Oct 1, 2022
Angel Onayami Soudanjo is a manga written by Mizukami Satoshi (known better for Hoshi no Samidare, Sengoku Youko and Spirit Circle) between 2004-2006, it's from his early beginnings as a manga author and it's a light read, the manga being solely a comedy.
It's structured as 11 chapters (with an additional chapter 0 and chapter 0.5) in one single volume, it took me a little over an hour to read it, all chapters have 15 pages roughly, so it's pretty short and easy to read.
The story is very simple, as the synopsis tells you, there's an angel waiting on a bench in the park and if
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you have some worries you can talk with him and he'll listen. The whole manga is like this, every chapter a random person comes to the bench and asks the angel for advice in every field you can think of, but the hook is that every person has a weird and quirky problem which our angel, who looks like a 40 year old man, has trouble dealing with. At the end of the chapter, the problem is resolved and all are happy.
The manga is supposed to make you laugh, the different characters have funny problems to resolve and the angel and his sidekick, a little angel girl who looks mad all the time, can't seem to relate with them and make funny mistakes. The humor is not in-your-face funny, it has some gags here and there, some funny dialogues, manzai-type humor (basically one character says/does a stupid thing and the other calls out his stupidity, funny man-straight man comedy like Gintama for example where Shinpachi is the straight man), they also break the forth wall from time to time.
I simply read the manga because I am a Mizukami Satoshi fan (before this I read 3 of his works), the comedy made me laugh, but in a "gentle" way, like I said, it's not over-the-top funny or has absurd comedy like Aho Girl or Nichijou, it has its moments but overall it's mediocre.
I enjoyed following the characters' lives changing after they talked with the angels, each one had some sorta problem but at the end of the day (chapter) they managed to resolve it and became better people after it. For example, one guy hates his job, another one hates her former boss, one wants a boyfriend, one is afraid of singing in front of crowds and so on. Even if the problem appears simple, it may become complicated when some out-of-the-blue elements come in. But still, our angels will try to offer good advice to the people without interfering to much in their lives, they may be angels but they aren't magical genies that grant wishes.
The main characters are the old man angel, the little angel girl (yes, they don't have names) and two recurring demons (the demon and underling A) who are just the gag characters, think of them as a not so flashy Team Rocket from Pokemon, their job is to stir up trouble for humans but they're lousy at it, Underling A is a very sexy demon girl but kinda stupid and klutzy, don't expect any panty shots though, she may dress sexy but that's about it, a cleavage is all we get. Some characters from past chapters appear too from time to time.
I liked the characters, they don't seem much interesting or look unique in terms of personality, old man likes to eat ramen and wants to solve the problems in a peaceful way, angel girl is kinda evil looking and glares all the time, she looks like she doesn't wanna be an angel and would love to start a war and kill demons and humans alike but she's ok, she behaves. Expect lots of supernatural stuff too, our angels have a giant sheep which has 777 special powers and they use it from time to time.
The art style is simple, the characters look alright, with realistic proportions and the eyes are not that big, the background is mediocre, it's not the sort of manga you read for the art style.
The episodic nature of the chapters doesn't keep the story from reaching unto a conclusion, we get some sorta ending in the last chapter, it doesn't end just like that, there is some closure, I could say, but don't expect heavy developments or changes. I don't think there was stuff left unwritten by the author, this one volume does its job, there are 15 stories there, more, and the readers would get bored.
I recommend this to all Mizukami fans who want to read works from his early career and to people who enjoy light-hearted comedy in a short episodic format with supernatural elements.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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