Welcome back, my fellow AnimeVice followers, to this my second part of my blog review of the
hit ecchi-anime Sora no Otoshimono (2009). As seen in the first part, most major spoilers regarding the anime will be hidden away behind the "Spoiler Warning" banner, but I will try to keep this as spoiler-free as possible. In Part Two of my review, I will explore the logic and story that the show is based on, expand on the dream that Tomoki has regarding the girl being "taken by the sky" and help you better understand this wonderful show.
3c. Tomoki's Re-occurring Dream (The Logic)
The mysterious girl who appears in Tomoki's dreams, leaving him heartbroken when she is pulled away from him.
Ever since
Tomoki Sakurai was a young boy, he has had a re-occurring dream that rattles him to the core and almost always leaves him crying when he wakes up. In the first episode, this re-occurring dream is briefly shown several times, each time revealing a little more of what transpires within the dream. The sight of
Tomoki crying leaves his best friend
Sohara concerned over his well-being, and decides to help him discover the true meaning of his mysterious visions.
In this dream, Tomoki finds himself sitting upon a grassy hillside by the sea, the bright sunlight poking through the partly-cloudy skies above him as he finds himself near the upper crest of the hill, which is covered in a thick mist. The strong breeze begins to blow in from the sea, slowly blowing the thick mist before him away to reveal the form of a silver-haired girl, who for some reason (Tomoki himself can't explain why he has such strong feelings for the mysterious girl) has captured the attention and love of his heart. As he sits there, admiring the beautiful girl before him, he feels the sudden urge to get to his feet and slowly begins to make his way towards her, eyes locked upon her shadowed face. When he approaches, she sticks out her hand towards him, offering her hand in a silent gesture of love as he too begins to reach out towards her out-stretched hand.
It is when his hand comes close to her hand, that two giant, white wings emerge from her back and carry her away, leaving the devastated Tomoki standing there by himself, dozens of white feathers floating around in the air around him as he watches the girl get spirited away towards the sun. Around this point in his dream, Tomoki awakes from his slumber and finds himself weeping softly over the events that have taken place in the dream. Even though he does not know who the girl is, he feels deep down inside as if a important part of his existence has been lost forever, thus being the reason he cries every time he wakes.
Largely unknown to Tomoki at the time, the mysterious girl who keeps appearing inside of his dreams is a Angel by the name of Daedalus, who according to later references by Ikaros and Nymph is the creator of the first-generation of Angeloids and is their original creator. She appears before Tomoki in his dreams, asking for him to one day come and to help save her. Before she vanishes into the distance, she tells him that "the sky has me" before gets pulled away from Tomoki by the two white wings that begin to carry her away. She also warns him to be careful, stating that he is in danger of losing his "angel" before vanishing into the blinding sunlight, leaving a heart-broken Tomoki alone and crying.
4. The Imprinting Process (The Logic)
Imprinting Process
The
Imprinting Process is first seen in
Sora no Otoshimono in the first episode, after
Ikaros awakens in time to save herself and
Tomoki from being crushed by the falling stone pillar. This allows for
Ikaros to be connected to
Tomoki via a magical bond that allows him to become her new master.
As they slowly begin to fall back towards the earth, Ikaros begins the process of making Tomoki her new master by issuing the command to "imprint" upon him. The collar around her neck (with several links of a broken chain hanging down from it) begins to glow, and the broken chain slowly grows longer, snaking its way down towards his hand to where it can finally wrap itself around his right hand and thus complete the imprinting process. Once the imprinting has been completed, there is no way for it to be undone; the only way to sever the chain is if one of them dies before the other one does. At first, the chain can be seen wrapped around his hand, slowing snaking its way back to the neck collar of Ikaros (which leads to a major freak-out by his friend Sohara, who isn't expecting to see a semi-naked girl with pink wings attached to Tomoki like a sex slave). It is later that Ikaros makes the connecting chain between them invisible, thus hiding the bond between them and helping them avoid strange situations at high school.
5. Ikaros and the Pet-Class "Transport" Card (The Logic)
Pet-Class Transport Card
This is the card that allows
Ikaros to grant any of
Tomoki's wishes by summoning the requested items to be teleported to her current location. All
Pet-Class Angeloids carry this card, in order to ensure the happiness and pleasure of their masters. The card can be used by anyone who possesses it, leading to several outrageous situations in which
Tomoki's perverted thoughts become reality without him ever intending for them to come to pass. The card can grant almost any wish that one so desires, for all they must do is think of the one thing they want the most and wish for it.
6. Types of Angeloids
There are Three main types of Angeloids that make a appearance during the progression of the anime. Listed below are all four types of Angeloids, their abilities, and their primary attacks/weapons.
Pet-Class Type Alpha
These variations of
Angeloids are created for one sole purpose: to ensure the pleasure of their master and to grant him whatever he desires.
Ikaros arrives on Earth as a
Pet-Class Type Alpha Angeloid, with only the objective of serving her master and fulfilling his every wish and desires. By using the "Transport" card that is given to all
Pet-Class Angeloids, she can summon almost anything that she requests from the world of
Synapse and grant her master's every wish. Built to be very submissive and extremely loyal to their masters,
Pet-Class Angeloids serve without hesitation.
Electronic-Warfare Type Beta
These variations of
Angeloids are built for stealth and battle situations. They can hide their wings, hack into high-security systems, and contain high processing powers.
Nymph, who is a
Electronic-Warfare Type Beta Angeloid, originally seeks to capture
Ikaros and return her to her master. She possesses high agility, processing powers, and is extremely talented at hacking electronics whenever the need arises. Her primary attack is a powerful energy beam called Paradise Song, which shoots high-energy blasts at her enemies.
Ambush-Class Type Gamma
The twin
Harpies that become the main antagonists towards the end of the show are both
Ambush Class Type Gamma Angeloids, possessing the powers of invisibility, super-strength, and devastating energy weapon attacks. They posses a might particle canon by the name of
Prometheus, which shoots a high-energy laser blast that heats the air around it to a staggering 3,000 degrees C.
7a. The World of Synapse (The Logic)
The world that resides within the black pocket of disturbance that slowly is making it's way over the earth's surface,
Synapse is the world in which the Angels and their creations (mainly the
Angeloids, such as
Ikaros,
Nymph, and the
Hapries) live in. Surrounded by mystery and shrouded in secrecy, it is not until later on before
Tomoki and his friends learn the truth about the "new world" hidden away from mankind and feel the wrath of one of it's inhabitants, who seeks the rare Variable wings of
Ikaros and to punish
Nymph for failing to serve him obediently.
Tomoki first learns about Synapse from Ikaros the morning after becoming bonded to her after asking how does the magical transportation card that she uses to grant his every wish works. Ikaros replies that the card acts as a transportation device, sending the objects that she requested from Synapse to her current location, but seems not to know much more about it other than that. More information regarding the history of Synapse is later revealed after the arrival of Nymph when she is first sent to retrieve Ikaros and to return with her back to her master in Synapse, including who Ikaros really was before being captured and modified into a Pet-Class Angeloid before being cast down to earth.
7b. Nymph's Master in Synapse and the Harpies (Spoilers Hidden)
Nymph's master in Synapse enjoys seeing her suffer at his hands when she fails her mission
Living in a massive Roman-style temple up in the upper reaches of Synapse, the male angel who is the master of both
Nymph and the two
Harpies requests that she go down to earth and seek the
Angeloid Ikaros, for he desires to come into possession of her Variable-Type wings (which are apparently quite rare and valuable). Fearing to upset her master and bring on another vicious beating,
Nymph makes her way down to the town of
Somari, to observe the movements of
Ikaros and to capture her in order to return to her master and please him.
Nymph's failed attempt to capture Ikaros
After
Nymph fails to successfully capture
Ikaros and return her to her master, she receives a wicked beating by her master, who isn't in the slightest pleased with her poor performance. He forces her to kill her green pet bird, the very pet that she has treasured ever since coming into possession with it. Ashamed and disgusted with herself, she accepts his punishments with little or no resistance, only afraid to further anger him to the point of allowing him the right to kill her. Assuring her that he would not tolerate such failure again, he activates a time-lapse bomb hidden within her collar around her neck, giving her only several days to finish the job or to suffer a violent death by decapitation. She returns to Earth feeling unsure about herself, not knowing how to catch Ikaros unaware in order to capture her to deliver her to her master. She decides to move in with Tomoki and Ikaros, deciding that it will allow her to have a better shot at succeeding in her mission.
After observing the way Tomoki and his human friends treat her and Ikaros with such friendship and respect, her strong displeasure with humans (she considers them as "bugs", no more worthy than the dirt on which her boots walk upon) begins to change, and she starts to develop feelings for Tomoki after witnessing how her treats Ikaros so well. With time running out on her collar, her time of reckoning drawing nearer by the second, she is hopelessly split between betraying the trust of her new friends and failing her master again and dying because of it. She decides to enjoy what life she has left in this world, going out on a double date with Ikaros and Tomoki while her master back in Synapse observes her failure to complete the task. Fed up with her failures, he summons the twin Harpies from the front gate to the temple and orders them to intercept Nymph, to remind her of her duties to her master and to assure her how "proud" he will be with her if she accomplishes her mission.
Ikaros blindsided by Prometheus
The following day, the twin Harpies meet with Nymph about her failure of her mission and they convince her how happy the master will be if she succeeds. Reluctantly, she agrees to finish the mission and to bring Ikaros with her so the Harpies will capture her and deliver her back to her master. After several tries, she gets Ikaros to come with her to the cherry tree, to where the twin Harpies lie in ambush, waiting for the right moment to strike. When Ikaros arrives, the twin Harpies use their primary weapon (a mighty canon by the name of Prometheus) to attack and critically injure Ikaros with a land-shattering blast, shearing one of her pink wings off in the process. Devastated by the sight of a severely-injured Ikaros and furious that she had been betrayed, Nymph attacks the twin Harpies with a surprise attack by using her Paradise Song, a mighty beam of energy launched from her mouth, but fails to inflict much damage upon them. Now royally pissed off, the Harpies brutally attack Nymph, resulting in them ripping out her wings and rendering her almost useless.
Hephaestus Strike
Ikaros, dazed and in severe pain from the surprise attack upon her, gets up in defense of the hapless Nymph, thus saving her from being killed by the Harpies. Meanwhile, Tomoki (who has partnered up with Eishiro), go off looking for the two Angeloids, worried over what Ikaros had said to him before she had left to find Nymph. Sohara and Mikako soon join up with them, and they soon arrive at the cherry tree to witness the stand-off between Ikaros and the Harpies. Ikaros decides to use her lethal Uranus Queen mode, which has Nymph in fear of what Tomoki will think of her if he sees her revert to the form in which she terrorized and kill so many people in Synapse with. Tomoki tells her that would not bother him, because they are family and she should go do what needs to be done. Satisfied with his approval, she triggers her Uranus Queen mode, and makes quick work of the twin Harpies, who get annihilated by the mighty energy blasts that comes from her cloaked battleship Hephaestus. While Ikaros soundly defeats the Harpies, Tomoki and his friends work together to sever the chain that connects Nymph to her master in Synapse and to stop the collar from exploding. After much toil, they manage to sever the chain and free Nymph from her services to her now ex-master. And thus ends the 13 part saga known as
Sora no Otoshimono. 8. Conclusion
Overall,
Sora no Otoshimono is a funny, ecchi-filled anime that will leave you either laughing until you cry or will leave you somewhat shocked that they managed to pull it all off in a outrageously-epic way. I recommend this show to all who have a great appreciation for Harem and Ecchi animes. If you can overlook the somewhat non-existent story, this show is fairly enjoyable.
*** (ignore this unfortunate format error)*** The Good: Original cast, outrageous moments, some fan-service to be found, interesting concepts, great artistic style, full of strange twists. The Bad: Lackluster (almost non-existent) story and plot, some dull moments, more information regarding the girl in Tomoki's dreams and Synapse would have helped the story and Plot.
Final Score: 3.75 Stars out of a possible 5 Stars
