SacAnime Reviews
DNAngel (anime and manga)

I went into this not having any clue what DNAngel was about. I checked it out on a recommendation. It appears very much to be a light-hearted shoujo story, although the story, to me at least, seemed a little bland. I recommend the manga over the anime.

Basically, DNAngel is about Niwa Daisuke. He's 14 years old, and not exactly average. Perhaps he never noticed that parents don't tend to booby-trap the house to make it more difficult to get to the kitchen. Maybe he didn't know that 14 year old boys normally aren't able to pick electronic locks in under 5 seconds. Yet he was trained by his mother and grandfather to do these things at an early age.

All he really cares about is confessing his love to the girl of his dreams- Harada Risa. Whatever the case, he comes home on his 14th birthday after attempting to give Risa a love letter telling her how he feels, only to be told that she thinks of him only as a good friend. He had pretty much ignored his classmate, who is an aspiring reporter, when he told Daisuke excitedly that something interesting is supposed to happen that night at 11:00PM.

So upon returning home and locking himself in his bedroom, he develops a strange fever. Next thing he knows, he's several inches taller, his hair and eyes are purple, and he's a gorgeous bishounen. This isn't a bad thing right?

Daisuke tears down the stairs in a panic, demanding for his mother to explain what has happened to him. Apparently an interesting transformation runs in his family- He is now Dark Mousy, the great phantom thief, or "Kaitou". Not only is Dark a physical transformation, but a mental one too- Dark has his own mind and own personality, and sometimes he takes over at the worst times- and disappears at the worst times as well.

His transformation into Dark is cause when he sees something that reminds him of the girl he loves- show him a picture of Risa, and he transforms. Hold on- things are more complicated then that. Dark is very much his own person, and while Daisuke may like Harada Risa, Dark likes Risa's twin sister Riku!

Anyway, the interesting thing at 11:00PM that night turns out to be an advance notice for Dark stealing a piece of art. Enter the villain: Hiwatari Satoshi, 14 years old, super genius, classmate of Daisuke, college graduate (go figure) and already a commander in the local police force. Not too bad so far, ne? Well think again- Daisuke's not the only one who transforms. When he's too close to Dark or thinks about Dark too much around Daisuke, Satoshi also transforms into a bishounen, named Krad. Krad is the exact opposite of Dark- Blonde with white wings, whereas Dark's are black. Where Dark likes to flirt with girls, and steal beautiful works of art, Krad is cold as ice, and has absolutely no qualms about doing absolutely ANYTHING it takes to catch Dark, even if that means hurting or killing someone else in the process.

The relationships in this story are quite strange- Daisuke wants to be friends with Satoshi, and Satoshi doesn't really seem to mind Daisuke much. (Satoshi is pretty anti-social and doesn't really know how to be friends with anyone) However, this is hard since Daisuke turns into Dark who Satoshi wants to arrest. If Satoshi isn't careful he turns into Krad who HATES Dark, and wants to capture or kill him.(I get the impression that Krad is more interested in killing him) Of course this would mean killing Daisuke as well and that's something that Satoshi doesn't want. Then of course, you have the weird love triangle/square with the two twins and the boy with the split personality. Can it get any weirder?

Currently, 9 episodes of DNAngel have been subtitled- I would recommend the versions from Anime Keep (http://www.anime-keep.org) over Anime Junkies. The Anime Junkies translations leave a lot to be desired- they are often far too literal. This series may turn out to only be 13 episodes, but more then likely it will be between 24 to 26 episodes. I can't see any reason for it to be longer then that. As for the manga, there are currently 8 tankoubans available, the first five of which have been translated by www.aku-tenshi.com.