Angel Heart

Let's clear up a certain misunderstanding, 'Angel Heart' is NOT a sequel, reboot and it's barely a spin-off of 'City Hunter' (which is a series I absolutely love). This series is a stand alone story, an alternate reality, where in the characters (Ryo, Saeko, Umibozu, Kaori and Hideyuki) are all from the original series but they've been given different, yet still similar, origins. This series introduces new characters to the franchise that just absolutely fit.

This is an excellent series filled with drama, heart, action and fun. I am, without a doubt, biased towards this series.
Admittedly there are some parts of the series that are considered ... lacking or even dull and repetitive but the characters and story telling are solid and enjoyable. I love this series, it's not the greatest ever done but for the 'Hojo Lovers' out there it's one of the best.

You'd think fifty episodes would be a bit much but the series is separated by story arcs making it feel less episodic but rather like having chapters in a novel.

Everybody has their own tastes but I sincerely hope those that get the chance to watch this anime do and enjoy it as much as I have.

Please look into its predecessors too, 'City Hunter' and 'Cat's Eye', and enjoy the music.

This review is primarily for those who haven't watched this anime yet. These 50 episodes, after 01~14, are separated into small "arcs" containing 3~5 episodes that are derelict from each other.

To help you maximize your enjoyment, I give you a list of which episodes are good/bad. Which ones I think you must watch, and which ones you can but don't need to, and which ones I think you should not.

[++] Excellent: You should watch these. Satisfaction guaranteed:
Ep 01~14, Ep 32~41

[+] Moderate: You can safely check these out if feeling curious or have enough time. But lower your expectations. They are in no way perfect, so ... you might feel "meh" or great depending on whether you like soap operas. Expect drawn-out dialogues and occasional cringe:
Ep 15~16, Ep 19~23, Ep 25~28, Ep 42~50


[-] Terrible: I advise that you skip these unless you're really really tolerant and don't mind hurting your own eyes and brain. You have been warned:
Ep 17~18, Ep 24, Ep 29~31


That's the list. If your mind is already set on watching the anime, go do it. It'll be worth your time, I promise, but I hope you keep this list in mind and know to either skip or tolerate bad episodes when they come up, and know that they won't last forever.

Giving an "Overall" score for this anime series is very difficult for me because it is a blend of extremely good episodes and unbelievably terrible ones:

- The female lead, Xiang-Ying, is amazing. She's essentially a female clone of Saeba Ryo in terms of fighting skills but is extremely down-to-earth and believable. I'll choose her over Star Wars Rey any day (I do like Rey though)

- Saeba Ryo is in a mentor role this time, and as I expect, he makes an amazing teacher. Humorous and mentally strong, in equal measure.

- Umibozu's soft side is shown a lot more here than it was in City Hunter. I like it.

- I love Xin-Hong and am a huge fanboy of Saeko. Their arcs resonate a lot with me. I'll let you find out which episodes are those (good news: They're all in the "[++] Excellent" category)

- Kaori's spirit is an overused plot device. Like, I was neutral about her in the beginning, by the end of the series I'm just very very sick and tired of her. This is an anime about living forward, not dwelling backward. Stop reminding us how great you are by telling us how great you are (good-ish news: Most of such over-usages are in the "[-] Terrible" episodes so if you follow my list you won't see too much of them).

I hope this helps and, hope you enjoy the anime. There's only 24 out of 50 episodes to watch if you're trying to maximize your enjoyment.

The music is marvelously done, and surpasses even some of my favorite series like Ghost In The Shell on many occasions. It's also extremely unfortunate because it seems the manga series had continued to run until year 2017, 11 years after the anime was cut short in 2006.

Most great things that the series actually developed down the road in the manga ended up never included in the anime, which was made when the series was too busy finding its own identity to tell the best story it could.

Why is it that good anime seem to only get 12 episodes and then they are done and yet mediocre stuff like 'Angel Heart' drag on through 50?

You can read the synopsis of the story to find out what it's about so I won't repeat that here, but the show had some good and some bad points.

Good points: I like the main male character, the 'City Hunter' very much. Like the old series, he's interesting and fun, but this series focuses more on the young assassin girl who's gotten City Hunter's wife's heart. The story's art is consistent and solid - good backgrounds ... and no sloppy drawings. It works very well for this somewhat dated story. The show also has lots of potential and a somewhat interesting pre-romance that unfortunately never goes anywhere (also very typical - ugh!)- just like most of the series' other story arcs.

Bad points: The story has about 40 different 'arcs' and never really completes any one of them to satisfaction. It really feels like 10 separate stories that kind of loosely tie together but there's a lack of consistency or focus to the series as a whole. You have one arc about the girl's implanted heart giving her memories of the woman it came from's life - highly implausible, but if they'd worked on that arc for a while, I'd have bought it. There was also the one about the girl's real father - that one was mentioned and left hanging. The one about the childhood friend / fellow assassin that was completed pretty well, but the romance that they hint at never develops past 'yeah, I kind of like you but don't come any closer or I'll kill you'. You get the distinct impression that that poor boy (whom I grew to like) is really NEVER going to get any... I ended up feeling really sorry for him!

Really, the bad points of this story are almost entirely story and character based. I really wish the people that make anime would spend the time and talent that they obviously did illustrating, animating and producing this one on a story that more deserved it. This one came off as wholly mediocre.