Angelic Layer!!!

So, I finished this Clamp anime, and I have come to the conclusion that the anime is pretty neat, indeed. Probably not the greatest or one of my favorites, but definately something worth watching IMO. Actually, when I first started off with this anime, I was a bit disappointed, but that was because I was trying to look at it from (probably) a sci-fi viewpoint, you know, dealing with philosophical issues about humanity and etc... actually the show is a lot more like Air and that genre, with the main theme being relationships and touching the audience, which is good, but of course different from what I had been expecting it to be.

But then again, this is supposed to target a younger audience, so it was probably my mistake in the first part to expect a really deep philosophical, scientific, and humanitarian point of view. It's still nevertheless great for a kid's show, as was Cardcaptor Sakura. Probably appeals to both boys and girls, girls for the general girlishness atmosphere of the whole anime, boys with the action and fighting... ( you really wonder how they can interpret fighting into a girl's anime, hmmm... o_O)

Anyway, what's also interesting is one event in particular that seems to be sticking out in my head right now, it's nothing that great, but I thought it was pretty interesting. In this one scene where they were playing with japanese fireworks, one of the characters (Icchan!) says that whoever's firework lasts the longest gets their wish come true. Well, Icchan's firework lasted the longest and beat another girl's firework, and the girl started crying, probably expecting that her wish won't come true. Ironically enough, her wish did come true for the most part (in the epilogue) while Icchan's wish was not exactly fulfilled, though there are implications that it MIGHT come true as time comes by (of course we don't get to see, the epilogue is so short :( ). I just thought this "false foreshadowing" was a bit different from what other shows would do, in that they would have probably followed the strict "this was foreshadowing that so it must happen" issue.

Oh, two cutest characters in Angelic Layer are Hatoko, the mature kindergardener (sp?), and Shuko, Misaki's (main character) mother. Yes, ironically, they are the youngest and oldest characters in the show, respectively. Even more ironic because I don't usually find older women "cute" (especially 30 year old moms o_O)... but her character design was very nice IMO, I guess it was similar to Mirielle in Noir; I actually liked Mirielle, the older assassin, than... the young 14 year old one that I even forgot her name. :p Kizuka? or something? Whatever!! XD But another thing is that Hatoko seems to act more mature than Misaki's mom, which is also kind of ironic and funny.

Oh, and Hatoko kisses Misaki. No hidden themes there, nope, not at all. Not symbolic of anything. Absolutely not, just another insigificant event within the whole series itself. Yup, nothing to talk about here.