Angel Sanctuary Vol 16

[meganbmoore]

In one of the sidebars, Kaori Yuki recommends rereading the entire series at once. I’m not sure she realized what she was saying.

I think the main purpose of this volume was to make us sympathize with Lailah/Sevothtarte, whether we want to or not.

There’s probably something to be said about Lailah being raped by other scientists for essentially being better at their jobs than they were, but I’m not sure I’m the one to say it. It seems she’s also the only one to really realize that Sandolphon is a monster, and has been drugging Metatron so Sandalphon can’t take over his body. Since Metatron’s nurse hasn’t been drugging him, Sandalphon takes over Metatron’s body, turns it into that of a teenager, and rapes Lailah so he can impregnate her with himself. Oy. During this, Metatron’s spirit goes looking for Jibril and finds Sara, who Raphael put back in her own body. Sara makes him realize he and Sevothtatre love each other (as parent and child, thankfully) but the whole Sandalphon bit makes trying to talk about it difficult. Screaming rage difficult.

After wiping out the entire White Mansion, Rosiel locks her up in the tower she kept Sara in earlier. After being forgiven by the ghost of the guy she accused who originally asked Setsuna to find her, she throws herself out the window. I sincerely hope Uriel gives those two a nice little cottage in the afterlife where they are no longer bothered by rapists and such. Also, is that guy the “real” Sevothtarte, who Lailah replaced?

And Sandalphon decides that he needs a new “mother” to birth a body for him. He chooses Sara. I…do not anticipate that storyline.

Meanwhile, I’m starting to like Raphael a good bit, but getting tired of him being in love with Sara. I would be annoyed with him telling Sara that Setsuna never tried to get to her trial to save her id Setsuna hadn’t yelled at Raphael that he was the only one who loved Sara. Setsuna. Why do you have to go and do things like that every time I start to really like you? She’s a perfectly nice girl, not exactly unlovable or anything.

Meanwhile, Setsuna joins Zaphikel’s guerrillas, who are now led by Uriel. He gets a proper eyepatch and rebel clothes so he can pose attractively with Raziel. Or something. (I kinda miss the days when Raziel was the cute little assistant of Zaphikel’s…)

Somewhere along the way, they find Kato, who was wandering around as a member of the military after getting amnesia when Heaven and Hell collided. Sadly, he had no info about Kurai. I think I’ve decided that Belial took her home and has her trying on a parade of gothloli outfits. At least until Kaori Yuki tells me otherwise. Naturally, he joins the guerrillas, too.

And Rosiel takes over Heaven. And Kira is back but as Lucifer, wearing an Edward Scissorhands-inspired leather ensemble. We approve of the leather, but would kind of like Kira back. He also skewrs Kato a half dozen or so times. I may or may not have enjoyed that. Rosiel apparently also has the crystal with Lucifer’s soul in it attached to his garter. Yes, Rosiel wears garters. I’m hoping Lucifer/Kira still has a master plan in place. Sara refuses to believe that Kira would ever really betray Setsuna. I seem to be having the same problem.

Also, everyone has started calling Setsuna “Alex.” I have no idea why.
 

Comments

[kakkobean.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I'm distracted by your icon and how it looks like the guy is looking up someone's skirt.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

More like getting intimately acquainted with her stomach while she's all gothloli'd out and inhabiting his friend's body.

Yeah.

Maybe "lifting up her skirt" is actually better...

[kakkobean.livejournal.com]

Okay, so I wasn't imagining the potential erotic nature of your icon.

Just checking XD

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

It's an Angel Sanctuary icon. I'm not sure any of the official art isn't supposed to send your mind...somewhere.

andthe original picture is gorgeous: http://gallery.aethereality.net/download.php?id=17824

[kakkobean.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Angel Sanctuary. I've heard the run-down from friends.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised you haven't read it.

[kakkobean.livejournal.com]

She told me how it ends--or at least, how the anime ended.

*gets depressed and unmotivated to read series when she's heard the ending*

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

The anime ends at around vol 3-4 of the manga. They only animated the first arc. About 80% of the characters haven't even shown up yet, and the main plot is only hinted at. Basically, she told you how the prologue ended. Or chapter 1. Whichever.

[kakkobean.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I usually tend to stay away from incest stories, though...'cuz then people start getting into twincest, and that weirds me out because of my twinnishness.

Seriously, I sometimes can't even talk about myself to other otaku, because when I mention that I'm a twin, they shout "twincest!" in fiendish glee. It's very, very awkward.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I generally hate incest plotlines with a burning passion, but apparently am OK with it when both are actually reincarnated female angels. Also, while they're the main pairing, they spend most of the series apart after the first few volumes. There are about 5000000000 other things going on.

And...I kinda understand the "twincest" irritation. My brother and I look nothing alike, and he's always looked older than he is (i'm almost 3 years older), and I've always looked younger, so a lot of HS and college was spent going "WE ARE NOT DATING WE ARE SIBLINGS WHY ARE YOU ASSUMING THAT ANY DISPLAY OF AFFECTION IS ROMANTIC???" A couple of his girlfriends actually had to get used to people "letting them know he had his arm around this girl in such-and-such building for 5 seconds." (We didn't see each other much outside of school because of schedules. Heaven forbid that my brother-a naturally touchy person-actually want to hug his sister.) And such is the root of my wrath for pretty much all fanon shipping.

[kakkobean.livejournal.com]

Good point. Still icky to me. But oh well ^^;;;;

Ouch.

Oh, fanon pairings ^^;;; There's this one pairing in my fandom that is "THE BIG SHIP" which I kind of find okay except for all of the people who overtly ship them with "evidence" that is absolutely...nothing.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

It took me a long while to work up the nerve to get past the incest. Despite it being one of my biggest squicks, it doesn't bother me here. It actually bothers me more in Cantarella, where I can actually look at Cesare and lucrezia and go "ok, yes, I can see how you two would end up a little too fixated on each other..."

I...err...find the "evidence" for most fanon pairings to be so flimsy that I have difficulty considering merit for them?

What's the fandom?

[kakkobean.livejournal.com]

Yeah...Cantarella bothers me in that respect partially because I want Cesare and Michelotto to end up doing something, damnit!

I don't consider any "evidence" to be merit, since my theology of pairings in fandoms mostly follows the rules of slot-machine theory; I think of two people, think, "hey, how could I possibly make this an interesting dynamic", and BOOM! I have pairing.

It's in the kpop fandom (the icon that I am using features my loving parody of this pairing concept, as this is based on something that was actually said, that actually happened, and was actually recorded), focusing on a boyband. I used to be squicky about pairing up real people, but then my friend got me into it, and. Well. I realize that part of me shoves these expectations on these people and that what I write isn't real, etc, so I try to keep my pairings as "evidence-free" as possible ^^

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

I’m not sure she realized what she was saying.

Are you positive? Because I'm thinking she probably does.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Reading the sidebars, I'm not sure she realizes the pure insanity...

[xplodey-di.livejournal.com]

Oh, Kaori Yuki. Her stories are interesting, but it's like taking crack and then trying to make sense of... er... anything.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I find it's best to not think of it, and just enjoy it.

[xplodey-di.livejournal.com]

That's probably the best plan, haha!

[melanierain.livejournal.com]

Actually, when I'm reading several AS volumes all in one go, it seems quite logical to me, in that it makes sense on its own terms but not in any kind of external context. It's only when I try to describe it to other people that I realize how insane it is.

I did sympathize with Laila, even if she did some terrible, terrible things as Sevothtarte (nuking the crap out of the I-children, for starters, if I recall correctly). The sequence where she's visited by the spirit of Nidd Hegg (the guy who was desperately in love with her whom she falsely accused of rape) just killed me. Most romantic/uplifting suicide EVER (and that phrase just reminds me of just what a crazy series AS is).

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I think Lailah is mostly just sad. It's almost like the rape-and why it happened-created a second personality. And it was definitely a romantic/uplifting suicide. Suicide really shouldn't come across as a happy event...