"Never judge a book by its cover."
Such a common saying but it is expressed no truer than in the Action, Comedy orientated gag manga, with a smidgen of Romance; Angel Densetsu.

We live in a society where keeping up with appearances has become a way of life and one is generally judged & treated based on how they look. Now enter Seiichirou Kitano, a young boy who just moved to a new town with his loving parents and is now optimistic about his transfer to a new high school. On paper Kitano is a model student; he has excellent grades, a perfect attendance record and would even attempt to help the elderly cross the street. But just one look of his face is enough to send someone running for the hills or to paralyze them in fear, as they feel as though they are looking at the devil himself. So this young devil boy must deal with the ordeals that go along with living a life full of misunderstandings, just so us reader will have something to amuse ourselves with and amusing, this manga certainly is.

From people misinterpreting his good deeds for acts of evil, to thugs assuming he is as tough as he looks, this manga is full of hilarious misunderstandings. The structure of Angel Densetsu is quite difficult to pin down because it is episodic, as a gag manga should be, but the story actually has something I always like to see in my stories... overarching progression (both story and characters).Things actually develop, events lead from one chapter to the next and yet it still feels oddly episodic. Quite an odd yet appealing combination.

The same can be said about the characters, that are both an odd and appealing bunch. Like Kitano with his eerie appearance & perception of his surroundings/situations; but you just can't help but like him. The rest of the characters are given almost as much attention as Kitano but they are still a bit of a mixed bag. With some you'll find entertaining and interesting to read and others, whose very presence becomes a bit of an annoyance or will just piss you the reader off.

Well at least for a gag manga of its time, the artwork does a great job in achieving what the mangaka wished to achieve. By creating a lively manga, with a variety of characters, each with their unique design without going to extremes. However the most notable thing about the artwork is how much it improved from chapter 1 to completion. It was nice to witness how the man, who will later create the Shounen Jump hit Claymore, improve in his style and technique.

Angel Densetsu was a manga I judged by the look of its cover. I assumed it would bore me with its tired old fashioned jokes, however I found it surprisingly entertaining and instead of feeling like a generic gag manga; as the story progressed, it started giving off vibes akin to the old show/movie The Adam's Family. Yet I'm not here to say this is the funniest manga around and that everyone should read it, because even the humour eventually begins to wear a bit thin. But the mangaka actually notices this himself and begins to change things up, later on and in my opinion, for the better. Overall we have an odd gag manga with a fair amount of issues but still remains enjoyable to read and for a manga that was serialized for several years, it was good to see the mangaka improve in comedy, story and artwork.