Anime Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer Episode 1 Nice to Meet You! Be My Only Angel Opening Be My Angel Ending The Starry Sky Version watched Fansubbed by #anime-fansubs Summary by Joan Lee (E-mail / Website)
August 19, 2001A white feather floats to the surface of a pool of water. A voice begins to narrate about "The egg filled with a dream," as a brightly glowing, transparent egg-shaped container is shown suspended above the water surface, with a doll-like figure curled up motionless inside. { Screen Shot } A golden band surrounds the egg (which is also sporting a pair of wings). The voice continues, saying how the dream is called "Angelic" and how the egg is filled with knowledge, love and courage to create an Angel. "That is..."
[ Opening : Be My Angel ]
[ Title Screen : (Battle 1) Nice to Meet You! Be My Only Angel ]
At the Tokyo subway station, a young girl with a ragged crop of brown hair and two ponytails hanging down arrives. She follows directions written on a piece of paper and makes her way through the station, although she's shoved along a bit along the way. { Screen Shot }
She gets lost, and mutters to herself that she should've asked "Shouko-obasan" to pick her up. From behind a pillar, a man with messy dark-gray hair and glasses is waiting. He's wearing a white laboratory coat, and his glasses are opaque. He smiles weirdly as she walks closer. { Screen Shot }
As the girl continues along her way, talking to herself about being in a city like this for the first time, the weird man in the lab coat sneaks from pillar to pillar following her. When she leaves the building, the man slithers along the floor after her.
Outside, the girl hears the sounds of a noisy crowd and looks up in surprise. On one side of a tall building, there is a huge screen displaying figures moving around within. { Screen Shot }
A close-up reveals that there are two figures on the screen fighting each other in a very sophisticated manner. { Screen Shot } At the top of the screen, there are two profiles displayed for the fighters.
As the girl watches in wonder, the blond, elegant fighter dressed in white whirls in the air around her darker, heavier opponent. She doesn't know the reason that they're fighting, but two kids run up and say excitedly that it's Angelic Layer!
The girl asks puzzedly, "Angemic Layer?" The two kids turn on her and say angrily that it's AN-GE-LIC LAY-ER. Taken aback, the girl turns back to watching the fight and sees the dark fighter punch the white fighter right to the outer border. She thinks that the white one will lose because she's smaller and overpowered. Then she begins to sadly reflect that when one is small, anything you do is a waste.
Suddenly the crowd roars and she's broken out of her reverie. She looks up in time to see the white fighter do a back-flip and kick her opponent back. After some more complicated fight scenes, it appears that the black fighter has the upper hand as it leaps up in the air and the white fighter has landed on her back. The girl actually cries out, "Watch out!"
However, the white fighter avoids the hit and instead manages to throw her opponent down, after which she leaps up, grows a pair of wings, { Screen Shot } generates a burst of power between her hands which her opponent cannot withstand. The profile for the dark/heavy fighter shows that the power levels are now depleted. An announcer at the stadium where the fight was held says that "Awateno wins!" A seated person with a visor is shown, seeming startled at the abrupt finish, while another person with a visor and long brown hair is shown sitting calmly (she was also shown earlier briefly during the fight). { Screen Shot } Inside the fight arena (which is on a small scale), the white fighter folds her wings and arrives back on the ground gracefully. The announcer marvels at the victory and record of the white fighter.
Back outside the train station, the girl is awed and overjoyed at how the white fighter did it. Excitedly she takes the little kids' hands, rambling on how the "little one" beat the bigger one. Suddenly a voice intrudes, saying how "They're not human." The little kids are surprised at the appearance of the weird man wearing the white coat. He announces that those people on the screen are "Angels" as he adjusts his glasses (which are no longer opaque).
The girl asks curiously, "Angel?" and the man steps forward to explain. The little children run away scared. He says that the angels are controlled by humans - basically, they're dolls. The girl is amazed that the white fighter she saw is a doll, but the man goes on to say that they're a lot of technology in the doll. Angelic Layer is basically where two dolls fight each other.
The girl hesitantly asks that since it's a doll, can she buy it at a store? The man says yes. The girl asks again...even her? He notes that if you have a large enough allowance, you can. He leans in closer to her and asks her if she wants one. She answers only by asking him where to get one.
He smugly lists off types of stores, ending by saying that any place with the egg and wings logo will have it. Then he realizes that the girl he was sharing his wisdom with is no longer there, and subsequently flips out.
The girl enters a department store. As she walks around, she spots a pretty plate, but realizes she doesn't have time for that. She continues looking but can't find anything close to what she's looking for. As she sighs, a store salesperson comes up to her and asks her if she's looking for something.
The girl stammers and manages to get out the answer that she's looking for a doll. When asked what kind, she says "White...pretty...cool..and can move!" The saleslady is confused at the answer, and suddenly the weird man runs up, out-of-breath and all wobbly, saying she shouldn't confuse the lady. He grabs the girl's arm and runs in another direction.
A store display has the Angelic Layer logo at the top, with various angels, eggs, and accessories on the top shelf. The girl looks at all the boxes and is amazed at the quantity. The weird man picks up a transparent egg with a doll inside (as seen in the scene before the opening), and says this is an egg with an "angel's heart" inside, which can be configured to make an angel right for its user. { Screen Shot }
"My own angel," the girl says slowly. She accepts the egg that the weird man is holding out to her, and he says that the two she saw fighting before were made from an egg like this. The girl is having her own thoughts about what she can do with her own egg, and she asks the man if he can tell her more about Angelic Layer.
He asks her innocently, "You want to do Angelic Layer?" She enthusiastically answers yes, she wants to make her own angel. He smiles and smugly says that if that's what she wants, he can tell her, since he happens to know a bit about Angelic Layer. She bows, thanking him, and when he asks her for her name she answers "Suzuhara Misaki, 12 years old." He begins to say his own name, but changes his mind and tells her to just call him "Ich-chan." He gazes at her calmly for one moment, then turns around and begins to hurl boxes from the Angelic Layer shelves over his shoulder, saying [she needs] "This, this and this..." After she's loaded down with packages, he says that's enough and for her to go pay. She runs off immediately.
Suddenly the saleslady from before arrives with two security officers, pointing at Ich-chan and saying that he's the man who forcefully took a small girl. The two officers grab him and take him off as he protests wildly. When Misaki comes back after paying for the items, she calls for "Ich-chan-san," but is puzzled to find that he's not there. She wanted to ask him more questions...but realizes that she just spent lots of money and she needs to go to her oba-san's house (in this case, she's referring to her aunt). She takes a look at her wallet and shrieks when she realizes she spent her train money.
[ Eyecatch ]
A doorbell rings at an apartment complex. The door opens, revealing a woman with long gray hair. She starts by saying that Misaki's very late, but she stops at seeing Misaki sitting on the doorstep, with shopping bags all around her. Misaki begins to greet her, but instead falls over onto the bag.
Misaki's in the living room eating pie, and her aunt is surprised to hear that she walked from Tokyo Station to the apartment. Misaki apologizes, and also admits that she spent her money shopping. Far from being mad, her aunt muses that she had arrived in Tokyo and started shopping right away - Misaki's a girl after all! Her aunt wants to take a peek at her shopping bags, and Misaki nods...but at finding the Angelic Layer egg inside, she's speechless. Misaki goes on to say that it's Angelic Layer, and she saw it on TV at the Tokyo Station, and there was an angel with white wings that was awesome, so she wanted to try it out.
Misaki realizes that her aunt is speechless, and says, "Oba-san...Shouko-obasan?" But her aunt pinches her cheek and announces that it's "Shouko-san"; she's still in her twenties and she's known as the "beautiful newscaster." She goes on to say that she's Misaki's mother's younger sister, and asks Misaki when was the last time she saw Shouko's older sister Shuuko? { Screen Shot }
Misaki answers that she hasn't seen her mother since kindergarten, so she doesn't really remember her. Her mom must be busy with work, but she does send money every month so that Misaki can go to school in Tokyo. Her aunt is a little surprised, but agrees and suggests a bath, sending Misaki along her way. Misaki runs back and says that you're supposed to open the egg in the bath, so she picks it up and takes it with her.
To herself, Shouko says that Misaki is definitely like her mother.
In the bath, Misaki is reading the directions of the egg out loud. She then opens the egg, and as water spills out from inside, she picks up the featureless figurine and looks at the "doll." She notes that it's a little scary, but she's going to try and make her own angel.
Elsewhere, assorted angels do fancy moves and then freeze as other scrolling screens of data pop up. This is being shown on a large screen in a control room of sorts. In one cubicle, a young man sits typing at the keyboard and wonders where the chief went. He notes that this year's competition is starting soon, and leans back in his chair for a short rest. He looks up when the door opens and the "chief," also known as the weird man from earlier, walks in. He asks where he was.
Ich-chan calmly answers that he was with the police. The young man gasps, saying, "You...you finally did it, didn't you?!" He goes on saying that he knew it would happen, while Ich-chan is lost. The young man says it's obvious, and begins to say slowly and emphatically "HE-N-TA-" But he's stopped when Ich-chan smacks him with a fan (?) and sends him twirling around in his chair. Ich-chan announces that he's completely wrong.
For such a witty person, Ich-chan decides that the "wrong answer" game is necessary. He pulls out a brown, weird-looking octopus, and says that it's a live octopus for ten minutes! As the young man screams and tries to run away, Ich-chan grabs him and throws the octopus down the back of his pants. { Screen Shot } While the young man writhes...Ich-chan says that it was just a little mistake, which is why he's back now. He says that it was well worth the trip, as he smiles enigmatically at a photo with Misaki, a somewhat elderly couple (the man is holding a mop over his shoulder), and a brown dog. { Screen Shot }
Back at the apartment, Misaki enters her bedroom and thinks it's beautiful, and that it's a waste since it wasn't used before.
In the living room, Misaki's aunt is on the phone saying that Misaki arrived safely, although she ran into a little trouble. However, she insists that everything will be fine, since Misaki's already in middle school. She asks the person on the phone why she doesn't want to see her, even though they're in the same city...she pauses as the person on the phone responds, and says that she's heard that one before. Misaki calls for Shouko, and so she tells the caller to hang on for a moment. Misaki wants scissors and so Shouko gives them to her, and tells her to be careful.
Misaki says it'll be fine, since she's good at sewing and stuff. The caller on the phone, a woman with long hair, silently listens to Misaki talk. She then says Misaki's name out loud, rather sadly.
Back in her room, Misaki slips a wig of long, pink hair onto the doll's head as she reads off more directions. She wonders what kind of hairstyle she should do as she snips her scissors in the air in anticipation. "Long hair is better," she muses, but her own hair is short so that's what she chooses for her doll. As she experimentally snips away at the wig, she realizes that she cut way too much off, and she tries to fix it. The doll ends up with a short bob framing her face. Misaki then picks up another box and plugs in the Angelic Layer laptop. As she reads more instructions, she picks up two golden rings and places them on top of a circular base; after pressing some keys on the laptop, the ring on top floats up to form a golden cylinder of light with the bottom. Misaki slips the doll inside the cylinder, where it bobs a little and then floats.
Misaki then has to decide what kind of angel she wants, considering the factors of speed, stamina, and heavy or light weight. She wants a small angel, like herself, but still strong - Misaki recalls the white angel she saw fighting earlier today. Cool, beautiful...but energetic and hard-working too. Misaki happily enters in the data, and the cylinder with her doll in it works almost like a microwave. It ends with a beep, and then the ring that was at the top of the cylinder drops, and the walls around the doll fizzle away, leaving it to float motionlessly. { Screen Shot } The doll now has a real face, but her body is still that of a manniquin's. The laptop prompts Misaki to name her, so she stares at the doll for a moment, then types in "Hikaru."
After the name is typed in, a screen pops up welcoming Misaki to the Angelic Layer world. Then, Hikaru's eyes slowly open, revealing a pair of reddish-pink eyes which match her hair. Misaki greets her as Hikaru, but then the rest of the column of light holding her up disappears and she falls forward into Misaki's hands. Misaki holds her doll and looks at her for a long time, but then breaks out into shouts of "It's done!" repeatedly. Hikaru, her angel, is done. She hugs her close and whirls around. { Screen Shot }
Back in the living room, Misaki's aunt says to herself, "Angelic Layer, huh," slowly, and has a sip of her drink.
Back in the lab, the young man who had the octopus thrown down his pants is still twitching near the wall, while the weird Ich-chan is smiling as he looks at the photo (still!).
In a dark apartment, a woman in a wheelchair with long brown hair (the same person who was on the phone earlier) is staring outside the window. { Screen Shot } Suddenly, she pulls the curtains shut and turns away.