Anime Pilgrimage RTT

Angel Heart – episode 20

“Prelude to Fate”

It still holds true: everybody wants somebody’s love. Everybody needs somebody’s love.

Angel Heart would be good if I could understand Japanese at a higher level, because then I’d be almost 32 episodes further along.

In further proof that America is shamelessly stealing all of Japan’s ideas, Xiang Ying can be heard in this episode to remark “I’m just trying to be a better person. My name is Xiang Ying.”

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Angel Heart – episode 19

“Elder Chen’s Restaurant”

The true combat waitress comes to the fore!

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Angel Heart – episode 18

“Family Ties”

Xiang Ying’s dream memory takes her further into the origins of Kaori and Ryo’s relationship, thus destroying many senses of continuity with City Hunter. It’s enough to make my brain overheat and almost (but not really) envy those in the Angel Heart audience who have never seen its progenitor.

I’m forced to view these characters by comparison with what I thought I knew because they do share fundaments. The new revelations about the identity of Ryo, however, are quite a shake.

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Angel Heart – episode 17

“Encounter in a Dream”

What could this be? An episode set in a dream that reveals long illusive details of the relationship between Kaori and … Makimura?

I’m there! I just wish they had allocated more of the budget to this episode, which deals quite explicitly with these characters. I finally get Ikura Kazue with a major speaking role and, her updated character design aside, she doesn’t look like Kaori.

On top of that we get several things that don’t gel with City Hunter continuity, but that’s par for the course at this point.

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Angel Heart – episode 16

“What it takes to be City Hunter”

I find that when I immerse myself in the world of Saeba Ryo, I’m on a different level of happiness. The first part of this episode was the standard solution to the problem raised in the previous episode, but after that I actually received a shock and was moved.

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Angel Heart – episode 15

“Find my Papa!”

This is like an actual City Hunter job. One might be turned off by the fact that the client is a child (anyone remember the “esper shoujo” story of City Hunter?), but, in proper Saeba Ryo style, a real story emerges from it.
Hell, I even laughed in this episode. It’s just that good.

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Angel Heart – episode 14

“The Return of City Hunter!”

How is Ryo outsourcing his work to Xiang Ying anything like “the return of City Hunter”? I thought that the premise of this episode was flawed, which was helped in no way by the fact that the animators forgot how to draw.
Aesthetically, this was painful to watch. Painful.

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Angel Heart – episode 13

“A gift from Master Li”

There’s one thing about anime that I will never understand, and it’s something quite commonplace. The instance is when two people in direct competition with each other face off, and one says to the other “I’m not going to lose!” and the reply is invariably “I’m not going to lose either!”
Generally this is said with some enthusiasm, but it’s a sentiment I’ll never understand. Here it is carried to a new level.

“I’m not going to die before you!” says Shan In to Papa Ryo.
“I’m not going to die before you, either!” says Ryo in return.

Way to strengthen the father/daughter bond, you two.

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Angel Heart – episode 12

“Encounter and Farewell at Sea”

The old dock sounds return and, as usual, every crime lord has their own tanker.
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Angel Heart – episode 11

“Family Time”

Despite its wildly off model animation, this episode of Angel Heart does a good job of healing some relationships. It bows to several instances of bizarre comedy, and there are some hurdles I can’t quite overcome, but I would place this episode on the side of good.
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