Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
When it comes to white-winged angels, there’s a certain virtuous image imprinted in our heads, so we expect them to be beautiful, kind, and helpful, if nothing else. And while the angel in 2023 Japanese series “One Room Angel” is beautiful, with lovely white wings, he is also surprisingly self-centered and would rather click selfies than help someone.
Directed by Watatane Aya, “One Room Angel” (Wan Ruumu Enjeru) is based on a manga series of the same name by Harada. The story follows Tomoda Koki (Uesugi Shuhei), a convenience store worker who narrowly escapes death after being stabbed by some goons. As Koki loses consciousness, he witnesses an angel (Nishimura Takuya) descending near him and thinks it’s a dream. However, he is confounded when the angel appears in his cramped one-room flat, claiming to have no memories of its own existence. Aimless, friendless, fired from his job for fighting goons and nearly broke, Koki is down in the dumps, but he lets the angel stay with him until it can figure out things and learn to fly…
The first episode opens in a dingy alley, where a bloodied Koki lies injured while his assailants flee from the crime scene. A grim tone is set for the tale in the first few seconds, quickly brightened up by the arrival of an angel, serving as a subtle metaphor for how its arrival is about to change Koki’s pitiable existence. “One Room Angel” deceptively begins as a dark-comedic fantasy tale about an otherworldly being and the protagonist. There’s an inexplicable bond between the two – the angel feels the same emotions as Koki and loses a few feathers whenever Koki is sad, anxious, or experiencing negative feelings.
Nishimura Takuya is radiant and rather impish as the angel, the character often complains about Koki’s messy little room and how it stinks but doesn’t move a finger to clean or organise things, despite being a parasitic freeloader. As the plot progresses, a darker back-story linked to the angel emerges, giving “One Room Angel” an emotional depth that it lacked for the first half. While the angel looks like a pretty teenage boy, Uesugi Shuhei as the older Koki offers a great contrast in personalities. Unlike the beautiful angel, he looks like an ordinary working man, with lifeless eyes and zero zeal for life. His proximity and interactions with the winged-boy subtly brings upon a lot of changes in his bleak existence. What I liked about Koki’s character was his sense of self-awareness – he knows there’s a strong possibility that the angel could just be a figment of his imagination, because of his desperate need for some company. But until the climactic episode, the writers manage to keep up the intrigue surrounding Nishumura’s character. Hasegawa Kyoko has a small but entertaining cameo as Koki’s mother Arisa, who doesn’t even bother to visit him after his stabbing incident, but does help him sail through the tough times.
With a crisp six-episode runtime, the mini-series is evenly paced, with no meandering sub-plots to take the attention away from the lead protagonists. And even though Tomodo Koki isn’t your typical hero, the primary theme of the story is about how human connections can go a long way in healing even the most broken of people. Despite being a fantasy-like tale, “One Room Angel” is deep-rooted in reality and characters grappling with the struggles and complexities of modern-day life.
Rating: 7 on 10.
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