very powerful but not omnipotent.

In this series Assiah (Earth) and the upper levels of Hell (Gehenna) are mirror images of each other. As mankind polluted and destroyed the Earth the lands of Hell also began to weaken. Taking advantage of their creator's slumbering absence and the weakening of their enemies the angels of heaven wage war on the Evil race (a group of beings that are demons who have turned away from the Devil, Lucifer, and God; they live in Gehenna and worship "Holy Dragon Gods"), wiping most of them out.

In doing this the angels fighting the war are corrupted. They commit vile crimes and murders under the name of God and righteousness. This deeply goes against Alexiel's morals. She feels that the Evils are more pure in their actions since they do not put up a charade of purity to cover their crimes. She joins the Evils' side of the war and declares an official revolt against God.

The war comes to a climax and end when Alexiel fights against her brother Rosiel. Earlier, Rosiel had found out that he is decomposing and that his mind will rot. He went to Alexiel to ask her to kill him before he goes crazy, which she agrees to. But when she is about to deal the killing blow to him, he yells "Would you kill your own twin brother, Alexiel!?". She then is filled with pity and remorse, so she seals him within the Earth using a barrier of forbidden magic. However in doing this she used every ounce of her power and shatters Nanatsusaya (the "Holy Sword of God", that made every bearer before Alexiel go mad with its power and kill themselves and countless others). The result is that Rosiel is now sealed inside Assiah and Alexiel is captured and tried by the Angel of Judgment, Uriel.

For her crimes, Alexiel is sentenced to the most severe punishment given to the fallen. Her body and soul are separated. The body is frozen in an angel crystal, it is then locked away in the deepest depths of angel security on the fourth circle/layer of Heaven, Machonon. Her soul is sentenced to be incarnated into a human mortal. That mortal's life is sentenced to end in a violent and painful way at the end of every incarnation. After which Alexiel is re-incarnated again and begins the cycle anew. But in every incarnation Alexiel's personality is still present under specific, e.g. dangerous, circumstances, which causes her incarnation to have strange spiritual patterns and powers at times; it is as if the incarnation has a multiple personality disorder. In the storyline she is incarnated into a boy named Setsuna Mudo.

Characters

Main article: Characters of Angel Sanctuary

Main characters

File:Setsuna.gif

Setsuna Mudo (無道 刹那 Mudo Setsuna; Seiyu: Kenji Nojima)

The current human incarnation of the Organic Angel Alexiel. Alexiel retains many of her high astral powers and Setsuna is almost impervious to injury. Like all of Alexiel's reincarnations, Setsuna was doomed to live a miserable life, tragic love, and die a slow, very painful death. However, the cycle is partially broken when Nanatsusaya killed Alexiel's previous incarnation. It is then completely destroyed when Setsuna's younger sister, Sara, dies in his place. He is hopelessly in love with Sara, and hated by his mother. He also has no memories of his previous incarnations, and at first resents his role as the chosen "Savior", wishing only to protect his and Sara's happiness. He matures as the series progresses, eventually surpassing Alexiel herself. Setsuna is headstrong, rebellious, and impulsive, but he has a good heart and is fiercely loyal to his friends.

File:Saramudo.gif

Sara Mudo (無道 紗羅 Mudo Sara; Seiyu: Ayako Kawasumi)

The younger sister of Setsuna Mudo, who is actually the reincarnation of the soul of the former Great Cherub, Jibril (Gabriel). Jibril was also one of the Four Elemental Angels, the Angel of Water, and she was vocally opposed to Sevotharte's violent actions as Prime Minister. To get Jibril out of the way, he paralyzed her with a needle and sent her soul to Earth, so that she could unwittingly serve him as Setsuna's guardian angel. When Sara dies, her soul is taken up to heaven by Zaphikel to study its unusual spiritual energy signature. Metatron removes Sevy's needle from the back of Jibril's neck and Sara's soul awakens in it. She awakens blind and remains so until she is healed when she uses Jibril's water powers to help Raphael revive Setsuna. She is in love with Setsuna. Her soul was returned to her original body by Raphael, who claims to love her. This is not true, for through Sara, Raphael was to realize that his true love was someone else close to him. Sara has a pure, innocent heart, but she has a fierce temper and sharp tongue.

File:Alexiel.gif

Alexiel (Seiyu: Ai Orikasa)

The Organic Angel Alexiel is the twin sister of Rosiel. One of the most powerful angels in heaven, she has three wings. Alexiel was loved by many, including Uriel and Lucifer. Alexiel was the older of the twin angels, her inorganic counterpart being her brother Rosiel. When Alexiel and Rociel were born, only Alexiel possessed a full fledged body, being the Organic Angel. Rosiel being the Inorganic angel, was a soul with no body. Alexiel, who loved her brother as if he were own flesh and blood made a pact with God so that he would allow her to give Rociel a body. In return, God decreed, she would never talk to her brother, never willingly go near him and never show her true feelings (her sisterly love) for him. She agreed to these commands and Rosiel was given a body, though Alexiel was imprisoned in Eden.

Later Lucifer the Morningstar rebels against God and in the process, frees Alexiel from Eden. Once free, Alexiel is able to realize just how warped her homeland has become in her years of imprisonment. Disgusted by the corrupt practices of heaven, Alexiel rebelled against God and joined forces with Princess Kurai of the Evil Kingdom. Though she loved Rosiel, she sealed her dangerous, insane brother within the earth. It is shortly after this that Alexiel is imprisoned by the heavenly army and put on trial for her actions. In punishment for her treason, Alexiel's soul is separated from her body, doomed to be endlessly reincarnated into a human on Earth; each of her lives are to be miserable and end in a painful death. Her current incarnation is Setsuna Mudo.

File:Lostangel21.jpg

Sakuya Kira (吉良 朔夜 Kira Sakuya; Seiyu: Takehito Koyasu)
( for more information refer to Lucifer/Kira Sakuya)

The real Kira Sakuya was seven years old when he and his mom died in a car accident. Just at the moment of death, Sakuya was thinking about how his father would be sad with his wife and son dead. Then a being appeared to him and asked Sakuya to lend his body to him so Sakuya could come back to life. But Sakuya was resilient and argued that even if he had to come back to life, he would have to die someday, when the body wore out. Therefore the being, who was Lucifer, made a deal with Sakuya that he could continue his love of reading and also cause Sakuya's father despise him so he would not mourn his death. Lucifer would control Sakuya's body while Sakuya slept inside it.

Thus, within Sakuya resides the soul of the demon Lucifer, which takes on the form of Nanatsusaya. The Sword has followed and protected Alexiel in every one of her lives because he loves her. Later, Lucifer was to reawaken but he retains memories of Kira Sakuya and Nanatsusaya. Despite his attempts to suppress these memories, he still regarded Setsuna as a friend. He wields a sword named Shiranui.

Lucifer ( for more information refer to Lucifer/Kira Sakuya)
The Demon Lord of Hell, his angelic name is Lucifel/Lucifael, varying according to translation. Just when he was exalted to the position of Morning Star, he was told by God that he was born with only one reason - to become the Prince of Darkness and rule the evils and demons. When he heard this, he grew angry. In order to enact reveng, he decided to rape Alexiel. But he did this because in Heaven, it was believed that Alexiel was actually God's "beloved daughter". The reality was that God actually hated her and wanted her out of the way so she could not ruin his plan, but Lucifer had no way of knowing this. But he fell in love with her when he found out she was not the cold emotionless woman everyone believed her to be, but a woman who possessed an all encompassing love that extended to everything. He fell in the love with the "woman with the same eyes as him" and leaves Eden after kissing her on the cheek in order to continue his rebellion against God.

When he and his comrades fell, they found that hell was a barren land incapable of supporting life of any kind so he rooted his body to Hell's ground. Thus when Hell's earth breaks, it is his blood that gushes out. He also returns to Eden a second time to free Alexiel from her God-made prison and thus assisted in bringing forth the second rebellion, which Alexiel staged.

As his punishment for assisting Alexiel's escape from heaven, God imprisons him in the extremely powerful seven-bladed sword, Nanatsusaya Mitamanatsurugi. His soul was imprisoned in the sword for so long, that all of his memories were lost. A number of people tried to wield the sword and failed until Alexiel came along. He allowed her to control him, because she was the woman that held all his memories in her hand. As Nanatsusaya, Lucifer hated Alexiel because he was helpless as she knew more about him than he did and she would never reveal his past to him. When Alexiel was captured by the angels and sealed in the Angel Crystal, Nanatsusaya followed her through all her reincarnations. He deludes himself into thinking that it is because he hates her and wants to see her suffer, but in the end his actions prove otherwise.

File:Lostangel43b.jpg

Rosiel (Seiyu: Susumu Chiba in OAV, Nozomu Sasaki in drama CD)

The Inorganic Angel Rosiel is the younger twin of Alexiel. Originally, he was wise, kind and benevolent, but knew he would eventually lose his sanity and become destructive. He asked Alexiel to kill him before this happened, but her feelings prevented her from doing so and she sealed him within the earth instead. He is also obsessed with his beauty; because everyone calls him beautiful (save for Alexiel), he frequently asks if he is beautiful when he has gone insane. The reason behind this obsession is because Rosiel was born as an old, hideous creature. His body doesn't age; instead, it becomes younger and younger as time went by. Rosiel's most loyal follower Katan secretly uses forbidden black magic to break the seal and brings Rosiel back. By this time, Rosiel has already lost his mind.

As the twin brother of Alexial, Rosiel sought her recognition. He's extremely narcissistic and he wished for Alexiel to acknowledge that he is beautiful so that he can believe it himself. He tries to kill Setsuna so that Alexiel can awaken and he can love her. He's a classic Kaori Yuki archetype, the villain who is revealed in the end to be an innocent victim.

In the final volume, Rosiel dies after killing his beloved servant Katan in a fit of madness. In his last moments, Alexiel awakens with Setsuna's help and helps Rociel return to a temporary state of sanity. She reveals to him that she loved him as a brother all along. Rosiel realizes it is time he died and joined "the one he truly loves", Katan. Before he dies, though, he passes his powers onto Setsuna, thus giving him the powers the Messiah was prophesied to have.

YHWH (Seiyu: Jouji Nakata)

The ultimate and only true villain of the story. YHWH, presumed to be God by the angels, is actually a being from another universe who created the universe in which Setsuna Mudo lives. He is a megalomaniac who has no real physical form, but resides in Etamenanki in the form of a giant computer-robot. The entire universe was created just to test an equation that he had fashioned, and he cares nothing for the suffering and injustice endured by humans and angels alike. He initially created Adam Kadamon (the six-winged Seraphita) in order for Adam Kadamon to step-in whenever he (God) was "sleeping". This turned out to be a mistake, as Adam Kadamon, who wanted nothing but good for everyone and everything, did not like the way God planned to bring every aspect of the universe under his personal control. In order to keep Adam from rebelling, God immediately imprisoned him. Ironically, God also became just as quickly obsessed with Adam Kadamon, or rather with creating another angel as "perfect" as Adam. Many of the characters' misery stems from God's attempts to create another being like the Seraphita. Examples include Astaroth, Alexiel, and Lucifer.

External links

• Kinryouku (english fansite)
• http://www.centralparkmedia.com/angel/ Central Park Media's official site for the anime