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Angel’s Egg Movie Review

Angel’s Egg is a 1985 anime fantasy film directed by Mamoru Oshii. It’s one of the most artistic anime films ever created.

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“Maybe you, I and the fish only exist

in the memory of a person who is long gone.

Maybe no one really exists and it’s only raining outside“

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A mysterious young girl wanders a desolate, otherworldly landscape, carrying a large egg. That’s the premise behind this very complex, ambiguous and difficult to fully grasp film. It’s the type of story that is open to interpretation as anyone can interpret it differently. That’s where is genius lies. However, even though it is openly ambiguous, I would propose that some themes here are clearly present when you think about certain scenes properly.

So let’s interpret it. The most clear parallel for this entire world is the first days of our own world when it comes to Christian beliefs. I personally found Boy to be God himself and Girl to be one of his faithful followers. It is fascinating connecting the dots between this world and the one portrayed in ‘The Magician’s Nephew’ from the Narnia series. I certainly found the two quite similar in that creator aspect to it.

Girl does a set of things every day that are the same and that are clearly meant to emulate some sort of praying or God worshiping. This is where the movie critiques those repetitive, unnecessary and downright silly actions that many religious followers do on a regular basis in order to appease God. The egg itself and those coelacanth-resembling fish are probably symbols of the futility of blindly following your faith instead of seeking genuine truth and knowledge. It’s obvious that the director has had his Christian beliefs examined and this movie is a result of those deep thoughts.

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Angel’s Egg only has two characters named Boy and Girl. Boy is very intriguing and a highly mystical presence whereas Girl is our endearing, also very mysterious protagonist. The men chasing those coelacanths provided instantly memorable, fascinating imagery. The same should be said for the egg itself with the clearly defined bird embryo inside it (possibly meant to present some kind of messiah?).

The movie benefits from a lot of highly authentic, artistic imagery, all a result of breathtakingly gorgeous animation. It is polished, it has a terrific, darker color palette, amazing character designs, especially of the creatures, and a striking use of Art Nouveau as well as Gothic architecture. Just seeing these monumental buildings evoked a sense of lost history, which perfectly aligned with Boy’s insistence that the two are just living in somebody’s memory and that this world is not real.

Whether real or not, the world is unforgettable due to tremendous world building where we truly get to visit every single site depicted in the movie. That was possible thanks to the film’s deliberately slow pacing. And yes, that pace did lead to some scenes going on forever and making you lose a bit of interest for the film, but I would say that most of this movie is very engaging if you watch it patiently, and it will reward you at the end of the line undoubtedly.

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Mamoru Oshii is a famous anime director, but Angel’s Egg rarely gets a mention when talking about his filmography, but in my opinion it might be his magnum opus. The film is slow, but carefully crafted, phenomenally directed, very well scripted and also beautifully scored with evocative, eerie music accompanying its very ominous, strange atmosphere fittingly so. The sound is also fantastic as every single sound effect makes an impact in this deliberately silent movie that only sparingly uses dialogue, and to a perfect degree in my opinion.

The stunning Art Nouveau as well as Gothic architecture, two mysterious central figures, fascinating coelacanth fish and intriguing titular egg with the bird embryo inside it – all of these represent fascinating, artistic imagery at display in ever-engrossing Angel’s Egg, a film that is slow and requires patience, but it rewards you with amazing world-building, great sound and undeniably artistic animation. It’s a film that is open to interpretation – it can best be seen as a critique of blindly following your faith – and accompanied by strikingly dark atmosphere. Consequently, this Mamoru Oshii masterpiece is undoubtedly a work of anime art.

My Rating – 4.5

You can get this art film on Amazon.