Yukiru Sugisaki

Another one of my favorite mangas, also introduced to me by my friend, this one is nice because it hits a good, solid medium between shojo (female appeal) and shounen (male appeal).

Daisuke Niwa has been trained to be a thief ever since he can remember; his mother and grandfather have constantly drilled him in lockpicking, trap avoidance, stealth, and use of his wits. He doesn't really understand the purpose behind it, just that it's a "family tradition." And despite the fact that he knows show more how to pick a lock and disarm a booby trap, Daisuke can't get his crush Risa to notice him at all.

But then one day while looking a picture of Risa, something very strange happens. Daisuke transforms into someone totally different...the tall, winged, dark-haired, sleek phantom thief Dark, who has been striking across the city and stealing precious art museum pieces. No one knows who he is or is able to catch him. And now Daisuke realizes that this is the true family tradition...the Niwa men have harbored the soul of the phantom Dark for generations as an alter-ego, awakened by strong romantic feelings.

Now formerly ordinary 14-year-old Daisuke has a whole world of problems to navigate; his crush Risa, her tomboyish sister Riku, and his classmate Satoshi, who may also be harboring an age-old phantom being. Besides that, he's also being pressured to steal art pieces by night, carrying out Dark's calling. And his biggest problem may just the snarky, hot-tempered, arrogant, and stubborn Dark, who's inside Daisuke's mind and body to stay, whether either of them like it or not.

There's action, there's romance, a bit of humor, and fun characters that you develop affection for easily. Not the deepest or most layered manga out there, but one of my definite favorites nonetheless. show less

Boy, am I out of practice reading manga… I used to devour the stuff - grabbing anything from section 741.5953 regardless of content or age rating - but it’s been a long time since I’ve been that haphazard in my reading habits. Being so out of practice made it a bit challenging to get back into the DNAngel storyline, even though I’ve watched the entire animated series and the story isn’t particularly difficult. Something about the backwards pages, maybe, or possibly the pacing made show more the narration jarring and hard to focus on, while the lack of colour made some of the similarly styled characters seem like clones. It doesn’t help that the female love interests have similar names, so I found myself having to read really carefully to keep track of who was in each scene - not to mention the switching crushes and allegiances of the pre-teen cast! Even though I struggled a bit with this one, it was pretty fun diving back into the epic story of the gentleman thief, Dark, and the madcap adventures that ensue. This specific collection seemed to focus more on character building rather than on art heists, with Dark and his human counterpart Daisuke attempting to flirt with their crushes, being the hero when people need rescuing, and making bargains with a teenaged police operative. The story might have felt a bit like a placeholder, with more actual forward movement needing to happen in later volumes, but such is life with serialized manga that were written and published at a far slower pace! I think that the next time I crack the pages on this lengthy series I need to have at least a few volumes ready to read back to back, so that I feel like I’m getting a bit more satisfaction from each volume; the need to settle in to a story like this long term definitely proves a challenge with the short and sweet stylings of the Tokyopop volumes! show less

Not sure if this volume really deserves a 4 or if it was just so much better than the first two volumes that I want to adjust the rating accordingly. Regardless, the story is finally coming together for me with one volume to go.

After what I'm pretty sure was a multi-year hiatus, D.N. Angel returns to pick up just where we left off. Although my memory isn't all that great I still remember Risa being taken from the top of a ferris wheel by a mysterious man bent on luring Dark to his lair.

As we start off Satoshi is trying to convince Daisuki that he just wants to help find Risa, stating that since the kidnapper, Argentine, is a Hikari artwork, Satoshi is sure he knows just where Risa is. Despite protests from Dark show more and his family Daisuki decides to trust Satoshi and attempt a rescue of Risa.

The story here is just as good as I remember it and even though it has been so long since I left off, I didn't feel lost at all. I really enjoyed how we learned more about Argentine and his reasons for kidnapping Risa. His quest is very sad and despite her fear, Risa can't help but feel pity for the strange being. As always I like the friendship between Daisuki and Satoshi and Daisuki and Dark. There is an appreciation between the characters tempered with a lot of humor that I find very enjoyable. The artwork is always enjoyable with lots of cute characters and clear emotions. Very well done and I'm so glad to see that this series has picked up again. show less