Angel Sanctuary

(Viz, 2004-2005)
™ and © 1995 Kaori Yuki
Right to left reading format; b&w series.

It was only a matter of time until a manga publisher got around to translating an “incest romance.” (Finding it increasingly difficult to find even a mildly frowned-upon love, manga creators have latched onto star-crossed sibs as a plot device.) The good news is it’s only the “B” plot of Angel Sanctuary.

Sibs Setsuma and Sara are mutually attracted to each other, because they’re the reincarnations of ancient angel lovers caught up in a war between Heaven and Hell that uses Earth as a battleground. Far more disturbing than the taboo-busting action is seeing Christianity reduced to a twisted cosmology in which good and evil are indistinguishable from each other and God is absent without leave.

As a romance, it’s also lacking, since it’s difficult to empathize or sympathize with the spectacularly selfish leads when they could easily avoid personal condemnation, not to mention the destruction of the entire human race, if they’d just keep their hands off each other.

— S.A. Bennett

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