Hark! The Manga Angels Sing!

December 21, 2010

Christmas isn’t exactly a holiday that gets titles dedicated to it. There are often chapters with a Christmas theme, especially in romance titles, since in Japan the holiday is more for lovers. But it finally occurred to me, that there are titles with angels, and there is no Christmas in the US without angels in song or on a Christmas tree. So here are some manga with/about angels!

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Angel Sanctuary is a 20 volume series by Kaori Yuki. It follows Setsuna Mudo who has a lot of problems, including having strong feelings for his sister Sara. He is also the reincarnation of Alexiel, an angel who turned against god and fought with the demons in the last great war. Her twin brother Rosiel, who she had sealed away, has awakened, and seeks revenge for her betrayal. The angels in this series do not act very angel-like. They are cold, calculating and cruel, and most couldn’t care less about humanity. If you watched Supernatural seasons 4-5, that will give you a good idea about how the angels are in this series. Basically, they’re big doucebags.

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Red Angel is a two-volume series by Makoto Tateno, about female persona Mika and her male persona Eru. The first volume leads you to believe this is a series about vampires. Mika must “suck” the life energy from humans to live. She doesn’t bite necks and drink blood though. She is different from the other “brethren” as well, as she has red wings instead of black. By the end of the first volume, the truth is revealed that she is really a fallen angel and has an encounter with Lucifer. The second volume is all about her conflict with this other fallen angel. Mika and Eru act more like angels as they try to protect humanity from Lucifer’s evil schemes, but even Lucifer isn’t shown as being purely evil. He has his reasons, just as Mika and Eru have theirs for their fall and subsequent split.

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Angelic Runes is another series by Makoto Tateno. It doesn’t actually feature Angels, but a pair of twins, one of which, Erudite can hear the voices of angels, while is sister, Allueh hears demons. They are known as Oracles and they join Sowil, a mage that uses the ancient magic of runes as he travels the world, searching for his father. You don’t actually see the angels in this title, but you do hear them speak a lot, as the children mostly speak for the angels and demons, and only rarely for themselves. But the interplay of the angels and demons with Sowil is very entertaining. It’s not a straight case of “good vs evil” between the angels and demons, as they can agree on things, and even angels can steer the humans astray.

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King of Cards is the third title on list by Makoto Tateno. Apparently, she really likes angels. In this series, we follow Manami who is learning to play the card game called Chaos. It is based loosing around a poker style of play, with players choosing to represent either the angelic or demonic army. Therefore there are a lot of cards representing angels. For example, there are the Four Archangels, which include Michael, Raphael, Uriel, and Gabriel. They, as well as the Twin Angels of Death and Destruction make for a powerful hand. These are angels not to be trifled with.

These are just a few titles I could come up with offhand that I had read that featured angels. I’m sure there are many more missing. Leave a comment and let me know what they are so I can hunt them down!

4 Comments

  • Michelle Smith December 21, 2010 at 5:24 am

    The first one that comes to my mind is the four-volume Wish, by CLAMP, in which an angel falls in love with a human.

    I’m not sure, but I think angels appear in Full Moon o Sagashite. Or at least the shinigami aspire to become angels some day.

    • Lori Henderson December 23, 2010 at 12:05 am

      Thanks for the additions. I haven’t read either of those titles.

  • Mrs Blunder (@MrsBlunder) December 12, 2012 at 2:20 pm

    The Supernatural reference is more than accurate for Angel Sanctuary. <3

    • Lori Henderson December 12, 2012 at 9:32 pm

      I really started to dislike Supernatural after the introduction of the jerky angels. They didn’t have to necessarily help the boys, but they didn’t have to be obnoxious either.

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