d.n angel

D.N Angel is an anime adaptation of the manga series of the same name.

The series is a Shojo despite its Shonen inspired artstyle. Even with its Shojo style romance elements, there still is a good amount entertainment to appeal to the Shonen devotees with the phantom thief thriller stuff.

It focuses on Daisuke Niwa who’s your typical teenaged boy who one day tries to confess to his love to his crush Risa but gets rejected. By some strange turn of events, Daisuke turns into Mousy Dark, a notorious phantom thief. This is a genetic condition from the male side of the Niwa family that comes from having romantic feelings for someone and Daisuke must live a doppelganger life as a student and a phantom thief. Daisuke is confused and has great difficulty adjusting to his dual life.

Mousy Dark has been dormant for 40 years due to Daisuke’s grandfather having a daughter which is Daisuke’s mother. His mother is aware of his secret identity. Daisuke leads a double life, stealing cursed artifacts and sealing them away to prevent any trouble with his school life.

I really liked the character development of the cast. Daisuke is this typical average cowardly kid while Mousy Dark is confident person with a devil may care attitude. Mousy Dark is also quite a womanizer which leads to a lot of love triangle situations. I also really enjoyed the character interactions and the dynamic relationships with one another. The anime adds a couple of characters that haven’t been on the manga like Mio Hio.

The comedy in the anime is really hilarious and charming. The dialogue is cheesy but I still found it funny. The show has a pretty interesting atmosphere mixed with one part Persona 5 styled thriller and another part lighthearted and cheery atmosphere. The voice acting was good in the Japanese subs but the English version was below average. The artstyle looked really nice and the character designs were all really cool. The backgrounds for the world were very nicely detailed while the animation looks decent even though it’s a bit aged, especially in terms of the CGI.

The story isn’t exactly accurate as with many anime like FMA or Rosario Vampire. It was based on an ongoing series with no ending so it was given its own ending and often diverted from the original story. The ending was pretty sudden since the manga was still ongoing at the time.

It gets 4 out of 5 stars.