D.N.Angel New Edition, Vol. 1

by Yukiru Sugisaki

Genres: Manga, Shojo, Magic, Action, Crime, Fantasy

344 pages, Paperback

Published November 11, 2025

About the author

Yukiru Sugisaki (杉崎ゆきる; Sugisaku Yukiru in Japanese) is a Japanese manga artist. Her hobbies are dramas, video games, and "collecting rabbit things".
Sugisaki's face is rarely seen, as she prefers to draw herself with a rabbit face or mask in her manga profile images. She also seems to have developed a trait of leaving her series unfinished before moving on to different projects (Notably D.N.Angel, which has seen multiple month-long droughts between chapters. She has just recently done many Lagoon Engine installments, including the Japanese release of volume 7.
Previous to that, she completed a small series entitled Eden, which had its debut in the October 2006 issue of Shōnen Ace, and finished in February 2007. It saw a departure of sorts from Sugisaki's previous series, with a darker, sci-fi noir theme and older protagonists.

Currently, she finished D.N.Angel in 20 volumes (5 released only in digital).

Her work

She made her debut in "Asuka Magazine" with "Namaiki no N". Her other works include "D.N.Angel (13 volumes, unfinished) ", "Rizelmine (1 volume, finished)", "Lagoon Engine (7 volumes, unfinished)", and "Lagoon Engine Einsatz (1 volume, unfinished)". Her "D.N.Angel" manga and "Rizelmine" manga have also been adapted into anime series. Because the D.N.Angel manga was incomplete at the time, the anime has many differences to the original manga, most notably the ending.

Sugisaki is also the artist of the "BrainPowerd" and "The Candidate for Goddess" manga, both of which have been turned into an anime. Her "Neutral" artbook contains artwork from "D.N.Angel", "BrainPowerd", and "The Candidate for Goddess". Her second artbook, [FEDER:] (which is no longer available for purchase), contains newer artwork solely from D.N.Angel. She has also penned the well-known "Sotsugyo M", and created doujinshi for series such as "Tenkuu no Escaflowne", Neon Genesis Evangelion, Lets&Go , and King of Fighters.

Most of her works feature young, cute main characters and elements of Yaoi, though not considered Yaoi.

Her current project is D.N.Angel, which has finally begun serializing in Monthly Asuka again.

Reviews

[Sydney · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 stars

Daisuke has fallen in love, and with his confession to this first crush, he unlocked his secret identity, Phantom Thief Dark. I had a fun time watching Daisuke struggle to keep his feelings in check, as anytime he gets overwhelmed with romantic emotions, he transforms into Dark.

There are a lot of plot lines I am intrigued to see how they develop. And I am eager to wrap my head around the different characters. At times, I felt like there were so many character names that I didn't have faces to tie to, and I would get confused about who was who.

Also, the ending! I loved it, even while it was a little confusing at first. But I can't wait to see how that continues.

[Emerson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rereading this series as an adult is like...this reads exactly like the era of manga it was originally published in, complete with wacky plots and ongoing gags, but it's such great fun still

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the first volume or so of this manga back in its Tokyopop days. I'm not sure how many of its 20 volumes they released, and it doesn't matter that much because I wasn't too interested after that test run.

I'm not sure if I'll get through the whole thing this time, either. Even back in the 90s, readers recognized "magical girl" stories as metaphors for adolescence. DNAngel takes that metaphor and makes it smack-in-the-face overt. In junior high, Daisuke's "love genes" activate when he experiences his first crush, and he transforms into an older, cooler version of himself called Dark. This is a legacy from his mother's side of the family; his maternal grandpa was the last Dark. Grandpa and Mom are training Daisuke to be a "phantom thief" so he can steal art pieces somehow connected to his transformation, or that will act to integrate Daisuke's two personae, or something.

After a first episode strongly focusing on the phantom thief aspect, that's shuffled mostly to the side as we go through various junior high hijinks, where Daisuke and Dark (depending) have to cope with a budding love triangle? rectangle? with a pair of identical twins named Risa and Riku.

I'm pretty sure that the story already wants us to favor Riku. It doesn't take long for Daisuke to start pivoting from crushing on Risa, to falling in love with Riku. Risa--knowingly or not--is a manipulative little thing, using her "just friends" relationship with Daisuke to go out after hours with him in search of Dark, or inviting him to have a lunchbox in a way that makes him initially think it's for him, rather than a test run for one for Dark. Riku is more of a straightforward type, who's getting increasingly confused by Daisuke's unpredictable behavior toward her.

Other complications include an extremely young police commander named Hiwatari, who is seeking out Dark for his own reasons and also goes to Daisuke's school. He seems to have a magical secret too, or belongs to a family feuding with Daisuke's, or both, though it isn't entirely clear what's going on there yet.

Late in the book, Daisuke's transformation goes through a change that makes it apparent that the two of them are "becoming one person" on an accelerated schedule. We've still got quite a bit to go, so we'll see if this situation continues to develop, or if it runs around in circles for a while.

The storytelling got a little better in the second half of this volume. I'm glad that this is an omnibus, since its first half was too "been there, done that" 90s for me (including some obvious doujinshi bait between Daisuke and Hiwatari), and I can completely understand why me of 25+ years ago didn't get far with it. The second omnibus is on its way even as I'm typing up this review, so we'll see if some of the more intriguing elements can carry it for me in the longer term.

[Kylie Easterday · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is my first exposure to the series I hadn’t heard of it before and thought it sounded interesting and the art is beautiful so I gave it a try. It’s a fun little read but I did find myself struggling to understand what was happening a few times. Like I was getting confused about who had a crush on who and what and how the body change triggers happened. It seemed inconsistent and overly convenient at times when sometimes he’d swap with just a glance and other times he’d need to have a more involved interaction. Also wait do they both like Riku now or does he still like Risa? Also some of the character relationships seemed weirdly paced especially between Daisuke/Dark and Hiwatari. Like the build up to their conflict was very rushed just to be anticlimactic when Dark confronted Hiwatari and ended up taking away what I felt could be a really fun and silly dynamic to the story of Hiwatari discovering Daisuke and Dark’s connection. And it wasn’t explained how Hiwatari figured out their connection, maybe it gets explained in later chapters? But taking away what could’ve been a fun dynamic by having the reveal so soon and preventing Hiwatari from confronting Daisuke at all in the future kind of took some excitement from me wanting to continue the series. I was expecting more of a cat and mouse, Light and L sort of back and forth but it came to fruition way too soon with not much pay off imo. They hardly interacted really! Probably won’t continue the series but I’m not mad at it. It’s a really pretty book and the art is really great so it’s still cool to have.

[Cassandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up at the library cause the art reminded me of card captor sakura, so very cute. I have never read this before but it definitely gave and felt magical girl late 90s with super cute art but starring a HS boy. Which is what I wanted and I got it. 4/6 stars

There seems to be more going on than we know based on the ending of the this volume. I looked up this story and I am have reservations about continuing it just cause of how it was released. I am not sure how the story flow will go.

Edit the main reason this gets 3 and not two is some of the fonts felt impossible for me to read.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never got the chance to finish this series when it was first being released ("finished" meaning what was released in English). This was a fun little read!

[Milo Wilder (wandering book thief) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this so much. The story is fun and the artwork is visually stunning. I haven't read the original manga in years, so its really nice to go through it in the new format.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read more graphic novel reviews at The Graphic Library.

On his sixteenth birthday, Daisuke finds out his family legacy: he will transform into the legendary art thief, Dark, any time his romantic feelings are triggered. This becomes even more complicated as his crush is ever-present in his life, and dark becomes enamored with her twin sister. This series is bound to hit on many nostalgic feels for those who found it charming during its original run. It may have some appeal for modern manga fans who enjoy whimsical romances or readers who are looking for a cotton-candy read with pretty boys flying around.

Reviewed for Booklist Magazine.

Sara's Rating: 8/10
Suitability Level: Grades 7-12