Angel Friends: More Hellfire than Halo 

I would sell a kidney for a reboot with proper writing and a more mature target audience

cannot take this show seriously cuz the devil dude is voiced by SONIC HIMSELF

Angel Friends was dubbed into my native language and showed on TV with other classics like Winx Club and Code Lyoko, so the fact that the English dub is this bad baffles me. Had no idea there was a second season, though!

the idea is fun, the execution is horrible, its still iconic tho lmao

Yea Angel Friends kinda had a lot of major plot holes, lots of filler, some lack of story development and characters...but it was FIRE fr

I'm Italian (born in 2002) and I can clearly remember how popular (kind of) Angel Friends was back then. I was quite into this series both comic and cartoon-wise BUT I felt like there was some clear unbalance in them. The comic had a far better artstyle, the characters looked and acted like actual pre-teens, the terrestrials' storylines were more grounded to reality, there wasn't the concept of transformation into human (Raf does that only once to meet the boy she has a crush on, and the transformation only consists in getting rid of her invisibility and intangibility, hiding her halo and wings by making them look like a backbag). Angels and devils used chibi projections of themselves (through their sidekick animals, which had special devices to do that) in order to recreate the classical image of the tiny angel and devil protecting or tempting humans while floating on their shoulders. The ideas were fine, original enough to make it stand out among other Italian fantasy properties such as W.I.T.C.H. or Winx Club (more specifically, western magical girl shows). The whole concept behind the school and the division between angels and devils was interesting enough not to make it look like an Hogwarts ripoff. There were genuine stakes and dilemmas. The threat was rather unique. The story had an organic building and pacing. On the other hand, the comic struggled with its secondary characters (unlike Winx Club from season 1 to season 3, the golden era of Winx Club to put it in other words), who had barely any personality and you had the chance to get to know them better only by reading the page descriptions at the end of each publishing. The focus was almost entirely on Raf and Sulfus, and on any other character who was involved in their plot (such as Gabi). Plus, the worldbuilding and the way the school was conceived was very confusing. We only got to see our main characters, we had no clue about any other kid's consciousness (the comic shares this issue with the series, as you can tell). The comic had a lot of bad luck due to the whole Mondo TV series thing. They interrupted the release of the comic since they decided to wait for the animated series to be approved and release. Had they picked the Stranemani pilot, now we would have Angels Friends as it was conceived by its author, the story would have its conclusion, maybe a new saga, maybe some more deep diving into that world, maybe the series would have granted all this. But no... They picked the cheap and generic Mondo TV project, a quite ugly-to-look-at Winx Club ripoff (they gave Cabiria a new design that makes her look like Stormy with straightened hair). The characters look like generic expressionless fashion dolls (both terrestials and supernatural characters). The pacing was very awkward and clumsy, all those transformation sequences were just pointless padding that they kept showing and showing and showing AND SHOWING AND SHOWING EVERY SINGLE TIME. It was not like in Winx Club, where the transformations received some editing put into it in order to make those sequences flow quicker. I don't think Miki's original design was that racist or problematic. She looked quite cute! But I can also understand thosewho prefer to avoid any implication of yellowface. All those fat and food jokes about Gas though... The animation was awful. That's the standard of Mondo TV's cheap series animated in North Korea with flash animation (I might be wrong but I guess it's the same studio that worked on the huge disaster that was "ADRIAN La serie evento": Studio SEK). Stranemani's pilot animation looked rather great for an Italian animated series from the '2000s waiting to be produced. And then... Not only did the Mondo TV series built its own lore and its ideas (which had potential, if put in good hands), but it just left us with NOTHING. No conclusion, no continuiation of the story, no fulfilling of that cliffhanger at the end of season 2. Angels Friends died both as a comic and an animated series. What a shame. I don't know if this franchise is going to have its resurrection, but I still think this story taught us a lesson about NOT wasting a good concept.

This looks a lot like puppet animation. It's cheaper than actually doing drawing by drawing. The comic looks so interesting! A lot like W.I.T.C.H. I missed so much media in the 2000's since I had grown up and had started working. I read the WITCH comics for a while, ignored the TV show since I found the designs too flat and disliked the minor plot changes. Though I heard it was a good show.

11:05 - 11:07 That’s pretty ballsy for this kid show to actually show a man slap a woman. Most kids show would censor out any violence of men hitting women

the art style of this show is SO cute. it's like an edgier winx. all the designs are really fun, overdesigned but in an appealing way. i didnt grow up with this show but im really glad this video exists so i can experience it vicariously :P

I know for a fact 13 year old me would have had a MAJOR crush on Sulfus if i knew about this show

THAT DANCE CONTEST SCENE LITERALLY TRAUMATIZED ME BEING SO CRINGE WHEN I FIRST SAW IT YOU'RE A MONSTER FOR USING IT THIS OFTEN😭😭😭😭

This show really had so much potential but wasted it with stupid plot holes,bad story/character development and tbh by not focusing on Raf and Sulfus love story. Come on now we all watched the show for them cause they had an amazing chemistry,they are cute together,THE KISS SCENE WAS EPIC. I loved seeing Sulfus havıng a soft spot for Raf and Raf taking risks for Sulfus. Everybody loves a bad boy falling love with a good girl,enemies to lovers,forbidden love tropes. I had high expectations to see how their love story would develop but they just made it boring in season 2. Raf and Sulfus carried the show and they are one of my fav couples. Since they basically wasted all the potential, fanfics now have to give me what I want

How did I never watch this semi-bootleg version of Winx, but instead of fairies we have... angels and devils?!

I cut this out of my original script because I didn't think too many people would care but yes, Sulfus is voiced by Jason Griffith. The past voice actor of Shadow.

I definitely think this show would've worked a lot better if they just gave the moral questions the depth they deserved. Have the angels and devils actually get conflicted over what they should do that would qualify as good or bad. Hell, I think an episode where the angel and devil come to the same decision on what their human should do, but coming at it from their good/evil perspectives would be so much more interesting. For example, the kid with the absent dad. Having the devil pointing out that the dad is awful, so he deserves the misery of his kid pushing him away. And the angel not knowing what to do, because by the logic of their jobs it means the "good" path is to see his dad anyway. But at the same time knowing that it's not what would be good for the kid himself.

“fOr OnCe, We aGrEe” said for the 50th time in a row

You know I kind of wish. They went with the original version of angel's friends now that one had more personality.

I cant get it out of my head that Sulfus sounds like emo Sonic

omg these character designs rule, ive never heard of this show/story before now!! theres someone on Tumblr who posted an unofficial English translation of 14 volumes of the comic (though im not sure if that's the complete series or not) and i really like it so far; thank you for introducing me to this!!!

its like the fashion, especially the devil designs, are so good, it's truly a shame the plot and writing just isn't up to par. well at least the dubbing is kinda off, which is to be expected from the 2000s lmao but if this got a reboot where they updated the animation, kept the fashion, updated the writing of the show, and make it a little morally grey issue about how both angels and devils aren't completely right, i think it has a good chance of getting huge. make this for an older audience and have the moral issue of these two beings a real plot point, a lot of people will like it i think a lot of these western cartoon magical girls in the 2000s had AMAZING fashion. the mini skirts, crop top, high socks are so in fashion rn. and in all these reboots, i wish so many of them didn't sacrifice the fashion. like the winx club reboot had be upset if you couldn't tell. the fashion was such a core part of winx club and they threw away the unique fashion in the netflix reboot to make a half baked show that no one wanted to watch.

It's kinda funny hearing the voices of the Sonic X 4Kids cast coming out of some of these characters lol

I would love to hear you talk about pop pixie, the winx spinoff. I was super obssessed w it as a kid and i remember the pixie designs being super cute but the storylines being kinda meh

The show is not good, but its fun in how bad it is and how wacky it is, and I love how rafs hair moves, im sure I watched it back in 2020 for that alone.

Honestly the show, especially with the angels, gives me major winx club vibes. The stand amanii version looks so much better not gonna lie, I wish that’s what we got cause the concept is genuinely pretty interesting.

I think the reason I really liked this show, is because to me it was a simple concept, simple design, the girl being blond blue eyed and good , guy being dark emo and bad. Them falling in love, devils and angels. Just simple and cute! The friend aspect to me wasn't even needed. The villain reina was pretty cool though I almost wish the show just focused on the good parts and dropped the friendship part but it was probably targeted to young girls. Too bad it has so much potential. BTW am I the only one that things its weird the Angels had such revealing outfits for being angels? They're not winx they could have much girlier cuter designs that are more covered up to portray the angelic modesty.

Never heard of this show before, so this review is all new info to me. What a textbook example of missed potential. I love the idea of there being a Magic School based on the whole "Angel and Devil on each shoulder" trope. The contrast between the wholesome old-fashioned Angels and the punky rebellious Devils is really appealing, and I can see the moral dilemma of chaos and order's balance bringing a lot more drama overall(and not just romantically).

this show was litterally my childhood XD I learnt english while watching season 2 on youtube since it was never dubbed in my language... plus i watched the movie in french (which is also not my language) so many times that i started to understand it

I love how I can immediately recognize Jason Griffith's voice.

"I'M SONIC THE KIDNAPPER" - Sulfus probably I grew up with the comic as a kid, so when I saw the show in reviews and retrospectives here on yt. I wasn't a fan of the "teen" designs for some of the characters- I loved the devils designs (regardless). Rip Jason Griffith being in most 4kids dubs tho - love that Sulfus was his dark sonic / werehog voice. 😭

This is easily the most early to mid 00s piece of media I’ve ever seen since maybe WITCH and like … The 00s Batman cartoon. Emos? Goths? anime inspired artstyle? Some edge and some Angst? Oh god it’s perfect

Want a Devil-Angel love story with a twist? I would recommend Your Wings and Mine (it's a webtoon and it's really cool, I specially like the comedy/drama mix and the world building)

I haven't seen this show, but the idea of it is fun. I'm glad you went over it!

Tbh its a very cool but very challenging idea for a show! Would love to get a reboot with more mature writing!

I loved this serie when I was a kid... I still wait for the second season in italian (the serie was italian...)

I genuinely didn't remember this show, but i Can 100% say I watched it as a kid, im pretty sure it was pretty well known in Italy at that time, yet no one seems to recall it almost ever?? Tldr, i just had a major identity crisis, bcs i FEEL i watched it, i feel it in my bones, but i cannot recall it

I watched the italian version when I was a kid and I rewatched it on youtube as a teen. The italian dubbing was much better than the english one and that saved most of the plot since the emotions of the characters where expressed really well by the dubbers and that made it easier to forget about the plot holes. 16:57 This part in particular was an important moment for Raf, she was expressing her longing for Sulfus in a subtle way, it was still a filler episode where pretty much nothing happened, but in the italian version at least you get a feeling of what the protagonist is going through and the eanglish version just erased that completely. I agree with pretty much everything you said about the cartoon but you didn't mention the fact that there's also a movie in between season 1 and 2 where everybody goes to summer camp. In my opion it's the best part of Angel friends: Raf and Sulfus romance comes to its peak (probably one of the few times where they express their feelings more openly without reservation before their relationship gets strained again in season 2), we get to know what happened to the couple of angel and devil that fell in love before them and the plot point of becoming humans is introduced as a foreshadowing of the decision that Raf and Sulfus will make at the end of season 2.

I had no idea this show existed til this video, but Sulfus sharing the same English voice actor (Jason Griffith) as Sonic & Shadow in Sonic X was absolutely killing me during this entire video loll. I just keep hearing Sonic.

They got Sonic the Hendgehog as the main love interest

I remember the animation and artstyle being better😭 Me and my friends used to pretend we are them. My friend was the main one I was the pink one and the other friend was the blue one.

I've never heard of this show and the concept is actually so fire.. it's crazy how many amazing concepts exist in the form of underdeveloped poorly written kids cartoons like this sounds genuinely interesting af and the romance looks really loveable. I genuinely wanna watch this even if it is only somewhat subpar lmao

The dance kills me each time

I watched the first season before like years ago. Didn’t watch the movie, nor see much of the second season. However, I watched the first bit of it again recently, and just then realized that Sulfus is Jason Griffith, the voice of Sonic the Hedgehog, Professor Arkhan is Mike Pollock, the voice of Doctor Eggman, and Maliki is Dan Green, the voice of Knuckles the Echidna. And I’m a big fan of those three actors and the Sonic series! Probably the three and only three best out of the entire series

The English voices bring back so many memories I remember every time I’d take a bath I’d watch this with a shitty phone protector

the animation is uncanny to say the least

I randomly found this show online and looked it up on RU-vid back in 2016 or around that time. I feel in love with it and even rewatched a few times.

The emo frog shirt is fucking hilarious! Why? It predicted bullfrog from Captain Laserhawk a blood dragon remix.

I remember watching the greek dub of this as a kid and being down bad for so many characters 😭✋

Honestly I think it would have been cool if the battles were done internally as a struggle for the humans, the "cheats" being an internal conflict the human is having that starts leaning to one side or getting stronger

Never watched the show but found it interesting, so I gave this a watch. It’s a very good video, first and foremost! However, I had never heard Sulfus’s voice before. The amount of psychic damage I underwent when I went “why does he sound like Sonic Unlesshed Sonic” and learned Jason Griffith voiced him? I will never recover.

I started laughing when you showed the scene with the angel girl slapping the devil guy and him retaliating with a slap back 😂

I love how both in the show and the comic they kept the devil teacher pretty much the same. perfection achieved

7:28 I'm crying why does the boy in the picture look like light yagami

This was a great video! I love the concept of the show and i think the designs are so pretty, I really wish it had been done justice 😞

As a Brazilian, I have to say I've never heard of this cartoon in my life.

If I could put this show in one word....it would be...Soulless. From the Dead vacant doll eyes, Their LIMITED expressions, to the tone of their voices and writing. It's all so...empty and well...SOULLESS.

Angel Friends always confuse me because the title promises a series about friendship but literally all the villians target Raf/Sulfus for their relationship

I remember this. This was so bizarre. As a kid i thought it was a winx club knock off

until he went HUH at 20:44 i dead ass did not realize that's the sonic x sonic va and im losing my mind

I watched it in French, I don't remember if the dubbing was better than the English one seems to be. However I remember that Sweet's name wasn't translated in the French dub, she's just called Dolce

I have never heard of this show and I think if I watched it as a kid it would've rearranged my brain chemistry HARD

Angel friends was more something before hazbin hotel and helluva boss came

Dude, there was also the whole troubling storyline where Raf and Soulfist’s guardians wanna smash each of them respectively even though it seems like they’re just starting high school, and the guardians seem like they’re in college or possibly just graduated college and training for their careers in education. It had me doing so much math every time they popped up!

Sometimes I remember that dance battle scene.... that crap gave me PTSD

Lmao, they really animated bro magical-girling out of a burger?

2:04 what in the deviantart did I just witness 💀

Dude Sulfur lookin' too much like Zuko lmao

This animation reminds me of old school Trollz and Sabrina cartoons

2:57 you know an easy way they could have made that work is by, taking a page from pro wrestling’s play book, and having a referee for the challenges. If the Ref doesn’t see it, it didn’t happen.

Was made by the same people who thought having an animated titanic franchise was a good idea (sek studio/mondo italia)

I would have loved to have these as dolls! Their character designs are super cool :)

I just started watching your videos and I love your editing style and your replies to these shows!

You just triggered an old memory of watching a few episodes of this at my grandma's house then never thinking about it ever again

Not him attracting refrigerators in a mile radius I am dying.

it's like the ancestor of hazbin hotel... just absolutely fumbling the angel and demon, heaven and hell theme

I love that you used the dance as a segue 😂

You literally unlocked a memory for me!

Played this video while multitasking and got mentally flashbanged by Jason Griffith, 10/10

I can’t believe Sonic the Hedgehog turned into an emo devil boy

I remember this show as "lesser Winx Club" so i never watched much of it.

i really enjoy some of these character designs, especially the devils

As a angel's friends lover i really needed this to wake me up...

God i remember it so vividly now. 2000 strike so weirdly now.

this honestly seems like an interesting show I would def watch it

My cousin and I used to love this show as kids but I don't think the second season was ever dubbed to our language, and if it was it certainly was hard to find. I have fond memories of seasons one but I don't think I would rewatch any time as an adult in an effort to not break them.

1:25 In other words... Oh, we are The Buddy Bears, we always get along, Each day we do a little dance, and sing a little song, If you ever disagree, it means that you are wrong, Oh, we are the Buddy Bears, we always get along!

1:18 Had to stop, relisten, then google search to realize that I wasn't crazy and that this was indeed Bloom's voice coming out of this girl's body 😅😮

Thank you for reviving so many lost childhood shows. Now I see where my love of enemies to lovers came from LOL. A very good series

The comic had so much potential and personality... we were robbed.

The only thing I remember from this show is being thirsty for angel/demon taboo relationships and whoever the hell was the lady villain of the show

I love the style and looks, that’s real y2k right there

I finally found it. That random series that I found as a kid that came on Sunday morning cartoons

Let's all dream of a better world where shows like Angel's Friends and Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir have better animation, a BETTER PRODUCTION SCHEDULE, and are aimed at a slightly older audience so they can actually portray more mature storylines but not to the extent of like the Joker beating Robin to death with a crowbar levels of mature.

11:58 he really busted out of a burger 💀

Angel frinds is a rare case of a show that can actually benefit from a remake. Takes some of the comic, some of the show, some new things.

I rlly like this analysis especially when you got deep into how theres no personality to angels friends 😭

I watched this as a kid and loved it, Ngl this was my tans awakening because I really really wanted to be sullfix (idk how you spell it) but I was an emo kid who really wanted to be punk boy

Omg thank you so much for your review!! No one talks about this show and honestly this was like my whole childhood

1:19 MY CHILDHOOD CRUSH..

I was devastated when as a kid I realized that this show ended without a satisfying conclusion.

I watched this when I was younger and I completely forgot about it until this video 😂