Anidemon

Angelic Layer

After arriving in the city, Misaki Suzuhara watches the battle doll Athena on a big screen television outside of Tokyo Station and becomes interested in learning about the amazingly popular toy called Angelic Layer, a game in which players (called Deus) buy and custom-design dolls known as Angels. Angels can move by mental control when on a field called the “layer”. Layers are very expensive, and most people pay to use them by the hour in establishments resembling cybercafes.

An eccentric man wearing a white lab coat and glasses, calling himself “Icchan”, encourages Misaki to purchase and create her own angel. She names the angel Hikaru, after Hikaru Shidō from Clamp’s Magic Knight Rayearth which she was reading on the train to Tokyo, because she wants the angel to be “a short girl, but strong and happy” like Hikaru and herself.

Even though she’s clueless about the game, Misaki soon begins to compete in tournament, and is assisted and watched carefully by Icchan. Later Icchan’s identity is revealed as Ichiro Mihara, the co-creator of Angelic Layer.