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by Luis Reyes |
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Episode 1: "Kisses Mean I Like You, I Think"
Riding recklessly down unpaved roads near his home, nervous adolescent Yuusuke runs across a trail of
clothing that leads to a naked, somnolent Noelle, onto whom the clumsy boy falls accidentally, bumping lips
with her in the process. Awakening immediately, and mistaking Yuusuke's gangly stumble for an honest to god
kiss, Noelle locks the boy in an embrace and declares that he is now her husband. But alas Yuusuke loves
another, Natsumi, who thinks he is a colossal pervert. But he can't shake Noelle, especially when he gets
home and learns that his house has been commandeered by Noelle's entire quirky family, a collection of monsters
from a nether world who are trying to make it on Earth. They transform it into a strange amalgam of a European
palace and a carnival fun house. They also believe that Yuusuke will wed their daughter. But, shut away in an
alternate plane, the sadistic Dispel declares that Noelle will be his.
Episode 2: "Patched Up Love is Okay With Me"
Noelle's family gets more and more comfortable in Yuusuke's house, so much so that Noelle's grandmother demands
that Yuusuke leave so he doesn't contaminate their little angel. At school, Yuusuke gets into yet another situation
that makes him look like a pervert in front of his true love, Natsumi, to whom he apologizes with a note that
describes her as his angel. Noelle eventually finds the note and determines that she has to become an angel to
win the love of Yuusuke. And Noelle's papa looks for a job and eventually lands one as the publicist, promoter
and announcer for a professional wrestler named Delicious White. But Delicious White turns out to be one of
Dispel's minions sent to kidnap Noelle. And the mysterious Mikael, who studies intently from the magical tome
he calls the Book of Chaos, makes a brief but notable first encounter with Noelle.
Episode 3: "Hold Me, Squeeze Me"
The witch/grandmother manipulates Noelle into thinking that the only way to become an angel for Yuusuke is to
not squeeze him, poke him, or touch him in any way. Obviously, she has trouble resisting. Her brother Gabriel
has problems as well, namely a demon/cat girl named Miruru who has followed the family from the monster world to
Earth and starves for some Gabriel tail. She turns out to be another agent of the tenacious Dispel that plots
to eliminate the Yuusuke portion of the equation. Meanwhile Noelle dons an armored suit designed to keep her away
from Yuusuke long enough for her to become an angel. It's designed to deliver an electric charge and hurl Noelle
across the room if she attempts to touch Yuusuke in the slightest.
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As silly a kid's show as the next, "Tenshi ni Narumon" pulls ahead of the pack by simply being as carefree
as a child. The show itself follows the whimsical pre-pubescence of its certifiably pubescent lead character,
Noelle. Rather than speaking down to kids, watering down big ideas and dulling the satirical knife, the creators
of "Tenshi" adopt a similar playful mentality, which is interrupted only by their insistence on maintaining the
banal banter and slapstick contrivances of adolescent school boys not getting laid, the kind of mulch that sounds
the familiar death knell for many a previous anime. However, with wacky characters outnumbering brooding teenagers
five to one, Studio Pierrot manages to stay a few steps ahead of cliché.
At show's start, the premise is too vapid to really gain much momentum on its own. Like in "Urusei Yatsura,"
the otherworldly girl (Noelle) falls in love immediately with a human boy (Yuusuke) who himself is in love with a
girl at school (Natsumi). Though these characters have depth far greater than Lum, Ataru and Shinobu, this love
triangle smacks of drippy, teenage geek fantasies - the boy has too much damn love to deal with.
But, as in "Urusei Yatsura," the comedy of the show soars when removed from the central premise. Papa's
desperation to find a job; Gabriel's effort to wean himself off of human blood by drinking tomato juice; the
problems with Noelle's invisible sister never being noticed by anyone in the family - these kinds of gimmicks
lay down the foundation for some top notch comedy. The jokes are all inventive, rooted in the characters and
never stall the action. Rarely does a scene stop or get derailed by a punch line. And incisive humor abounds
as satirical undercurrents, which the characters play straight. At the end of the first episode, Dispel sends
a mecha shaped like a giant rice cooker to retrieve Noelle. Noelle's family counters with a mecha that resembles
something put together with odd pieces from several lego sets. But the battle is genuine. And when the family
defeats the rice cooker, they all celebrate by enjoying one giant grain of rice for dinner.
Fortunately, the Pierrot team doesn't allow the love triangle to carry the show's dramatic veins. Dispel
is desperately in love with Noelle and persistently sends various flunkies to retrieve her. At his side is the
bleary-eyed Silky who agrees with everything Dispel says in a monotone, non-plussed whisper. She is also the
victim of Dispel's violent outbursts, taking his abuse non-reactively as if her soul is already dead and waiting
for her body to follow. Some of the more disturbing scenes in the series, these episodes between Dispel and Silky
layer the wacky comedy with a dark pall.
The relationship between Dispel and Noelle, and Silky's raison d'etre, along with Mikael and his Book of
Chaos all remain mysteries to unfold in later volumes. But these first three episodes - though rife with jokes
and directed with aplomb by Hiroshi Nishikiori - rarely moves beyond a monster-of-the-week-type plot, front-loading
a plethora of characters with the promise that they'll all be sorted out in a few episodes.
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