The Show:
The seventh volume of D. N. Angel wraps up the story and brings
the series to a close. I was surprised that they started a new story-line
in the last two episodes, but it turned out to be one of the better stories
in the series. Too bad it didn't occur earlier in the series when
it could have given the show some coherence.
Diasuke Niwa is a young boy who leads a fairly ordinary life.
Until he turns 14 that is. On that day, a gene that all the males
in his family possess becomes active and turns his life inside out.
This gene causes him to transform into a notorious thief, Phantom Dark,
whenever he thinks about the girl he loves. These transformations
will continue until Diasuke's love is returned. The only problem
is that the object of his affections, Risa, doesn't like him, she loves
his alter ego, Phantom Dark. It's Risa's twin sister, Riku who is
infatuated with Diasuke, but he doesn't seem to notice her at all.
The volume starts off with Diasuke still in the world of the Second
Hand of Time. The young boy is trying to save Freedert, a girl who
has been trapped in a painting for generations, but he may end up trapped
himself. This episode had a bitter-sweet ending and feels like the
end of the series. The end credits roll over animation of all of
the characters in the show instead of the regular closing.
After the Fire and Ice story is wrapped up, things take an odd turn.
Because of things that occurred in the previous episode the Black Wings,
a living work of art, has been revived. This is something that Diasuke's
family had been working to prevent for generations. Now it
has fallen on young Diasuke to stave off this apocalyptic event.
The last two episodes in the series were very good, and answered a lot
of the questions that I had about the series. They explain the origin
of Dark and his relation to Krad. Most importantly, these final episodes
finally give the series an overall story. It's too bad that they
didn't develop the story more over the course of the series rather than
just examine it in fits and starts.
When all was said and done, I really enjoyed the last couple of shows,
but the whole series wasn't that great. When it began I thought it
would be either an adventure story with Dark having to overcome some difficult
traps and outsmarting the police every episode, of a comedy where Diasuke's
curse puts him in some difficult situations. Instead the show drops
the comedy aspect early on and Dark hardly ever steals anything.
As for the fight between Dark and his alter-ego, Krad leaves the series
for a large chunk of the run. My main complaint with the series is that
it couldn't make up its mind about what it wanted to be.
That's not to say that this was a horrible series or one that should
be avoided at all costs. It's not. D. N. Angel is just
an average series with a few major flaws. A show that won't really
stick in your memory or one that will get you excited to see the next episode.
There are many better anime series out there. Spend your time on
one of those.
The DVD:
This volume contains three episodes of the show, and comes in a clear
keepcase with a reversible cover. There is also an insert listing
the episodes and extras.
Audio:
As is becoming the standard for anime, this disc offers the choice of
a 5.1 dub in English, or the original Japanese audio in stereo. I
alternated languages while watching this and found them to be about equal
in quality. I like the Japanese voices a little bit more, they just
seemed to fit the characters better. The English dub made good use
of the soundstage though, with voices and sound effects panning both from
left to right and front to back. There were no audio defects worth
noting.
Video:
The full frame image is pretty good over all. The aliasing that
has plagued the previous volumes was reduced significantly in this one.
It is a fine looking disc, with the colors being reproduced faithfully
and the image sharp and clear.
Extras:
Like the other volumes in this series, this disc has some good extras
included on it. There is a commentary on the last episode with Greg
Ayres (Satoshi) and Illich Guardiola (Krad). I'm not a big fan of
anime commentary tracks, but this wasn't too bad. It wasn't a 'party'
commentary, which I hate, yet they seemed to have a good time. I
enjoyed when they were talking about how dubs are more popular nowadays,
and how much that pleases them. I just wish they had more insight
to the show.
In addition to the standard clean opening and closing there is D.
N. Angel Talk 5 with actors Miyu Irino and vocalist Shunichi Miyamoto.
This 9½- minute segment has the two young boys taking turns answering
questions that they pull out of a pot..
3D Scene Production Part 3 is a 7-minute featurette about how
they create and use the CGI effects in the show.
The last extra is D. N. Angel Unplugged - Caged Bird, a 8½
minute performance of a song from the show with an introduction by the
performer.
Final Thoughts:
D. N. Angel is an imperfect show. There isn't any sort
of character development in the series, and the plot changed emphasis so
many times that it's hard to count. The characters often act illogically,
or jump to the correct conclusion not because they've assembled a set of
clues, but because that's what the writer wanted them to do. It started
off having a lot of promise, but it just never delivered. While it's
not a horrible show, it's just not a good one either. Rent it.
Buy: