Anime: D.N. Angel 2rk7

In a nutshell: This could have been a wonderful anime, but it lacked focus. Actually, it could have been at least 2 wonderful animes, but when they tried to combine it all it just didn’t work out. Hmm, that parallels the story a bit…but no spoilers. There were just enough promising scenes to make me hope there would eventually be some redeeming quality that would make me say, “this was worth sitting through the rest for”. However, I’ll save you the trouble and tell you, at the end of 26 episodes that never happened.

Animation:
Despite some issues with the 2-D animation parts, the cgi makes the animation above average.
D.N. Angel excels in computer animation. All the background stuff is done with cgi, making for beautiful backgrounds, buildings, even floors. Unfortunately there is a big difference in the quality between the 2-D characters and the incredible computer animation. Most of the character designs, for example, are pretty standard without anything that really stands out as special, with the notable exception of Dark. However in most scenes the quality difference between the characters and the backgrounds is a bit distracting. Expressions and body language for the characters are a touch unsatisfactory, having more average and slightly below average moments in this regard than good ones. Light and shadow is also sometimes subtly off. And towards the very end the drawings seem rushed; pupils are suddenly the wrong shape every now and then, facial expressions are worse than usual, etc. It’s a pity, because the action really picks up at the end and I’d hoped for a nice strong end with animation as well.

Sound:
Good music played too often, too predictably, and at the wrong times. Voice acting is a mixed bag.
Sound is based on the original Japanese.
The opening and closing songs are very catchy. One of the voice actors sings the opening wonderfully. The in-story music is very well written. However, there are only a few songs that are played over and over. In addition, there is music too much of the time, they never seem to let sound effects and silences come into play. The background music is started a bit early in most of the scenes too. To make that effect worse they attach a certain song to all suspenseful or sad or funny moments, so when it comes on early you know pretty well what’s going to happen, and suspense is ruined as a result. The music aspect is partially redeemed in the last episodes as they start using new music, including a few more delightful numbers sung by the same seiyuu who did the opening. That bumped up the score. As far as voice acting goes there are a couple notably good performances, like Dark and Satoshi. Unfortunately our main character, Daisuke, has a voice that’s a touch whiny, and after about a dozen episodes he’s likely to get on most people’s nerves.

Story:
The story tries to do so many divergent things that it does none of them well.
The problem with D.N. Angel is it couldn’t decide what it’s going to be. A thrilling adventure with mystery mixed in? A slice of life with love polygons? Instead of choosing one it tries to do all of them. For the most part it decides to take these by fourths: the first and last fourth of the series is action, the second forth mystery, and the third fourth romance/slice of life. And then it mucks just enough of each element into the other parts to muddy everything up. As a result, most people will like certain parts but hate other parts. I thought I’d be okay, because I love mystery, slice-of-life, romance, and action about equally. Unfortunately, since the series is trying to do so many things it does none of them well, and the conclusions of each element are dissatisfying. Just when the anime gets properly into one element it abandons that one for another, making for an exceedingly frustrating viewing experience. There are also pacing issues, with the story(ies) jumping from moving exceedingly slow to exceedingly fast over and over. In addition, the conflict between the villains and the protagonists was downright lukewarm. In the end, the story's a joke.

Characters:
Cute in the beginning, but loss of focus as the anime continues counters everything they had going for them.
D.N. Angel can’t decide if it’s going to follow a few main characters throughout or have plot arcs focusing on introducing and developing side characters and unique stories for these side characters. This means many characters undergo a lot of development and have a lot of screen time only to drop off of the face of the earth just when the viewer becomes deeply involved with them. The anime often seems to forget the main characters exist during these arcs, and they are shunted to the side, which left too little time for their development. As a result, our main characters undergo no character development for a long time and then suddenly rush into personality changes and revelations without events warranting it. In the rare cases where the character development has some precursor the time between cause and effect is either very long or very short. There are also several times where a character does a complete 180 on a vastly important element of their personalities and motivations, mostly in the last quarter of the series. This can be acceptable if there is good reason. But not with three different main characters in a 26 episode anime, with no reason or depth to it any of it.
And then there is the sex appeal angles…Daisuke is like, bi-polar in this regard. Actually, more like quater-polar. He keeps switching from the nervous, sweet type to the mature protecting type to the girly type on a guy-on-guy appeal. It wasn’t even linear, he kept switching back and forth with no regard to character development. And all this is as Daisuke, there’s even more bizarre switching as his alter-ego Dark! At the end almost every fan would find something in Daisuke they were attracted to and something they hated, mixing to such a degree that it made them dislike Daisuke in general. The girls are a bit more one-dimensional as far as fan-service goes with the typical types thrown in, but compared to Daisuke’s switching back and forth the one-dimensional bit seems preferable!

Value and Enjoyment:
I don't really regret watching it, but I don't recommend it.
Most of the time this was frustrating to watch. Every now and then there would be a cute scene or adrenaline-pumping moment, but these were few and far between. By about halfway through the series I found myself watching the timer on my video player tick slowly, slowly forward, wondering if the anime would ever get it together. And, as I said earlier, it never did. Still, that cgi was pretty. And I have a feeling that once the soundtrack is separated from the anime in my mind, I might pick the songs up. So it wasn't a total waste...I just wouldn't have started watching it if I knew exactly what was in store.

What started as a semi-interesting premise, continued with an interesting twist and ended in mediocrity. This is how I simply describe this series in my mind. I didn’t know back when I originally watched it as a rookie but now that I do I can see why. It was made by Xebec, a studio notorious for it dull and unimpressive shows. It was also directed by Habara Nobuyoshi, a man whose works all feel interesting as premises but quickly turn lethargic (Fafner, Negima, Break Blade). If I knew better I wouldn’t expect something good out of this (as I did as a teenager).

The story follows that of a supernatural thief going after cursed objects. And since the time of Lupin the Third, every thief has his detective nemesis always going after him. Of course, the story is far more than just that. The lead boy is in the beginning a normal teenager who just happens to one day transform into this super thief, a trait inherited by his family, who is destined to gather cursed items. Sounds rather weak, doesn’t it? Well, it is. But wait, there is more. The kid has now two different personas working almost independently. One is meek, the other is cool, one is a somewhat loser, the other is a macho attracting all the attention of the world on him. And to make things even more far fetched, one is in love with a girl, while the other is in love with her twin sister. BOINK! Yes, it is too much.

Besides realism, the pace of the plot suffers big time as well. Most episodes are in fact stand alone missions where the thief goes to get a cursed item, escapes the police and his detective nemesis, fights the evil-spirit-of-the-week and then returns home where he gets in various romantic frustrations over whom gets to date whom. Actual story exists in the first episodes where the setting is set, in the middle where there is strong (albeit cheesy) romantic moment which brings a climax to the relationships and then in the final episode, which feels so bizarre and alien to the rest of the series you’d think it was made by a different team.

In general, the scenario begins in a simple way, recycles / wastes itself in stand alone episodes in the middle, and ends in a final battle of sorts that will probably make you go WTF with its weird twist. Thus, the main premise becomes nothing but an excuse to bring emotional conflict amongst the characters. You can easily forget the cursed items and the semi-serious messages each tries to to the viewer in favor of the constant pressure the lead boy feels around his romantic interests, his second rude persona and his chase by the detective nemesis. So, it is a character-driven story with the action and the curses being nothing more than flashy effects to break the monotony.

Which brings us to the cast itself, the focus of the story. The interactions amongst the four (indirectly five) main characters are interesting for a while but definitely didn’t worth so many episodes. Although they are colorized nicely and they do develop and change their initial opinions of one another, they still lose credit because of the dead time in the mid episodes and the bizarre change of pace in the conclusion. As well as the lack of realism in the story if that is an issue with you. Also, their personalities are not something you will as they for quite plain and/or generic if you happen to have watched many anime.

Beyond all that, the animation and sound are decent and above average for the time they were made. Without feeling exceptional and by overusing the pretty boys with wings and feathers trope, they are nice to keep looking and hearing. The setting is pretty generic stuff; typical school grounds and houses with museums and vaults to be the battlefields, while not forgetting to add a lot of other normal stuff like going shopping, cooking or camping on the mountains. It’s been many years since I watched the series and I still the looks of the characters, that really touching twist in the middle and the main music theme of the series but by no fat chance can I say the same about all those battles with cursed items (which would stand as very good in the pre-Naruto era) or slice of life routine business that took up most of the duration. That practically means that you are left with a vague memory of everything you have watched because of the generic presentation in a plot you can find in any other slice-of-life anime and the pointless battles that besides keeping you attracted while watching them, become forgettable as soon as they finish.

In all this is a mediocre title I would recommend only to newcomers in anime with low expectations who don’t consider boring anything older than two years. I still it had made quite the sensation back when it aired and it even had its own fan club in the forum I was in. Still, after all those years many more similar and better in overall came along and now DNAngel is nothing but a fond memory of the times me and many others were still new in the field. If you want me to mention if it excels in anything, I will have nothing to reply as, frankly, it doesn’t have anything you won’t find in many other series besides a few very good emotional moments scattered in episodes too far away from one another.

SUGGESTION LIST
Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne
Inu Yasha

(btw this is my first review so be kind!)

Storyline: So it starts out with Daisuke Niwa , its his 14th birthday and he wants to become a new person , so he goes to confuse his love to the girl of his dreams Risa Harada, The younger of the 2 harada twins Risa Harada & Riku Harada, But before he can confuse she tells him that he is a great freind and he is heartbroken heres where the fun beings, he goes home and looks at a painting of Risa , and changes into the Phantom Thief Dark , full name Dark Mousy, he then goes down stairs and his mom and grandpa , Daiki & Emiko, who already knew about the transformation.
Daisuke learns that its in his dna and he will turn into dark intill he can either relize his true feelings or dies,
they go on countless missions to steal stuf *keep in mind this is magic stuff so its harder then normal stealing* after awhile they run into Takeshi Saehara , whos the bad guy but not the bad guy, they learn that he is like Daisuke and has a evil alter ego,Klad, who wants too destroy dark .....

Graphics: Very modern and stylish but very warm and friendly

Sounds And Music: The soundtrack is very while done i think the soundeffects in the anime could have been better then they were,and some of the voices didnt sound like the characters looked ,but overall very good sounds and music!

Overall: Overall I don’t regret watching D.N.Angel as it had its moments. If you have nothing better to do then give it a chance, however if you’re limited on time then you’re probably better off skipping this one. It does not offer any surprises and there are many better animes out there to watch. This anime just felt empty to me.

Storyline: 6|10
Graphics: 71/2|10
Sounds: 4|10
Music: 8|10

Overall: 7|10

Unfortunately for D.N.Angel, its strongest points are its sound and animation. Overall it manages to be a fairly decent anime, but not one that I can recommend for its storyline.

I enjoyed D.N.Angel for the most part, as it has tons of heart, but its weaknesses lowered my enjoyment severely in the last half of the series.

~Animation~
The animation was simply incredible. The detailed backgrounds were very well done, as were the characters and else. There truly is beautiful art throughout. (that's a pun, by the way...)

~Sound~
Sound throughout is nice and appropriate to set the mood, and I really liked the opening and closing themes. Dark has a good voice (he's the one singing?) as do all of the seiyuu.

~Story~
I liked the story more towards the beginning than the end. The first few episodes captivated me with the mystery of what was going on, the suspense of what might occur, and other interesting plot elements such as the budding romances.

Then, I began losing interest somewhere around the 16th episode as the obvious plot elements refused to come into play, as the evil characters just became maniacal, as side ... things (which were fairly good on their own, mind you) were introduced to distract? to lengthen the series? to ...

I believe that my unease is due to the story dragging on for too long before resolution.

Finally, I found the story's ending rather poorly written.

~Character~
Great characters for the most part, though the relationship between Hiwatari and Daisuke was annoyingly forced, and just annoying, really.

The bad guy(s) are more of a plot device than after anything, and end up severely harming the anime's plausability.

However, Daisuke and his family are very likable, as are Riku and Risa, and as they are primary, these characters easily make this anime worth watching.

~Value~
Not worth purchasing at all, but definitely worth watching once.

0_0...the beginning is different from like, the rest of the anime. This is a good story, but it has a lot of weird movements...

A family of thieves...that are good?!?!?

Dark Mousy is a black-winged angel. As much he is bishounen "phantom thief," he is also very strong and agile. With a seal that is put on him and his white-winged archenemy, Krad, many years will till Dark can spring forth again...

Niwa Daisuke is 15 today. He loves Harada Risa, a fellow schoolmate, to pieces...in fact she's his biggest crush. With all of his might, he attempts to confess on this day! Nani? Ehh...things don't go as planned. However, Niwa feels something strange inside, provoked by the feelings...

Ok, the plot is at first extremely complicated. It seems really ridiculous, because the main characters are really "inseparable" (you'll know what I mean), and Dark's way of appearance is relatively awkward. Episodes 1 and 2 bring a lot of senseless action; especially, in a series that actually turns out pretty good. DNAngel lacks a lot of depth, but in quick recovery turns (with an EXCELLENT plot twist about 3/4 through) into a heartfelt story.

Well, the animation owned.

A lot of great cg's and moving scapes are really one of the coolest things in this anime - along with the breathtaking flights of Dark. Characters maintain a very serious look, and never get the mega-goofy faces that dominate comedy-based animes. I was neutral to the facial expressions, but everything else was sugoi...truly.

The girls look like shoujos, I suppose mature enough to be attractive, but nothing more. To all blood-lovers: Little blood, this anime is directed towards a significantly large audience.

Dark is cool...so is Niwa.

At first, Niwa seems very weak, but that changes very quickly. Dark is always cool, and I'll leave him an enigma - he's just something you have to see. Riku and Risa also have a lot of confusion, as the romantic edge in this story plays a great deal in Dark's appearances. What amazed me was the cliffhanging between Niwa and the ladies...I couldn't really tell where things were gonna go, so I became more eager to see the love scenes. DNAngel has a really powerful love story...it is childish in a way, but the last few episodes solidify the depth involved in having a real relationship. I am honored to say that DNAngel can compare to the relationships in Onegai Teacher, Saikano and Ai Yori Aoshi; which are all favorite romantics of mine.

As for the other characters, they are developed mostly through the action sequences, or the comedy scenes. Hiwatari is the only character out of the rest that gets more-than-fair development, and has a great additional role towards the end of the series.

Music, Voice acting: Pretty damn good.

The opening, True Light (by Miyamoto Shunichi) is ok. I didn't appreciate it as much as the ending, but it is good-fashioned rock that'll keep a decent tune. As for the background music, it's a lot of piano and easing stuff. When the weird scenes with a lot of fog or fantasy occur, it picks up, and becomes adrenaline filled. Basically, the music will keep the attention.

The voice acting is really quite good. Risa by far had the best voice. She can really get annoying, and charming, and confusing - basically she's filled with emotion. I appreciated her character a lot; and Riku, who I liked a lot more makes her feelings mysterious with her voice...but of course, everyone else's voice acting had to be for their own feelings as well.

Overall: Worth it.

You'll love the plot twists. The second half is so much more superior than the first, mostly because of a sudden change of mood. Unfortunately, because the beginning was so relatively ludicrous, the rewatch rate goes down, as the beginning will be skippable. In spite of that, the ending is the best, and can be rewatched several times - so the anime is really split up.

Recommendation: Almost anyone. Just people who like horror or high-blood levels may find this a little too boring. Otakus should see this right away, perhaps after even reading this review. I don't think newbies would have a problem watching this, as the exposure is relative to what is seen commonly in anime. Also, if you can't bear the first few episodes, bear with it, it will get better. Nicely done. ;-)

Sweet like candy. I like this show more than I should. I totally love the main character Daisuke, and his cute bittersweet romantic problems. I'm totally for the other sister BTW. Risa is a thumbs down for me.

Show is entirely character driven, very shojo in its sensibilities. I think Daisuke's trigger to become Dark is stupid and a total crutch from sloppy writing. The cursed object of the week is also just a crutch. The real show is watching the dancing interplay of emotions between all the likable and interesting characters.

Animation is beautiful. Nice CG for town scenes. Action sequences are typical for a magical girl (boy?) show, with no- violence and a lot of feather tossing and magic pyrotechnics. Yet there is a bit more thought and intelligence shown by the characters in fights and in figuring out mysteries than in other shows of this genre. You wont feel cheated after the climax of any episode.

Bottom line: Sweet, cute, lovable interesting characters with smart writing.