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Plot Synopsis

On Daisuke Niwa's Fourteenth birthday, he decides to confront his crush, Risa Harada, with a love letter, although backing away from doing so at the very last moment. Since being young enough to train, Niwa has been training and practicing under his grandfathers observation although he not knowing himself what it was for. On Niwa's fourteenth birthday, he is surprised by himself transforming into the legendary Phantom Thief Dark, who's mission is to steal precious arts. Niwa must now fight his feelings for the one he truly loves while also being confronted by the terrible dangers of being the new host of Dark. Also,at the same time of keeping his mind appon these current complications, he is also being hunted down by his very own classmate,Hiwatari Satoshi, who vows to capture The Phantom Thief Dark and lock him up for his sins.

This adventure runs across in what seems like a European type city, where action takes place with each corner you turn.

Credits: toxictea23

Story & Characters

I went into this not having any clue what DNAngel was about. I checked it out on a recommendation. It appears very much to be a light-hearted shoujo story, although the story, to me at least, seemed a little bland. I recommend the manga over the anime.

Basically, DNAngel is about Niwa Daisuke. He's 14 years old, and not exactly average. Perhaps he never noticed that parents don't tend to booby-trap the house to make it more difficult to get to the kitchen. Maybe he didn't know that 14 year old boys normally aren't able to pick electronic locks in under 5 seconds. Yet he was trained by his mother and grandfather to do these things at an early age.

All he really cares about is confessing his love to the girl of his dreams- Harada Risa. Whatever the case, he comes home on his 14th birthday after attempting to give Risa a love letter telling her how he feels, only to be told that she thinks of him only as a good friend. He had pretty much ignored his classmate, who is an aspiring reporter, when he told Daisuke excitedly that something interesting is supposed to happen that night at 11:00PM.

So upon returning home and locking himself in his bedroom, he develops a strange fever. Next thing he knows, he's several inches taller, his hair and eyes are purple, and he's a gorgeous bishounen. This isn't a bad thing right?

Daisuke tears down the stairs in a panic, demanding for his mother to explain what has happened to him. Apparently an interesting transformation runs in his family- He is now Dark Mousy, the great phantom thief, or "Kaitou". Not only is Dark a physical transformation, but a mental one too- Dark has his own mind and own personality, and sometimes he takes over at the worst times- and disappears at the worst times as well.

His transformation into Dark is cause when he sees something that reminds him of the girl he loves- show him a picture of Risa, and he transforms. Hold on- things are more complicated then that. Dark is very much his own person, and while Daisuke may like Harada Risa, Dark likes Risa's twin sister Riku!

Anyway, the interesting thing at 11:00PM that night turns out to be an advance notice for Dark stealing a piece of art. Enter the villain: Hiwatari Satoshi, 14 years old, super genius, classmate of Daisuke, college graduate (go figure) and already a commander in the local police force. Not too bad so far, ne? Well think again- Daisuke's not the only one who transforms. When he's too close to Dark or thinks about Dark too much around Daisuke, Satoshi also transforms into a bishounen, named Krad. Krad is the exact opposite of Dark- Blonde with white wings, whereas Dark's are black. Where Dark likes to flirt with girls, and steal beautiful works of art, Krad is cold as ice, and has absolutely no qualms about doing absolutely ANYTHING it takes to catch Dark, even if that means hurting or killing someone else in the process.

The relationships in this story are quite strange- Daisuke wants to be friends with Satoshi, and Satoshi doesn't really seem to mind Daisuke much. (Satoshi is pretty anti-social and doesn't really know how to be friends with anyone) However, this is hard since Daisuke turns into Dark who Satoshi wants to arrest. If Satoshi isn't careful he turns into Krad who HATES Dark, and wants to capture or kill him.(I get the impression that Krad is more interested in killing him) Of course this would mean killing Daisuke as well and that's something that Satoshi doesn't want. Then of course, you have the weird love triangle/square with the two twins and the boy with the split personality

Rating

10 (excellent)

Art

Great art!
Comics is good
Aime is good
Artbook is very cool

its a strange style of drawing but its really cool...
the Artist have a good style of drawing anime/manga and that good ^^
i love the artwork .. and i wish i have an artwork DNAngel Book ; ;

Bad guys = cool
Girls = cute girls ^^
Kids = cute babys ^^

all full glossy colour! full illustrations on the manga covers illustrations are wonderfully bright and eye catching

MANGA REVIEW: This manga actually appears in Volume 7, as an extra part... Though in this format it's bigger and lovely to look ... Also contains some nice seines of Charctars and some outstanding images

*takes a deep breath*...

Artbook REVIEW : All pages are paper and it's a nice change from colour images. The colour images are cool also lovely background images. The black and white images are nice Chara sketches as well as some background sketches with location shots from Japan

Rating

10 (excellent)

Sound

Following the immensely popular DNAngel anime and manga series, comes the equally popular and anticipated DNAngel Original Soundtrack 1, featuring 12 great tracks, including the memorable, bouncy opening song. Don't be surprised if you find yourself listening to this addictive and smile-inducing soundtrack over and over again. Just like its main character Niwa Daisuke, this charming CD soundtrack is irresistible!

This CD is filled with a Ten-page insert. The first two pages are a small picture montage of the lower half of a face, singing. The next page is the song title list. After this page is a page with twelve small pictures from the series

This CD is interesting. It has that oh so cute quality that normally is nausea inducing, but instead of making me want to turn it off, I find myself bouncing along to the cutesy numbers. The music is sugary sweet and almost pop in nature, but as they are instrumentals (Save for the two vocals) I am not quite sure they can be called Pop music. The music however, does seem to stay with you long after listening. I was in a cheery mood after hearing the entire CD for several hours after it.

The two vocals are actually quite good, and unfortunately for those I work with, extremely catchy. The instrumentals move along at a smooth pace, and they keep the listener in a good mood. I was hard-pressed to find a particular song I didn’t like, but unfortunately, I was also hard-pressed to find one song in particular I liked. They all seemed to flow into one upbeat bouncy number. I think that really is my only complaint on the CD. Bouncy is good, and upbeat is always welcome, but when you have an entire CD full of songs that are bouncy and upbeat, it would be nice to be able to distinguish one song from the next.

Opening theme True Light sounds Celtic due to the organ with vocals done by Miyamoto Shunichi. In addition, he sings beautifully Caged Bird in episode 24 and the lovely concluding song in episode 26. The first ending song Yasashii Gogo is calm and dreamy. The second ending song Hajimari no Hi is even better. Krad has his own theme song that plays when you are first introduced to him in episode 4 called Rakuen ~ Fanatic. That same friend who sent me the manga pictures also let me listen to samples from the DNAngel soundtrack (arigato Sherry-chan ^.^ ). The beat of Natsu no Yoru no Yume is like it was taken from Initial D. Hearts sung by Irino Miyu, who does the voice for Niwa Daisuke (also Haku from Spirited Away), is trespassing into the realm of Love Hina anime soundtracks, where mainly the hinatasou girls, but not to forget Keitaro, sing. Even Dark-san steps up to the plate singing Groovy Blue. Might as well list this while I'm at it, yup Hiwatari-kun (Ishida Akira) sings Tatoeba, surpassing Daisuke's song LOL. Ishida Akira is an anime Seiyuu pro. His other works are Xellos from Slayers Next/Try, Chrno from Chrno Crusade, and various roles in Evangelion, Kiddy Grade, Samurai Deeper Kyo, and Final Fantasy Unlimited. Devil and Angel is different from all the other songs. I don't know how to explain it. It is not really jpop-ish like Ayumi Hamasaki, Kuraki Mai, or Utada Hikaru. Well for one a guy sings it. Maybe like one of those Korean summer concert songs

Rating

9 (very good)

Presentation

Genre: Comedy / Fantasy (Age Rating 13+)
Eps : 26

Its strange that daisuke tries to declare his love to the girl of his dreams, but fails. Suddenly, whenever he thinks about this girl he turns into the legendary phantom thief known as Dark Mousy. Daisuke's mother, very much aware of this, makes him turn into Dark and steal valuable works of art for a purpose unkown to Daisuke its funny^^

Being a teenager is rough enough, but young Daisuke's got more troubles than any ten normal guys. Due to a strange quirk of genetics, Daisuke's been cursed with an ancient family affliction that's sure to put some major kinks in his relationship with the opposite sex. You see, whenever he becomes... enamored... with the object of his desires, Daisuke finds himself transformed into the legendary thief Phantom Dark! Unfortunately, the only way to return to his true form is for his true love to love Daisuke for himself; but when she's only got eyes for Dark, how can Daisuke compete with himself? Stealing the heart of one's true love has never been as complicated... or intriguing... ^^

Rating

9 (very good)

Final Verdict

9.50 (excellent)

Reviewed by sugar, 3y 39wk ago