AoY Podcast #29 – Angel’s Egg Review
Also known as: ” I have a bright yellow suit jacket, It blinds my eyes its amazing!”
Download Episode HERE! (Total Time: 1:05:47 )
This episode is another experiment of Jonn and I both going “hey, there’s anime on youtube, what do you feel like randomly reviewing?” This time I let Jonn be the judge of “pick-a-random-OVA-youtube-video-to-watch-and-let’s-see-what-this-is-about,” only to find that Jonn decided to settle on the most infamous OVA by Mamoru “Ghost-in-the-Shell-and-Patlabor-movies-are-the-better-known-things-I’ve-ever-directed” Oshii. And that most infamous title is none other than Angel’s Egg.
Angel’s Egg, to our interpretation, is one of those visual “artsy-fartsy” moving pictures that can be shown at a film festival and people would try for years to find something deep about it. I have understood this anime for a long time that this was Oshii interpretation of him denouncing his belief in Christianity. After seeing this film, I think he is the only person that can see that, because I sure as hell cannot. This film is full of long shots of landscapes, long shots of girls drinking water, long shots of people staring at nothing, shadow fish being harpooned and long shots of people sleeping… and doing really nothing else.
To our surprise, there have been some reviews about this, the good, the bad, and the deep thinking (I assure you these links go with the correct words). This also causes us to talk more about the directing career of Mamoru Oshii live action movies, as well as anime talk, stupid hipsters who don’t know what to buy, and much more.
I also wanna give a shout-out to the Anime World Order podcast for playing our promo on their most recent episode.
Music Selection
OP – This taps into my inner Oshii creative mind…
ED – You can probably find this anime at the local Japanese Goodwill…
This show has:
This is how I felt as I was watching this anime… (go to 1:20)
The finest anime about water in glass jugs you will ever see…
I did say “shadow fish” were in this…
Daft…. don’t be a jerk and buy them…
jonnjonzz01
zeonicfreak
The Anime of Yesteryear Podcast 
Angel’s Egg did see a US release, though not in a way most would expect to see it in….
11/30/2013 at 3:22 pm
Dude what? I’m just skimming through this and didn’t know it was part animation/ part live action. I think if we were to talk about this, its gonna be like a brief thing, i don’t know. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
11/30/2013 at 5:50 pm
Artistically, Angel’s Egg is pretty amazing. It’s definitely an art-house film but it doesn’t fuck over my mind as much as Bellodonna did..
Yeeeeah, its alright to not like some of Oshii’s stuff, its definitely not for everybody. I haven’t seen any of his live-action stuff though. His tendency for slow pacing, minimal dialogue, and philosophical babble doesn’t really bother me.
And by this point, we should all just assume most japanese creators put religious references and in their works just “because it sounded cool.” Like how Hideaki Anno admitted for Evangelion. haha.
And on Goodwill experiences, I’m always hoping I’ll run into some video games or anime and stuff too but I never see any. Best things I came across at Goodwill was Titan A.E. and The Fifth Element on VHS. lol.
12/06/2013 at 3:45 pm
Yea, Christianity for them is something of an exotic religion outside of being Hindu or Buddhist for them the way I take it. At least with Anno you could say “some” of it kinda worked in certain areas, but thats about it.
I really can’t recommend Oshii live action movies other than “I am not gonna hold you back if you wanna watch them:.” But, thats my attitude on most things.
12/12/2013 at 4:16 pm
Pingback: AoY Podcast #116 – A Gundam RightStuf Special (Gundam Thunderbolt / Belladonna of Sadness Review) | The Anime of Yesteryear Podcast