Neo Angelique Abyss Episode 1 - The Miraculous Girl
Let’s just get this out the way quickly - it’s Mary Sue: The Anime, back again for another round in another incarnation thanks to the endless recycling of Ruby Party, creators of Harukanaru Toki no Naka De and Gin-iro no Corda. Chosen girl, pretty boys all around her, turn your testicles in at the door; you know what to expect.
With that said, though, is there necessarily anything wrong with that if it’s entertaining? Mary Sue stories in fandom tend to be annoying because they’re one person’s very specific self-insertion story. Wish fulfilment only really works on the part of the person wishing, after all. However, when transferred to anime form the Mary Sue figure becomes something more of an everyman - in this show, Ange is so incrediby “normal” and devoid of personality quirks (except for the requisite tragic past with burning family members) that almost anyone in the target audience must be able to find some way of identifying with her and thus getting their wish fulfilment kicks out of the show. At least shoujo shows of this ilk have the decency to make the self insertion character important in some way, unlike harem comedies where the lead male is generally meant to be as pointless as possible; whereas girls want the pretty boys to love them back, we blokes just want fap material regardless of emotional connection (sweeping generalisation, of course, but there you go).
Anyway, despite some rather silly looking tentacle monsters and one of those ridiculous “show the end of the series” prologues that seem to be all the rage these days, Neo Angelique isn’t all that bad. The character designs are all ridiculously good looking, the animation’s not too bad, and it’s a pleasant enough action adventure show. Not really my bag what with the plethora of delights airing this season, but you could do an awful lot worse.
April 18th, 2008 at 3:53 am
roflmao. damn straight, and I applaud you for your honesty, BluWacky xD That said, I might be the only person in the blogosphere who’s gonna faithfully follow this show, though it’s no surprise coz I’m into bishies after all~ more than enough reason for me to watch XD
April 18th, 2008 at 6:37 am
Thanks for the even-handed review. Ep 1 was admittedly nothing spectacular, but the character designs were nice and things moved along enough to keep my interest. Even the guys at ANN were slamming this show, and while “Mary Sue-ism” is a valid criticism, you’ll never see people give half a star (out of five) to the “Gary Stu” shounen equivalent. No, _those_ shows are judged on their merits… Maybe it’s easier for most reviewers to look past the cliches when the protagonist is male. I honestly don’t see any other difference.
April 22nd, 2008 at 5:41 pm
[…] 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 […]
May 9th, 2008 at 4:06 am
thats is crab what that girl wants everyone loves her jejejje wake up angelique in real life
she dont have that lucky in real life wake up story director or autor this series never has popularity better other series