Review of Burst Angel: Vol. 1

Introduction

It`s been a couple of weeks since the last new anime series debut came across my desk for review. My mouth is dry, I`ve got the shakes, I can`t eat, I can`t think straight, and I wake up in the middle of the night gasping for air. Hello, my name is Jitendar and I`m an anime addict. Who am I trying to kid? This is one habit that I have no intention of trying to quit, and just in time to give me my fix comes a new series from the studios of Gonzo Digimation. Gonzo are renowned for eye-candy like Kiddy Grade and Gantz, and any release from them is certain to be a feast for the senses, if not always for the intellect. Burst Angel features four attractive girls, big guns, bigger robots and plenty of action. The sound you hear is the rubbing of my hands with glee.

It`s one of those futures where society has fallen to pieces. In Tokyo, the ownership of guns has been made legal, and as a result crime rates have skyrocketed. Arrests however are down, as for the new RAPT (Recently Armed Police of Tokyo) it cuts down on paperwork when there isn`t a living prisoner to process. When just stepping outside your front door means taking your life in your hands, someone needs to do something. Fortunately there are four girls willing to do what is necessary to ensure peace for the citizens of Tokyo. Operating from a hi-tech trailer and receiving their instructions from the faceless Bailan, Sei, Amy, Meg and the enigmatic Jo set forth, armed to the teeth and ready to battle the toughest of villains. When it gets too tough, they can fall back on the services of the awesome Cybot Django, but there is more to Jo than meets the eye. She sports a strange tattoo that glows when she fights, and the rumour is that whoever sees it is destined for Hell. One day, the girls advertise for a new chef…

This first volume of Burst Angel has the opening four episodes. Depending which language you watch in, the episodes have slightly different titles. I`ve quoted both, English version first.

Ep 1. Hell Comes Silently / Hell Silently Approaches
Kyohei Tachibana is a delivery boy, who ends up in the wrong end of town during a showdown between an armed criminal and a mysterious grey-haired girl. He survives the battle, but his bike is toasted. It`s time to look for a new job, and he answers an ad for a personal chef. He meets three odd girls, Sei, Meg and Amy who live in a giant trailer, all wanting a break from a diet of junk food. When a fourth girl, Jo shows up, he recognises the same girl who saved his life earlier. Suddenly, the girls get a message, and Kyohei gets unceremoniously pitched out of the door, told on the way out to come back the next day. It doesn`t look as if he`ll make it, as he`s still dusting himself off when he`s kidnapped by a group of strange men.

Ep 2. The Heartless Gunfighter / The Coldhearted Gunfighter
Kyohei has had a rude introduction to the girls` line of work, used as he was as a pawn in a Mexican standoff. Meg and Jo meant to break up some underworld dealings, but Meg wound up rescuing their new chef. Meanwhile things got even hotter when a giant robot crashed through the ceiling, and kidnapped Meg. Back in the trailer and monitoring the situation, Amy manages to track the robot and Meg to the abandoned section of the city and criminal haven of Shibuya. Jo is intent on rescuing Meg, only she volunteers Kyohei to help, against his will and at gunpoint if necessary.

Ep 3. City Where The Beast Howls / The City Where Beasts Howl
After the explosive adventure, Kyohei quits in order to pursue a longer life. But one taste of his cooking means that the girls aren`t all that eager to lose their new chef, and he`s soon back at work in the trailer. Meanwhile Meg and Jo have a mission to track down a homeless vagrant named Wong. Why they are apprehending a half crazy man is unclear, but he obviously is of some importance as RAPT get there first and kidnap him. Meg and Jo follow the ambulance to a factory in the industrial area, and walk right into trouble.

Ep 4. The Brothers Die At Dawn/ Brothers Die At Dawn
Meg`s in trouble again, trapped on a train, held at gunpoint by Wong`s brother who holds her responsible for his fate. The other girls chase after the train in order to affect a rescue. Meg learns that RAPT is up to something nefarious in partnership with Hinode Pharmaceuticals, using Wong as a lab rat. More than one faction would kill to obtain the secret now pulsing through Wong`s veins. It`s just that Wong has plans of his owns for the train.

Video

Gonzo have created an elaborate future world for Burst Angel, and it comes across clearly on this anamorphic widescreen transfer. The cityscape is glorious to look at, the futuristic designs of the buildings and the machinery is intricate and detailed. That same level of detail is applied to the 3D animation, and it hits straight between the eyes in the opening sequence, an explosive and dynamic battle between a zombie operated giant mecha and the streamlined form of the robot Django. The 2D animation doesn`t quite fit though, with the simpler looking characters not quite seeming to inhabit the world. Perhaps it`s the excess of primary colours, or rather the fact that in terms of lighting and interacting with the environment, the characters seem outside the backgrounds, but they don`t live up to the detail of the backgrounds or machinery. Also, while the action animation is quite dynamic, the quieter moments seem less so. Still, given a cast of four scantily clad girls, performing athletic feats of bravado, there is enough flesh and pneumatic anatomy to satisfy many a teen.

Unfortunately, all this is let down by a poor transfer. Digital artefacts abound, and edge enhancement is apparent from the first moment. There are also moments of severe pixellation, but most of these seem confined to the first episode. The artefacts remain problematic throughout though, and if anything it felt as if I was watching a digital terrestrial transmission rather than a DVD. It doesn`t detract too much from the viewing experience, but it is still the worst transfer I have seen for an anime in quite some time.

Audio

You get a choice of DD 5.1 soundtracks in English and Japanese, and you can choose to have just the signs translated, the translated English subtitles or the dubtitles that match the English dub, or indeed no captions at all. As usual I found the original Japanese track preferable to the dub, although it wasn`t because Kyohei sounds like Fry from Futurama in the dub. This is an action heavy show, and that is reflected in the dynamism of the soundtracks, however the English dub seemed to place any sound that appeared off screen firmly in the rears. It was an either-or situation that sounds pretty unrealistic. Admittedly the Japanese track also suffered from this, but to a lesser extent. Other than that, the Burst Angel audio experience is quite explosive, with plenty of action and some toe tapping music. The dialogue is clear throughout, and it`s an enjoyable experience on the whole.

Features

MVM have come out well with the extras on this disc, although it doesn`t match up to the Region 1 release, which also had an episode commentary and outtakes. The region 2 version gets the usual MVM jacket picture and attractive menus. You can see the Textless songs, complete with optional translated subtitles, and there are trailers for Gungrave and Kiddy Grade.

Most impressive are the radio dramas however. In Japan, with the release of an anime series, there is often an accompanying radio drama, where the voice actors can continue or expand stories, add bonus sketches and generally have more fun with the characters. As well as being transmitted, these are usually also available on audio CD. Which is great if you`re fluent in Japanese. The radio dramas would be wasted on us lesser mortals.

What this release of Burst Angel has done is that it has included three of the Radio Bakuten shows with the DVD. (Bakuten is short for Bakuretsu Tenshi a.k.a. Burst Angel). With the magic of DVD, you can hear the shows against a slide of the characters with the appropriate subtitles translating the dialogue.

The Burst Angel radio shows aren`t so much extensions of the show, but more an opportunity for voice actresses Akeno Watanabe (Jo) and Megumi Toyoguchi (Meg) to have some fun and chat. There`s plenty of banter and the occasional bit of behind the scenes gossip. Listeners are invited to send in skits for the characters to take part in, that get performed by the actors on the show, there`s a tongue twister showdown, and it`s all a good deal of fun to listen to. As well as the three shows, there are two bonus tracks that stray from the Bakuten format, but retain the same irreverence.

In total there is just under 50 minutes of audio on this disc, pretty much an audio CD worth, which makes for a decent amount of extra material for the DVD.

This is a brilliant idea that should be extended to other series. I`m aware of Love Hina, Kiddy Grade and Tenchi Muyo audio dramas that are inaccessible to Western audiences, and I am sure there are countless others that would add much to the experience of watching a series. Making these audio dramas available on DVD with subtitles would be a move that I would welcome.

Conclusion

It`s Charlie`s Angels! Well Charlie`s Angels set in the future with big guns and giant robots, but the show`s influence is unmistakable. Four girls fighting outside the law against the bad guys, getting their missions by e-mail from the faceless and voiceless Bailan, and it looks as if Kyohei is being set up to be the Bosley character. Like most anime series, there looks as if there will be an overarching storyline developing through the episodes, the strange tattoo on Jo`s arm and the hints to her strange origins more than guarantee that. Add to that the hints of conspiracy involving RAPT and you can expect the story to get complicated before long. At the moment though, these episodes are very much stand-alone two-parters, intent on introducing the characters and having some fun along the way.

That`s where Burst Angel falls down a bit. The characters are shallow and clichéd to the point that even if you have never seen anime before you`ll notice a distinctly tired air to them. Jo is the fearsome warrior who says little and spends all her spare time watching TV or sleeping, Sei is the levelheaded leader type who injects a dose of sanity into the proceedings, Amy is the precocious child who is a whiz at computers, and Meg is the sarcastic one who is always getting into trouble. The characters are all designed to show as much skin as possible, with some distinctly unpractical outfits, (Except Amy who is too young for that sort of thing), and that`s about it. Kyohei is the luckless teen that fits clumsily into this group, setting up something of a harem dynamic. It isn`t developed so much here, but I can envisage it being used as comic relief later down the line.

But that is beside the point. Not every anime has to have a deep involving story, or rounded and thoughtful characters. There is also room in the medium for eye candy, big explosions, mindless action and pretty girls in skimpy costumes carrying big guns. Burst Angel fits that bill almost perfectly, and while it won`t be stimulating the grey matter excessively, it does provide 90 minutes of fun. The animation is dynamic, and it tells its story with enthusiasm and a lively pace. I enjoyed it considerably, but question whether it can maintain the same kind of verve over a 24 episode series without running out of steam. The audio dramas make for an excellent extra feature on an anime disc, and I hope this isn`t the last that we`ll see of them on this or any other series.

Burst Angel is the kind of anime that will have you marvelling at the sheer prettiness of its world, as well as the, ahem attributes of its lead characters. The show is a blast that doesn`t tax the brain, and is fun from beginning to end. This disc is good for extra features, if not as good as its Region 1 counterpart. Also the image quality isn`t really up to snuff. Hopefully that will be remedied for the next volume.