From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Angel Heart (エンジェル・ハート, Enjeru
Hāto
?) is a manga series written and illustrated by Tsukasa Hojo
published in the Weekly Comic Bunch since 2001. It was
adapted into an animated television series, which aired in Japan from October 3, 2005 to
September 25, 2006.
Plot
A young girl stands on top of a building in Shinjuku as she receives a
call from her handler. The handler congratulates the girl, known as
"Glass Heart" with a job well done regarding her latest kill, which
her handler refers to as her 50th. Glass Heart recounts the day's
events. She had just killed a man sitting on a park bench with a silenced gun. As she was
leaving the park, a small girl runs in with some ice cream and
Glass Heart realizes that she has just killed the father of a young
girl. With that she jumps off the building, impaling her chest on
the iron spiked fence below.
At the same time, Kaori Makimura is running late for an
appointment to take wedding photos with her husband, the "City
Hunter" Ryo Saeba. When she sees a girl about to be run over by a
truck, she jumps and pushes the girl out of the way before the
truck hits her. A short while later, she is declared brain dead and
her heart is harvested for organ donation, as she had a donor card
on her when she died. However, the Organization, needing a heart
for their assassin, steal Kaori's heart while it is in transit and
implants it into Glass Heart's body.
Glass Heart is transported to Taiwan, where she remains in a coma for a year.
During that time, she is haunted by the images of the people she
has killed, along with the images of the donor Kaori as well as Ryo
Saeba of whom she does not know. She wakes up after one year to
find out who these people are. She travels back to Shinjuku,
and after several close events, manages to track down the "City
Hunter". He has retired from his role since his wife's death. Upon
finding that Glass Heart is the recipient of Kaori's heart, Ryo
decides to adopt her as his daughter, and is also given a name
provided by her real father: Xiang Ying. The former mercenary now
tries to help the former assassin move on with a normal life in the
outside world.
Characters
Main
characters
Li Xiang Ying (李香瑩, Japanese:
Ri Shan'in, Chinese Pinyin: Lǐ Xiāng Yíng)
- Voiced by: Mao
Kawasaki
- A young Taiwanese girl who is the main protagonist of Angel
Heart. In reality, she is the daughter of Li Jiang Qiang, the
leader of the crime syndicate Zheng Dao Hui.
However at the age of two, she and her mother were involved in a
car accident when their car plunged off a cliff into a river. Her
mother was killed in the accident but Xiang Ying was never found,
despite the best efforts of her father and his organization to
locate her. In a cruel twist of fate, Xiang Ying was found and
taken in by the Zhuque Corps (a section of Zheng Dao Hui which
specializes in assassinations) and trained to be an assassin.
Because of the accident, she has no memory of her childhood, and as
a result does not know her true parentage. This is also why her
entry in the Zhuque was never known by her father until it was too
late. While in training for the Zhuque Corps, she was referred to
as Number 27 but after her training was complete,
she was referred to as Glass Heart. After
attempting to commit suicide, the heart of Kaori Makimura was
transplanted into her, and with it, the overpowering desire to live
and to be reunited with Ryo Saeba. As a result, she busts out of
the lab she was kept in and travels to Japan where she finally
meets Ryo. Ryo, in turn adopts Xiang Ying as their (Ryo and
Kaori's) daughter.
- Xiang Ying was only 15 years old at the start of the series,
despite looking like she was in her early twenties. By volume 20 of
the manga she is already 19 years old, though appearance-wise she
has not changed.
- Xiang Ying has had very little contact with the outside world,
except through her handlers. As a result, any potential situation
which she perceives as a threat assessment would meet a harsh
response, as evidenced when she nearly kills a man merely trying to
pick her up. Not surprisingly, the people around her, Ryo, Saeko,
Umibozu, Chin, and even Xin Hong realize they have an upward task
in trying to teach her how to function in the outside world.
- There are several coincidences between Xiang Ying and Kaori.
One, is that the Japanese character for Kaori is pronounced as
"Xiang" in Chinese, hence her name "Xiang Ying". Also, her major histocompatibility
complex is very similar to Kaori's as their human leukocyte antigen
encodings are virtually identical. Because of this, Xiang Ying does
not need to worry about her body rejecting Kaori's heart as her
immune system has been fooled into thinking her heart is the
same.
- With Kaori's heart, she remembers all of Kaori's memories, her
residence, favorite coffee, quotes, and emotions. Along with these
memories she inherits is also the ability to hammer Ryo with Hammerspace weapons if Ryo gets out of line
(much like Kaori did), much to Ryo's annoyance. She has also gained
the penchant for wanton destruction that Kaori has always exhibited
when the latter is infuriated, this is in contrast to her previous
tendency to execute her previous missions with stealth and
finesse.
- Ryo Saeba (冴羽獠, Saeba
Ryō
?)
- Voiced by: Akira
Kamiya
- The former protagonist of City Hunter. Like Xiang Ying, Ryo himself
has no memory of his background, being the lone survivor of a plane
crash that killed his parents, and raised to be a mercenary. During
his time as City Hunter, he was praised as one of the best in the
underworld, while being a lecherous and perverted woman chaser
going after "mokkori" (sexy) girls. However, he had come to a point
where he decided to settle down and take Kaori as his wife. He was
with Kaori in her last moments after she was hit by a truck,
begging her to live.
- At the beginning of the story, Ryo Saeba is a grieved man. He
has since closed down his business as City Hunter (where you hire
him by scrawling the initials XYZ on a specific bulletin
board at Shinjuku Station). To deal with the
loss of his wife Kaori, he has resorted to his former ways of skirt
chasing, while his friends Saeko and Umibozu know that he is doing
this to hide his pain. The arrival of Xiang Ying in his life gives
him some form of closure as well as something to live for as he
tries to raise someone who he considers to be his and Kaori's
daughter (by virtue of her stolen heart).
- Adopted by Ryo, Xiang Ying affectionately calls him "Ryo
Pa-pa".
- Kaori Makimura (槇村香, Makimura
Kaori
?)
- Voiced by: Kazue
Ikura
- In this alternate story, Kaori is hit by a truck while trying
to save a young girl while on her way to take wedding pictures with
Ryo. Her heart was harvested for use in another recipient before it
was intercepted by the Zheng Dao Hui for use in Glass Heart after
her attempted suicide. Her age at her time of death is listed as
28.
- Like Xiang Ying and Ryo, Kaori also does not know her true
parentage, being the daughter of a criminal who died in a police
incident and later being adopted by the Makimura family. However,
unlike the City Hunter anime, Kaori somehow knows that she is not
related to the family who raised her. When she was younger, she
would wait at Shinjuku station every day for her father (who had
died) to come through the turnstiles, believing that he would come,
before her brother would arrive to pick her up.
- Although she may be dead, Xiang Ying can feel Kaori's thoughts
inside of her and Kaori can also communicate to Ryo through Xiang
Ying. In the manga, Kaori can almost physically prevent Xiang Ying
from carrying out certain actions, from not allowing her to pull
the trigger in an assassination attempt, to immobilizing her by
causing their heart to ache. However, Kaori only intercedes to stop
Xiang Ying from killing or to prevent her from taking unnecessary
risks. In a sense, Kaori acts as a guardian angel to Xiang Ying as
she helps guide the former assassin to a normal life.
- After seeing Kaori and Ryo's first meeting through a dream she
feels Kaori showed to her, Xiang Ying affectionately refers to
Kaori as "Kaori Ma-ma".
- Umibozu (海坊主
?)
- Voiced by: Tessho
Genda
- Umibozu is owner of the Cat's Eye cafe.
In a nod to events in the last episodes of City Hunter, Umibozu is
now blind, but his blindness has not affected his abilities. He
even admits that due to his blindness, he can "see" certain things
that people with normal sight cannot see, such as recognizing
people before they come into his cafe. Unlike the City Hunter
episodes, Umibozu now considers Ryo as his friend as evidenced by
his concern for Ryo's mental health after the death of his wife.
While Umibozu sometimes prefers calling himself
Falcon, there is no mention of his original name,
Hayato Ijuin (伊集院 隼人), from the original City Hunter Series. There
is also the issue of his fear of cats in the previous episodes of
City Hunter as in one episode of Angel Heart, he shows up wearing
pajamas with pictures of cats on them.
- Saeko Nogami (野上冴子, Nogami
Saeko
?)
- Voiced by: Yoko
Asagami
- Since City Hunter, Saeko has moved up the ranks in the police
department to become Superintendent of Shinjuku district. Whereas
in previous City Hunter episodes she used her attractiveness and
her young looks to manipulate Ryo Saeba, in Angel Heart, she is not
as manipulative, as she worries about becoming "old", especially
when characters remind her of her age. Saeko may have a personal
stake in seeing Xiang Ying become a normal woman as it has been
hinted that Glass Heart may have been responsible for her sister
Reika's untimely demise.
- Saeko's feelings toward Ryo are different in Angel Heart
compared to City Hunter suggesting a possible relationship may be
explored in Angel Heart.
- Liu Xin Hong (劉信宏
?)
- Voiced by: Chihiro
Suzuki
- Xin Hong is a childhood friend of Xiang Ying and was referred
to as Number 36 during training for the Zhuque
Corps. He has developed feelings of affection for Xiang Ying, and
as a result, the trainers had Xiang Ying and Xin Hong face off in a
fight to the death in the final exam. Xiang Ying managed to get the
drop on Xin Hong and reluctantly killed her only friend, or so she
thought. Somehow, he survived, and was transferred to the Qinglong
Corps, another branch of Zheng Dao Hui. In fact, throughout this
time, Xin Hong has kept his desire to reunite himself with Xiang
Ying as his motivating factor to live. After the Qinglong were
killed off by the Xuanwe, he was allowed by Li Jiang Qiang to live
a normal life in order to watch over Xiang Ying.
- Incidentally, Xin Hong was also the assassin who sniped Li Qian
De through his hotel room window. However, Li Jiang Qiang did not
hold him responsible for his brother's death, knowing full well
that he was trained to follow orders, and that most soldiers and
assassins that work under him do not know who their leaders
are.
- Unlike Xiang Ying, Xin Hong is a bit more refined when it comes
to dealing with the outside world (except in one instance when he
buys her reinforced rubber knuckle-dusters as a gift with his first
paycheque). This is evidenced in one episode where Xin Hong is
adept at being a waiter at a Chinese restaurant whereas Xiang Ying
has no clue as to what is going on. Xin Hong also still maintains
his strong feelings for Xiang Ying, but he keeps his feelings to
himself as he knows that Xiang Ying does not know what love
is.
Secondary
characters
- Lǐ Jiān Qiáng (李堅強
?)
- Voiced by: Kinryu
Arimoto, young Hirofumi Nojima
- Often referred to as "Master Li", he is the leader of Zheng Dao
Hui and father of Xiang Ying. However, his true involvement with
Zheng Dao Hui is unknown as it was discovered that it was his twin
brother, Li Qian De who was calling the shots while Li Jiang Qiang
was raising a family. After Li Qian De's death, he takes over the
duties of the Zheng Dao Hui. Li Jiang Qiang will never forget that
his daughter was made into an assassin in his own organization
despite his efforts to find her after the accident that killed her
mother. He will never forgive himself for everything she had to go
through. Although he would like to be reunited with Xiang Ying, he
knows that it is best that she not know her true parentage. To that
effect he requested Ryo to take care of her, knowing full well that
she could never return to him. He is also the first to call her by
her nickname, "Ah-Xiang" which is what he used to call her when she
was so much younger. (It is common in Chinese culture to take
someone's first name and add the prefix "ah" to it when addressing
someone younger or in a friendly manner such as in a family). Ryo,
Kaori and Saeko are the only other people who call her by this
name.
- Lǐ Qiān Dé (李謙德
?)
- Voiced by: Kinryu
Arimoto, young Kenji Nojima
- Li Jiang Qiang's younger twin brother. Qian De became a
"shadow" for Li Jiang Qiang and took over duties as head of the
Zheng Dao Hui while his elder brother spent time with his family.
It seems with the exception of Li Jiang Qiang's aide, Chief Chén,
no one else in the organization knew that there were 2 "Master
Li"s. Qian De was responsible for getting his brother and his
future wife, Lin Xiang Ping, together and even managed to convince
his brother to have a child and not neglect his family. As Ryo
notes later, if not for Qian De's intervention, Xiang Ying would
never have come into being. Ryo was also good friends with Qian De,
and they would hang out together drinking whenever Qian De was in
Japan (Ryo even claims he learned all his bad habits from Qian De,
though it could be the other way round). Ryo's history with the
Li's even went further back, when Li Jiang Qiang hired him to
rescue his brother from the jungles of Cambodia 22 years before
Qian De's death.
- Chief Chén (陳侍衛長
?)
- Voiced by: Kouji
Yada
- Li Jiang Qiang's second in command and leader of the Xuan Wu
division, another branch of the Zheng Dao Hui. He has been assigned
to Li Jiang Qiang to stay in Tokyo and watch over Xiang Ying. He
later runs a restaurant called the Gates of Xuan Wu (a reference to
his group) and appears to be a marvelous chef. He is also
well-known throughout Japan's underworld and one look will send yakuza running for their lives.
It was revealed in both the manga and the anime, that when Li Qian
De died he left a huge fortune for Xiang Ying and it was Chén's job
to oversee the execution of his will. However, Xiang Ying is
unaware of this.
- Hideo Mochiyama (餅山秀夫
?)
- Voiced by: Naoki
Tatsuta
- A low-level yakuza
affiliated with the Zheng Dao Hui. Mochiyama is one of the first to
encounter Glass Heart and is later witness to Li Qian De's death.
He is a bit of an incompetent, however, as he cannot participate in
a firefight, and has some homosexual tendencies as he displays open
affection for Ryo.
- Doc (ドク
?)
- Voiced by: Bin
Shimada
- A doctor who runs the Hanazono clinic, and looks after most of
the underworld denizens of Shinjuku. As a result, he does not make
much money out of this venture and occasionally doubles as a club
harker in order to make ends meet. Despite this, he is a very
capable doctor. He is the second person after Umibozu to realize
that Kaori has returned in Xiang Ying. In fact, before hiring
Tomoko as his nurse, he had previously employed Kaori when she was
around Xiang Ying's age.
- It should be noted that this "Doc" is based on the original Doc
in the City Hunter manga where he helps Ryo out on a consistent
basis. "Doc" did not appear in the City Hunter anime series, so
therefore viewers may be confused as to how Ryo is associated with
him.
- Tomoko (智子
?)
- Voiced by: Risa
Yukino
- Often referred to as Tomo-chan, she works as a
nurse for Doc and is subject to Ryo's constant advances. She
started working for Doc soon after Kaori left the clinic to work
with Ryo, after her brother's murder.
- Miki (ミキ
?)
- Voiced by: Mami
Koyama
- Miki is a young girl who lived in the slums of Shinjuku.
Labeled as the "Lucky Little Ghost", those who meet her would fall
for her smile, and are somehow befallen with good fortune later on.
Previously, she lived in an underground section of Shinjuku Station
alone after her mother had passed away several years before. After
a hit-and-run accident, she would be adopted by Umibozu and would
later on live with him at the Cat's Eye Cafe.
- Miki is unaware of who her father was, though it was revealed
later to the other characters that he was the King of an unnamed
country. He often visited Japan while on business and fell in love
with Miki's mother who worked in an old bar in a quiet area.
Because the political situation in the kingdom was unstable, when
she became pregnant, Miki's mother left her job and disappeared.
She raised her daughter all alone in an abandoned underground
arcade so no one would be able to find them if they discovered
their existence. Miki's mother would later die in an accident and
Saeko would be the first of our heroes to encounter the little
girl. Much later after Miki starts living at the Cat's Eye Cafe,
Ryo and Xiang Ying would find out the King had been killed and
replaced with a double. All these events are kept from Miki to
protect her.
- It should be noted that although this Miki shares the same name
as Miki in City Hunter, they are not the same character. Like the
Miki in Angel Heart, the Miki in City Hunter was also an orphan and
raised by Umibozu, though in City Hunter, this Miki is much older.
Miki's hairstyle also appears to be similar to the original Miki in
the third and fourth City Hunter series.
- Hideyuki Makimura (槇村秀幸
?)
- Voiced by: Hideyuki
Tanaka
- Just as in the original City Hunter series and manga, Hideyuki
was Kaori's beloved older brother. He was a dedicated police
officer by day, who had created the underground identity of City
Hunter to rid the city of the crime and injustice that the police
force could not. Through a chance encounter between the mercenary
Ryo Saeba and his sister Kaori, the City Hunter dynamic would
become a partnership and business, with Ryo forcing himself into
the main role. It is later revealed that Ryo did this to protect
Kaori's happiness, forcing himself into the active role so as to
keep Hideyuki out of harm's way.
- Hideyuki was also friends with Saeko, both being police
officers. Their friendship grew and eventually it seemed they were
in love, though seemingly neither were very open with their
feelings. However, one sticking point in their relationship was the
City Hunter partnership (of which Saeko knew Hideyuki was a big
part of). Saeko at the time did not approve of what City Hunter was
doing, and that Hideyuki himself would sometimes disregard the law.
During a quiet dinner in which Hideyuki had planned to ask Saeko to
marry him, another argument broke out (he accidentally let slip
that the case she had just wrapped up would've gone smoother if
City Hunter had been involved). The evening was ruined and Hideyuki
did not propose, telling Saeko that the jewel box she had
accidentally knocked out of his hand was only a gift for his
sister. Six months later, Hideyuki was murdered. Over the years,
Saeko would find herself visiting the Makimura family grave, unable
to shake the feeling that there had been something important on
Hideyuki's mind that night, and perhaps the contents of that jewel
case wasn't meant for Kaori at all. Xiang Ying (with Kaori's
consent) would later present the jewel case to Saeko, to reveal a
wedding ring with Saeko's name engraved on it, confirming her hopes
that Hideyuki had wanted to marry her.
- Hideyuki appears in Angel Heart only in flashback, since he had
died before the series began.
- Yáng Fāng-Yù (楊方玉
?)
- Voiced by: Megumi
Ogata
- Fāng-Yù is a fellow mercenary who has a history with Ryo dating
back to their battle field days, presumably in Central America. She
was seriously wounded and lost her left eye while she was fighting
together with Ryo. Because her fiancé would never marry her due to
her injuries, she demanded to be left behind while the others
pulled out of the fight. Instead, Ryo got her off the battle field,
promising her that he would take her fiancé's place if she didn't
give up the will to live. Ever since, Ryo has been haunted by her
presence fearing that she might actually force him to fulfill his
promise. She occasionally returns to Japan from time to time,
staying at Ryo and Xiang Ying's apartment whether invited or not.
She is currently in command of the elite mercenary unit, the "black
panther". She has also adopted approximately 20 child orphans
around the globe and claims them to be their (Ryo and Fong's)
children, much to Ryo’s annoyance. When Xiang Ying jokingly noted
that if they were regarded to be "Pa-Pa's" children then they would
be her siblings, Fāng-Yù was overjoyed and insisted Xiang Ying call
her "Ma-Ma". As Xiang Ying reserved "Ma-Ma" for Kaori, she never
used the term for Fāng-Yù, instead using "Fāng-san". Since Kaori's
death, Fāng-Yù has been worried over Ryo's state of mind. She had
him promise her that he would send her an email each year on her
birthday (Christmas Day) so that she would know that he was
alright. Starting from volume 15 of the manga, he would always
forget, causing some comical situations.
Design
Setting
Angel Heart takes place in a universe parallel to Tsukasa Hojo's City Hunter
series. There are substantial factual differences between the two
series, such as the origins of Ryo as City Hunter, Kaori and Ryo's
relationship, the circumstances of Hideyuki's death, and that
several main characters previously present in City Hunter
are not present in Angel Heart. Angel Heart
features the Cat's Eye cafe, owned by Umibozu. The
establishment appears in Hojo's Cat's Eye series (owned by the
three Kisugi Sisters) and City Hunter (owned by Miki).
Media
Manga
The series debuted on May 15, 2001 in Comics Bunch. Tsukasa
claims the basic script took 5 years to create.[1]
Anime
An animated television series based on Angel Heart was
developed as a co-production between TMS Entertainment (the producers of
the Cat's Eye
anime), Yomiuri Telecasting
Corporation, and Aniplex. It aired on various Nippon
Television affiliates from October 2005 to September 2006,
lasting 50 episodes.
Reception
References
- ^
"New Tsukasa Hojo Manga to
appear in Weekly Bunch". Anime News Network. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2001-05-07/new-tsukasa-hojo-manga-to-appear-in-weekly-bunch. Retrieved
2009-03-31.
External
links
Coamix,
Gutsoon! Entertainment
CTV
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