Angel Sanctuary 4

Once again, I kind of spoil minor story details in these reviews because it’s hard for me to talk about this series without discussing the characters and their relationships.  Plus it helps me keep them straight.

So… Setsuna is offered a choice after going berserk last volume.  I guess there was a reason that this section of story was named after what the heavenly beings call Earth.  The next part takes place in… hell?  The land of the dead?  The underworld?  Some vaguely non-earthly, non-heavenly realm.  There seems to be several levels to this dark realm, one of which was destroyed, Gehenna, where the Evils lived, which is why Kurai and Arachne are now wandering around.  I assume more of this will be explained in future volumes.

A character comes back, which is good.  I thought he got a weird amount of focus for who he was in the earlier parts of the story, and I like him better in his new role.  I can’t figure out what he’s going to do, though.

Yuki has drawn a parallel to Orpheus and Eurydice with this section, which is fine by me.  It’s still not entirely clear how Setsuna will go about reaching his goal, so… I guess we just wait and see.

The stuff happening in heaven now is significantly more interesting.  So… God is the most powerful in heaven, but otherwise it seems like the angels can be pretty evil, petty, and just… un-angelic, aside from having their own power struggles.  I can’t figure out what constitutes good and evil for them.  Apparently Rosiel isn’t immediately kicked out of heaven, and can dethrone the most powerful angel currently seated by just showing up.  I thought Rosiel was evil.  I… don’t know anymore.  I like that the lead angels don’t show up to help Metatron or Seve-whatever so they can see who wins the power struggle.  I also still don’t understand why Alexiel and Rosiel alone don’t belong to any group of angels, and… what Adam Kadamon is, why the creations of God would want to destroy it, why it is currently sealed away, and even whether it is an angel.  It is very powerful, though.

Exposition, exposition.  So far I’m not so fond of the Hell bits, but the Heaven bits are getting better and better.  Here’s hoping things start clearing up for me soon.