Angel Sanctuary Vol 18

[meganbmoore]

Somehow, the feathered parasol stands out to me as being odder than anything else.

At last! Kurai and Belial return! Kurai riding a dragon and flinging herself into Setsuna’s arms (She did a lot of clinging. I can’t really blame her.) and Belial by not letting Lucifer’s whip-wielding, dominatrix-clad wife do anything about the clinging. Belial is very fond of her little princess.

Kurai informs Setsuna that she’s been practicing while staying with Belial and that there will be no more leaving her behind. For once, Setsuna doesn’t object. I’m not sure, but I think Belial “ransomed” Kurai back just to give her to Setsuna and say they wouldn’t war with each other as long as Kurai was there. Kurai is also wearing a teeny leather getup in one chapter page. I blame Belial. Actually, given that this is the person who pretty much introduced sex to the heavens, I have to wonder what was going on all that time.

We also see Doll again for the first time in forever. She’s talking about Uriel not keeping up with her maintenance because of the war. THIS MAKES ME FEARFUL!

Setsuna grows Alexiel’s three wings, making me wonder again how balance is maintains when flying. He also makes the “I’m Setsuna, not Alexiel, and I just want to save my girlfriend” speech for the 500th time. Ditto vowing to save Sara.

Then we have the decaying bodies. Rosiel’s body is apparently maintained only by Alexiel’s cells, hence the obsession with getting her body. He seems to be deaging and decaying. Kaori Yuki, I refuse to sympathize with him, just so you know. You already got me with Kato and Sevothtarte.

Speaking of decaying bodies, Kato’s was going at an even faster rate, resulting in a “I must kill Kira!” mission. I kinda wish he’d let Uriel heal him. I like him now, in case it wasn’t obvious. I kinda really didn’t want to early on. He also claims to have lost all his memories, but was clearly lying. Given Kaori Yuki’s comment early in the series about how one of her assistants thought Kato was gay and she thought the assistant was probably right, I wonder if she was writing Kato as having been at least somewhat in love Kira, and acting from that betrayal.

Meanwhile, Sandalphon took over Sara’s body, murdered Raphael’s people, and is off somewhere cackling.
 

Comments

[melanierain.livejournal.com]

Given Kaori Yuki’s comment early in the series about how one of her assistants thought Kato was gay and she thought the assistant was probably right, I wonder if she was writing Kato as having been at least somewhat in love Kira, and acting from that betrayal.

I always assumed Katou was in love with Kira, given the violence of his reaction to Kira's betrayal. Also, and the pissy ex vibe to Katou's second confrontation with Lucifer, his sort-of death embrace, and his final vision of Kira before he died all lead me to think that. Not that his friendship with Setsuna wasn't plenty slashy, either, because it was.

Meanwhile, Sandalphon took over Sara’s body, murdered Raphael’s people, and is off somewhere cackling.

Sandalphon struck me as genuinely terrifying in his first appearance in his "body" proper (to Sevothtarte), but by this volume, he just seemed like your standard boilerplate villain. A shame, because he creeped me the hell out back in th day, but then, a sinister stuffed rabbit is pretty much a recipe for instant horrible nightmares.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I think I've probably been reading Kato as being in love with Kira (I typed Kurai initially, and I definitely don't think that...) for most of the series, I just hadn't actually thought about it. But then, there's always so much going on, and Kato didn't really start growing on me until he started using Kurai's head as an armrest. Apparently even vague acknowledgement of the adorableness that is Kurai is enough to make me like a character.

Kato/Setsuna always read to me as "bad boy gets sucked in by good girl/boy despite best intentions."

It really is too bad for him that Setsuna's head is "Sara Sara Sara Sara Sara Sara Sara Saa Sara Sara Sara" and Kira's is "Alexiel Alexiel Alexiel Alexiel Setsuna Alexiel Alexiel Alexiel Alexiel."

Sandalphon was creepy, and then he turned a bit...desperate.