Earthian
A Parent's Guide to Anime
Rated: PG
Parental Guidance Advised
Reviewed by Jane Nagatomi:
Based on the manga by Kouga Yun, the Earthian OAVs tell 3 side stories about the two main characters Chihaya and Kagetsuya. For over 5 billion years, the angels have been watching the earth as it develops measuring the positive and negative sides of the "earthians". Chihaya is a former orphan angel adopted by the arch-angel Michael and is unique in all of Eden. Despite having black hair, wings and eyes, he is otherwise completely healthy. All other angels who gain these dark traits all fall severely ill and die soon after their wings go dark. Why Chihaya is different is a definite mystery.
Parent's Guide Rating:
red (recommended for mature audiences)
Religious references - For those who are devout followers of the Bible in any of its forms, this OAV series mentions various religious figures as well as references in a completely non-biblical and non-religious fashion. On top of the two main characters being "angels", by the third OAV story, Kagetsuya and Chihaya are clearly romantically involved with each other in a same sex partnership.
Violence - While there is violence and fighting, it is neither graphic nor gratuitous.
Drug Use - In the second OAV one fallen angel uses drugs to help deal with a deadly illness. The implication being that the drugs are not entirely legal.
Some interesting topics for discussion which arise from this OAV series include the following. The development of the biohumanoid project, as a means of carrying out experimentation on subjects with the same emotional and physical response to stimuli as humans brings up the question of ethics as well as ownership/control of sentient beings. Likewise there is the question of what exactly constitutes sentience. And lastly there is the issue of (iilegal) drug use in coping with terminal illness.