the owl and the olive tree

I was recommended Angel Sanctuary by rachelmanija when she discovered that I loved the wild and unabashed crack that were Godchild and Cantarella. She hooked me by promising me flying zombie angel fetuses, and while I have not yet gotten to said flying zombie angel fetuses, I can easily believe that they are coming!

She also warned me that the first two volumes were kinda incoherent, even for everything-includng-the-kitchen-sink crack manga. (There's a distinct subgenre of manga -- well, of fiction in general, but it's particularly frequent and glorious in manga -- where it's clear that the author chucks in everything under the sun they think is cool.) And she was right. I spent a lot of the time going "...what just happened?" and "wait, who was that again?" (Not because I couldn't tell the characters apart, although since some characters are reincarnations/clones/echoes/copies of one another, that sometimes happened too, but because they were also often incognito, and/or one character possessing another, and/or they had several layers of secret identity.)

So it was kind of a mess. But I'm here to tell you that it was an absolutely glorious mess, and I am happily in the middle of volume 3.

The other two things to note:

a) Everyone is beautiful.
b) Everyone is bugfuck nuts.

So! The plot, such as it is. We start out with a vague and doomful bit of backstory about the war of the angels, and the beautiful and powerful Lady Alexiel, second in power only to God, who switched side to join the Evils. (Not evil. The Evils. They're sort of like demons, but cuter.) And in punishment, she was put in a block of crystal forever! While her soul was reincarnated endlessly on earth.

Then we switch to Our Hero, Setsuna, a high school student who loves his younger sister. No, I mean, like, really, really, really loves his younger sister. (After Godchild and Cantarella, I am pretty unfazed by the incest.) We are introduced to him while he's being beaten up by a bully, after which his friend basically asks why he never effectively fights back. Setsuna says, "Whenever I see blood, I lose control and feel like killing whoever I'm fighting. Then suddenly, I get sleepy... It's like crazy sleepy... And for some reason... nostalgic."

Then his sister Sara slaps him, because he was late for their date. (It's not that kind of date, except it kindasorta is.) A bit later, he tells her that she has childbearing hips, which I'm pretty sure I could not have made up. And that kind of sets the tone for what follows!

( Spoilers are genderswitched reincarnations of other spoilers )

Anyway, as I said -- kind of gloriously incomprehensible. If you need to be able to figure out what's going on, or even who's who, early on in a series, probably not for you! But if you love unabashed and unashamed over the topness, it's kind of awesome.

I'm hooked, and reading the third and fourth right now, and then I'll need to go acquire more.