Our verdict
Elegant Angel started life in 1990 as a subsidiary of Evil Angel, founded by a guy named Patrick Collins who’d joined John Stagliano’s operation as a sales manager just the year before. That’s a fast climb, sales guy to studio founder in twelve months. Collins took the company fully independent in 1996 and cut ties with Evil Angel completely by 1998, and along the way both studios ended up being credited as early pioneers of the gonzo style, which makes sense given how closely linked their origins are.
Collins ran the show for over twenty years before stepping away in 2013, and the studio’s bounced between a few different owners since then, currently sitting with Adult Empire as of 2022. Alina Li has scenes here, and Hope Howell too, both solid picks if you want to see the gonzo style this studio helped establish still being put to good use.
If you’re into Evil Angel’s whole aesthetic but want a slightly different flavor of the same basic gonzo DNA, this is basically the sister studio to check out, they came from the same place and it shows.
