Here is a fun series, D.N.Angel. The setting is in a vast european-esque town and the main character is Daisuke Niwa who has some special D.N.A. When he has feelings of unrequited love he turns into the Phantom Thief, Dark. This kinda thing is passed through his family, so Dark has been showing up for the past 300 years. Only when he "captures his sacred maiden" (find his true love) will Dark go away. But what is a kid to do when he likes the younger twin girl, she likes Dark, and the older twin starts to like Daisuke. It's one big triangle. In the meantime, Daisuke's mother and grandfather have been training him to be a thief since he was little. While Daisuke unravels his feelings about the girls, Dark has to steal various artifacts that have supernatural powers that need to be sealed. That's pretty much the gist of the story. The animation is also well done in this anime with the use of sweeping CG graphics that add depth the town and Dark's flying. The one thing people might not care for is the rabbit-thing, With. But the good news is that it doesn't talk! otherwise it's just there for cuteness and to magically become Dark's black wings. There are also a bunch of recognizable english voice actors in this series. Hilary Haag and Luci Christian are the twins Riku and Risa, Greg Ayres as Hiwatari, Ilich Guardiola is Krad, Jason Douglas is Detective Saehara and of course Vic Mignogna as Dark. Kevin Korn does the voice of Daisuke and he does it quite well. For not recognizing his voice in any of the other anime I have, thus him being a 'No-Name' voice actor to me, he is a perfect match to voice the young Daisuke Niwa. Honestly, I didn't care too much for Hilary Haag when I first heard her but now after watching what I have again, I have changed my mind. Hilary's and Luci's voices play off each other (even though the recording is done separately!) very well so that they actually sound like they could be sisters. I only have the first two volumes but have seen the whole series. There are currently four volumes released in the U.S. witht the fifth one coming in June (according to Amazon.com) .The ending I can tell you is good, it doesn't leave questions unanswered and it completes the character developement. There are also some very good extras on dvds. There's Clean Opening and Closing Animation, Voice actor commentary (Kevin Korn and Vic Mignogna on the first dvd, Luci Christian and Hilary Haag on the second dvd), Creation of the opening theme, promos and tvspots, ADV previews, Meet Miyu Irino (on Second dvd, seiyu for Daisuke) and DNAngel Unplugged - True Light (second DVD), and also reversable covers. The story is also good for young teen viewers with the comedy and more sentimental feelings in the story. Good story, good voices, good animation, again an anime with my seal of approval with a 6.5 out of 10.
Next on the Block is Darkside Blues
Boma at 4:00 PM
