Burst Angel
爆裂天使
Bakuretsu Tenshi
A 2004 anime consisting of 24 30-minute episodes. Burst Angel can be classified as “sci-fi,” “action,” and “mecha.”
I could NOT get past the first two episodes. So why on earth would I write a review? Because I was able to predict EVERY FSKING THING that was going to happen from the first two episodes. Ok, that was a little cruel. But the surprising accuracy I had from my predictions was a little sad, so we’re even.
I picked up this anime with eager expectations. Cute girls, a cute guy, mecha, gunfights, oh yeah. What I got was … an Evangelion wannabe. Seriously. It was like someone went, “OMG! Let’s make Rei and Asuka lesbo lovers!!111!!!!lolz!” and then planned the story out from there.
So you have Jo, the Rei-like chick gone butch, and Meg, the obvious Asuka tsundere. Together with Amy, a character to pull out the loli-smart cast, and Sei, sexy leader Chinese chick (I’m assuming she’s Chinese due to her outfit), they are a band of mercenaries. An unfortunate Kyohei has been enlisted to cook for them, the poor guy feeling very superfluous.
Alright, setting cheap jokes and comparisons to Evangelion aside – for now. From the first episode, you have no idea what’s going on. Not necessarily bad, and it introduced Kyohei’s uselessness outside the kitchen and Meg’s penchant for getting kidnapped. The characters are horribly one-dimensional. From the very first word out of Meg’s mouth, I thought “Tsundere! Probably damsel in distress to offset it.” About Amy and Kyohei: “Superfluous characters.” About Sei: “She’s probably going to die for the organization.”
Really. Amy had NO presence. Nothing about her shouted, “I am here and I exist!” They could have switched her out with an AI easily. I forgot she existed after watching the two episodes. Everything about Kyohei screamed “wuss” and “pussie.” I bet his entire existence is to make the girls look better. He’s a bridge to regular civilian life at best, at worst a slave to the girls. The ease Meg got kidnapped made it painfully clear that her role in life is to get rescued by Jo. My guess on Sei is the stereotypical Chinese leader woman cast.
The even more painful thing is that I’m usually able to get through an anime at least once if there’s explosions and gunfights. I love action scenes. I will ignore poor characters and story for a good ol’ fast paced shoot-out, often skimming episodes to get to them. But … The battles were SO BORING! AGH! It was kinda “bang. bang. clang. oh noes.” Even the mecha fight! And the big explosion at the end of ep 2? boo. For me, this anime has nothing to redeem it, since I’m a heterosexual woman. For a guy, well, Meg’s well-endowed at least.
Now about my sadly accurate predictions. I paralleled Burst Angel with Evangelion immediately, though something I hate doing is in-genre comparisons during the first viewing. So, assuming Jo -> Rei, I assumed she was some sort of government engineered weapon. Probably a more-advanced one to the glowing brain cybots. Their persecution of cybots with glowing brains will end at some point, because of a gut feeling I had. It didn’t feel like the cybots had any point. Maybe Jo will have some sort of adversary, probably in the government or a fellow engineered weapon, and their mercenary group will be dissolved. Jo will be captured and then break free. Seeing as the main point of the story is Jo and Meg’s relationship, the series would end either them breaking free and leaving everything behind or Jo dead and Meg going psycho in an attempt to become Jo. And of course Sei would be dead, that idea being a joke on my part on the stereo-typing of the absolute loyalties Chinese women have. The mercenary group would not survive as a whole. Amy and Kyohei will probably drop out of the story as main characters early on.
… I do not care to say which parts are accurate and which aren’t. For goodness’ sake, my prediction was structured on poor plot-development based on character cast stereotypes and “it would be cool if” ideas. (Y’know, how most people write their first ever stories without regarding plot or theme.)
If you just want a shoot-em-up anime, this is not the one to watch. If you want a good, engaging story, this is not the one to watch. If you want hot girl characters you can easily categorize waving guns around, go for it. I won’t be picking it up again.
Tags: Action, anime, bakuretsu tenshi, burst angel, Mecha, review, Sci-fi
August 6, 2008 at 2:52 am |
For a decent clone of NGE, you can try “Sokyuu No Fafner” (Fafnir in the Azure), it provides a serious plot and interesting action scenes, in my opinion.