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Dark Angel #1

Dark Angel: Book One

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A magical guardian has to confront demons, angels, friends and his own insecurities.

200 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

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63 people want to read

About the author

Kia Asamiya

450 books23 followers
Kia 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".

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5 stars
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4 stars
13 (17%)
3 stars
26 (34%)
2 stars
21 (28%)
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9 (12%)
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
2,048 reviews20 followers
May 24, 2013
So-so fantasy story - the world is divided into 5 kindoms. Each of the four compas points has a guardian knight to protect it - whilst the central territory is shared between all 4. Our hero dark kills his master in a duel then accidentally wanders into the kingdom of the south rather than straight into neutral territory because he got lost. Has to face off against the guardian Leen and her generals. Generic in every sense, the characters are perfectly suited but nothing we haven't seen before. The artwork is very reminiscant of Bastard!! (almost a decade earlier) and I wonder if it's any co-incidence that the hero is called Dark?

Dark Angel does nothing drastically wrong at all, it's just that it does nothing really st stand out either.
Profile Image for Analuabc.
263 reviews
November 7, 2017
Bom desenho, mais dentro da linha do desenho da década de 90. História ainda muito no início.
Profile Image for Karaoke OK.
94 reviews2 followers
January 27, 2009
[Series Length: 5 volumes / Read: volumes 1-3]

(Would you like me to post a short review of this series? Feel free to place a request in my GoodReads InBox. Thanks!)
Profile Image for Lord.
556 reviews22 followers
May 13, 2009
Mediocre fantasy story with uninteresting artwork. Might get better in later volumes but I won't bother trying, despite this series being available at a heavy discount price at Righstuf.com.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews

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