Tenshi Nanka ja Nai (天使なんかじゃない) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Ai Yazawa. It was serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine Ribon from 1991 to 1994, with its chapters collected in eight volumes. An original video animation (OVA), animated by Group TAC and directed by Hiroko Tokita, was released in 1994.

Plot

Midori Saejima is a first-year high school student at the newly established Hijiri Gakuen. She is persuaded by her classmates to run for student council, and she becomes eager to apply once she realizes that Akira Sudō, a mysterious boy to whom she is attracted, is also running for student council. Akira and Midori are elected president and vice-president respectively, along with Bunta Kōno, Yūko Mamiya, and Shūichi Takigawa as other officers. Though Midori and Akira quickly develop a close relationship, Midori learns that he has been romantically attracted to Hiroko Maki, her favorite art teacher, since middle school. Akira reveals that while Hiroko remains an important person in his life, she is already romantically involved with his tutor, Masashi Sakamoto. Akira eventually reciprocates Midori's feelings and they begin dating. However, after Hiroko and Masashi break up, Midori suggests to Akira that they too should break up once she notices he is unable to prioritize her over Hiroko. After their break-up, Midori begins dating Ken Nakagawa, a musician and friend from middle school, but she realizes she cannot love anyone but Akira and ends their relationship. Before she is able to reconcile with Akira, he suddenly takes a three-month leave of absence from school to search for Masashi abroad. While traveling in France, Akira calls Midori and admits he is in love with her, and the two resolve their relationship. Midori later learns Akira decided to look for Masashi in order to find closure with his complicated feelings towards Hiroko, as well as the fact that he had discovered Masashi is his half-brother. Once Akira locates Masashi in India, the two return to Japan. Hiroko and Masashi get married and decide to travel abroad, with Hiroko quitting her teaching job. Akira decides to enter a preparatory college to eventually take over his father's company, while the rest of their classmates make plans for after high school graduation. Midori decides to enter a 4-year art college and eventually becomes an art teacher at Hijiri Gakuen.

Characters

Media

Manga

Written and illustrated by Ai Yazawa, Tenshi Nanka ja Nai was serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine Ribon from the September 1991 to the November 1994 issues. While conceptualizing the series, Yazawa debated on the story centered on a rockabilly band or a student council. While she settled for a student council at the recommendation of her editor, the band concept would later be reused for Nana in 2000. Yazawa also stated that she was asked by her editor to make her female characters more "attractive" and was also faced with the challenge of creating a story that would draw in Ribon's reader demographic of elementary school girls. After consulting people for suggestions on the main character, Yazawa was given feedback that children project themselves onto the main character, and that if she made the main character a popular girl at school, the target audience might find interest with it. Yazawa then decided to draw a school life story that people would be "entertained" by. The title came from a random phrase Yazawa pieced together that she felt expressed the main character, Midori, which she aimed to depict as a "proper human girl" who, while she was a "kind" and "good girl" that was "like an angel", also naturally had moments where she is "not like that all the time." Chapter 29 shows a cameo appearance of characters from Marine Blue no Kaze ni Dakarete, Yazawa's previous work. Shueisha collected its chapters in eight volumes, released from May 15, 1992, to March 15, 1995. The series was republished in a four-volume edition in 2000, and a six-volume edition from 2008 to 2009. A five-volume "reorganized" version was released in 2019.

Volumes

Original video animation

A 30-minute original video animation (OVA) was released on September 21, 1994. It was animated by Group TAC and directed by Hiroko Tokita, with script by Tomoko Konparu, character designs by Yasuomi Umetsu, and music composed by Fujio Takano.

Reception

By June 2019, the manga had over 10 million copies in circulation. The series ranked fifth in a survey conducted by Oricon on the top ten manga series.