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skysenshi (09.22.2002)
Where's my yaoi?!?
WARNING: Possible spoilers ahead.
I swear I had been tricked. Duped. Misled. Deceived. Fallen
into that trap of false advertising. The first VHS cover contained
suggestive pictures of the yaoi kind, which was the reason
I had hunted down this relic at our local Otaku rental shop.
I needed my yaoi. I must have my yaoi. After long hours of
waiting, it finally appeared in the middle of the third
episode, and it didn't even last long enough to make a positive
impression. So perhaps one can understand how every adjective
that describes what I'm feeling right now keeps running through
my head. There goes my hentai for this week. Sigh.
Earthian has 4 chapters of chosen excerpts from the lives
of angels Kagetsuya and Chihaya, namely The Beginning of
the End, Fallen Angel, Angelic Destroyer
and Final Battle. To give a clearer picture of what
to expect from this title, I dare say that Earthian is in
no way episodic. This much is already obvious in the fact
that the ending credits theme for each episode is never the
same. Furthermore, there is a definite gap in-between acts
so the first thing that a viewer would notice is that there
are a lot of events unexplained. Earthian itself has a plot
that isn't properly pieced together, episode-wise. Like for
instance, I noted that Kagetsuya and Chihaya slept in separate
beds in The Beginning of the End and Fallen Angel.
Plus, Chihaya blushes and gets flustered over Kagetsuya's
show of attention at this time. Suddenly, in the third act…whoa!
They're in bed! Who? What? When? Where? How?
Characters who are alive in the first parts are abruptly
nonexistent in the last parts—we just presume they're
dead. Even Chihaya and Kagetsuya's change of status later
on, as if it's a foregone conclusion, is just overwhelmingly
a bolt from the blue. It's safe to say that each Earthian
episode should probably pass for a mini-movie with its own
story only remotely connected to the others. The only constant
in all volumes is that Chihaya has some major issues regarding
the nature of his black wings…and that he gives Kagetsuya
a hard time cleaning up after his messes.
For all that guessing game I had to endure while I tied one
act to another, every one of them has a rather decent story
to tell about love and tragedy. You have two bio-androids
running away from their creators in the first, a rock star's
mysterious history in the second, and a man-made angel's desperate
attempts at soul-searching in the last two acts. There is
a mystifying element in every chapter that would make one
curiously look for further information. Sadly, I am not suicidal
enough to buy the manga, as my last preview of volume 5 shows
that it is unfinished. Now why would I torture myself with
that cliffhanger "ending"?
For a late 80s to early 90s anime, Earthian has exquisite
artwork, especially in the third and final parts, which attests
to the amount of time lapsed before each act, from the first
to the fourth, was released. The most magnificent of the angelic
lot are Kagetsuya the "negative" judge and Messiah
the destroyer.
Now this train of thought leads me to my rant. Hold on to
your flames, ladies, for I really have to say this: I despise
Chihaya. How he could waste my erotic fantasy, ruining the
ONLY love scene in there by telling Kagetsuya he is not in
the mood, just plain escapes me. By way of example, let me
just state that in one instance, a few days after Chihaya
rejects Kagetsuya's attempt at lovemaking, Messiah gets hold
of Chihaya and promptly proclaims to all his companions that
he has found the love of his life. Chihaya blushes in the
background, but notices that Kagetsuya has been drinking more
than his fair share of liquor. Chihaya then asks, "Is
there something that upsets you, Kagetsuya?" I blink
twice. Of all the…! The man—yes he is a man, though
he may look otherwise—is not naïve, as the anime
is wont to project. The man is daft! (C'mon, what idiot would
spurn the affection of a beautiful blonde Adonis who can seriously
kick butt as well as whip up wonderful gourmet cooking?)
I have more things to say about how Chihaya rushes into every
dangerous scenario, again without much thought, and ends up
getting beaten up or rescued by the near-perfect Kagetsuya,
but I won't bore you with the gory details. There's always
the enigmatic dark angel Messiah and the drop-dead gorgeous
Kagetsuya to concentrate on. Suffice it to say that Earthian
just got a bit of my interest for the characters affect me
this much. Too bad it's half-baked.
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