Angel (manga)

Angel (written in Western characters since the original publication) is a long running series of manga created by Japanese comic book author U-Jin. The original manga series met with controversy in 1990–1991 in Japan and was retired from its magazine serialization. It also met controversy in France.

Six OVA based in the manga have been released, although the first one has no relationship with the next five and has not been released outside of Japan. The second series of OVAs have been released in several countries.

A sequel called Angel: the women whom delivery host Kosuke Atami healed (also in Western characters), started serialization in 2006 in the magazine Weekly Manga Goraku. Its sequel, Angel: the women whom delivery host Kosuke Atami healed season 2, better known as Angel season 2, began publication in the same magazine in 2008 and is currently ongoing.

Summary
The story is about the adventures of sexually-driven boy Kosuke Atami and his friend Shizuka. It's a gag comedy with strong touches of eroticism, where the main concept is how Kosuke helps people through the story.

Main characters

 * Kosuke Atami (熱海康介)
 * Shizuka Himenogi (姫乃樹静香)
 * Yamada (山田)

Original manga publication
Angel, also known as Angel: Highschool Sexual Bad Boys & Girls Story (prior to the Japanese controversy), Angel: Delight Slight Light Kiss Story (after it resumed serialization but before its complete ban) and currently Angel: Sexual boys and girls highschool story (in order to differentiate it from the sequels), started its publication in the magazine Weekly Young Sunday published by Shogakukan. Because of the controversy, its serialization was interrupted in 1991 and only three volumes were published by Shogakukan. It was later fully reprinted by Cybele Publishing (also known as Cybele Shuppan), which also included two new volumes for a total of 7 volumes, although Cybele volumes had in fact less pages than Shogakukan volumes. In the cover of the Cybele volumes, the legend "We came back!" can be read above the title, in reference to the incident that provoked its temporal ban.

Releases outside of Japan
The whole manga was published in Taiwan by company Li-Yi, in France by Tonkam and in Spain by Norma Editorial, all of them based in Cybele's edition.

Controversy in Japan
The manga depicted high schoolers in several sexual situations. In the aftermath of the Saitama Serial Kidnapping Murders of Little Girls, a moral panic against otaku was prevalent and several manga were singled out for their contents, among them Angel. PTAs managed to force the suspension of the manga for a while and volume 3 became the last by Shogakukan and the tankōbon became banned. The problem centered in housewives who believed that Angel was too sexually explicit for a shōnen publication and that the manga had become pretty popular. The incident with Angel eventually lead to the creation of the Comic Hyogen no Jiyu o Mamoru Kai (コミック表現の自由を守る会).

While the manga was still being serialized in the magazine, U-Jin included a "message from the author" chapter as a form of protest. When it temporary resumed serialization, the sexual content was reduced and the subtitle changed to Delight Slight Light Kiss Story, until it was finally banned.

Eventually, publication resumed years later with Cybele Publishing, which re-published Angel since the beginning to eventually publish the complete manga, now labeled as Adult Comic (成人コミック).

Controversy in France
Upon the release of the third volume in France, Angel was banned from exhibition in stores. The argument of anti-manga people, relayed by the press at the time, was that the manga is dangerous for youth because of eroticism and violence it diffuses.

Tonkam, however, for which Angel was the first erotic manga, finished the translation of the 7 volumes.

Volumes

 * Shogakukan (Young Sunday Comics, 1989–1990)


 * Cybele Publishing (Cybele Comics, 1993) This version includes several autostereograms. Since foreign versions were based on this one, they also include the autostereograms.


 * Cybele Publishing (Cybele Bunko, 1995–1996)


 * Ohzora Publishing (also known as Chu Shuppan) (Missy Comics, 2007–2008)

Along with this volumes, there is another collection which combines Angel with Konai Shasei, another manga by U-Jin. The collection is simply called Konai Shasei X Angel (校内写生×ＡＮＧＥＬ). Instead of a regular numbering, each volume has a different subtitle.


 * Ohzora Publishing (Missy Comics, 2006–2007)

The series is also available in ebook format by ebookjapan.

Angel (OVA)
The first OVA, a single episode anime titled Angel, was produced by Green Bunny and originally released in October 25, 1990, published in VHS and in LD by Pioneer LDC's brand Humming Bird. It was later re-released by Tairiku Shobo. A DVD of the anime was released in October 25, 2001 by Happinet Pictures (a division of Namco Bandai) with standard number GBBH-1896.

Shin Angel
The second OVA consisted of five episodes. Shin Angel (新・エンジェル), better known in the US and Western countries for its translated titled, New Angel, was originally released from October 21, 1994 to November 22, 1995. It was produced by Pink Pineapple and Triple X.

Releases outside of Japan
In the US the OVA has been released by SoftCel Pictures. It was originally released in VHS format in 1995, 1996 and 1998 and it was released in both uncut and edited versions for the first four episodes. It was also released in DVD format by the same company in two volumes, the first released in May 13, 2003 and the second in June 24, 2003.

Shin Angel was also released in France, in VHS by Katsumi vidéo and in DVD by Anime Erotik, and also in Spain in VHS and DVD by Manga Films (although only the first 4 episodes were released by Manga Films) and on TV by Arait Multimedia.

Video game
A video game for the NEC PC-9801 based on Angel and with the same title was released in October 1, 1993 by the Japanese company Cocktail Soft.

Live-action films
Two adult live-action films based on the manga were produced. The first one, Angel: Ichiban Saisho wa Anata ni A.Ge.Ru (エンジェル　一番最初はあなたにア・ゲ・ル), was released in February 14, 1997 and the second one, Angel: Shotai Fumei no Joo-sama!? (Hen) (エンジェル　正体不明の女王様！？【編】), was released in April 4, 1997. Both films have the participation of Japanese Adult Video actresses Yui Kawana and Mizuki Kanno and were released by the company dez.

Both films were released n the US by Kitty Media in DVD format in July 8, 2008 as a single release called Angel Collection.

Angel: the women whom delivery host Kosuke Atami healed
In 2006, a sequel of the original manga started in the magazine Weekly Manga Goraku published by Nihon Bungeisha, titled Angel: the women whom delivery host Kosuke Atami healed, also known as Angel: Renai Hoshi Jin Atami Kosuke (ANGEL～恋愛奉仕人・熱海康介～) and more commonly simply as Angel. Also created by U-Jin, this manga follows the new adventures of Kosuke Atami, now a divorced 34 years old man who works as a host and helps people in a similar way as he did as a highschooler.

Angel season 2
Following the previous sequel, in 2008, also in Nihon Bungeisha's Weekly Manga Goraku, the manga titled Angel season 2: the women whom delivery host Kosuke Atami healed, more commonly known as Angel season 2, was released. Also done by U-Jin, the manga follows the same premise as the previous manga series. The manga is currently ongoing.