Entering the world of Angel’s Egg is less like following a story than arriving in an unfamiliar city with no map and no appointment. The film gives the viewer time and space, and very little in the way of narrative. For some this is immediately frustrating. For others it can become quietly absorbing, even moving, provided one is willing to let go of the need to get somewhere.
The film opens with a sudden mechanical presence: a vast machine-orb appears on the horizon, its noise filling the frame. Then the sound stops. What remains is a still, empty world inhabited by a young girl. She has no name, no family, and no social role. She embodies the Japanese idea of the shōjo (少女) one who has not yet been required to take on the obligations of adulthood. Her days are organised around carrying and protecting the egg; and collecting water.
We follow her through the twilight, down empty streets and past abandoned buildings, out into the forest. She kneels at the water’s edge, fills a bottle, and watches the surface. The animation lingers on reflections, concentric ripples, and the way her own image appears and dissolves in the dark water.
When she meets a young man carrying a cross, she comes up against someone who has already been shaped and scarred by a sense of duty. He brings with him questions, and eventually an act that forces a confrontation over the egg she is protecting.
Mamoru Oshii, primarily known for Ghost in the Shell (1995), is now 75. Of Angel’s Egg he has said:
“Angel’s Egg is like a daughter who was never able to make her debut properly in the world. After forty years it feels like she has come back to me, and now I am being told she will be given a beautiful touch-up and sent back out into the world. So I feel a bit of responsibility as a parent.”
He has also remarked that he is amazed he was able to make something like this, and that it could not be made today—neither by him personally nor within the current production environment.
Angel’s Egg was made as an Original Video Animation (OVA) and released straight to home video by Tokuma Shoten on 15 December 1985. The budget was modest and it was shot quickly. The result was that Oshii and Yoshitaka Amano (who did the character designs and art direction) had unusual freedom. The animation itself is deliberately sparse. The film contains only about 400 shots in its 71–73 minutes—roughly one-third the number found in a typical feature anime of the period. Oshii has said he wanted to keep the viewer “on the edge of boredom,” using duration and stillness rather than rapid cutting. Because the shots are long, the backgrounds and layouts had to be exceptionally detailed and most of the production effort went into the art rather than into full animation of characters.
Amano’s designs give it a strongly gothic and Art Nouveau character in a near-monochrome palette of greys, deep blues, and blacks. The backgrounds, painted under art director Shichirō Kobayashi, have a soft, layered, watercolour-like quality created with ink washes and delicate colour.
The soundtrack is by Yoshihiro Kanno. It was his first and only score for anime or film. The score is built around a small orchestra and choir, and it is the choral writing that gives the visual passages a religious atmosphere.
Stuart Buchanan, curator of film at the Sydney Opera House, included the new 4K restored print of Angel’s Egg in Hellhouse, the venue’s festival of Halloween films. Introducing the screening, Angus Truskett (of the podcast Test Pattern) said he could not quite describe his initial response to the film, only that it left him now with a strong sense of nostalgia. Tonight the room was packed with devotees who could identify. Sydney Opera House, 28.10.26.
Tenshi no Tamago, 1985
Directed by Mamoru Oshii
Character design by Yoshitaka Amano
Art Direction Shichirō Kobayashi
Music by Yoshihiro Kanno
