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

[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...