Many, many thanks to Daniel P., who is one of my favorite “people who I have never met.” Once again, it is through his kindness and generosity that I am able to bring you a review of something shiny. In this case, the shinyness comes in the form of Burst Angel, Volume 3.

There’s some good in Volume 3, some bad and a lot of “now, where are we going with this?” and finally, towards the end, it appears as if the story might *actually* go somewhere. Where it goes is reasonably bizarre, but at least it’s off and running. :-)

If you recall, last volume, we had a story in which Kyouhei (which the American VA for the part pronounces “Kee-yo-hey” which obviously drives the *other* VAs a little crazy, because they keep saying “Kyou-hei” very pointedly at him) and Jo bash around the city, ostensibly to something something, but really so they can bond a bit.

This volume starts off with another “get to know” episode. In this case, we’re treated to a visual feast that is meant to introduce us to the complicated life of Sei-who-is-not-named-Beth. The obligations of her family/organization ties, and the trials of being a leader (and, in fact, what it means to be a leader.)

Sei-who-is-not-named-Beth is a good leader. The other guy, the bad guy for the episode, is not. It’s a simple moral – real leaders feel the weight of their followers’ trust as a responsibility, not as an invitation to do whatever they want. Duh.

So, because Sei-who-is-not-named-Beth is a good leader, Meg and Jo are inspired to help her escape an untenable situation. Meg is given some help through manipulation of qi, how convenient, and becomes, for a short time, a gungfu master. But it’s Jo who saves the day with lots of bullets.

The next episode is just wrong. This time it’s Amy and Kyouhei who bond in a very Alice in Wonderland type episode. Hacker Amy is dragged into a digital reality where a bunch of creepy FanBoys “invite” her to stay with them. The best part of this episode was Kyouhei’s low-res face in a box and the fact that the otaku created artificial bodies for themselves that are just as unappealing as their meat bodies probably were, with extra dorkiness for having monitors for faces. Because, obviously, all of us geeks want to be dorkish robot bodies w/freak faces. Obviously.
(Hello, writers? That’s your audience you’re dissin’ there….)

Finally, finally, finally, the plot gets revving in the last two episodes. It doesn’t make more sense, mind you, but at least there’s an inkling of a plot. We move to Osaka, where their professional wrestling industry is being threatened by real monster. Jo saves the day, but is arrested by the sincere and zealous Osaka Police which is made up of a series of familiar stereotypes. The fact that one of these is Takane, the sword-wielding, ex-motorcycle gang member has absolutely *nothing* to do with the fact that I like this bit a lot. (Don’t believe me? Me neither. ^_^)

So, slowly, some of the random bits from previous episodes are gathered together (several by flashback, in case we forogt them,) and a even sillier than usual evil shadow organization begins to appear in the background mist. Or something. In any case, Jo shoots things alot.

In terms of Yuri, it’s way minimal. On Sei-who-is-not-named-Beth’s grandfather’s ship, Meg fantasizes about having cool martial arts skills and how she would save Jo and Jo would be all over her. That was basically all that we got. But it was kind of cute and harkened back to Meg’s similar, if slightly more explicit, fantasies in the manga.

The extras continue to be rewarding. Three radio dramas where Watanabe Akeno (Jo) and Toyoguchi Megumi (Meg) have tongue-twister showdowns, act out fan-created dramas and generally babble alot, and two extras where they talk in incredibly high-pitched voices about *nothing*. English cast commentary on the Amy in Wonderland adventure, where they saw the mildly suggestive scenes as being way filthier than I saw them as. And the usual color pamphlet with Japanese cast and crew commentary and purty pictures of things.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Characters – 5
Story – 5
Yuri – 1
Service – 6 (Breasts simply don’t do that. They just *don’t*)

Overall – 5

I’m surprised at how much of Bakuretsu Tenshi I remember since I watched all those many long years ago. I would have sworn that I had forgotten most of it, but nope.

Burst Angel, Volume 2 starts off in the middle of a story which is suspiciously similar to the infamous hentai anime, Bible Black. And that’s about the best thing about the whole volume. ^_^;

Let me stop here and offer my thanks to Daniel P. who sponsored today’s review! Yay!

Meg is undercover at a creepy private girls’ school in which students are going missing or going insane. She is schmoozed mightily by the ultimate star of the school, while she tries to find out the dirt behind the “Ishtar club” – the exclusive, elite, star-chamber cabal that everyone admires, desires and fears. To everyone’s (everyone that has never seen Bible Black, that is) surprise Meg finds herself attacked by a demon. Jo is forced to put on the school uniform just long enough to allow Meg to be kidnapped so she can rescue her from the demon-y evil thing at the center of the mystery. It is a great shock to us all to learn the true identity of the demon is….!

The second two episodes deal with a giant robot crow who kidnaps girls and therefore takes a stab at kidnapping Meg so Jo can fire up Jango and rescue her. Jo is successful, sadly. In the course of this arc, we learn that the occasional glowing brain is not just a shiny special effect, but an actual plot complication. Also, Kyouhei is injected with an SPCD (Stupid Plot Complication Disorder.) In this case, a virus that takes 6 hours to germinate within his body and then will kill him spectacularly. (Okay, they don’t say it’ll be spectacular, but I like to project.) Under the guise of saving Meg, Jo drags Kyouhei all around town pointlessly, in order for them to bond.

While the plots of this volume ain’t all that, the extras are. Once again, we have English voice commentary and Japanese radio dramas.

The English voice commentary is amusing. They comment on totally random things, background characters, Sei-who-is-not-Beth’s gravity-defying breasts, and the fact that the point on Jango’s head is supposed to be a cowboy hat, not a dunce cap. (Something I completely missed. Who has the dunce cap now, Erica? Huh?)

The Japanese radio dramas are strange and awkward, but amusing, as well. Watanabe Akeno (Jo) and Toyoguchi Megumi (Meg) do things like have a tongue-twister show downs, try to record a play written by a viewer with sound/fx and all, and have an entire segment where they speak in piercing, dog-whistle high-pitched voices about beer.

Not happy with just actually having cool extras, the liner notes are full of pictures and commentary. Very shiny.

Ratings:

Art – wildly inconsistent, but it averages at about a 6
Characters – 5
Story – 5
Yuri – 1
Service – 6

Overall – 5

The extras are so good, it’s *almost* as if they’re trying to make up for the lack of content in the anime.

Let’s all show our appreciation to Daniel today for his kindness and generosity and for sponsoring today’s review! Thanks Daniel!!

Watching Volume 1 of Burst Angel reminded me of a lot of things. It reminded me why I never reviewed the anime in the first place, primarily. ^_^;

Okay, so, after a really silly rap theme that does not benefit much from being translated we are introduced to a dystopian future Tokyo in which nearly everyone is allowed to carry a gun. This has only served to heighten the chaos and violence in an already chaotic and violent city. The government has created a paramilitary force, RAPT, to assist cleaning up, but they seem to be as much the problem as the cure.

In the middle of this we meet the schlub du jour, Kyouhei, who is trying to make enough money to go to Europe to train as a chef. He’s a nice kid and a good cook and through no fault of his own, he gets embroiled with four freelance agents; three of whom are mysteriously named after sisters from Little Women. Jo, the fighter of the group, clearly has superhuman powers, Meg, her caretaker and chief kidnapping target is mostly there to be saved. Emi (Amy) is a hardcore tech otaku and loli fodder. Sei, who is not named Beth for some reason, is the money and assumably, but not apparently, the brains behind the team.

It drives me crazy – why three of the four??? The wife says I need to let it go, but…

Thankfully for all Yuri fans, the focus of the series is not Kyouhei, as first seems. Rather quickly, the focus shifts to the place where it will stay through most of the series – Meg and Jo.

The four women take on jobs from Sei’s contacts which usually lead to several things: Meg being kidnapped, Jo having to blow lots of things up with and without her giant robot Django, and involvement with any number of stereotypical bad guys and shady conspiracy figures. By episode three hints of the larger plot have reared their ugly head (and yes, that’s a pun of sorts). Despite my lack of interest in the actual plot, I have to give them snaps for doing something with it, even if it’s all pretty predictable.

Here’s things I thought were bad: the opening theme is laughable, the plot is rather dull, the use of the giant robot is a hand wave we must simply accept, and for all that Jo’s dedication to Meg is *very* obvious, there’s not much reciprocity, at least in this first volume (Don’t write and tell me about later bits – I know about them, but I’m not reviewing those volumes yet.)

In fact, compared with the Bakuretsu Tenshi manga (click this link, the top three are the English manga reviews,) the Yuri in this series is seriously leveled down. (The manga came second, so really it leveled up the Yuri.) Meg comes off as being nothing more than a victim for Jo to save. More deadly, during an episode commentary in the extras section, the voice actors for Jo and Meg and the director are all going on and on about how they are so best friends, that Meg and Jo – best friends for-evar, etc, etc. I was like, “they aren’t best friends…”

Which brings me to the best thing about the DVD – the extras. Each disc will have commentary on one episode – of course this is commentary with the English staff and actors. It wasn’t very interesting, but it was kind of fun to listen to – and it made me listen to Monica Rial as Jo. She absolutely did a good job of sounding nothing like her speaking voice, I’ll give her that. She wasn’t as deep, or monotonal as Watanabe Akeno, but she definitely did a decent job. Also included in the extras are three radio dramas and two bonus tracks with the original voices actresses – subtitled. You just *know* I liked that. Opening and ending credits without text, and outtakes which I’m watching are right now and really aren’t very funny – mostly stumbling over lines – and trailers. The DVD box has a reversible cover and the liner notes include character sketches and info on characters, the art, comments from Watanabe and info on the opening and ending themes. All very cool indeed – too bad the actual anime isn’t that interesting. ^_^; Okay, The Japanese seiyuu commentary isn’t any better, either. (Bug bites, dreams about whales…pollen season…seriously….)

I do have to mention something Toyoguchi Megumi says during the first bonus track – that she wasn’t used to doing radio shows with other women, she’s usually with older men. Remember, this was pre-Marimite days for her. I bet she’s way used to it now. Also, ironically, just as Jo was the first butchy character Monica Rial ever played, the same was true for Watanabe Akeno. Ironic, huh.

Ratings:

Art – 7 with a strong favoritism paid to the CG over the conventional art
Characters – 5
Story – 5
Yuri – 1
Service – 6

Overall – 5

The extras are stellar. Best part of the series so far.