John Oppliger’s Bloody Angel Now in Print

On March 26, 1994, I began writing rough drafts and notes for my original anime-inspired novel Bloody Angel. Twenty-three years later, I’m happy to say that I’ve finally completed and self-published the book. The lovely cover was created by AnimeNation’s former graphics designer Alden J. Thomas.

Japan of the mid twenty-third century has become an isolated country politically dominated by a Marxist ideology that strictly segregates the wealthy and powerful from the working class. 21-year-old Anastasia Fujiwara’s simple life is abruptly overturned when she finds herself turned into an unwilling pawn in a vicious corporate power struggle that leaves her parents dead and herself with her own two legs and right arm replaced with cybernetic prosthetics. As Anastasia begins a violent quest for explanations and justice, she discovers that everything she believed about herself and her world has been a lie. Futuristic noir and ancient Japanese magic collide in an emotionally devastating convergence as Anastasia struggles to attain vengeance against those who stripped her of everything she held dear, find a new understanding of her own identity, and ultimately secure an emotional peace.

I wholeheartedly believe that Bloody Angel is a satisfying, exciting, and affecting story. Furthermore, I’m confident that readers who choose to analyze and interpret the novel carefully will find that it’s extensively filled with underlying symbolism, allusion, metaphor, and theme. While the book can easily be read as a straightforward futuristic action novel, underneath the surface nearly every line of dialogue, piece of clothing characters wear, location of events, and order in which scenes occur in relation to others contains deliberate sub-textual meaning. The story references a wide range of influences and concepts, including anime, pop music, Japanese history, the Kojiki (Shinto creation mythology), and Christian iconography.

Bloody Angel is now available in paperback and Ebook formats. Particularly if you’d like a digital review copy, please do ask me.