Angel Sanctuary, Vol. 1

by Kaori Yuki

Book Overview

Life as an angel can be hell

The angel Alexiel loved God, but she rebelled against Heaven when she saw how disgracefully the other angels were behaving. She was finally captured, and as punishment sent to Earth to live an endless series of tragic lives. She now inhabits the body of Setsuna Mudo, a troubled teen in love with his sister Sara. Setsuna's misery mirrors the chaos among the angels, and their combined passions threaten to...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1591162459
• ISBN13: 9781591162452
• Release Date: March 2004
• Publisher: Viz Media
• Length: 198 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.0" x 7.5"
• Age Range: 16 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 11

Customer Reviews

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Yuki's art is beautiful & very well detailed! Content Warning on the other hand (incest!!), i won't spoil the story but that alone was enough for me not to buy another volume lmao

its like the lord of the rings. only better.

many reviews say angel sanctuary is not for beginers. to many plot lines, is the major complaint. however, if youve ever read series of novels such as 'a song of ice and fire' or 'wheel of time', then i think you could pick this up easy. as long as you start from the begining. that said, on to the actuall review. first of all, the artwork. in a word, brilliant. kaori yuki is one of my favorite manga artists for this work alone. stylish without being to over the top, angel sanctuary is beautiful. also, pick up the art book that goes with the series. the story of angel sanctuary is one of the best ive ever read. the main charactar, setsuna, is a 15 year old kid who has a few problems. his parents are divorced, he gets beat up, and apparently he is the reincarnation of a (female) angel who, a long time ago, rebelled against god. as if that werent enough, he is in love with his sister sara. some might say, "oh, thats disgusting!", but really, thats one of the parts that makes this story so interesting. its a true love story. later on in the series, it gets very violent, and the incest theme is intensified, so the strictly religios or weak of heart, stay far away. as for age limits, i read it last year when i was 14, and i was hooked. (it was also my first manga.) still, i dont know to many 14 year olds who read as much as i do. for my closing, this (along with the demon ororon) is the best manga i have ever read. the artwork is bliss, the story is (at 20 volumes) extremly well done. with tons of violence, exteremly good charactars, and a love story at the core, you cant get much better then angel sanctuary.

A Gothic Fantasy

Angel Sanctuary has to be one of the best Mangas of all time. Kaori Yuki has delivered a gothic master piece containing some of the most beautiful and horrific scenes ever to be seen in a Manga. Really, to think of this as simply a "comic" book would under-value it. Kaori has created a complex, involving, and addictive storyline. Please someone make the whole series into an anime (and not just the first three books like the movie)! This is an epic story, as Setsuna Mudo, a normal high school boy, discovers that he is the reincarnation of the angel Lady Alexiel. He then finds himself caught in events beyond his control and forced into a war between heaven and hell. Angel Sanctuary does not shy away from showing the horror with the beauty, with images of child killings and torture performed by angels. However at the heart of the book is a love story and it is Setsuna's love for his sister that drives his actions as angels and demons use him for their own plans. The first two volumes, set on earth - introducing us to Setsuna's forbidden love affair with his sister Sara & a computer disc that is causing teenagers to kill themselves, are the weakest of the whole series. After I read these I was not sure if I would carry on reading the series as I was confused by the people and the whole concept of the computer game. However, I did carry on and found that the first volumes were only touching the tip of the iceberg and that the story got better and clearer the longer I read. Kaori's drawings and images became more enthralling and the people became easier to identify. For me, book 4 and the introduction to Hades was the turning point and now I am completely addicted. Some of the best characters are also introduced in later volumes, such as the Mad Hatter and Lord Sevothtarte, and other characters such as Lord Zaphikel and Kira take on greater significance. One of the best things about Angel Sanctuary, apart from the gorgeous guys, is that nothing is what it seems. Kaori keeps the plot line twisting and moving at a rapid pace. Friends and enemies are constantly changing, as many of the angels are wicked and many the demons are the real good guys. The plotline is therefore complex and not one that you can join halfway through. Please buy this now and keep going! - you will truly be well rewarded.

Words are not enough.

Kaori Yuki is the greatest storyteller in the world. My friend once exclaimed, 'She's like Shakespeare with pictures!' Angel Sanctuary is arguably her masterwork. There are so many fine points of its beauty that I cannot possibly expound on them here. Every nuance, every symbol, every character in it serves a purpose. The opening and ending of every existing arc is run through with a thread of incalculable poetry. That said, the delicate-minded and morally-bound should stay far away. Kaori is not afraid of anything - themes explored in her stories include incest, pedophilia, necrophilia, rape, ressurection, multiple personalities, child abuse, suicide, forbidden love, prostitution, serial murders, the nature of sin, the nature of God, and the nature of humanity. Angel Sanctuary boasts lustful angels, androgynous demons, astral drugs, divine tattoos, a psychotic God, apocalyptic battles, nuns with uzis... and an aborted baby with tentacles who resides in a stuffed bunny rabbit. [No, I am not kidding.] And yet, somehow, it all works. As for everyone with an open mind - run, do not walk, to the closest bookstore and stuff your pockets with volumes of this comic. You can thank me later.

THE most meaningful manga I've read to date

I remember being completely awstruck and speechless after finishing the end of this series at volume 20. No detail is irrelevant to kaori yuki as she manages to draw on all the loose strings to tie together a well supported argument which isn't completely unveiled until volume 20. Following in her trend of using biblical references (her previous work Count Cain revolved around many interesting biblical images), Angel Sanctuary takes it another step to actually make a statement on not only our current society, but the modern (or perhaps not so modern) take on morality as well. If you're in search for manga that's actually intellectually stimulating, I would definitely recommend Angel Sanctuary. It reads like a well-written novel with the additional plus of gorgeous artwork/character design (although necessarily bloody at parts <--- no, it's not just random gore, those scenes do exist for certain reasons that go towards her overall purpose) I would even recommend it if you're simply looking for a interesting storyline. After volume 4 or so, I found myself completely addicted to the complexity of the storyline to the point of being completely stunned. Although I didn't feel a particularly strong attachment to either main character, I did grow to love most of the side characters (kira is quite a bish ^_-). Also, many parts of the storyline made me emotional to the point of tears due to the poignant method in which she reveals certain plot sequences. There is no manga I would recomment more than Angel Sanctuary!!

Warning: Extremely addicting!

If you've never read this manga before, get it now. I picked it up one day, looking for a manga to read and was immeditely hooked. I got my friends into it as well and now we always eagerly await the next volume coming out. The characters are ingenious. You love every single one of them. Even the bad guys and full three-deminsional characters and very well rounded. Kaori Yuki is the master at playing with emotions. The mangas will make you laugh, cry, and just think about the meaning of them. True, it does start out a little weird but by the time you get to the fourth or fifth book (there are twenty volumes altogether - ten out in english so far), you will truly be hooked. There are many background stories on characters which come out through the books, surprizing you and making you understand why they act as they do. The story cycles around Setsuna Mudo, a trouble-making teen, who is, despite fighting it, in love with his sister, Sara. When to "evils" (Kurai and Arachne) show up, telling him that he is the reincarnation of a great rebellious angel, Alexiel, and a mysterious long-haired man named Rosiel is causing trouble, Setsuna is pulled into things on a whole different level which may end in full out war between heaven and hell. Kaori really brings up controversial issues. Is hell all bad and is heaven all good? There are corrupted angels, good demons, and just weird humans. The story jumps into many different settings in heaven, hell, and earth. This is my favorite manga ever and so worth the money (even though I will admit that $10 a volume is a little pricey - especially if you get all of them at once.) But you won't regret buying them. I've read most of them four times and still don't get bored reading them again.