Angel Sanctuary Vol 1
Jun. 25th, 2008 06:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meganbmooreSetsuna Mudo has a problem. Namely, that he’s in love with his younger sister, Sara. He seems to deal with that at least partly by encouraging school bullies to beat him up. His friend, Kira, is actually a bit put out by this, as said bullies are his gang. Just to make sure we don’t expect a “No, they aren’t really siblings, they just THINK they are!” twist, the mangaka even has Setsuna look up birth records to make sure.
At this point, I would normally just be walking away. Fanon incest annoys me more than pretty much anything else fandom can come up with. All those stories about falling in love with your stepsibling, or the person you grew up with as a sibling, or learning the person you love is the sibling you were separated from as a child, or even this setup so far? Do Not Want on massive levels. But for whatever, once you add in extreme supernatural interference in their lives, reincarnation, or cloning, it stops bothering me. Cantarella? Ceres? X/1999? Several others I’m not thinking of off the top of my head? Don’t phase me. It’s like my brain sees the supernatural aspects and recategorizes it as something other than incest. Setsuna is also fond of making exceptionally emo and self-hating monologues about loving Sara, something that amuses me greatly.
Setsuna, you see, is actually the reincarnation of Alexiel, a warrior angel who protected demons and was cast from Heaven to Earth when she attempted to seal away her evil brother, Rosiel, in her sword. Except that now Rosiel’s minion, Katan, has managed to revive him, and Rosiel now lives inside the body of Ruri, Sara’s friend. Rosiel apparently hates Alexiel because she’s the only being ever to not fall down and worship when confronted with his beauty. This made me like Alexiel. (I think I have all these events straight! If not, I’m sure I’ll be corrected in the comments!) Kira has also revealed that he is a part of the supernatural stuff, and two demons who served Alexiel have found Setsuna and are displeased about the “teenaged boy” part. Arachne is a tall, gorgeous babe. And proud of it. And actually male. Kurai is a scrappy little thing and a girl. Who dresses like a boy. Actually, I’m not sure if she’s a crossdresser like Arachne, or just really tomboyish. Also, she hates men.
I feel compelled to point out that every character but Sara seems to be in love with Alexiel, and wants the hot warrior angel back, not the teenaged boy. Kira even says “he was my girl before he was even born.” And he does not seem to mean that in the slash way, but rather that the current male state is just a temporary inconvenience on the Setsuna/Alexiel front. Course, he could just mean it both ways. As you can tell, this manga takes genderbending to a whole new level. Possibly, it even puts Les Bijoux to shame.
I actually read the first several volumes of this several years ago. One of my coworkers at the time was buying it, and I was reading her copies as they came out. But then she got fired and I read a few weird manga that I can’t even remember, and I started sticking to the more strictly shounen/shoujo manga. And then I started reading Clamp last year.
Here’s what I remember from what I read at the time. Spoilers through probably vol 6-7.
Setsuna and Sara run away together and have sex, but then she’s murdered. I think the last volume I read was when this happened, and ended with him vowing to get her back. Kira is also Alexiel’s sword, but possibly also something else. And Setsuna is not Alexiel’s first human incarnation.
ETA: So, I seem to be the only one who went "Fuuma, this is not how brothers act..." in the X/1999 anime. Interesting, as I'm usually the first to massively twitch at such readings.
At this point, I would normally just be walking away. Fanon incest annoys me more than pretty much anything else fandom can come up with. All those stories about falling in love with your stepsibling, or the person you grew up with as a sibling, or learning the person you love is the sibling you were separated from as a child, or even this setup so far? Do Not Want on massive levels. But for whatever, once you add in extreme supernatural interference in their lives, reincarnation, or cloning, it stops bothering me. Cantarella? Ceres?
Setsuna, you see, is actually the reincarnation of Alexiel, a warrior angel who protected demons and was cast from Heaven to Earth when she attempted to seal away her evil brother, Rosiel, in her sword. Except that now Rosiel’s minion, Katan, has managed to revive him, and Rosiel now lives inside the body of Ruri, Sara’s friend. Rosiel apparently hates Alexiel because she’s the only being ever to not fall down and worship when confronted with his beauty. This made me like Alexiel. (I think I have all these events straight! If not, I’m sure I’ll be corrected in the comments!) Kira has also revealed that he is a part of the supernatural stuff, and two demons who served Alexiel have found Setsuna and are displeased about the “teenaged boy” part. Arachne is a tall, gorgeous babe. And proud of it. And actually male. Kurai is a scrappy little thing and a girl. Who dresses like a boy. Actually, I’m not sure if she’s a crossdresser like Arachne, or just really tomboyish. Also, she hates men.
I feel compelled to point out that every character but Sara seems to be in love with Alexiel, and wants the hot warrior angel back, not the teenaged boy. Kira even says “he was my girl before he was even born.” And he does not seem to mean that in the slash way, but rather that the current male state is just a temporary inconvenience on the Setsuna/Alexiel front. Course, he could just mean it both ways. As you can tell, this manga takes genderbending to a whole new level. Possibly, it even puts Les Bijoux to shame.
I actually read the first several volumes of this several years ago. One of my coworkers at the time was buying it, and I was reading her copies as they came out. But then she got fired and I read a few weird manga that I can’t even remember, and I started sticking to the more strictly shounen/shoujo manga. And then I started reading Clamp last year.
Here’s what I remember from what I read at the time. Spoilers through probably vol 6-7.
Setsuna and Sara run away together and have sex, but then she’s murdered. I think the last volume I read was when this happened, and ended with him vowing to get her back. Kira is also Alexiel’s sword, but possibly also something else. And Setsuna is not Alexiel’s first human incarnation.
ETA: So, I seem to be the only one who went "Fuuma, this is not how brothers act..." in the X/1999 anime. Interesting, as I'm usually the first to massively twitch at such readings.