Angel Heart
Angel Heart is an anime series based on a manga written and illustrated by Tsukasa Hojo. It takes place in an alternate continuity to Tsukasa Hojo's City Hunter manga series. From what I've read about this, there are significant factual differences between the two series.
A girl around 15 years old, who looks more like she should be 20, is an assassin known as "Glass Heart." At the beginning of the first episode, she stands on top of a tall building and receives a phone call. The call is from her handler, congratulating her for her 50th kill. Glass Heart goes over the day's events in her mind, and recalls that her most recent kill was a man sitting on a park bench. As she walked away, a young girl went over to the man and found him dead. It is then that Glass Heart realizes she had killed someone's father, and she jumps from the building; she impales her chest on the iron spiked fence at the bottom.
Meanwhile, a young woman named Kaori Makimura is running late for an appointment for wedding pictures with her husband, Ryo Saeba. When Kaori sees a girl who is about to be hit by a truck, Kaori jumps in the way and is hit instead. Kaori is declared brain dead and her heart is harvested for organ donation. The organization Glass Heart belongs to steals Kaori's heart as it is in transit, and use it for a transplant for Glass Heart.
The organization takes Glass Heart to Taiwan, where they perform the transplant and keep her under observation. Glass Heart remains in a coma for a year, and is haunted by images of the people she killed, as well as of Kaori and Ryo (neither of which she knew before the transplant). Glass Heart suddenly awakens, and she goes on a journey to find Ryo.
By the time I finished the first episode of Angel Heart, I thought it was rather odd and a little hard to follow. Perhaps it might have been easier to follow if I had some familiarity with City Hunter before watching Angel Heart.
Between the subject matter of assassinations, the hinted at nudity, and the storytelling used in this series, Angel Heart is definitely not being aimed at a younger audience. Personally, I would recommend Angel Heart to anime viewers who are 16 or 17 years of age and older.
A girl around 15 years old, who looks more like she should be 20, is an assassin known as "Glass Heart." At the beginning of the first episode, she stands on top of a tall building and receives a phone call. The call is from her handler, congratulating her for her 50th kill. Glass Heart goes over the day's events in her mind, and recalls that her most recent kill was a man sitting on a park bench. As she walked away, a young girl went over to the man and found him dead. It is then that Glass Heart realizes she had killed someone's father, and she jumps from the building; she impales her chest on the iron spiked fence at the bottom.
Meanwhile, a young woman named Kaori Makimura is running late for an appointment for wedding pictures with her husband, Ryo Saeba. When Kaori sees a girl who is about to be hit by a truck, Kaori jumps in the way and is hit instead. Kaori is declared brain dead and her heart is harvested for organ donation. The organization Glass Heart belongs to steals Kaori's heart as it is in transit, and use it for a transplant for Glass Heart.
The organization takes Glass Heart to Taiwan, where they perform the transplant and keep her under observation. Glass Heart remains in a coma for a year, and is haunted by images of the people she killed, as well as of Kaori and Ryo (neither of which she knew before the transplant). Glass Heart suddenly awakens, and she goes on a journey to find Ryo.
By the time I finished the first episode of Angel Heart, I thought it was rather odd and a little hard to follow. Perhaps it might have been easier to follow if I had some familiarity with City Hunter before watching Angel Heart.
Between the subject matter of assassinations, the hinted at nudity, and the storytelling used in this series, Angel Heart is definitely not being aimed at a younger audience. Personally, I would recommend Angel Heart to anime viewers who are 16 or 17 years of age and older.
| Angel Heart | 50 | 2005-2006 | Toshiko Hirano | TMS | N/A |
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