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Dark Angel #5
Dark Angel: Book Five
Story & Art by Manga Superstar Kia Asamiya! Beautiful, action-packed sword & sorcery epic by the creator of Nadesico and Silent Mobius! The young warrior, Dark, is on a quest to discover his destiny.
208 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1997
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About the author
Kia Asamiya
446 books23 followersKia Asamiya(麻宮 騎亜, born in 1963) is the pen-name of a popular Japanese manga artist whose work spans multiple genres and appeals to diverse audiences (1990s).
He is well-known for using influences from American comics, television, and movies in his work, and describes himself as a big fan of both Batman and Star Wars. One of the most widely-published Japanese manga-ka, nearly all of his stories have been translated into other languages, including English. His two most successful and popular manga series to-date are Nadesico and Silent Möbius.
Prior to becoming a manga artist, Asamiya graduated from the Tokyo Designer School, and then worked as a character designer for a number of anime series, and even designed models for some of the later Godzilla movies (1980s). For this career, he used a different pen-name, Michitaka Kikuchi (菊地 道隆), and maintained the two professional identities separately for many years. Several of the anime series that he worked on were very popular both inside and outside of Japan, most notably including Sonic Soldier Borgman. Even after focusing primarily on his manga career, Asamiya continued to do character designs and creative consultation on anime series based on his stories, occasionally under the Kikuchi name.
In the early 2000s, Asamiya has shifted his focus from teenage and young-adult stories to stories designed for children and for an American audience. In the former case, he credits his young children as a motivation, but in the latter case, he points to a long-standing desire to work with his favorite American characters. To that end, he has worked on projects with Image Comics, Marvel Comics, and DC Comics, as well as developing a manga adaptation of the movie, "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace".
While many Japanese artists (and artists in general) are quite reclusive, Asamiya often makes an effort to be available to his fans. He maintains a website with news and information about his studio, Studio TRON (named after the Disney movie TRON). He also aids and assists his Official Fan Club by sending them regular announcements and limited-edition merchandise. Despite these actions, he shunned all public photography, and had the often-hilarious habit of depicting himself with a placeholder sign for a face. It has become a trademark feature of his books that instead of a picture of the artist, there is an elaborately decorated rectangle sporting the words "Now Printing".
He is well-known for using influences from American comics, television, and movies in his work, and describes himself as a big fan of both Batman and Star Wars. One of the most widely-published Japanese manga-ka, nearly all of his stories have been translated into other languages, including English. His two most successful and popular manga series to-date are Nadesico and Silent Möbius.
Prior to becoming a manga artist, Asamiya graduated from the Tokyo Designer School, and then worked as a character designer for a number of anime series, and even designed models for some of the later Godzilla movies (1980s). For this career, he used a different pen-name, Michitaka Kikuchi (菊地 道隆), and maintained the two professional identities separately for many years. Several of the anime series that he worked on were very popular both inside and outside of Japan, most notably including Sonic Soldier Borgman. Even after focusing primarily on his manga career, Asamiya continued to do character designs and creative consultation on anime series based on his stories, occasionally under the Kikuchi name.
In the early 2000s, Asamiya has shifted his focus from teenage and young-adult stories to stories designed for children and for an American audience. In the former case, he credits his young children as a motivation, but in the latter case, he points to a long-standing desire to work with his favorite American characters. To that end, he has worked on projects with Image Comics, Marvel Comics, and DC Comics, as well as developing a manga adaptation of the movie, "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace".
While many Japanese artists (and artists in general) are quite reclusive, Asamiya often makes an effort to be available to his fans. He maintains a website with news and information about his studio, Studio TRON (named after the Disney movie TRON). He also aids and assists his Official Fan Club by sending them regular announcements and limited-edition merchandise. Despite these actions, he shunned all public photography, and had the often-hilarious habit of depicting himself with a placeholder sign for a face. It has become a trademark feature of his books that instead of a picture of the artist, there is an elaborately decorated rectangle sporting the words "Now Printing".
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 14, 2013
The concluding volume of the 5 book fantasy series is a real disappointment. Constantly with this series I've found myself scratching my head - it's as if massive chunks of it are missing. Book 3 in particular which follows a totally different character and doesn't feature the protagonist at all is very odd. The first half of the last book also had a non relevant story and suddenly we're back with the "main" arc for this last book (but it feels like i'm only getting a fraction of what should be a long drawn out story). The problem is that because the series is so all over the place I found I didn't care about the characters or the narrative.
Things just happen with no explanation build up - Dark, our clueless protagonist turns evil in this one and we learn that he's one of the four dark gods - WTF??? Where did this come from? The story itself is a derivative mess: it switches genre - we go from standard fantasy (wizards/swords/heroes etc) to supernatural fantasy (demons/angels) to post apocalyptic (mechs etc) and alternative dimensions (the whole tank dream idea) with no clear reason why. This also rips off other mangas most notably bastard!!!, dragonball z and fushigi yugi and probably lots more I'm unfamiliar with.
I feel like the Dark Angel universe is interesting enough and if the characters were fleshed out and this followed a decent drawn out narrative it could be ok, but as this 5 book series stands its just a complete mess that makes very little sense. It's one saving grace is the artwork - the female cyborg Cyclops looks great and the fairy is kind of cute.
Really wanted to like this, but sadly its a real mess.
Things just happen with no explanation build up - Dark, our clueless protagonist turns evil in this one and we learn that he's one of the four dark gods - WTF??? Where did this come from? The story itself is a derivative mess: it switches genre - we go from standard fantasy (wizards/swords/heroes etc) to supernatural fantasy (demons/angels) to post apocalyptic (mechs etc) and alternative dimensions (the whole tank dream idea) with no clear reason why. This also rips off other mangas most notably bastard!!!, dragonball z and fushigi yugi and probably lots more I'm unfamiliar with.
I feel like the Dark Angel universe is interesting enough and if the characters were fleshed out and this followed a decent drawn out narrative it could be ok, but as this 5 book series stands its just a complete mess that makes very little sense. It's one saving grace is the artwork - the female cyborg Cyclops looks great and the fairy is kind of cute.
Really wanted to like this, but sadly its a real mess.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 11, 2015
Although this series was pretty interesting, it's a pity that the mangaka decided not to give continuity to it.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews