The surrealist world of Tenshi no Tamago is desolate and devoid of the bustle of traditional everyday life. Instead, the world is filled with ominous phenomena, including floating orbs populated with statues of goddesses, gargantuan army tanks that seem to move unmanned, armies of fishermen who chase after the shadows of nonexistent fish, and caverns solely decorated with glass vessels of water.
In this run-down world, a young girl takes care of a large egg and scavenges for food and drink. She encounters a mysterious man with a cross over his shoulder, who soon becomes curious about who she is and what her egg contains. They decide to explore the lost and broken landscape together, questioning each other about the nature of faith, the purpose of the world, and the origins of their lives.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Rqt
“When it comes down to it, I think the director doesn’t know everything about the movie. Everyone always thinks if you want to know something, talk to the director. I don’t think that’s true. I think the answer lies inside every single viewer.” - Mamoru Oshii As cliche as it is, I’ll say it regardless: this movie is not for everyone. By the end you’ll most likely be calling your mother, asking her to hold you. Begging her to tell you everything’s going to be all right. Angel’s Egg is a 70 minute joyride through the enigmatic mind of Mamoru Oshii that has more Christian symbolismand allegories than one might care to see in their lifetime. On top of that, the movie is incredibly slow paced (not really a joyride is it...) and has the bare minimum amount of dialogue to keep the story progressing. Which might I add, calling it a story is either the greatest insult or greatest compliment to the film and is something each individual must answer themselves.
As mentioned above, each viewer will decide for themselves however deep or shallow the story and its message is. As such, I’m not going to analyze the story and its many symbols because while it may mean X to me, it most likely means A-Z for the next 25 people and this is where Oshii’s words speak volumes. It’s an interpretive story. However much (or however little) you want to search for the films meaning, you aren’t necessarily wrong. There is no conclusive answer. I consider it to be a surreal and highly thought provoking piece of interpretive art. But one man’s interpretive art is another man's garbage. It’s understandable why people don’t like the movie and why it failed when it was initially released. It is highly Christianic themed and is often considered as an interpretation of Oshii’s early life when he was studying to become a priest. With this in mind, the film may come off as pretentious and overbearing, but perhaps it is just a roundabout autobiography of Oshii’s early life. The true intentions of this piece will most likely never be known.
The story is meticulous, slow and every scene deliberate and full of detail. While on the surface it may not mean much, it may mean a great deal underneath in its ever so mystifying allegories. As such, the film requires a great deal of attention and open mindedness. The elongated scenes, to me are some of the most vivid cinematic experiences I've witnessed in any film. This technique will most likely make you remember these scenes, even long after the movie is over. Regardless of if you liked the scenes or not they contain a lot of meaning and detail. At the same time I can understand how they may deter viewers, adding to the list of why this movie isn't for everyone. Aside from these deliberate and almost painfully slow scenes, the film progresses slowly and the world and its characters are spectacularly developed as the movie progresses.
The characters are fantastic. Both the boy and the girl have a mysterious air to them and many questions are left unanswered about both them and their pasts. They don’t really understand who they are or why they’re here. The lack of answers doesn't detract from the film, in fact quite the opposite, their recondite nature draws the viewer in. The greatest strength of the characters is that their interactions are genuine and realistic. The girl is innocent and timid. She emanates warmth and even acts childish around the boy at some points adding a rather heartwarming feel to an overly bleak atmosphere.Their subtle gestures and actions are used masterfully in the stead of dialogue, creating a very unique experience.
The orchestral score serves to further encapsulate the dark atmosphere of the film and is often foreboding at times, creating a sense of suspense for the viewer. It is serene, emphasizing the beauty and fragility of this poor innocent girl whilst it is equally melancholic highlighting the dark undertones of the dystopian world. The score wholeheartedly compliments and dramatizes the film.
The art is nothing short of amazing. The attention to every minute detail in each individual frame and background is truly something to behold. Not only is the art visually rewarding to look at because of this, but the combination of its dark color palette and entrancing cityscapes, skeletons, machinery and everything in between goes above and beyond in staging such an eerie and mystifying atmosphere that consumes this dystopian world. The characters are equally well designed and given as much detail and attention as the scenery. Amano Yoshitaka’s art truly makes Angel’s Egg what it is.
Angel’s Egg presents its viewers with an obscure message, enveloped in equally obscure symbolism and allegories. It indubitably blurs the line between the understandable and the incomprehensible. And as such, what each individual takes from this movie is subjective and is no more right or wrong than the next person’s interpretation. As Oshii said, the answer lies inside every viewer. On that reason alone, this movie will certainly fall short for some, and it’s absolutely understandable. But perhaps solace should be taken in the coalescence of the film’s breathtaking art and its mesmerizing music score. Perhaps, above all else, Angel’s Egg is a paragon of visual art.
Thanks for taking the time to read.
RangFlash
I heard that this anime was underrated, and then decided to check it out. After watching the film, I was doing two things. One, I was scratching my head, and two, I was trying to pry my jaw from the floor. Wow, what a surreal, vivid, creepy, terrifying, amazing, astounding, memorable work of art. STORY The story here is quite simple, and is presented very slowly. The main character does not hesitate to observe and admire her surroundings. The pacing has been complained about before, and I halfway agree with these complaints. On one hand, the extra-slow paced lingering shots may bore you, and on the other hand,they will create a lasting impression on you once you finish the film. It's kind of a catch-22, which is rather unfortunate. The slow pacing is both good and bad.
ART
The artwork and animation are almost indescribable. I was completely astonished at how lifelike and detailed the characters were animated. For its time, the animation must have been groundbreaking, and it looks great even today. I feel that it transcends the "anime" style. The style and the background artwork I also enjoyed. I haven't seen many animes with a feel quite like this one. It's an extremely moody, creepy and somewhat realistic style. The backgrounds are very imaginative, memorable and often ambiguously symbolic. It's creepy and absolutely mesmerizing.
SOUND
The music was orchestrated and consisted mainly of vocals and choirs. Nothing really to complain about here. The music fit the scenes, enhanced the scenes and didn't detract from or overpower them. It was sometimes downright dreary, yet it was oftentimes whimsical and fantastic. I loved it.
CHARACTERS
There were only two characters, and they were portrayed in a very simple way. Their actions developed them the most, and although they lacked much dialog, it wasn't really needed. Their actions and looks spoke volumes. I wished that they could have been developed a little more, so that we could come to know them. That, unfortunately didn't happen, but seemed to meld perfectly with one of the themes of the movie. I felt that the director, Mamoru Oshii, preferred developing the world over the characters, because there is more time dedicated to showing the nice scenery.
ENJOYMENT
Are you going to enjoy this movie? Well, that, my friend, depends on whether you are able to sit tight and enjoy a very slow movie. Are you watching anime for the art and message, or for the entertainment? Angel's Egg requires the viewer to be on the same mental wave-length, so to speak. And if you are, you will enjoy this film immensely. It reminded me in some was of the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, and if you enjoyed that movie, you will most likely be intrigued and engaged.
OVERALL
Angel's Egg is a memorable, slow-paced, mesmerizing and beautiful film, and although somewhat ambiguous and confusing in its message, it will still stick with you and affect you. Whatever the message is. I felt that this film was expressed very sincerely, from the bottom of Mr. Oshii's heart. He himself said he didn't know what it meant. I got some allegorical and Biblical what-if's out of it, as well as symbols of hope, future and loss of innocence. You may find something else. It is incredibly deep, and it's not laid out for you.
xxxxxxx
Preface: Angel's Egg is my favorite movie, animated or not, and I don’t expect everyone to like it as much as I do... this is just my opinion. Also: Spoiler Warning....... Mandatory ratings of "story" and "character" seem constricting, implying that anime must be a narrative art.. Animation especially seems to have the potential to release visuals from these constructs and to become a poetic association of images or a musical rhapsody of color and movement, which engage us on a subconscious aesthetic level.. Not to imply that Angel's Egg is a non-narrative work of art— it isn't— or that it has no characters— it does,and effectively uses them as emotional vehicles. However, the existence of these implies that in art we are looking for an engaging story and psychologically relatable, entertaining, or in some way likable characters. For most, Angel's Egg is not going to present those things, but I do not consider that to its detriment.
Angel's Egg presents a few images suggestive of something beyond themselves that in their significance beg to be taken as symbols— inevitably leading viewers to puzzle over them, to ask, "What does it mean?" To ask that question may in some say imply an answer, which there is not. There's no reason to think that an idea of clear authorial intent is behind every ambiguous work of art, that every image and symbol can be reduced to some concept, idea or word, and that the viewer should let this concept stand in for the image in his experience of the work. In other words, there's no reason to interpret Angel's Egg allegorically.
To sum up my view on images, I'll quote the poet Basho: "There is nothing you can see that is not a flower; there is nothing you can think that is not the moon." I think he is suggesting that all of our perceptions, thoughts, and words are images. We perceive images all around us and it is only through these images that we communicate. Abstract ideas have no existence outside of our ability to IMAGine them; we conceive of our feelings in terms of images; we conceive of ourselves in terms of images. Eventually these images become abstracted from present material experience and enter deep into the realms of our desires and subconscious, and as they are ingrained in our culture's collective web of meaning, they become archetypes.
I include this tangent because I think that Angel's Egg works directly with archetypes, casts them like a spell, and we as viewers want to make sense of what we experienced by assigning a meaning to them. I don't want to suggest that no meaning is present. However, I do want to inverse the usual understanding that some meaning in the artist's mind is the starting point, and the symbol is subservient to that. In fact, a pure image is the primary thing-in-itself, and this image may be suggestive of a whole shade of meanings, and like a word these suggestions can have ranges of connotations for different people. It's like in music, when notes and melodies and atmospheres can for a listener evoke specific memories or messages— but no one would say that such a message is the primary purpose of the music— which is nothing but notes. Rarely does one talk about what music “means.” Such would I say are the images in Angel's Egg.
So for me, what is the sum total of these images? I could shorten this whole review into a single sentence by saying that when I watch Angel's Egg, I feel like I'm viewing the dreams I saw when I was sleeping inside my mother's womb. The atmosphere is so dark, so delicate, that to compress it into some ideas and themes would be to collapse its subconscious delirious atmosphere. I feel like this story is something being played out in my mind, below and between my conscious understanding. The egg, the cross, the mechanical God, reflections, water... all of these and more are symbols in Angel's Egg. Yet rather than asking, “What does it mean?” I'd rather ask, “How does it make me feel?” And these images arrest me: feelings of lost innocence, holding on to a bit of faith, deeply buried memories, the unreality of experience, existential confusion, the fear of abandoning and being abandoned by God... all of these are contained in my viewing of Angel's Egg. Both characters start to embody aspects of myself which, for being on a screen, start to feel more real.
"You have to break something to find out what's inside."
The same could be said about this movie itself.
When I'm watching, the images become indicative to me of something larger, but I can't necessarily pinpoint this significance down into an allegorical understanding. I feel like I too am clutching this egg with so much passion. What it is could be a number of completely personal things to me or it could be something else personal to another. But that desire of clinging onto that fragility associated with maidenhood, and the converse questioning cynicism that seeks to break it, feel real, regardless of whether or not I can articulate whatever Oshii was "trying to say."
The Christian symbols don't become instruments to make some "point" about Christianity; they're just presented, and they can either start to mean something to you personally, or not. This movie isn't going to try to make you enjoy it. Its content in being itself and it's up to you whether it moves you or not.
Amano's artwork, with its exquisite delicacy and detail is perfect for the atmosphere of the film, and along with the score and pacing, /is/ the atmosphere of this film. There's not really anything else to add on the matter other than that I find the artwork gorgeous and evocative. The colors create a distinct world-- one of shadows and reflections, mirrors, and windows through which darkness is distorted and parallel worlds open up. In fact, more than almost any I've seen, Angel's Egg's "world" becomes almost self-consciously so-- one enclosed existence among many-- truly dream-like and expressionistic, as if these egg's dreams are projected onto a screen and a moment's sensation becomes a visual palette, and in this palette other realities converge-- and this world belongs only to the girl, and this strange nameless soldier is passing through from one world he can't remember, collapses this world, and under the malignant transcendent reality of the mechanical god who devours individuals, passes on to another.. The final shot reinforces this impression.
The interactions between the two characters take on a strange poignancy; in this desolate, unreal, left-over place, a persistent desire for contact and a deeply human curiosity become the forces that destroy the egg. Despite the work's expressionistic, unusual, or inaccessible nature, there's something deeply immediate about the sad look on the soldier's face at the end of the movie, as he stands alone...
In the end, this movie leaves me with the impression of a world abandoned by God, where, left with empty meanings, only suggestions of happiness and reality are contained elsewhere, a world haunted by promises and vague suggestions of fulfilment, yet left in the dark and alone. The score embodies this impression, alternating between beautiful melodies, waltz-like rhythms, and dissonant dissolutions; it feels like a transient dream always on the edge of being real and graspable, yet ultimately transient and unattainable in its distant beauty.
Rather than talk about how I choose to interpret every image in the film, I think it's best to leave it at that, as every viewer will have a different reaction and interpretation. Obviously this film moved me deeply. Maybe it won't move you at all. That doesn't make one of us right and the other wrong. This movie's images tapped into the subconscious reservoir of my fears and desires, maybe the images will mean nothing to another. It's an expressionistic work, that however exquisitely crafted, will fall flat for some people. What it means for others, however, has nothing to do with what it means for me.
Amine_Fan
There's a moment in this film when a little girl stands at the side of a street, watching an army of phallic-shaped tanks roar by. The animators made extra sure the shaft part of each tank dick, which protrudes to its left, passes directly over the girl's head. If there's one compliment I can give the anime, it's that moment. The scene encapsulates perfectly how I feel having sat through this hour's runtime. Minute after drawn-out minute, Angel's Egg is a bunch of anime writers swinging their dicks at you, moaning how smart they are. Worst of all, they're right. This IS a smart film, andit's probably going over your head, pillar and stone and all.
But "smart" doesn't mean good. You'd rather have a dumb friend who knows what he is and lives his life to the fullest, than be around a boff who does nothing but brag of the latest thoughts to pop in his head. Same with anime. I know because I used to be one of the latter type of people, except I really wasn't that clever.
You see, this film is unique. It's so different, it's so artsy. Surely that alone makes it better than the generic ecchi harem to come out every season right? Well, the thing with cliches is, the tropes themselves become tired because they have an inherent appeal. To someone seeing it for the first time, tsunderes are cute, no matter how shallow the character. To a 12-year-old boy, accidental groping is funny and awkwardly exciting. Not to insult people who like that stuff, of course; I'm just explaining the nature of tropes and how creators come to overuse them.
Angel's Egg is devoid of tropes not because it takes a fresh approach on portraying life, but because it's completely devoid of emotional appeal. Its "plot", if you could call it that, can literally be summed in two sentences. That's not what you normally call unique. It's just... nothing.
Let me expand on my point. This film is about Christianity and the death (abandonment) of God. That much I and most people gleam from the film alone; I watched a 30-minute passion analysis reasoning everything in the story, and I'm all like... That's it? As it turns out, Mamoru Oshii was inspired for this film after his loss of faith in Christianity. Everything in the story, few as they are, is some symbol relating to ideas of faith vs atheism.
Everything is symbolic, it's all dark and grimy and supposedly desperate. None of it is engaging. Because even as you can see the pain and anguish in every picture and song of this film (art and sound are fine), he doesn't give you a single reason to care. The characters are so NOTHING that you can't even call them one-dimensional, because that would imply they have some sort of breadth. You can literally describe them in one word; that's not just paper-thin characterisation, that's no characterisation.
I don't mind shallow characters if it fits the point of a story but this movie has their suffering as its only thrust. And it offers SO little to latch onto.
Okay, Mr Oshii. I can see it's affected you very much. I can see how these characters would feel lonely, whatever in this post-apocalyptic world. But you don't explore this emotion at all. Why should I give a damn about these people, or this world, or about you?
If you don't care about the characters, you don't care what happens. A few things do happen - FEW emphasised, each scene is so quietly, so agonisingly stretched out, I swear I could hear the soft masturbatory strokes of this movie's creators somewhere. Of the things that happen, none of it makes sense. It's all chalked up to being symbolic, nothing else.
I'm not the pedantic type. I very easily forgive a show for plot points that others call "contrived". But there's a line, and Angel's Egg is miles across it. At that point it doesn't just break suspension of disbelief. It's entirely unengaging.
"Oh, that happened. I WONDER what that means..."
"Oh, it symbolizes despair this, innocence that. Don't care."
Geez, there's so little going for this movie to do anything. I have to wonder why it hasn't been forgotten. It has no philosophical or social commentary that millions of Woke atheists haven't already said. It contains no predictions on the progress of mankind, like Serial Experiments Lain had on the boom of the Internet.
I consider myself a fairy average person with fairly average tastes. I respect people who like this kind of stuff, and if you're one of them, give it a go. If you loved stuff like NGE, Texhnolyze, and SEL, you'll probably like this too. But if you're anything like me, don't. It's boring as shit, and you probably won't get it on the first watch. If it were that one needs to enjoy this kind of stuff for bragging rights, then I don't want those rights at all.
Zergneedsfood
Angel's Egg, or Tenshi no Tamago, sits at the forefront of a list of bizarre and eccentric anime that includes Cat Soup and Iblard Jikan, while its niche but most enthused audience promises that its complex allegory is as beautiful and philosophical as the most serious of art-house films. Directed by Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell, Jin-Roh, Patlabor, Sky Crawlers), Angel's Egg is perhaps Oshii's most personal and best work. However, as interesting and surreal as it is, beneath its murky surface Angel's Egg suffers from classical problems in Oshii's stories. Past the compelling mystical, spiritual, and psychological nature of the work, there ismissing a profundity and artistry that keeps Angel's Egg from being anything more than a small sample at a Michelin star restaurant; it is rich and possesses depth of flavor, but leaves an empty feeling in the stomach and a hunger for something more.
From the start, Angel's Egg is not the most approachable work. In line with other minimalist anime like Serial Experiments Lain and to a lesser extent Texhnolyze, the film sacrifices dialogue and characterization in favor of atmosphere and visual storytelling. The very beginning of the story features a set of hands that move in near absolute silence. It is only when the childlike fingers transform into a pair of brown and calloused hands and we see and hear the knuckles clench and crack that we realize that the work was indeed intended to start without a sound. Lovers of action packed sequences and fleshed out characters will probably find themselves moaning at long drawn out walks and a pair of individuals who seem to be nothing more than the reflection of certain theological beliefs. Even those who can stand slow paced material might be confounded at scenes that, if not for the flickering of the flames, seem like stills that stretch on forever.
Despite its sluggish pace, Oshii comforts us with a wide array of intriguing and fascinating visuals to pass the time. One of Angel's Egg's strengths is its good looking art and Shinji Kimura(Akira, My Neighbor Totoro), who was responsible for the backgrounds, has drawn some really wonderful images that build a haunting atmosphere almost by themselves. The first descent of a large eye from a blood red sky has a rather sublime quality to it, especially when one realizes that its black surface is lined with a seemingly limitless number of ancient Greco-Roman figurines, stretching around a glimmering aquamarine center that gives the iris its luminescent and imposing appearance.
One could complain that the color palette of the anime seems a bit one dimensional even despite its beguiling visuals, as given by the dominating prevalence of different gradients of blue in the drawings. However, it's the use of colors in this fashion that highlights some of Oshii's control of visual storytelling. The use of blue, for instance, reflects the never ending motif of water, the melancholy, cold, and even lifelessness associated with the color, and the inevitable contrasts that appear in different points in the work demonstrates how one can change the impression and tone of a story with simple alterations. The girl in the story, clothed in pink and white, stands foreign in a dilapidated world, and it is by no means a coincidence that the one she travels with is draped with a blue cloak.
From the strange duck-like creatures that inhabit mysterious translucent shells to the foreboding appearance of a gloomy forest to the stoic and morose appearance of the city's fisherman, Angel's Egg possesses a number of great visual moments that unnerves us with their creepy yet alluring presence. From that perspective, these surreal moments may be reason enough to watch this anime.
In addition, Yoshihiro Kanno, whose only anime compositions have been with Angel's Egg, provides just the right balance of spiritual and ambient music that complements the uncanny images that we are confronted with. The lamenting chorus featured during the opening title echoes the scene's mourning and longing while the powerful and sharp notes of bass instruments complemented by booming timpani strike with the same intensity of fisherman hurling their long harpoons at the shadows of fish. The rarity of the music is another strength, as silence leaves us pondering the calm before the storm, piecing together fragments of the puzzle while the entrance of music causes us to briefly forget our speculation and draws us in and surrounds us with the intensity of the moments in which it appears. With both art and sound elements, I was surprised to find that I was rarely bored when trying to uncover what Oshii meant when he gave birth to the anime.
Oshii seems to have made this anime as a meditation on faith, one that eventually leads his audience to understand a supposed rejection of the deity he had worshiped for years. Oshii was trained in the priesthood from a young age and would presumably have pursued the life of a Christian priest had events in his life lined up in a different way. It would be foolish, therefore, to ignore the popular and purposeful religious symbols and allegories that exist throughout the film. Oshii's main influences draw from Noah's ark, but The New Testament is also featured prominently in different areas.
Oshii builds a world that is, ultimately, divorced from known biblical history, which is thematically consistent with his intention of slowly renouncing some of his theological foundations to embrace a new calling. The decisions made by the man are perplexing and leaves the audience wondering whether or not Oshii intended him to be a mirror of his own self-doubt about the existence of the deity and if this man fell on the side of moral good or not. There are numerous other questions as to the nature of the tree that the man describes, the man's perplexing motivations, the girl's final transformation. Most importantly, what great beast from within that egg is just waiting, waiting ever so patiently, to be born?
These questions are interesting and many answers can be found by evidence in the story, some answers stronger than others. Surprisingly, while some may be absolutely flabbergasted by some of Oshii's more esoteric and bewildering works (Mezame no Hakobune), Oshii definitely has certain thematic messages and a story that he means to drive home here. The plethora of interpretations that one can draw from various significant imagery, such as the tree, the fossilized angel, and the egg itself are plenty, but there is still a certain consistency and wholeness to the work that leaves us with a story that is, at the final moments, a complete experience. There is indeed a point to Oshii's work, one where a society rejects God, and God, perhaps acting according to Oshii's hopes and idealism, departs without a single word.
In despite of this praise, what is wrong with Angel's Egg? The anime has good visuals, complementary music, and even if its characters are mere belief systems personified, Oshii has provided us interesting themes that presents itself through a complex and subtle story.
Angel's Egg spends a significant amount of time building up to a critical climax, but before Oshii can deliver the final blow, he adds in the longest monologue in the film, where the man narrates the story of Noah's ark, with a twist to the ending, to the audience. This is a point of clarity that is not only unneeded, but ruins the subtlety that the work was building on. Whether it was from the times the ark was shown on screen or the overwhelming importance of water, one could have come to the reasonable conclusion that the story of Noah's ark was an important element. While it is certainly true that the man's story departs from the biblical event, telling the entire story diminishes the effort that Oshii made throughout the film to reveal bits and pieces of the world around him. At best, this was just a needless monologue that explained what the audience knew, and at worst it ruined the finer points of the story, reducing them to mere unnecessary components because all you needed to know about the world in Angel's Egg was to listen to that single monologue.
I will admit that such criticism is perhaps harsh and even elitist to those who may have not easily picked up on the religious allegory, but I think such criticism reveals something even more fundamentally wrong with Angel's Egg that prevents me from bestowing it higher marks. Make no mistake, Angel's Egg is a fine work for what it is, but ultimately the themes and the artistic execution of those themes are at a level rather average compared to works that have dealt with the same issues, which is why explaining such a simple biblical story when the rest of the work had already been suggesting its relevance hurts the work as a whole. It reduces the work to its simplest conclusions.
Oshii is tackling a work where a man and society is rejecting the deity, but outside of the fact that we understand that the man is intent on doing so, there is very little reason why. Are we to assume that this desolate world is the only reason, that he rejects God because of the destruction wrought upon this desolate blue metropolis? I don't think we, as an audience, can easily extrapolate and give Oshii that benefit of the doubt. Does the man lack faith? Perhaps, as his allegory so conveniently mentions, but not only does the scene provide nothing but the ordinary laments and complaints that underline the most common and prolific of atheistic complaints (the prolonged absence of God, the existence of worldly suffering, all of which can be poignant points were they to be expanded in a beautiful way), it is, once again, a scene that is bereft of any subtlety and complexity. There is little poetic language, little visual storytelling, and little insight. It is merely a word for word retelling of a biblical story with a minute presence of creative liberties. Again, we return to the monologue that I have criticized above, and again, its blatant exposition leaves me with the need for more substance.
The girl's representation is also incredibly simplistic. Her potbellied appearance with the egg underneath her dress attests to a pregnancy, which gives us the idea of a birth of a new life. There's an astonishing innocence to her, giving us the idea that this is a virgin birth, and harks us back to imagery of the Virgin Mary. But she is nothing more than a vehicle of blind faith. Perhaps it is Oshii's intention of exposing the ignorance of her position, by demonstrating her selfishness by holding onto the egg for her own devices, but this is once again, such a simplified perspective that despite its rich simplicity, the anime's unsubtle treatment of issues leaves one who has engaged in works of similar theological questions wishing for something much more substantive. The death of childish innocence is by no means a grand and unexplored message, and when the anime does nearly nothing with it, it once again leaves one questioning what substance does the anime really have to offer?
Perhaps it is in that simplification that Oshii believes he has developed something beautiful, and certainly those who see the beauty of Angel's Egg will speak to the pleasantness of such a simple story that sits above a sea of allegories, but an issue as complex as one's detachment from a life of religion is rarely a simple affair, and while I cherish a simple story as much as others, Angel's Egg is constantly evoking something that is more than simple and half-boiled ideas but we are left with nothing but a rather simple and soft-boiled egg. Its allegories and mysteries are difficult to piece together, but that is because of Oshii's obtuseness and not because the concepts in which he is trying to expound are intrinsically complex.
This is not to say that Oshii's themes are bad or unworthy of merit. There's certainly something to glean from the work, but a simple message that sits behind purposeful obfuscation are not the winning formulas of a masterpiece, and I can give Angel's Egg nothing more than the appropriate score to reflect that.
To leave this on a note that isn't too critical, I will say that despite my last few hundred words of criticism, Angel's Egg is still one of the better anime out there. It's the one work from Mamoru Oshii that I've actually enjoyed, and despite its simple conclusions, the work itself is still interesting enough that it's fun to figure out exactly what Oshii is saying. If you're into challenging narratives, minimalist anime and want to see one of Mamoru Oshii's underwatched works, definitely give Angel's Egg a try.
undamoth
This is going to be short. I'm gonna be unfront and tell y'all that this is probably the worst experience I had with any anime. You can dump on shows like Mars of Destruction all you want but the very least I had fun making fun of it. There's bad, there's boring, there's atrocious, and there's Angel Egg. Yoshitaka Amano is a great artist given how I love the old school Final Fantasy artworks and seeing him work on this horrid mullet of a turd was painful. Apparently, the guy who made Ghost in the Shell movie worked on this as well. But why wouldthey concoct something like this?
The show was a whole lot of nothing, vapid, empty, with industrial sounds and ambiance as the only thing that accompanies you in this feature-length yawnfest. All atmosphere and nothing to get a hold of. There was nothing to say. It's all 'artsy' and none of the frills that makes a movie or an anime for that matter, engaging. We follow along a duo that are as entertaining as peeing with UTI. I was never a lover of art cinema and probably this is not for me. I could swear it made me feel narcoleptic with how many times I fell asleep throughout its runtime. This is the anti-thesis of excitement. Everything is symbolic and I could not give a single damn thing about whatever message it tries to say because it feels like noise the whole movie. Story? It was there probably, buried in layers upon layers of silence, nothingness, and meager animated sceneries. This is a movie made for the intelligent fellows I suppose and while I agree on never getting the point of it all, I will stand by the fact that this movie failed as an entertainment. I simply had no enjoyment whatsoever and there's no force on earth that could make me gaze on it ever again. Finishing it not only came out as a chore but I was physically ill, not because I was affected by the movie but how sorry I am for wasting a portion of my life watching this abominable piece of arthouse pretentiousness.
For whatever reason, people like this and hats off to you mates. For everyone else, I do not wish for you to suffer the same pain I had feasting my eyes on this abomination.
Do not watch it unless you need to cure your insomnia. Bring your friends for slumber party.
I respect the artists that made the movie. I just hate this damn movie specifically.
Krunchyman
“The egg is a germ of life with a lofty symbolical significance. It is not just a cosmogonic symbol — it is also a “philosophical one”. As the former it is the Orphic Egg, the world’s beginning; as the latter, the philosophical egg of the medieval natural philosophers, the vessel from which, at the end of the opus alchymicum, the homunculus emerges… the spiritual, inner, and complete man.” — C.G. Jung Angel’s Egg, the 1985 film directed by Mamoru Oshi, is an enigmatic tour de force. It offers exiguous amounts of dialogue and challenges the viewer to scrutinize every last visual detail in order tounlock the secrets that lay hidden in the depths of the abyss. Therefore, my hope is to unravel these cryptic elements through psychological means to unearth the key thematic elements and the overall core message.
The first image we see is a pair of child’s hands that eventually morph into an adult hand. We can see this as a transformation process that is going to occur throughout the film, and how the trial will involve a certain challenge that will need to be overcome. A challenge that will be quite painful. Now why start a film with the hands of two different people. Unbeknownst to many, hands offer great insight into a person’s inner psychology. We see annoyance one someone taps their fingers, provocativeness when run through hair, inner tension when they are interlocked, and even talk to others via formulating clearer thoughts and emphasizing certain points. In effect, the hands are inseparably linked to one’s psyche, offering a great deal of information to careful observers. In the case of the film, the child’s hand are free-flowing, in a state of play and discovery; whereas the adult hand is rigid, strained and focus on a specific task.
Next, we see an unhatched bird inside an egg, the heart is beating and the eyes begin to flicker as a white light envelopes the screen. We can analogize this with the world egg, which Renee Guenon noted is equivalent to the spiritual “germ” that is symbolically one in the same with the heart. It also harkens to the idea of the cosmic egg, a renowned symbol that has been featured in Egyptian, Babylonian, Hindu, and Greek mythologies. The embryonic darkness represents the primeval waters of the collective unconscious. The collective unconscious being the part of the human psyche in which the archetypes reside, which manifest through symbols, mythologies, and patterns. Prior to the ‘awakening’ of the conscious self one exist within the egg, per se. An adolescent state where the ego-consciousness has not fully established differentiated itself from the vast layers of the unconscious realm. This is equivalent to a child-like state where the adolescent hasn’t fully acquired the “I” or “me”. This is akin to the idea of the ouroboros. Eric Neumann, Jungian psychologist, state the cyclical state represents the pre-ego “dawn state,” depicting the undifferentiated infancy experience of both mankind and the individual child.
The next scene features a cryptic man holding an object that looks like a cross. A gigantic eye with statues of people praying descends to the surface. The eye itself represents the deity of this strange world. In the psychological sense, the God that lives within all of us is an evolving being who has only the human psyche available for it to ‘see’ the world. Symbols like the “All Seeing Eye” and the “Eye of Providence” come to mind. The omniscience of such a being — through the psychological view — represents the totality of all psychic content within an individuals brain. Unfortunately, with such a disposition, God cannot directly reveal himself through us to accelerate our own psychological/spiritual growth. Hence, God’s word must be passed down through the ‘Word’ so as to permit the union of psychological opposites (i.e. conscious and unconscious).
Unsurprisingly, the girl who will become the impetus for the movie, is found fast asleep. Informing the viewer that her psychological state corresponds to the unhatched egg; a vessel that holds great potential, but ultimately resides in the domain of the collective unconscious (throughout the movie, I’ll point out the mythological motifs and primordial images that originate from this area of the psyche). The first one occurs when the girl leaves, what I would describe is a cave to see a bright red sky. Red had a dual meaning: it means blood (the life force of the body) and affectivity (which refers to emotions that we experience and display). Thus, red symbolizes the joining together of spirit to body.
The dichotomy of black and red marks the differentiation between conscious and unconscious. The black color represents the alchemic nigredo, which is a dark state that is associated with death. A ghastly night grows their own awareness by becoming more aware of their own shadow aspects. The shadow being unrecognized, unacknowledged, and shunned aspects that ultimately reached down into our animalistic aspects that are often considered shameful and evil. The problem, however, is that the shadow holds great creative potential in the way of creative impulses, and can be used to one’s benefit if properly integrated. To properly integrate such contents, one must endure a spiritual death. The next stage is considered the whitening (Albedo) — represented by the girl’s skin color and hair — which focuses on the communication between the unconscious and conscious aspects of the psyche.
This stage establishes a relationship with the archetypal Self via bringing the unconscious energies to the conscious light. To bring cohesion to dark and light energies, metaphorically speaking, to make the psyche whole.
After one confronts the shadow through the Nigredo phase, and establishes a connection between the unconscious and conscious aspects of the psyche through the Albedo phase, one then undergoes the the Citrinitas, the yellowing stage. You may notice that yellow is now represented in the picture, and there’s a reason behind this. Around the 16th century the colors were reduced to three, and even analytical psycholgist, Carl Jung, compressed the rubedo (the reddening), into the end of the second phase.
As we will see by the end of the movie, the “yellow death” marks the end of the “lunar light” (i.e. unconscious) influence as the consciousness awakens to a newly discovered knowledge of the self. It signifies the breaking of the egg so that the psychological yolk can expand its awareness from the interior to turn its awareness outward, to the physical world. Finally, the process culminates in the return to earth, to fully incarnate the awakened consciousness through the symbiotic fusion of heaven and earth. Conscious and unconscious are now united as one, forging the philosopher’s stone (the individuation process) to full realize the expression of the authentic self. This final step is known as the reddening and is marked as a final mortification and re-birth.
With this alchemic/psychological process in mind, we can finally move forward. The next scene of note occurs when the girl fills a container with pure water.
“For the alchemists the vessel is something truly marvelous…It must be completely round, in imitation of the spherical cosmos, so that the influence of the stars may contribute to the success of the operation. It is a kind of matrix or uterus from which the filius philosophorum [the philosopher’s child, which is equivalent to the philosopher’s stone or the individuation process]…is to be born. Hence it is required that the vessel be not only round but egg-shaped.” — C.G. Jung
The round vessel is synonymous with the soul, the psyche in its totality. Water, being the commonest symbol of the unconscious, demonstrates the girls current psychological state; that being complete submersion at this point in the story. However, water also serves as a place of transformation; Proteus, a greek, prophetic sea god, had the ability to transform into a lion, serpent, or even a tree. Notice how the reflection of the vessel reflects the girl’s head, immersed in water (i.e. the unconscious), and displays a white tree surrounded by the darkness. The idea is that her psychological contents are distinct and separate; the inner light is shielding off the terrors of the night, but it seems as though they’re overwhelming the area.
To escape a conscious confrontation with the darkness, she drinks from the waters of the unconscious to preserve her dream-like state. Circumventing this dilemma proliferates her own psychological shadow as noted by the expanding shadow of the tree in the waters of the unconscious. The last image shows the structure they were on, which resembles the
“A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.” — Jean de La Fontaine.
The girl is evading a troubling time in her life, and as we will see later on, is real a fully-grown adult that needs to transcend her own psychological adolescence. The tree also symbolizes the beginning and the end. The beginning of the burgeoning ego-consciousness and the eventual return into the collective to reunite with the Self. The girl is initiating the blackening phase in which she must confront her own shadow and the savage elements of the human psyche.
The girl proceeds to roam an uninhabited city. Crumbling structures with overcast skies pervade the land, water is everywhere with elements of dragon/fish statues. A metal wiring designed like a heart demonstrates the emptiness and disregard of her own heart. Think of this world as emblematic of the totality of her own psyche. Every structure and occurrence has relevance to her own inner tumult. Militaristic vehicles pass the girl by in a cyclical fashion. This ruthless, repetitive sequence harkens to the animalistic ouroboros that resides within all of us. The instinctual urges that often suppressed by the norms of society lie dormant within us, and will eventually seek expression in the external world. If left dormant, it can create internal rot that drain vitality and a disconnection with society at large, leading to anxiety and depression.
A mysterious man jumps from one of the vehicles, crossing the the barrier of the collective unconscious (the uroboros) to make contact with the ego-consciousness.
“But the serpent is also life. In the image furnished by the ancients, the serpent put an end to the childlike magnificence of paradise; they even said that Christ himself has been a serpent.” — C.G. Jung
The man, for all intents and purposes, is Christ. The archetypal Self and the mediator between the unconscious and conscious realms. He thusly serves as a magnet to pull in the ego-consciousness to cultivate the state of wholeness, the imago dei (the image of God in man). However, the purely altruistic Christ does not perfectly emulate the psyche in its totality, as it neglects its compensatory opposite (i.e. the antichrist); hence the necessity of the devil. In Angel’s egg, however, we will see that this man embodies good and evil, serving as a viable representation of the Self, and the citrinitas phase that brings about the “yellow death” and the awakening of the consciousness to the true Self. As this is verified by the yellowish-brown cross the man carries, with the red circle in the center.
The girl initially runs away from burden of confronting herself, desperately clutching her egg for comfort. This is reminiscent of the Bosch, “The Garden of Earthly Delights,” in which people reenter the metaphorical egg, the center of unconscious energies. Unfortunately, this is the reverse of individuation. Instead of merging the unconscious energies with the conscious ones, it’s seeking to submerge the conscious energies under the weight of the chthonic realms so as to obviate reality. In such cases, we may liken this the psychology of a man-child, or in this case a woman-child, who doesn’t take on the responsibilities of life, inhibiting growth to their own detriment.
“Behold the secret conspiracy between mother and sons [father and daughter], and how each helps the other to betray life.” — C.G. Jung
The girl then finds a vessel with a red liquid, representing the reddening. Notice how she pours the liquid onto the ground, disregarding her own psychological growth. She then immediately tries to fill the vessel with water from a snake like fountain, but the container won’t fill. It seems this world is a transient residence that will eventually need to be vacated. A reencounter with the Christ-like figure reminds her of the urgent task that needs to be undertaken.
“Keep precious things inside you, or you will lose them.” -- Man with Cross
This harkens to the idea of the Peur and Puella Aeternus, the eternal child, who lives a provisional lifestyle and doesn’t embrace the challenges of life. Think of this as The Peter Pan syndrome, describing someone who wants to remain precious, like the egg, and never truly open up to society or the real world. Now a child-like personality can be enjoyable and the life of the party, but ultimately reaches the eventual roadblock of failed progress, revealing failed growth as an individual. They thus never grow up and hatch into the bird they must become.
“You have to break an egg if you are to know what is inside.” -- Man with Cross
The girl immediately runs away from this life challenge. Not matter how hard she tries, however, the importance of the task follows her and weighs down on her. She walks past bars that project a shadowy prison on her body. Inadvertenly, attempts at avoiding the world create a prison in which existential reality is a form of bondage. One cannot truly call themselves free if the are stagnated and refuse to face up to the responsibilities of growing up.
The fish hunters emerge, eliciting images of man’s most primal form — that of the savage hunter. They chase the shadow of a fish. The redeemer is synonymous with the fish or serpent, and the desperate men seek to skewer the fish. They aim to assassinate their inner Christ through force and aggression. Despite this, their attempts prove ineffectual. The idea is that one cannot supercede the inner workings of the mind, and will become subservient to it if it seeks total psychological dominance.
“If a plant is to unfold its specific nature to the full, it must first be able to grow in the soil in which it is planted.” — C.G. Jung
Anger, also, creates distinctions and boundaries, and if boundaries are broken it precipitates revenge and possession of the shadow. Hence the reason the man are mere illusions, shadows running through the streets.
The fish itself is known as a Coelacanth, considered a “living fossil” since it has remained relatively unchanged since its days with the dinosaurs. As such, we may liken the Coelacanth to the ancient structures of the human brain that are wired for survival (i.e. the brain stem and Thalamus). The brain stem is the oldest structure of the human brain, serving to control breathing, heart rate, attention, and motor responses. The brain stem is also connected to the spinal cord, on the bottom, and the Thalamus, on top. The Thalamus, coincidentally enough, is an egg-shaped structure that lies at the center of the brain, which acts as a hub to relay information. The Thalamus plays a pivotal role in sleep by shutting off incoming signals. Furthermore, recent studies investigating the mediodorsal Thalamus in mice, have shown that enhancing it will magnify the ability to “think.”
Coelacanth females retain fertilized eggs within their bodies during the gestation period. The egg is then hatched within the female, which harkens to the man/woman-child who is born in the physical world, but remains within the confines of their parents protection. And because the Coelacanth is a fish that has stagnated in its evolution, it foretells of a hampered development for anyone doesn’t seek to burst through the egg and branch out from their parents supervision.
We then see the Christ-like man sitting against a door like resembles the human brain. We know this by the marked line down the middle which separates the left from right hemisphere. The man sits the middle, representing the archetypal self — the combination of conscious and unconscious energies. The girl inside the cathedral begins to stare at a reflection of herself as a child. This image pleases her, embracing her adolescence in full while simultaneously neglecting the challenges of life and waiting for her metaphorical ship to sail in and resolve all ongoing issues. Yet the shadow of the fish — the Self — glides over her, signifying the impending change that must follow. In this regard, we would view the Fish Jave as rebellious elements within the girl’s psyche whom are attempting to prevent the fish from enacting the necessary psychological changes. The necessary impetus to deliver the girl from adolescence to adulthood.
The girl begs the man not to harm the egg, but his raison d’être is not in line with want she wants, but with what she needs. The man touches a stone wall with a carving of a giant tree, relating to the cosmic tree talked about earlier. He talks about the branches clutching onto an egg with a giant bird inside. We later find out this bird is an angel. The girl wishes to hatch the egg and birth such a being. Now with egg representing her unhatched unconscious state, the conception of an angel would be her rebirth into contradiction. Angels, after all, are purely benevolent in the nature with no harboring of evil or wickedness. Such a psychological state for the girl would beget the enantiodromia, a compensatory spirit that exhibited signs of death — hence the reason we only see the angel’s bones.
“The angels are a strange genus: they are precisely what they are and cannot be anything else. They are in themselves soulless beings who represent nothing but the thoughts and intuitions of their Lord.” — C.G. Jung
Aiming for this angelic life would diminish the animalistic impulses and reject the rhythms of the unconscious altogether. Angels, after all, are fanciful illusions that exist to assuage adolescents about the rigors of life. It is thusly a rejection of life and an acceptance of a weakened spirit. It would be a failed attempt at individuation and would most certainly have consequences done the line. But the Christ-like man offers hope to the girl. He recites the story of of Noah’s ark which centers on an interesting dilemma that many of us face in our lives in a symbolic sense. The idea of the story is that the great flood washes away the corruption and violence of the psyche. The disdain the ego-conscious feels towards its psychological opposite is thusly washed away in the the torrential downpour.
Of course, not everything is swept away by the massive currents, certain vital aspects are still vital to hold onto. The metaphorical ark serves as the protective container for these attributes that help us retain our individuality. The ark also floats on the waters of the unconscious, preventing the ego-consciousness from being completely submerged into the depths. Now even though the flood myth involves the destruction of all flesh on land, the two animals of each kind reminds the reader that the whole process is akin to rebirth. Eradicate the the old, prehistoric contents so that we may bring about new life.
The dove that flies away and doesn’t return signifies the crux of the story. It is not know what became of the bird, because we ourselves are the bird. The birds that hatch from the captive world soul of the egg will either rise into the domain of air between heaven and earth, creating a balance and integration of the two; or, conversely, becoming a fallen angel who is eliminated by God’s wrath. The Christ-like man has no recourse at this, he must enact a drastic measure before the girl’s dream comes crashing down. In reality, he must wake her up so as to discover the truth about who she really is. A person frozen in adolescence will never become their true Self. After the girl falls asleep, the Chris-like man careful grabs the egg from the bed and places it on the ground. He methodically raises his cross in the air, bringing it to its peak. He then smashes the egg with the cross.
“By bearing the cross of incarnation, like the Cosmic Christ before us, we can know the light of our Inner spiritual cross of Illumination, Resurrection, and Salvation.” — C.G. Jung
An outpouring of water floods the city. The rising tides remind the individual that the unconsciousness is vast, swift, and unyielding. Much like water reveals the weaknesses in infrastructure, so does the unconscious uncover the fragility of our soul, of our psyche. It may sound counterproductive to disintegrate ourselves in such a vigorous fashion, but without such an act, we can never hope to reconstruct ourselves into the stalwart people we hope to become. After all, we must perish, if we hope to reincarnate our sprit. The girl finds the egg, evoking immediate despair. There is reversing course. The deed is done and now a choice must be made. Allow the grief to suffocate her by having onto the false hope of an angel, or confront the watery depths, confront the inner spirit, the inner shadow that has been lurking inside her this whole time.
She approaches the real version of herself, the version that was cast away into the watery underworld. As the two meet at the surface point of the water — the symbolic nexus point of the girl’s psyche — they embrace with a soft kiss. This conscious transference permits the adult version of the girl to direct the ego-conscious henceforward. If we are to think of the girl’s level of awareness throughout the movie, she existed in a psychological state known as participation mystique. This condition pervades adolescents who haven’t yet differentiated their consciousness from their parents and will often establish a psychological unity with them. We can also see this in people who become overly infatuated with actors or sports athletes, forming an unconscious identity with them and becoming attached to their life’s. In the girl’s case, she became spellbound by the egg, placing it under her dress as if it were apart of her.
The cracking of the egg was a cracking of her soul. But the girl needed this harsh reminder, for she is not the egg. She is the not the angel she hoped to become. She is exactly who she is, a sleeping adult who needs to actualize the expansion of her ego-conscious and merge it with the unconscious to forge the Self.
“People with a narrow conscious life exteriorize their unconscious, they are continually in participation mystique with other people…if more unconscious things have become conscious to you, then you live less in participation mystique.” — C.G. Jung
Once the kiss is complete, the adolescent version of the girl disappears, leaving only the adult woman. She sinks into the depths of the caliginous water, into the depths of her own psychological shadow, readying herself for the delivery of a new Self. She expels a mass of bubbles that ascend from the womb to greet the world in the form of an egg — in the form of potential and life.
“Consciousness does not create itself—it wells up from unknown depths. In childhood it awakens gradually, and all through life it wakes each morning out of the depths of sleep from an unconscious condition. It is like a child that is born daily out of the primordial womb of the unconscious..." — C.G. Jung
The ripples from the egg lead us to a tree, a spiritual tree. One which harkens to the kabbalistic tree of life, whose roots reach the chthonic realm with branches bridging toward heaven. Notice the differences with these eggs from the one we saw in the beginning of the movie. The original egg contained an infant birth with white roots, representing the naïveté of the girl. The tree was also small in stature, and it was the only tree of its kind. The trees at the end of the movie are plentiful, representing the differentiating consciousness and the burgeoning archetypal personalities that are now integrating themselves in the realm of conscious awareness.
Archetypes, according to Jung, are primordial behavior patterns, and are innate qualities much like instincts. This means they are prefigured tendencies that shape decisions, though, and behavior. This may explain why people naturally root for an underdog, or why mothers are seen as nurturing, or why children are viewed as innocent. If we view the girl from this lease, we can see she fell into the innocent archetype to a "T." Displaying a belief in a happy ending, living a simple life, and ignoring the bad happenings around her. But the God within — through the power of Logos (i.e. the christ-like man) — cracked her archetypal egg of innocence so that she could receive the benefit of all the archetypal eggs within her psyche. We even see an egg that has a phallic looking rock underneath it, representing the girl’s masculine attributes and tendencies (i.e. the animus). The rising eye/god/sun represents the rubedo process of the alchemic reaction we talked about at the beginning. The philosopher’s stone — the individuation process — has now manifested, eliciting enlightenment and new knowledge about the Self.
The movie culminates with the inner God soaring up from the unconscious realm to reveal the girl set in stone. She has closed the chapter on her childhood. She has solidified her yearnings for innocence and fanciful beliefs, and has moved on the the next stage in her life. The camera pans away from the asteroid-like planet to showcase the dichotomy between light and dark; conscious and unconscious; the left hemisphere and the right hemisphere of the brain; the duality of man, or, in this case, woman.
“In order to eat, you have to be hungry. In order to learn, you have to be ignorant. Ignorance is a condition of learning. Pain is a condition of health. Passion is a condition of thought. Death is a condition of life.” — Robert Anton Wilson
labantnet
I'll Keep this short. Extremely strange. there's nearly no dialog in this 1:11 wonder. That leaves nearly no the entire movie up to the viewer to explain. It's going to mean different things to different people. I will agree with other reviewers that there seems to be an overall "Christian" theme. although that seemed to be put in a bad light with the "Church" having a stained-glass fish window (Jesus? or Regular Fish?) and all the Fishermen trying to spear the non-existent fish, and destroying the town in the process.I see that as saying religion is bad, others might disagree. I guess that's why Igave this movie such a bad rating. I don't mind having subtle things put it that make you think, however when the whole work is left to interpretation I feel you get nothing out of it. I could have just sat and thought for an hour instead of watch this, and received the same thing. I understand it's Art, but most art has at-least some focal point, a part that is firmly grounded, that the rest is based off. This had nothing. Whatever your views coming in will be the same coming out.
mahoganycow
From Mamoru Oshii of “Ghost in the Shell” fame, we receive this deceptively simple story: A young girl wanders through a dark, empty city inhabited only by the ghosts of the past, both human and animal. She carries with her a massive egg, which she protects and nurtures. Soon a man appears and begins to follow her. Much of the movie is without dialogue. That doesn't sound terribly inviting, but it is what it is: An ominous and slow-moving film that, while requiring a degree of patience, is nonetheless quite lovable. Approaching thirty years of age, the art in Angel's Egg is dated, but it isn'twithout a certain dark, nostalgic beauty. This city is an eerie one, radiating a sense of ancient decadence decaying; massive ornate sculptures of multiheaded serpents are covered in thick green moss, and shards of once-lovely stained glass windows now festoon the ground. The glow from streetlamps isn't white or yellow, but a strange, iridescent azure, and it's as if pure light itself is a thing of the past. The architecture is often complimented by organic designs, with the skeletons of colossal fish woven seamlessly into marble walls. It's clear that a lot of thought went into creating an atmosphere that suggests not only the absence of true life, but also a reason why it might have disappeared.
The character designs are artistically valid as well. The wandering girl, possessed of brilliant white hair and a bright red shawl, looks like something not of this drab world; she's pale and innocent, tiny and delicate in her build, the complete opposite of the town of dark monoliths that she roams through. Her range of facial expressions is surprisingly superb, switching convincingly from shy to inquisitive to angry, which is all-important given the predominantly silent nature of the film. The man who wanders with her, too, is well-designed. His tall stature, lengthy white hair, and the confidence with which he carries himself give him a certain commanding spiritual presence, authoritative but gentle. On his back he hefts a cross-shaped weapon wrapped in thorns, and his calloused hands are wrapped in bandages. The significance of these details was certainly not lost on me, but neither did the visuals beat the symbolism into my head.
Although the film is steeped in silence, there is something to be said for the interactions of the characters. The girl is always on edge, guarding the egg with all of her being, and at first she's naturally wary of the rough-looking man who appears, seemingly from nowhere, and begins to follow her at a distance. That distance eventually closes; a montage of shots show that girl and man are eventually walking side by side, the man sitting near her as she sleeps, always awake, a sentinel who looks at the girl the same way the girl looks at the egg. When she acts up, he dons the strict but loving expression of a father trying to console his rogue daughter. In one excellent scene, amid a chaotic rainstorm, the girl takes shelter under the man's great cloak, looking up at him with wide eyes as she does so, finally realizing that she's come to trust someone, an action which she previously thought impossible. She trembles; he puts a reassuring hand on her shoulder. The fact that much of this transformation occurs in silence makes it no less rewarding.
The soundtrack is fully orchestral, and it is wonderful, consistently and skillfully matching the tone of the film. The deliberate pacing of the story is coupled brilliantly with the slower, more ominous tracks, while the few energetic scenes are highlighted by sweeping compositions with operatic vocals that sit well alongside the movie's apocalyptic nature. Any film would count its lucky stars to be backed by music of this quality.
The only real problem I have with Angel's Egg is that it rides the fine line between being a difficult riddle and being an impossible riddle. Symbols in art and writing are a tough thing to work with—they're the artist's way of conveying an idea with subtlety and finesse, but too much subtlety will leave the audience scratching their heads, and unfortunately that's how I felt about the themes in Angel's Egg. There's nothing wrong with expecting an audience to commit their intelligence to figuring out just what a film is trying to say, but if the writers haven't given us all of the clues and puzzle pieces required, they've essentially sent us on a wild goose chase. Clearly Angel's Egg is underscored with a plethora of religious symbols (the title, the man, the fishermen, the Ark, etc) but I can't help feeling like some valuable connective tissue that could have helped the pieces fit together is missing. The film is visually and audibly powerful—the chaos of the ghost fishermen throwing harpoons in vain at massive ghost fish is not something to be forgotten, nor is the image of the egg itself, a single spot of life in a dead world. But on paper, I'm not sure if there is enough concrete meaning here to validate the film. There's nothing wrong with being able to interpret a work multiple ways (and there are about a hundred ways you could interpret Angel's Egg) but for me it becomes a problem when we don't have a clear glimpse of what the work's creators were actually trying to convey. There is something here, and maybe even something truly beautiful, but just what that something might be is shrouded in layers of industrial-strength allegory that make it difficult, if not impossible, to find.
So clearly the barrier of entry is high, but if you've got the time, the patience, and the interest, give this one a try. It's alienating in its silence and slowness, endearing in its characters, and clouded in its artistic vision, but Angel's Egg is still a unique experience, and one that I cannot help but recommend.
Mythologically
What exactly is a good anime? Is it perhaps something with high entertainment value, something that is truly fun to watch, something that you truly enjoy? Or is it something that conveys some sort of important philosophical message? Or maybe, is it a 71 minute long OVA that brings absolutely no entertainment value, makes no sense whatsoever, and conveys no message but that the director hates you? "This is clearly a deep reflection of the director's mental state and view of the world! It's a deep, psychological experience!" Yeah no, it's not. It's an incoherent waste of time with no characters, no plot, and next tono dialogue. It's just some girl with 0 personality filling up glass containers with water and carrying an oversized egg around. There's nothing deep about it. Nothing happens for 40 minutes, and then nothing else happens for another 20 minutes, and then the director effectively tells you to just fill in the plot yourself. Just interpret it however you want to! Tenshi no Tamago is pointless, boring, and offers nothing of value.
I like to give credit where it's due, however. The art is very high in quality for something from '85. The music is really good, but unfortunately, it just doesn't play enough. Most of the time, there's just silence and nothing else.
Now, I know this is a cliche line that, at this point, holds no meaning, but Tenshi no Tamago's only purpose is to cure insomnia. Tenshi no Tamago is supposed to be thought-provoking, yet the only thoughts it provoked in me were "Why did I ever decide to watch this?" and "Maybe I should go make myself some coffee so that I can finish this in one sitting."
raber
This movie was incredibly abstract. Any questions you develop during this movie will most likely not be answered. But that's part of the beauty of it. There's very little dialogue, and as such it relies heavily atmosphere, artwork, and music all of which are fantastic. The best was to describe it would be if somebody took a random dream they had, and turned it into a movie. As such, I highly recommend watching it in a dark room.
wontgetschooled
Story: I am actually editing this! Ok so i have just had a long conversation with someone about this, and my opinion has not changed. however i do feel i need to be a little clearer on my opinion. I found this movie difficult to understand, mostly for the fact that it seems to be saying something deep, which in itself is not a problem. The problem is that what it's saying is so easy to interpret in so many different ways that the actual meaning is lost. As such i dislike the way it presents itself. It's painfully obvious to me that it'smostly a take on Christianity. However to what degree and what opinion is questionable. Also i have heard opinions that take very little stance of religion into account, and who's to say i am any more correct than them.
Art: I think would describe this movie as something that Salvador Dalli would make if he was an anime designer who lived in a one window apartment across from a church.
Beautiful, creepy, and surreal.
Sound: I don't really have much to say about the sound except for that it works with the rest of the film very well.
Character: Well you see there are only a few min of dialog in the hole film, and probably 75 percent of that is quotes (or slight variations) from the Bible.
what does this mean? it means that you lose the direct access to the minds of the characters, you are left wondering what they are thinking and why are the acting this way.
The hardest part is that the people act really oddly so trying to figure them out is really hard.
Enjoyment: I like artwork in anime so that let me enjoy this to some degree. If that were not the case i would have been rather put out.
I would suggest this anime to anyone who wants to be confused and annoyed, or anyone who likes seeing different styles of anime. Or people who like surrealism
Tatsumecz
The story has an easy plot and there isn´t much action in this movie. It is more about feelings than about dialogues of characters. For me, this was too surreal. I can´t say I didn´t like it. But I couldn´t understand.
Shidira
One name: Mamoru Oshii. Between directing and creating, the man who brought about such great animes as Blood+, Ghost in the Shell, and Urusei Yatsura, this was one title I could not pass up. I went into Angel's Egg expecting something very thought-provoking and, to say the least, was blown away by the depth this anime delved. To state bluntly, those who do not enjoy philosophical thought or anime with little dialogue may want to stop reading now and move on to something else. For those still interested, please read on. Story: Within the first five minutes, in between the interesting things happening, you are introducedto the two main characters. You see a male soldier holding what appears to be a cross-shaped item and a white-haired young girl with an egg. The nameless characters eventually meet, but with two different agendas. The girl seemingly asks the man for help protecting the egg, while he tries many times to destroy the egg, but we are left with the thought that he may or may not have had a change of heart. The rest of the story follows these two travelling and the girl trying to find a safe place for the egg. I will leave the ending for you to watch and see what happens, as it is quite interesting and I do not want to spoil it.
On the surface, it seems a very weird story that makes absolutely no sense, but if you take a deeper look at the story, you will see a very existentialist story with a slew of meanings everyone will interpret differently. Although there was not an obvious plot, I gave this a ten because the undertone of the story was incredible and I was drawn in to what Oshii was possibly saying. The thoughts ran deep for me, giving me much to think on.
Animation: Angel's Egg was released in 1985 and the animation for the time was excellent. Most of the story is based on the actions and reactions of the main characters to each other and their surroundings. The animation had to be well done, especially with facial features, so the ideas of the film could be conveyed. The backgrounds and foregrounds were beautiful. While they were not vibrant in colors, the animation gave off all the right emotions to become involved in the story. I gave this a 10 because of exactly the reasons I stated. I was completely drawn into the emotions swirling all around.
Sound: The sounds used were just incredible. While the main characters spoke no more than a couple times, there were very little sounds, and little use of music, the sounds and music were used at the appropriate times to provoke the greatest emotions at the most critical times. What people will notice is the extreme amount of silence and may find it a downfall of the film, but I firmly believe it is one of this film's greatest assets. It is used to show the audience how the silence seems to be there, crushing down on them, threatening to swallow their very existence. Sometimes silence is the best sound. I gave the sound a 10 because of how hauntingly, chillingly beautiful they were, when used. The music was also very beautiful and worth listening to.
Characters: I had a hard time trying to give this a definitive number, as the basis of the story is not around whom the characters are and what their back-story is, but how they respond to the environment around them and what the final outcome of their actions is. It is true that these characters have very little plot to them and there are people who find that a problem, but this is one of those rare stories that character development is not necessary for the enjoyment of this story. I finally settled on a 6. As stated previously, there is no name or plot to the main characters, but at the same time, I do not feel it is needed, though many will disagree.
Overall: This review has become a bit long and I apologize, but this is one film that cannot be easily summarized no matter how well you try, so I will try my best. The philosophical, ideological, and emotional thoughts and feelings provided by this film are intense. While many may dismiss this film because it does not make sense, I implore everyone to take the time to watch this film and judge for yourself. I do recommend that you watch this when you have time to sit through it and think about what you are seeing. You will be amazed at what ideas flow from this old, but ingenious film from one of the masters of anime.
ExplosvRamiel
Imagine this: you are at the gallery, staring at the abstract painting of something that looks like a dragon. Then, someone walks next to you and starts to look at the painting too, but he loudly says to himself: "Wow, what a nice scenery of a sunset!". You reply: "Well, I think that this more looks like a dragon", but there is no clear answer, because the painting doesn't clearly define what's on it, just a stack of colors that has a shape similar to a dragon, or a sunset scenery, or maybe something else. This example may be bannal, but it perfectly describes theexpirience after watching this movie. And it basically explains art.
Angel's Egg is an experimental ambiental horror film directed by Mamoru Oshii, who is responsible for some masterpieces among animated films, such as Ghost in the Shell, Jin Roh: The Wolf Brigade and Patlabor 2. This is his debut film, and it's really influental for his later works, mostly because it touches Christianity as a theme, which is connected to his rejection of it shortly before making this film.
The film starts with a little girl carrying an egg and walking around a dystopian ghost city doing weird stuff, like gathering water in weird-shaped glasses. Then, a white haired man appears, carrying a cross-shaped object. They go together and encounter even more weird stuff, such as shadow people throwing shadow harpoons at shadow fishes (kek), giant crow skeletons and the Tree of Life, then the guy mentions some byblical shit about Noah's Arc, then the girl lays to sleep, the guy breaks her egg with the cross-shaped object, we realise there's nothing inside, she wakes up, sees the egg, cries loudly and throws herself off a cliff. There is also some giant eye ascending out of...something, and at the very end we see the bigger picture: everything was happening on an arc. At first glance, it looks and pretentious, weird and creepy...untill you think about it. Then it becomes beautiful.
So, everyone can agree that the film has no context and that everything mentioned above symbolises something, that the movie is completely in allegory, but the question is: what does it symbolise?
And the answer...there is no answer, there are multiple ones. In fact, every person that watches it and thinks about it has it's own answer, that is based on it's expirience, knowledge, mood etc etc, which is what I was trying to say at the beggining of this review. And we get to the main idea of this film: to represent art in its purest form, because that's what art does. It shapes itself based on how the viewer and the artist feel and how much do they know. In conclusion, the point of this film is to represent art in it's purest form, as an expression of human's emotions and knowledge.
What it also successfully does is theme exploration, and in a very original way. How? We said that there are endless amounts of meanings behind this film, which concludes that it explores an endless amount of themes. It could be about Noah's thoughts and flashbacks while he's waiting for the dove to come back, where the girl is his optimistic side, the egg is his faith, and the dude is his pesimistic side; it could be about the death and the reviving of Christ, where the girl and the egg are his human form, while the boy is his form as a deity; it couldn't be about Christianity at all! It could be a symbolic coming of age story, where the girl is just a girl carrying her child spirit, and how she sees the world around her... The meanings are endless, and so are the themes it explores, as I said earlier. Truly an amazing and original concept.
All of this needs to be shown to a viewer in a specific, misterious and eery way to suceed, which Angel's Egg also does almost flawlessly. The dark and creepy setting, the beautiful architecture, amazingly done, drawings and color manipulation is just...perfect, in a creepy, weird and dark way, which is the best way to present the story of it. The soundtrack is also beautiful. From quiet piano themes, to scary chorus tracks that send shivers down your spine, the soundtrack really adds up to the ambiental horror atmosphere of the film, and it can spook you real good :^). I have to mention how the voice acting, even though minimalistic, is really on point.
So, in conclusion, this film is an original, well constructed, breath-taking piece of art that really deserves more love. My warm recommendation to everyone, even to people who are new to anime, but are really into art, it will surely amaze them.
Daubeny117
This is one of my favorite movies of all time, but it's definitely not for everyone. Tenshi No Tamago is almost a purely visual movie. It has very few dialogue, and the few that it has is abstract and philosophical rather than being there to move the story forward. Speaking of the story, there's barely any : the two main (and only) characters meet at the very begining, they wander for a while until one of them eventually does the only thing that has a significant impact on the story, and the movie ends. What's at the heart of the movie are it'svisuals. It looks unique, being one of the very few movies that really captures Yoshitaka Amano's style. While the design of the two characters are great, the backgrounds and the overall world are really at the forefront. Rather than creating a story, the movie develops an atmosphere through the different locations the characters go through. Everything is deserted, like the remains of a civilisation that disappeared, leaving it's gothic cities, churches and other creations without their meaning. With very few dialogue and a lot of what is shown left unexplained, the movie suggests a world that is bigger than what is shown and that we can't fully grasp, it lets your imagination interpret and expand it.
It also all feels very dream-like. It has a lot of abstracts things that happen and don't really make sense in the litteral way, but rather in a symbolic way. I feel like it's best to let the movie flow and watch things happen without necessarily trying to understand, because everything in it is covered in so many layer of stylization and abstraction that you can really find any meaning you want in it.
The animation, while minimalistic (there is a lot of stillness and it's all very slow) can sometimes be very intricate (the girl's hair for example, or the use of shadows), distorting perspective and light.
Even the music is weird and abstract, sometimes kind of atonal, it sounds like early 20th century european classical music with it's experimentality and complexity and it's instrumentation. It doesn't have a lot of themes, it's sometimes unclear what emotion it even expresses, creating mystery more than meaning.
Overall, I'd say the movie is a visual masterpiece. It's atmosphere is masterfully created and maintained throughout the movie. If you like dream-like experiences, abstract artsy movies and haunting empty gothic architecture, this is a movie for you. If you're looking for entertainement, this is not for you: it's very slow-paced and conetmplative, to the point of being potentially very boring. It's more of a movie that makes you feel a particular way, and you have to be receptive to it, but if you are it has the potential to really connect with you.
saiyagok
Since the first visual encounter, the first scene, angel's egg immerses you into their world, the first melody seemed to be the beggining of a long and inexplicable dream or nightmare and the sensations produced by, the dark and innocuous sky, the bird lying in the air, we could expect anything, the worst, the most astonishing and strange. And so begins Angel's egg. Driven by a curious image of a little girl among her lodgings, we discover a egg close to her, as if it had been with her all the time, this girl cares and hoards this egg where she goes like aextension of her own body, like if losing the egg is lost any hope, everything. Observing how something than strange and with multiples meaning is carried by the hands of a girl around that post-apocalyptic world, where it seems that there is nothing and nobody, a frozen disaster, memories scattered in every place, buildings, houses, in every corner she walk and hide. In this incredible curiuos journey a boy appears in front of her, descending from what seems like an organically constituted army, with a peculiar aspect and movement, the girl instantaly feels fear and inmediatly protect the egg against any possible threat, silence, an important quiet moment and she talk for the very first time "Who are you?". This guy present himself as someone without past or present, without knowing where it comes from or where it goes, who he is or what's his way to follow, but expressing an endearing memory about all around the place.
I think at this moment we start to mold a history about the film, about the ghost of humanity over the place, with the apparent sole purpose of hunting the shadows of the big fishes on the city, once and again. We could see on the movie a reflection of our own reality and inquire what could have happened before, about the biblical quotes the boy makes, what might or might not be the remains of the Deluge or even the suggestion of a second deluge.
Angel's Eggs is a totally subjective, ethereal and retrospective film.
Trying to explain the feeling while watching the movie could be complicated, a myriad of emotions, engulfing yourself in their world, Looking at the girl walking, observing, the unknow men, the "mechanical sun", the devastated place, what happended?. Viewing development is viewing it through her eyes and she does not say much, observing in silence is feel her silence, her loneliness and sadness, is to browse within our own memories and find out which ones could be hers memories, her purpose, her why, her emotions, I think we inquire from the very beginning, ups and downs, but you do not realize when it happens. What happened, happens or will happen, it creates an endearing nostalgia for them.
The more you immerse yourself, the more questions arise and can be a bit heavy, but entertaining, if you do not like the surreal thematic, profound, perhaps this will be not of your total enjoyment.
Angel's egg ultimately, is an extraordinary experience, is something unique and peculiar, the soundtrack is all magnificent, exquisit sound, do not leaves us a moment alone, is present from the most quiet moment until more uncertainty. Simply a beautiful composition that everyone should know.
G_A_V
Do not go into Angel's Egg expecting to fully understand what you just watched, you won't, and if you do, you're lying, because nearly 40 years later, the true meaning is still not 100% known, it's certainly Avant Garde, however, it is speculated that it's a representation of the creator, Mamoru Oshii's wavering faith in god and Christianity, and there are many moments in the film where it is easy to pick up on that. Oshii was a very rare case of a person in Japan being raised Christian, as there are very few people in Japan who are Christian, and not too long before hestarted working on this film he would leave his faith behind.
As for the film itself, it's beautiful, abstract, and highly metaphorical, I love it dearly. If nothing else, enjoy it from an artistic standpoint, it’s one of the most beautifully animated films I’ve ever seen.
Ehsun
This movie going to make you feel like a moron .. when every pretentious individual talks about how this is a masterpiece .. how everything in it has a meaning .. but it only leaves me confused .. very confused It was brilliant to look at though.. that's one of the most visually pleasing anime I've watched.. and it's from 1985.. insane .. but sadly not much of actual substance in this "masterpiece" For the artwork and animation alone i give it 4 , it's just that good .. other than that I can't seem to measure it on any other objective scale.. it has no story.. it raises questions and mysteries but never solves anything .. there's just two characters doing things that have or don't have any meaning .. pacing is realll slow (but at least Because of it I could look at the art more lol) .. it has no start and has no conclusion .. you just can't measure it objectively
It just wants the viewer to think and make up their own head canon.. find references and meanings in anything that happens in the film .. find what those two characters represent and like them for it
Basically the rest of the 6 points is the perceived depth .. whoever thought he/she understood it to whatever degree is the score this movie gets .. To me the depth was just 1 .. i just couldn't grasp anything .. so my final score for this movies' review is .. a very generous 5 .. i did and did not enjoy the movie .. do i recommend it? Yes and No .. yes i sound confusing .. so is the film .. you have to make your own decision for watching this film .. and once you watch it you have to make your own story around it.
And that's just me looking at it for what it's trying to be .. if I were to look at it as an actual movie meant to entertain .. I'd give it 0/10 .. because it's got no substantial whatsoever
And no "symbolism" doesn't make a movie worth watching.. symbolism is like paint and decor .. and the plot/Characters/world is the structure of a movie .. if there is no structure to this movie at all , where are you going to put the decor and paint? .. it's good that a movie has symbolism and hidden messages in it's plot , it's like Easter eggs for people who do care about that .. but making a full length movie with no plot to follow .. just some symbolic imagery is weird .. and unappealing .. and if you think you like such movies it then who are you lying to?
Overall I'd say it's quite the overrated film and a pile of hot garbage .. but who knows .. you might like it
