Search - Seraphim Call on DVD

An angel inside of everyone

Tally Solleni | 11/17/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you like action-packed dramatic 'save the world' anime, you will not like Seraphim Call. But if you like sweet slice-of-life stories about relatively ordinary people, this is a real treat.
The character designs for Seraphim Call were done by expert artist Nanase Aoi, and they're quite cute as a result. The music is great, especially the openining and closing themes. I thought it was a nice touch that each episode has a different closing theme; since every episode is about a different character, the closing theme for a given episode is performed by the voice actor for its main character. The songs range from melancholy (like Chinami's "Sorekara") to cheerful (Hatsumi's "Viva Onna no Ko Domei") to frighteningly adorable (Tanpopo's "Baby Pink na Asa").
The first episode, "Sleeping Beauty Panic", is about a scientific prodigy named Yukina who suffers from androphobia. Unfortunately, this phobia manifests by making her suddenly faint whenever she tries to speak to a man, which makes her attempt to save the city from a time bomb very difficult. This was an extremely humorous episode, particularly because of Yukina's melodramatic reaction when the police try to congratulate her at the end.
Episode two is definitely one of the best. In "Margarine Crisis", Tanpopo is a girl in middle school or high school (really not sure which) who continues to colour with crayons, talk childishly, and treat her beloved stuffed animals as if they were real people. The episode is literally seen through the eyes of her new plush doll, a rabbit-like creature she dubs "Margarine von Half-Calorie". She makes up a cute backstory for Margarine, saying that he was once the human prince of Dreamland, and that he has been turned into a stuffed animal by the evil queen of nightmares. This, Tanpopo claims, is why people forget their dreams when they grow up. There is something deep about Tanpopo's character that really tugs at the heartstrings, particularly exhibited when one of her friends yells at her and says that they aren't children anymore. In tears, Tanpopo picks up Margarine and sadly asks him "Why do people have to forget their dreams? Why, Margarine?" The episode also has a surprise ending, which I won't give away here.
The third episode, "The Taste of Cake", was kind of boring. It told the story of a would-be culinary student named Chinami, and her attempts to bring together her divorced parents.
The fourth episode, "The Flying Angel", was another winner. Told out of chronological order, it involves an un-feminine athlete named Hatsumi and the artist, Miyabi, who is determined to paint a picture of Hatsumi, just to convince the world that Hatsumi really is beautiful. This is a really inspiring episode, and Hatsumi's line "There is an angel inside of me?" is very memorable.
The fifth and sixth episodes ("To My Sister in My Dreams" and "To My Sister Inside Love") are from the points of view of identical twin sisters, Shion and Sakura. They were all right, but if you don't approve of lesbianism and twincest, I recommend that you skip over these episodes.
Episode 7 is about an English teacher and mathematics fan, Saeno. It's an interesting episode, and the closing song "Return to Myself" seems vaguely Megumi Hayashibara-esque.
Episode eight, "Acropolis International Rescue Team", tells of spoiled rich girl Ayaka and her hapless father, who struggles to teach her the value of a dollar. This was an extremely funny episode, and I get the feeling that it was a parody of something (not quite sure what, though).
Episode nine, "The Legend of A Girl", mainly focuses on a character other than the titular Kasumi Kurenai. A mysterious woman named Kasumi Kurenai has suddenly become famous, and budding reporter Lulu is obsessed with becoming just like this unknown woman. During a television special report on Kurenai, however, Lulu clashes with a cold stagehand who seems to both disbelieve and detest the legend. The main theme of this episode was being yourself and finding your own identity, and it did a pretty good job. Also, Kasumi herself is played by Yu Asakawa, well-known for her parts in Azumanga Daioh (as Sakaki), Bubblegum Crisis (as Priss), and Love Hina (as Motoko).
Episode ten, "Real Blue", is another winner. High-schooler Kurumi works under a pen name as a popular manga artist, who has just started a new series called 'Real Blue'. Her parents suddenly begin taking care of a friend's son, which greatly resembles the plot of Kurumi's new series. Fortunately, the expected accidental peeking, groping, and general pervertedness do not happen, much to Kurumi's confusion and this reviewer's relief. Kurumi briefly becomes angry at the boy (Satoshi) when he, not knowing that Kurumi was the author, critises her work and complains about how unrealistic the story is. However, Satoshi experiences a turnaround at the end of the episode, delivering a very memorable speech about perception. Even if he takes a picture, he comments, the picture might not reflect what he was really perceiving at the time. "But maybe that doesn't really matter. What I really want to say might be the fact that I took that picture."
Episode eleven, "The Inner World of Me", only features two characters who are actually seen and heard- the main character Urara, and her deceased father (who is briefly appears and speaks in a dream Urara has). The other characters are neither seen nor heard, and we can only guess what they are doing by Urara's reactions and her side of any conversations. This was a pretty deep, avant-garde episode, and people who didn't like the last two episodes of Evangelion probably won't like this.
The final episode, "Sacred Night of the Seraphim", consists of all the characters meeting (for a variety of reasons), and having conversations that mainly serve as a follow-up to their respective episodes. It was okay, I suppose, but I really liked the end-of-episode preview that described this episode, since it summed up the series pretty well.
"If you've felt the sparkle of an angel from any of them, then that means that this is a city where angels live." The main idea of every episode, in my opinion, might be to find the 'sparkle of an angel' in that episode's main character- or to find the sparkle of an angel in yourself."

Highly creative, whimsical

Matic | Florida | 02/28/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a highly creative series of sketches, with a whimsical touch of fantasy mixed with some very intelligent storytelling. This must have been a lot of fun to make. Production value is average, taken up a notch by the fact that the artists were able to have some fun along the way due to the rather freeform nature of the title. Subtitles only. Overall this is a creative and enjoyable DVD, good for kids and intelligent enough to entertain adults, without taking itself too seriously."

Nothing exciting, but it's pretty cheap so...

Rowena Wendy Lim | Asia | 09/18/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Seraphim Call is a collection of slice-of-life stories about eleven teenage girls. The episodes are not related to each other, each one is just supposed to show that there's an angel within every girl -- whatever that means.

Each of Seraphim Call's episodes is named after its heroine. Seraphim Call is so disjointed that I can't even recall any of the girls' names off the top of my head. There's an episode about a young female scientist who faints whenever she's face-to-face with men; there's one wherein a math teacher finds a way to access a different dimension; and yet another is about a spoiled rich girl who goes around fighting evil using her daddy's resources; there are even two episodes which are tediously identical -- covering the same events but unfolding from the perspectives of twin sisters... it's a really bizarre mix, but my favorite has to be the episode about a teenage manga artist who gets a case of life imitating art and vice-versa. After all eleven girls have shared their stories, the twelfth episode brings them all together and tries -- horrendously at that -- to present something meaningful. Suddenly, all the girls just happen to know each other. They all agree to attend a special screening being held by the twin sisters, and when they all get there, some sort of special effects show is launched with everyone looking on. The end. What was up with that? Up to now, I still don't quite get it.

The art and animation are done nicely enough, with lovely character designs dominating the visuals. Each of the episodes share the same opening song but are given different ending songs which are very specific to what the story is about. The music is typical anime soundtrack fare -- j-pop songs which range from soft and mellow to cheery and upbeat. Again, like Sentimental Journey, there is no English dub track, just English subtitles.

Seraphim Call is not bad, it's just too far out there for me to grasp. The individual stories make enough sense on their own, but the final episode throws all logic to the wind and renders the whole series ineffective in whatever message it was trying to convey. There isn't even a unifying theme, it's like they just strung together everything that came to mind and tried to pass it off as a whole. It doesn't help that the pace is on the slow side too. I don't recommend it but if you'd like to experience something strange and different, at least it's very reasonably priced."