More Than Meets The Eye: ‘WATATEN!: An Angel Flew Down To Me’
by Tito W. James
According to Sturgeon’s law “90 percent of everything is trash.” Therefore I’m here to find the gold in seemingly trashy anime.
On the surface WATATEN!: An Angel Flew Down To Me, appears to be an innocent anime about “cute girls doing cute things.” The series is about Miyako, a shy college student who crushes on her little sister’s new friend Hana-chan. However, I’ve seen enough anime like Magical Girl Madoka or Oshi no Ko not to just take the happy exterior at face value.
While the visuals are bright and peppy, there’s an undercurrent of something feeling slightly off. The wacky romcom shenanigans never get as dark as Happy Sugar Life, but this isn’t a completely innocent slice of life. Without going into spoilers- Miyako is being secretly watched and this adds a chilling layer of unease to every episode. It’s like drawing a warm bath then having a shark poke its head out of the water from time to time.
Just when I thought I had this show pegged as a cute to creepy bait-and-switch, I discover that all the voice actors are part of a real life girl idol group. They’re called WATATEN 5; the songs are surprisingly catchy, and the band toured in America— how is this even real!
An Angel Flew Down To Me is a rare breed that manages to be genuinely uplifting and heartwarming and paradoxically really disconcerting. An Angel Flew Down To Me will not be to everyone’s taste but for those who stick around, they’ll be treated to some wonderfully charming characters. The show evokes mixed emotions of wonder, limitless love, and inner turmoil like no show I’ve encountered before or since.
WATATEN!: An Angel Flew Down To Me is now streaming on Crunchyroll.
