Because everyone is allowed to carry weapons, the streets of Tokyo are full of crime. The city is watched over by a group known as RAPT who are supposed to keep order and punish lawbreakers. But on top of out of control citizens to deal with and RAPT actually abusing their authority instead of using it to help the people, there are also monsters made from human and machine to worry about. As a result four women: Jo, Sei, Amy and Meg, decide to take on the challenge of protecting the city from corruption, crime and these new monsters.
Credit: MisaSasekage
Story & Characters
If I had to describe this anime in one phrase, it would be macaroni anime. It boasts a "spaghetti western"
feel, which in Japan is called "macaroni western," hence the name. Basically this series is comprised of
almost nonstop, flashy, fluid action. Made by the anime powerhouse GONZO, "Burst Angel" is loads of adrenaline
pumping fun; visceral anime action at its finest.
This series is about four ladies who are in the business of fighting. Sei is the oldest of the group (at 19), and the
calm, collected leader. Amy, the youngest, is a sharp-tongued, yet cute as a button, computer whiz who acts as the
information specialist. Meg is the obligatory loud, outspoken redhead and is the best friend of Jo who acts as the point
girl of the group. She's quiet and almost comatose when doing everyday activities, but give her a target or a goal
and she is an almost unstoppable fighting machine. The female characters each have distinct, albeit unoriginal (for
anime), personalities, and its interesting watching them interact. There is a fifth central character, Kyohei who works
for the ladies as their personal cook and who, quite often, is pulled into the action by some odd twist of fate.
It's hard for me to consider him a main character because he is sort of forgotten toward the end.
Jo and Meg are incredibly close friends. Most of the anime focuses on these two characters. Meg, contrary to how she
looks and acts, is constantly getting into trouble which makes Jo, who is fiercely loyal, fight to save her. Other than
that, there isn't really a story to speak of. There is a loose tie to all the main enemies the heroines encounter,
which receives a feeble attempt from the writers to wrap up at the end of the anime. But that isn't the appeal of
this anime. The appeal is the action. Jo only reloads her twin .357 Desert Eagle hand cannons once in the entire series!
That is the kind of anime this is. Normally I would be bothered by the fact that she can fire off two of those at the
same time without effort; or the fact that she never needs to reload. In this series, it actually adds to the appeal.
Watching the action unfolding, with Jo brutally trampling every obstacle in her path is extremely exciting.
And did I mention she also pilots a large, powerful mecha called Django when she really wants to do some damage? Well,
she does, and the mecha battles are just as visceral and appealing. The series handles the various missions in pairs of
episodes, and the missions cover every generic plotline in an action anime. From securing a top-secret data disk, to
infiltrating a secretive cult in a private school, to stopping political coups in various regions of Japan, Jo and the
group get into all manners of trouble. Watching them get out of it is what gave them the 8 in this category.
Rating: 8
Art
GONZO helmed this anime. 'Nuff said. The settings, backgrounds, and overall art design paints an interesting
world that is essentially a futuristic spaghetti western theme. Crumbling Tokyo never looked so cool. Even the more
generic forest settings have a distinct feel in this anime. And while the many different environments/settings are
varied, they all have a similar feel that helps pull the series together.
The character designs are great. They're obviously designed to conjure thoughts along the lines of
"sexy" and "cool." The main ladies' costumes are wonderful, and I'm not saying that out of
a base otaku fanboy instinct. I'm a sucker for original character design, and they are original. Meg's bright
yellow cowgirl ensemble, Jo's minimalist coat-and-holster look, Sei's Chinese inspired clothes, and Amy's
sweet little-girl meets plug-suit outfit shows you immediately what kind of personality they have, and looks good too.
They stand out in the crowd and are some of the most interesting designs I've seen in a while. Unfortunately, some
key animator or someone decided to change the character design in a few areas around the third quarter of the anime, so
Meg and Sei's erm... bust line expands to gigantic proportions for a few episodes. It hurt the series in my
opinion, having such a drastic change out of nowhere (just in time for their bathing suit scenes) and it's the only
reason this category didn't get a 9. Fan service I can handle (and maybe even welcome) but there's a
limit.
Being a GONZO anime, there has to be CGI. And is there! All of the mecha in Burst Angel is CG, as are the environments
most of the time when they are taking center stage. It's obviously CG and doesn't blend in quite as nicely as
other anime, but I found it to be very appealing nonetheless. The CG is designed and animated smoothly with a distinct
flair. This has to be the first anime that uses "bullet time" in their action sequences. Bullet time was
inspired by anime, but this has the slowed down bullets, camera spins and others you'd normally find in a
live-action action movie of late.
The non-CG animation is hard to describe. Most of the time it is crisp and clear, fluidly animated. But there are
moments intermittently throughout the series that seems to suffer with lower quality drawing and animation. Oddly
enough, it happens around the time the main characters experience their sudden design changes. I can't say why this
happened, since it comes and goes, but it is noticeable. Considering everything going on animation-wise in this series,
it wasn't too much of a hindrance.
Opening animation shares the quality of most of the series. Itâ??s cut together in an interesting way. I can't
quite put my finger on it, but I find myself watching the opening more often than not. The ending sequence is very
simple, and once you've seen it a few times, becomes a "skipper."
Rating: 8
Sound
This is the most puzzling aspect of the series to me. I can't quite recall the ending song from when I watched
the fansubbed version a while back. On the DVDs, the ending song is in English on the dub side, but Japanese on the sub
side. I'm guessing Funimation recorded the English version and changed it. I gave this category a 7 simply because
I don't want Funi to bring down an otherwise well-done score. But I won't hesitate to say the English ending
theme is horrible. They try to capture the spirit of the Japanese version, but it just comes off as a rip-off to a
charming song. The Japanese version is much nicer, although it doesn't seem to fit quite right with the feel of the
series.
The opening theme is... original. It's not my personal favorite, but it adds an interesting feel to the opening
sequence. Maybe it's a Japanese thing, but the only anime that did good with a jazzy-esque opening song was Cowboy
Bebop. There are other anime that have an opening with the same type of song; I just don't get it I suppose. The
rest of the musical score is quite nice actually. There are very original and varied tunes that go perfectly with the
series. I especially like the western-themed music that pops up every now and then.
Sound effects in this anime are great. The guns sound like guns, the mecha sound like they are actual machines that
have weight to them, everything sounds wonderful. In an action series, it's crucial to get the sound effects right.
I'm happy they did this so well. Jo's guns sound mean; they're probably my favorite effect in the
series.
Rating: 7
Presentation
This is an action anime pure and simple. No, wait; it is an exceptional action anime. Gunfights, fistfights, mecha
battles and the word "patisserie" (what Kyohei aspires to be) makes this a refreshing and fun action anime
experience.
The DVDs surprised me with their level of content. The insert in the DVD cases are 6-8 page booklets with character
illustrations, environment illustrations, cast info, background info, and various other interesting tidbits. The bonus
features include the standard clean opening and endings, and previews sections. They also include episode commentaries,
selections from the Bakuretsu Tenshi radio shows, interviews with the Japanese cast and crew and even an interesting
preview of another CG animated show. Funi really surprised me on this, and I had to give credit where credit is due.
Well done DVDs.
Official rating is TV14. Pretty accurate. There is quite a bit of nippleage with the female characters, especially in
their inflated forms. And of course there are the action scenes. Most are pretty tame, just a bunch of flash, but a few
show blood. Nothing too bad, and I wouldn't have problems with a 14 year old watching.
I really enjoyed this anime. It was a fun ride. They picked "action series", and they did it wonderfully. I
have no qualms recommending this to friends. If you're up for action this is the anime to watch.
Rating: 8
Final Verdict
7.8333 (good)
Reviewed by NovaProspekt, Apr 19, 2006