D.N. Angel
Publisher
ADV Films
Director
Nobuyoshi Habara
Production
Dentsu, TV Tokyo, XEBEC
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
26 Episodes/25 Min Each
Year
2003
D.N. Angel Volume 3 Facets of Darkness
By noghri
8th Mar 06 Where to begin, after my disappointments of the second volume I wasn’t really looking forward to reviewing this volume that much. But as always I try to sit down with an open mind and see what happens. And to be honest I’m glad I did. In this volume Daisuke appears to have grown dramatically as a character and his attraction to Risa appears to wane a little. In favour of Riku, who is mutually attracted to Daisuke. Although nothing actually happens it is made clear that he is now thinking of other possibilities. Episode content possible spoilers
After being introduced to everyone at school, With accompanies Daisuke shopping. He is treated to a punnet of fresh strawberries but is nearly hurt after he accidentally gets backed in the shopping. Later while out with Daisuke and Riku, With spots a floppy eared white rabbit at the local pet store and falls in love. He sneaks out to meet the rabbit again, but when he gets there, he finds that she has been sold. Daisuke and Riku go looking for With in a rainstorm and Riku is impressed by what Daisuke is willing to do for his pet. A lot of tension is showing in this episode and Riku and Daisuke appear to get quite a bit closer. Daisuke and Risa join Daiki (Daisuke's grandfather) to pay their respects to the deceased famous violinist Ehrlich Von Vandembagu. Daiki is presented with his violin, which has been left to him in the artists will. The violin holds a mysterious power and sends Daisuke's soul back in time, leaving Dark in Daisuke's body. Daisuke sees the day Ehrlich Von Vandembagu nearly lost his violin to his grandfather forty years ago. Back in the present, Daiki and Dark perform magic to allow Dark to travel back for Daisuke. Daisuke saves his grandfather's life before travelling back to his own time with Dark. The timeline unchanged continues as if nothing happens, but now Daiki knows that he owes Daisuke and dark a favour for helping him defeat the musician.
Daisuke has issued another letter to the police. This time he is to steal a priceless artefact from the temple of Neptune. This sunken temple is surround by scores of police and military vessels, dark sets up with as a diversion and swims to the temple, evading capture. It turns out to be a elaborate trap by Satoshi Hiwatari. Risa manages to get into the temple by a tunnel entrance on the beach and gets captured by Satoshi. He lets her go, Daisuke becomes dark and we get out first glimpse as to why Satoshi is such a big player in the storyline as be begins to transform as well. This leads straight into the next episode, we got quite a bit of background into Satoshi here. Emiko releases another letter to the police stating a famous ring is the next target for phantom thief Dark.
Satoshi is given a ring named the Rutile of grief by his adopted father, and is told that it strengthens powers held within a person. Daisuke’s father returns after being missing for 12 years, he gives Daisuke a replica Rutile and tells him that the power comes from items being adored by people not the item itself.
Daisuke and Satoshi are set against each other in battle and the two rings appear to cancel each other out. As they struggle to out power each other, Satoshi transforms into Krad as Daisuke transforms into Dark. We learn that Krad is Darks alter ego and exact opposites (even with the reversed spelling too). Kosuke appears to aid Dark and turns the battle into a victory. The temple collapses at the finale of the battle. After Daisuke returns home he thanks his dad for all his help and the Rutile, but at the very some time Satoshi calls his father and tells him he doesn’t need his help to capture the phantom Dark. This really shows that although the two boys have so much in common, they are completely different. It’s an interesting twist to this show to portray the police investigator as the bad guy and the ageless thief as a hero of sorts to the people. The main problem again is the fact that there appears to be two filler episodes and while they are entertaining, they really aren’t important to the story or character development. This results in a really slow half of the volume. The next two episodes are actually really good. I found myself hoping it would have stopped this now regular structure to the DVD volumes and focus on the action other shows have achieved this balance quite well one that springs to mind is full metal panic, a very serious plot with a ridiculous type of humour thrown in for good measure. This was the best volume yet simply based on the last two episodes, but I hope the need for these filler episodes stops now that the story has got going. I still would recommend this show to most people it is not the type of show that I typically watch and I wonder if that has swayed my opinions, but it is well made and the storyline is really interesting when its actually being explored. I’m just hoping that this TV series actually meets the potential that I can see in it.
R2 DVD Notes
Features: English 5.1 and Japanese 2.0 audio, English subtitles, Clean opening animation, Clean closing animation, Voice actor commentary
Meet Miyu Irino, DNAngel unplugged, True Light, ADV previews
Release information: ADV 26/12/05
Notes: Nice selection of special features on this disk, the artwork is fantastic. personally this disk would grab my attention in the shop and i would be interested in buying it.
-- noghri 8th Mar 06
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