Angel's Friends
Angel's Friends is an Italian magical girl comic series created by Simona Ferri that debuted in March 2007. On 12 October 2009, an animated series of the same name premiered on Italia 1. A second season of 52 episodes was announced in January 2011 and premiered in Russia on 29 April 2012.
A television film, Angel's Friends – Tra Sogno e Realtà, premiered on 23 April 2011.
In the United States, the show is available via NBC, syndication and many local stations air the program on their secondary subchannel service to fulfill FCC mandates. The second season, dubbed in English, French and Russian, has been uploaded to YouTube by Mondo TV in September 2014.
A live-action adaptation of the animated series is in talks. A teaser pilot titled Darkly was produced in 2016 by Play Entertainment and Mad Rocket Entertainment, adapted by Daniele Cosci and directed by Alessio Liguori, with Alessandro Danzi as Sulfus, Demetra Bellina as Raf and Denise Tantucci as Reina. The plot is aimed to an older audience and follows a darker storyline, where Raf and Sulfus are killed by Reina and reborn as humans without memories.
Plot
Four Angels and four Devils are sent to Earth, in an unused area of the Golden School, where they learn everything they need to become Guardian Angels and Guardian Devils. The Angels and Devils are required to form pairs as part of their education, each of which will have to deal with a human being, known as Earthly Ones, and help them choose between the right and wrong way in life without being discovered. Angels and Devils cannot operate at the same time, so they decide, clashing in the Challenge Room, who will work first. Moreover, they are subject to the V.E.T.O..Comic plot
While the Angels and Devils are attending their stage on Earth, the planet is threatened by ancient creatures, the Reliveds, led by a mysterious man called Maliki. He was a Devil who gave up his eternal life because he loved a human woman, named Vera. When she left him, he decided to take revenge on all Angels, Devils and humans. As a result, the Angels and Devils form an alliance to fight against him.Cartoon plot
First season
The evil Neutral One Reina, imprisoned in the Limbo with her slave Maliki, wants to take revenge of Angels and Devils who confined her. To get free, a sacrilege is necessary: because of this, she exploits the rising feelings between Raf, an Angel, and Sulfus, a Devil, forcing them to kiss. The sacrilege breaks the chains and Reina, once free, tells the truth about her origins to Raf: she was born a Terrestrian and was adopted by the Tall Spheres when her parents, two powerful sovereigns, died during the struggle between Angels and Devils. The Neutral One persuades Raf to enter in the Hall of Portraits to see her parents' faces: while the Angel is in, Reina steals all of the portraits to control the Earthly One's will. At the end of the first season, using the Prism Fly ability, Raf, the Angels and the Devils manage to defeat Reina. Raf discovers that her real father is Maliki, who sacrifices his life to save her, while her mother is imprisoned somewhere in an endless slumber.Second season
After the Summer vacations, Angels and Devils return to the Golden School to begin the second year of their stage, there new Earthly Ones are given to them. Meanwhile, Sulfus is blackmailed by two masked eternals who hold in their possession Raf's mother: Angelie. In order to make sure Sulfus does not try to escape their control, a mysterious girl: Blu, watches over him. Raf and Sulfus' love is highly tested with the appearance of these new enemies and more mysteries about Raf's past are revealed. At the end of the second season, Raf and Sulfus learn that the School's Angel principle, Cassidy, and Devil principle, Kubral, manipulated them in order to destroy the V.E.T.O.'s scales and wage war against each other.Differences between comic and cartoon
- In the comic, the main characters are younger: in fact, while in the cartoon they are the same age as Raf, in the comic the heroine is 12, Uri 11 and Miki 9; Sulfus is 13, Kabale and Gas 10, Cabiria is 11.
- Sweet, Misha and Reina don't appear in the comic, while the Angel Ang-Lì, the Devil Mephisto, and Raoul, the Earthly one loved by Raf, aren't shown in the cartoon.
- In the comic, the hobbies of Angels and Devils are shown, while in the cartoon they are not. For example, Raf is keen on ecological remedies, such as beauty masks and infusions, Miki is a music expert, Kabale loves chemistry, alchemy and numerology. Cabiria likes films, cartoons and comics and she's a director and an illustrator. Gabe is a genius of technology and uses a handheld.
- In the comic, Angels are part of a funk band, in which Raf is the vocalist, Gabe plays the keyboard, Miki the bass, Uri the drums and Ang-Lì the sax. The Devils have their own rock band: Sulfus plays the bass, Kabale the electric guitar, Cabiria the drums, Gas the keyboard and Mephisto is the vocalist.
- In the comic, Miki is repeating the school year because she tried to heal her Earthly one, breaking the V.E.T.O.. Sulfus behaves like a seducer, which doesn't happen in the cartoon.
- The character design of the cartoon is far different than that of the comic.
- In the comic, Arkhan and Temptel don't teach "positive Earthly life" and "negative Earthly life", but "positive Earthly infancy" and "negative Earthly infancy", as the characters are younger.
Characters
Places
;Angie TownSulfur City
;Earthly city
;Golden School
;Mistery House
;Limbo
;Path of Metamorphoses
;Sunny College
;Princess Theater
Episodes
The cartoon is produced by R.T.I., Mondo TV and Play Entertainment, directed by Orlando Corradi and written by Francesco Arlanch and Francesco Balletta. However, the first one who realized the cartoon was the Italian company Stranemani, but during the comic festival in Cannes the version by Mondo TV was chosen, despite the Stranemani version using the same character designs from the comic.First season (2009–2010)
In Italy, Mondo Home Entertainment released the first season in ten DVDs, starting in November 2009. DVDs were also sold in Czech Republic and Russia.Second season
Film
A television movie based on the animated series and settled between the first and the second season aired, in Italy, on 23 April 2011. The movie focuses on the Angels attending the Summer School at the Sunny College in Alpinville, where Raf hopes she will not meet Sulfus. The Devils show up at the school and Raf tells Sulfus she has fallen in love with someone else. Meanwhile, the Earthly ones receive the task of refurbishing the Theatre of Princes and organising a play, Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare. However, they are attacked by a mysterious hooded man who wants them to leave the theatre. The Angels and the Devils decide to investigate and find out the truth about Tyco and Sai's fate. At last, Raf and Sulfus conclude that they'll decide what to do about their future together once returned to the Golden School for the new term.CD
On 2 November 2010, a CD dedicated to Angel's Friends was released. The album, produced by Mediaset record company, contains the full Italian opening theme performed by Cristina D'Avena and several songs named after the characters of the series, 11 songs totally. The tracks are in English, but the opening theme.- Angel's Friends – Cristina D'Avena
- Cabiria – Kate Kelly
- Kabalè – Gabriella Vainiglia
- Malachia – Silvio Pozzoli
- Gas – Antonio Divincenzo
- Miki – Maria Concetta Montesano
- Raf – Gisella Cozzo
- Sulfus – Mark Evans
- Reina – Jacobs Sewit Villa
- Dolce – Fabiana Vitellio
- Uriè – Barbara Comi
International broadcast
| Country | Channel/s |
| Albania | Bang Bang, Sofia Channel |
| Argentina | LS 85 TV, LV 81 TV |
| Canada | Univision Canada, Ici Radio-Canada Télé |
| Czech Republic | n/a |
| France | Télétoon+ |
| Greece | Star Channel, Makedonia TV ERT2 |
| Iran | Tameshk tv |
| Israel | Arutz HaYeladim |
| Italy | Italia 1, Boing |
| Malaysia | NTV7 |
| Mexico | KW, a+ |
| Peru | Frequencia Latina |
| Poland | TVN Style |
| Portugal | SIC K |
| Russia | Teleteen, TV3, Obzor TV, Multimania |
| Serbia | Ultra |
| Spain | Cartoon Network, Telecinco, Boing |
| Sweden | TV4 |
| Taiwan | Nice Bingo |
| Turkey | Star TV, Smart Çocuk, Planet Çocuk, Kidz TV, JOJO |
| United Arab Emirates | Spacetoon |
| United States | NBC, syndication |
| Venezuela | Venevisión |
Publications
Comic
The monthly publication of the comic Angel's Friends by Play Press began in March 2007. The printed version was edited by Red Whale and Yellow Whale, scripted by Bruno Enna and drawn by Giada Perissinotto. The publication was discontinued in January 2008 with the release of Chapter 14, A Spark in the Heart.A second version of the comic, based on the cartoon, was published bimonthly by Preziosi Collection since 2009, in Angel's Friends Magazine. It was discontinued after the release of No. 4.
Chapters of Play Press comic
- The Eternal Day
- The Watcher
- Only Two Steps
- A Tiny Evil
- Angels' City
- Sulfus's Shadow
- The Neutralmancer
- Secret-Blurter
- The Guardian
- Never More Together
- The Other Side of Love
- The Susceptible Point
- Between Dream and Reality
- A Spark in the Heart
Chapters of Preziosi comic
- Chasing the wind
- Unsaid things
- The storm
- Between Good and Evil
Books