At the end of this dreamless, hopeless, inhospitable century, there was a boy who possessed a serenely honest and simple heart...Unfortunately, he looked like this.

Angel Densetsu is the first serialized manga by Norihiro Yagi, who would later go on to create Claymore, and one of my all-time favorites. It is at its core a parody of delinquent manga, and asks us, the readers, one simple question: Should a book be judged by its cover? We follow Seiichiro Kitano to find the answer, watching as he tries to navigate his way through the world of a delinquent battle manga, comically oblivious to all the dangerous situations he keeps getting himself into…

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Story & Characters

The story and comedy of Angel Densetsu essentially revolve around the various antics and misunderstandings that our main character, Seiichiro Kitano, manages to get himself into by virtue of his terrifying appearance. It’s a fairly simple formula: Kitano tries going about his daily life, whether at school or somewhere else, until he runs into someone, usually a rival delinquent or a civilian that needs help, who invariably either flees or attacks him once they get a look at his face. The comedy is built on misunderstandings; many times Kitano will be trying to do a good deed like return a wallet or clean up the schoolyard, only for someone to panic, assuming he’s trying to kill them. It’s essentially the same gag repeated over and over, something that I normally dislike, but Angel Densetsu somehow manages to have a fresh take on the joke every time. Sometimes the jokes overstay their welcome a little bit (looking at you, Kuroda), but overall, I found this to be a genuinely hilarious comedy manga.

Of course, this wouldn’t be a delinquent shounen manga without a truckload of fight scenes. The conflicts follow a sort of “monster-of-the-week” formula, where a new delinquent shows up to challenge Kitano (and then loses horribly in some comedic way). The most recurring one is Katayama, a sneaky thug who fights dirty and never stays down. The “main antagonist,” if he can be called that, is the principal of Kitano’s school. He considers Kitano a heinous delinquent (all because of his face) and his presence at the school to be a disgrace, and he tries everything within his power to find a reason to expel Kitano, even going as far as calling in “special counselors” to beat Kitano up.

Kitano, however, is totally oblivious to the effect his face has on people, and he is, to a comical degree, unaware of the things going on around him. It takes a gun getting pulled on him for him to realize he’s in danger! He walks right into enemy territory just to return a wallet, and he doesn’t react in the slightest when the toughest guys in town show up just to give him a hard time. His denseness, I think, stems from how unflinchingly pure of heart he is. He is the “Angel” in Angel Densetsu, and for very good reason. There are few fictional characters that are as kind and heroic as Kitano. All he wants to do is help people and make the world a better place, to the point where his only wish is for “peace on earth and goodwill for all.” He seems genuinely incapable of comprehending that someone would have ill intentions, and he will just stand there and let people beat him up as he assumes they have a good reason for doing so. This contrast between his “turn the other cheek” Jesus-like personality and his terrifying face is the main driving force for the series as a whole.

Besides Kitano, the angel himself, the core cast consists of four characters: Ryoko, Takehisa, Ikuno and Kuroda. Ryoko is a classic action girl, a skilled martial artist and the heir to her father’s dojo. She’s the first person to find out that Kitano isn’t really as scary as he seems, and their relationship begins to blossom from there. Takehisa is a snarky and dangerous delinquent who winds up essentially becoming Kitano’s self proclaimed sidekick, and Ikuno is a darker type of action girl who admittedly might have a few screws loose.

Finally, Seikichi Kuroda. Kuroda is, at face value, a dumb brutish bully who acts entirely as comic relief. He’s introduced in chapter one as an antagonist, a huge tough guy, the guardian of the school, always followed by two lackeys… And then he gets totally and accidentally trounced by Kitano. From then on, the Kuroda trio is the main comic relief of the cast. There’s more to his character than that, though. Yagi himself calls Kuroda the “second protagonist” of Angel Densetsu, after all. He IS dumb comic relief, but his idiocy and all the trouble he causes are actually a major driving force for… well, most of the plot developments in the manga, if I’m honest. He also acts as a foil for Kitano: Kitano’s personality is essentially that of a doormat, but he’s secretly tough as nails. Kuroda, meanwhile, talks a big game but is in fact the weakest and most cowardly of the Hekikuu crew. His antics admittedly get old after a while, but it’s undeniable that Kuroda’s presence is crucial to the manga.

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Art

I want to put extra emphasis on the art in Angel Densetsu, as I think it’s what really sold me on the manga early on. I’m not an art critic, but I’m not going to sugarcoat it; the art at the beginning of this manga is not good. However, I think that actually worked out in its favor.
For one, we get to see Yagi’s art style truly take shape from the ground up, and we see his skills develop in real time. Early on, it’s quite rough in many ways: the anatomy is off, characters have no consistent proportions, perspectives are weird… the list goes on. Is this not a weird-looking panel?

In terms of characters, Kuroda in particular looks very out of place in the earliest chapters, almost like he belongs in another manga. He’s drawn in an entirely different, more realistic style than everyone else, and at the start he’s the only character that doesn’t wear a proper uniform. All these issues, however, disappear as Yagi’s art style develops and solidifies. Most manga generally go through art style changes as the mangaka figures out their style and gets more comfortable, but I don’t think I’ve personally ever read a manga where the first and last chapters differ so drastically like in Angel Densetsu.

You can literally see the Claymore art style take shape before your very eyes, chapter by chapter, which I find deeply fascinating. Characters start getting consistent looks, backgrounds and perspectives start getting fixed up, and the general look of the manga gets softer and a bit more “elegant” as time goes on. One consistent strength Yagi has even from the start is his shading, as he masterfully makes use of various different shading techniques to convey the terror that Kitano inadvertently inflicts upon everyone around him.

Second, the entire premise of the manga, the pillar that everything rests on, is that Kitano has a terrifying-looking face. The roughness of Yagi’s drawings early on, and the slight “off-model” janky look everything has, really help to drive that point home early on. Kitano can look truly demonic at times, and I found myself getting actually jumpscared a few times as I turned the page. Seriously, look at this guy:

Comparatively, the later chapters lose some of this charm in exchange for a more refined style. As Kitano starts being drawn in a more and more “normal” way, it becomes harder to take the “demonic heroin-addict face” thing the characters keep yapping about seriously. Though perhaps that’s intentional on Yagi’s part…

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Conclusion

As I’ve said previously, I think the message of Angel Densetsu can be summarized as “don’t judge a book by it’s cover.” It’s a simple message, but the manga manages to deliver on that theme perfectly. Kitano is scary at first, even to readers, but as the story (and Yagi’s art) evolves, the characters and we, the readers, begin to get to know his true personality, and that he really isn’t as scary as he seems.

At the end of this dreamless, hopeless, inhospitable century, there was a boy who possessed a serenely honest and simple heart… and he made very many precious friends.