Aoi Nanase Books

I LOVED this manga! Even though it has no strong yuri relationships it still has a strong friendship bond started with a pact-binding kiss. The artwork is something of the best I've seen in my lifetime. The sequal is "Angel/Dust Neo" but I haven't got to it yet in my pile of "needs" But I bet it'll be evenly ausome. If you're a yuri fan or even just a plain romance manga reader I strongly suggest you add this fantastic piece to your collection! Crazy yuri fan . . . logging out . . .

'Angel/Dust' is a deceptively simple manga with so many story elements and mysteries squeezed into nine chapters. It gives revelations that leave readers wondering, lays out a string of metaphorical dialogue that revolve around the story's main themes, and it's all complemented by Aoi Nanase's gorgeous angelic artwork. Depending on who you talk to it may sound like a condensed mess but it's really not; what's important are the themes of growing up, living life, and facing problems. Whether you take it at surface level or find deeper meaning to it, it's enjoyable reading either way, and it's only one single-volume manga!

The One-shot. Typically that describes a failure. It's certainly not a very optimistic description. But keep in mind that the sum total of Angel Dust's monthly magazine run fits into just ONE volume.

One.
One is a lonely number. Compare that to the epic Dragon Ball which is hosted in 42 volumes.

In a Grindhouse film preview, perhaps the trailer would carry on like this: "From the pages of Newtype comes a halfhearted non-epic in the vein of 'Bee-Men From Venus,' produced on a similar budget and just as meaningful! Terror and dread almost kinda don't really affect much! If you have a heart condition, go ahead and read this slow-witted beauty fest!"

The problem isn't necessarily one of length, though, but one of depth. Many writers have packed a powerful story into a thin stack of paper, but Angel Dust lack the guts to be successful and the unremarkable, inaccessible storytelling is mostly to blame. In this day and age, mysterious demigods falling from the sky is pretty common. But more importantly, this tale lacks a sense of self-importance. Take "Ah! My Goddess!" and remove all the sweet juices it runs on, and you get Angel Dust.

i dont think it has realy subject and i didnt get the meaning of the story if it has a meaning

I've always loved Aoi Nanase's artwork, and I was pleasantly surprised when I noticed that her first work as a professional artist appeared in the manga insert for Newtype USA three years go. Angel/Dust's story reflected Aoi Nanase's uncertainty of herself at the time; who wouldn't be nervous when your first gig as a professional artist is to do a 9-month serialization in one of Japan's top anime magazines?

Aoi Nanase was able to channel her dilemma into Yuina, the main character of the story. Yuina, like the author who created her, was comfortable with her current life, but she wished for more, to do what she really wanted to do. But she is afraid of what she must do in order to move forward. In the author's case, that is coming up with an original story and meeting monthly deadlines while overcoming the fear of believing that she's not ready to become a professional artist just yet. For Yuina, she must stop letting the biggest mistake in her life consume her in order to continue to do what she loves the most. The Emulates in Yuina's story are there to place further emphasis that she is special and can do anything if she puts aside all doubts. The conclusion is executed gracefully, as it gives satisfying closure to Yuina's story while leaving it open-ended enough so if Aoi Nanase wanted to make another story within the Angel/Dust universe, she could use completely new characters if she wanted to, which is what she did with Angel/Dust Neo.

Unfortunately, this stand-alone version of Angel/Dust saddens me. I can understand that US publishers need to cut some corners in order to keep costs down, but the decisions made for this release are rather questionable. The first decision was to reduce the size even further from the Japanese stand-alone release in order to match the current manga height standard set by Tokyopop. The second decision was to (perhaps unintentionally) screw up the images so it looks like each page was first shrunk and then blown up before they were printed; you can easily tell from either looking at the Japanese stand-alone version or from the Newtype USA manga inserts of Angel/Dust to realize that the images are clearer and sharper there than they are in this book. The third and final decision ADV decided to make was to price this manga higher than the Japanese version, which was priced at 895 yen, (but Amazon Japan charges the same price as the US version) the latter being larger in size, has a fold out color poster, two color-printed pages (and colored the blood spots that are found in page 101 of the US release oddly enough), a color dust jacket of the images that were also used for the US version, and a bunch of other inserts in there that you probably don't want to throw away.

I still bought this version just to have the convenience of having the English translation of the story and to show my support for ADV for releasing Aoi Nanase's work over here. Perhaps I was stupid, since there should be no excuse for the kinds of mistakes made in this stand-alone release of Angel/Dust as the Newtype USA inserts looked completely fine. I would've paid $10.95 for clean images without a dust jacket and/or the other things found in the Japanese release, but as it stands, even at the reduced price that Amazon's offering for this specific version, I'd only recommend this to anyone who can't afford buying the nine issues of Newtype USA that has this series as its manga insert or for those who want to have a taste of what Aoi Nanase can do, but do not have the luxury of being proficient in Japanese or in any other language of its respective country to where this title was published.

Shame on you, ADV. I know you can do better than this, and if the stand-alone release of Angel/Dust Neo is going to end up like this, I might consider not even purchasing it since I already own the Japanese version, and I'll just rely on fan-translations of it instead.