Angelique

Angelique is a series of Dating Sims developed for girls. It is often credited as the creator of the genre of Otome Games. It is largely unknown outside of Japan but has spawned a manga series, 4 OVAs, Two television series and a bunch of Drama CDs and assorted merchandise.

It has also spun off into the Neo Angelique series (which has its own page).

The software games in the series are:

  • Angelique [Angelique Limoges]: Though originally released on the SNES, it has been remade multiple times for various systems. The remakes include:
    • Angelique Voice Fantasy an Updated Rerelease on SNES, packaged with a CD player peripheral (called Voicer-kun) and CD of voice clips for character dialogue.
    • Angelique Special, a full-on Remake on Sega Saturn and PlayStation.
    • Angelique Duet, yet another Remake on Sega Saturn, PlayStation and Nintendo DS, in which rival Queen Candidate Rosalia is playable.
  • Angelique Special 2 [Angelique Collet]. Collet is the identified Queen of a second cosmos, Arcadia.
  • Angelique Trois [Angelique Collet]. Collet is drawn into a different Arcadia to free that reality's queen.
  • Angelique Etoile [Angelique Ange]. The setting is the original Arcadia as well.

The games take place in a Utopian cosmos ruled by a queen who is supported by nine hot and single young men with power over the nine elements or "Sacrea". The first game starts with the current queens powers beginning to fade. To determine which of two girls is better suited for the job, an examination is started in which both candidates must cultivate a continent on a new planet. However the player can choose to abandon becoming queen to fall in love with one of the guardians leaving the other girl with the queen gig.

The second game started with a new cosmos forming which also needs a queen and played similarly to the first. Angelique Trois and Angelique: Heaven's Requiem involve Angelique Collet first being drawn into a pocket cosmos which she also needs to develop and fighting off an evil Emperor from a third dimension who is attacking Angelique Limoges initial cosmos. Finally, Angelique Etoile involves a new girl, Ange, who is the legendary Etoile destined to save both realms and who needs to recruit nine new guardians for Angelique Collet's cosmos.

The story expands in later titles, but most entries in the series feature one of a succession of girls named Angelique as the protagonist, with ever larger casts of characters. The roster of potential love interests swells to 19 characters in later titles.

Other series in the franchise

  • It includes a console RPG game Angelique TenkÅ« no Requiem (Heaven's Requiem) [Angelique Collet].
  • There are two board games.
    • Fushigi no Kuni no Angelique (Angelique in Wonderland) [Angelique Limoges].
    • Sweet Ange - Another board game style game set in an Alternate Universe, this time involving making desserts for a school cooking contest.
  • There is also a douijin game based on the series, involving gender switching.
  • The two manga series are:
    • Angelique. Written by Kairi Yura
    • Guruguru Angelique. Written by J.O. Oda
  • The 4 OVAs (in the order they were released) and the TV series are:
    • Shiroi Tsubasa no Memoir (White Wing Memoir) - A continuation of the plot of Heaven's Requiem.
    • Seichi Yori Ai o Komete (From the Sanctuary with Love) - The second part of a side story which also includes 4 drama CDs and a manga, about the search for a set of sacrea gems that Angelique Collet, the heroine of the second game, needs to use in order to control the elements of a new cosmos until that cosmos' guardians are born.
    • Twin Collection - An 8 episode OVA where each episode features music videos for each guardian (two per episode), and a side story called "Arcadia Holiday".
    • Angelique - A retelling of the first game's events.
  • Koi suru Tenshi Angelique ~ Kokoro no Mezameru Toki (Beloved Angel Angelique When Hearts Awaken) - A 13 episode TV series. Essentially, a retelling of Etoile. Its second season is titled Kagayaki no Ashita (Radiant Tomorrow).
Tropes used in Angelique include:
  • Aborted Arc: The first episode of the fourth OVA features a mysterious disturbance and ominous dark clouds (with lightning) that appear in the Sanctuary. This is never brought up again.
  • All There in the Manual: Most of the world building is in supplementary materials which mostly gets RetConed in Etoile.
  • The Anime of the Game: See above. The Koi suru Tenshi Angelique TV series is pretty much a retelling of Etoile, while the fourth OVA is a retelling of the first game.
  • Audio Adaptation: Angelique includes volumes of drama CDs. Most are merely entertaining side stories, but some exist to flesh out parts of the games and the series as a whole. The third four-part series Sanctuary no Kagami even includes examples of Talking to Himself as the nine main seiyuu pull double-duty as both the Guardians and their evil counterparts, the Knights of Leviath.
  • Beautiful All Along: Ange wears glasses that she doesn't need due to low self-esteem.
  • Bishie Sparkle
  • Cast Full of Pretty Boys
  • Chivalrous Pervert: Oscar
  • Dojikko: Angelique Limoges, at least in the fourth OVA anyway.
  • Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Timka comes from an Indian planet.
  • First Guy Wins: Played with rather cruelly along with Last Guy Wins in the TV series. You could technically say that Arios is the first guy since Ange met him first, but the person she met is just him in a previous life. Not to mention he doesn't really display any interest in her other than protecting her so she can fullfill her mission as the Etoile. Zephel is the first guardian she met, AND the first person to confess his love for her. Charlie is the last guardian she met, and takes to her almost immediately, saying that she's like a childhood friend and a sister to him. (There's also Francis, who also confesses his love for her. The fact that he was Rakin in a past life and vaguely remembers her appearing to him as his dead girlfriend, Emma probably has something to do with it.) In the OVA at the end of Kagayaki no Ashita, when she finally goes to confess to the man she loves, we see her grasping the hand of a shadow with no defining features that could indicate which man it is. Dick move, Koei. Dick move.
  • Friend to All Living Things: Marcel
  • Gadgeteer Genius: Zephel
  • The Glasses Gotta Go: Guess the first thing Olivie does when he gives Ange a makeover in the TV series. (Though, as noted above, she didn't need them anyway.)
  • Ho Yay: It's everywhere. (Not surprisingly, most fan fics for the series are Slash Fics.)
  • Image Song: Given how many popular seiyuu are in this series, this is a given. How many image songs there are is rather staggering though, which each character having multiple songs along with various duet and group songs.
  • Late Arrival Spoiler: The first two OVAs are particularly bad with this, seeing as one is a continuation of Heaven's Requiem's plot, and the other is the second part of a side story.
  • Leitmotif: All of the characters have their own theme tune.
  • Messianic Archetype: Ange
  • Mistaken for Gay: Oscar, in two manga Omake.
  • Multicolored Hair: Olive
  • Ojou: Rosalia
  • Personality Powers
  • Princess Curls: Rosalia
  • The Rival
  • Relationship Values: Very important to the ending of the game. Guardians who like you 'a lot' will also help you and harm your rival without being asked.
  • Road Cone: Canonically Angelique becomes queen and her rival becomes queen's aide.
  • Schizo-Tech: In the fourth OVA Randy and Zephel chase down a horse drawn carriage on a hoverbike.
  • Single Biome Planet: Supplementary materials suggest this.
  • Transvestite: Olive surprisingly actually looks like a man.
  • Tsundere: Zephel shows these traits in the game, the anime and the fourth OVA.
  • Twelve-Episode Anime
  • 24-Hour Armor: Oscar
  • Utopia
  • Wholesome Crossdresser: Olivie, natch.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Francis is deathly afraid of bunny rabbits.
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