Anime Pilgrimage RTT

Angel Heart – episode 15

May 16, 2006 on 11:50 pm | In Angel Heart | Comments Off

“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.

Xiang Ying finds a job on the board and follows it up by herself. this takes her to a six year old girl called Tanya, who wants to find her father. Ryo manages to track down Tanya’s mother and discovers the true story of the mysterious disappearance.

The long shots employed are still sub-par, but for the most part the characters are on model this time around. I suppose this is largely due to Saeko’s absence, because she’s clearly difficult to animate.

It was nice for Xiang Ying to see herself in Tanya, which led to Xin Hong’s comic-relief role being deployed most effectively. Ryo is now giving Xiang Ying faux autonomy, and not in the blatant “standing around the corner” manner of the previous episode. Even better than that, the theme of the story and its pertinence to the characters evokes itself naturally, and is in no way condescending.

This story is not yet complete, but this is an example of how to make a good episode of Angel Heart.