Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Burst Angel: Complete Series Plus OVA Blu-ray Movie Review

Burst expectations is more like it.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 22, 2011

Just when you thought every genre mash up possible had already been exploited, along comes Burst Angel. Imagine a reality competition on Lifetime or Bravo that combines elements of Top Chef with Top Shot (the short-lived marksmanship outing hosted by Survivor contestant Colby Donaldson), and you will have at least a passing idea of some of what motivates Burst Angel’s plot mechanics. Yes, that’s right: Top Chef and Top Shot. One might initially think that a show that mixes a culinary student with a group of mercenary sharpshooters might lead to nothing more than a bunch of deflated soufflés (those noisy bullets are so pesky), but Burst Angel is an odd little action enterprise (with a fair amount of fan service) that brings to mind yet another show and one with a titular link to this anime—namely, Charlie’s Angels, about to debut on the airwaves once again in a modernized reboot. For like Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith and Farrah Fawcett in days of yore (I haven’t bothered to find out who’s starring in the new version), Burst Angel features crime busting females, often in various states of undress. While this sounds like one of the crazy casseroles that regularly comes out of such production studios as Madhouse, this is a Gonzo enterprise (what’s with all this Gonzo and Madhouse business, anyway—is every anime studio filled with lunatics?), and like several of Gonzo’s other productions, this features a combination of traditional cel animation with some CGI elements which come into play with a bunch of Transformer-like mechas that haunt the streets of a dystopian future Tokyo (is there any other kind of future Tokyo in anime?). Burst Angel was something of a sensation when it debuted in Japan, but it never really ignited in America. It may be a case of too many recycled elements with, as ironic as it may sound, too many weird new elements making for a confusing jumble, but the show is often great looking if it just as frequently doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

Tokyo is so awash in gang violence that the police are once again allowed to bear firearms (who knew that Tokyo had its own version of baton wielding “bobbies”?). This quasi-military group is called the Recently Armed Police of Tokyo (RAPT), a group which operates by the dictum, “Shoot first, ask questions later.” This proclivity is responsible for the interesting statistic that crime is down but arrests are also down, since no criminals live long enough to actually make it to the booking process. Culinary student Kyohei Tachibana, who aspires to be a pastry chef, manages to motorcycle into a violent showdown in a Tokyo alleyway. Escaping by the skin of his teeth, Kyohei is soon offered work at the home of four teenaged (and actually in one case, adolescent) girls, Jo, Meg, Amy (Little Women, anyone?) and Sei. These four turn out to be mercenaries in a militia known as Bailan, a group which itself is attempting to rid Tokyo of its rampant criminal element.

Playing into the mayhem are two initially disparate groups of villains, weird mutant creatures and the mecha-esque robots which are pummeling Tokyo into debris. Part of the problem with Burst Angel is that there are so many elements introduced in the opening episodes that many viewers may have a hard time keeping track of everything, and by the time the series admittedly weaves everything together for the endgame, many of those same viewers will have forgotten salient plot points which were introduced, often with little or any fanfare, in the series’ opening few episodes. Burst Angel is a really odd combination of surface level action with pretensions toward something deeper, but those attempts at depth are never completely realized simply because the series is too scattershot in its attempts to introduce manifold plot elements and then, much later, to show how they all interconnect. In other words, Lost this isn’t, to say the least.

While the series has a typically lean and clean Gonzo look about it, the CGI isn’t mind-blowingly well done and in fact at times looks a little odd colliding up against the traditional hand animated fare. The overall design aesthetic is often nicely painterly though, with sharp and well defined, if not especially innovative, character looks. The show has one of the most pathetically awful scores in recent memory, one which may have many viewers desperately reaching for the “mute” button on the remote, at least to get through the opening and closing credits sequence. This particular anomaly is especially odd given the often extremely evocative themes that animes routinely offer, including other Gonzo offerings.

Burst Angel: Complete Series Plus OVA Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Burst Angel bursts onto Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. There have been persistent online reports that this is an upconverted offering, but FUNimation insists this is sourced from an HD native, and by the looks of things I for one believe them. Gonzo has always excelled at bright and colorful offerings, and Burst Angel really does burst—in a good, popping way—on this Blu-ray set. Colors are brilliantly saturated and gorgeously robust, and line detail is almost always exceptional (as seems to be the case with a lot of these animes, the animators just don't seem to care sometimes, especially with regard to big group scenes, where more of a slapdash look is frequently the norm). As stated above, while none of the character designs is especially innovative, everything is very sharply delineated here, and all of the characters look precise throughout the series. Some of the CGI is fairly basic and may not appeal to those spoiled on big budget summer blockbuster fare, but within the confines of a modestly budgeted anime series, the CGI elements (utilized for the mechas and other machinery) look decent and appropriately three dimensional. Aside from some very minor banding issues, there are really no artifacts of any import to worry about.

Burst Angel: Complete Series Plus OVA Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

In one of the more interesting commentaries included on this set, audio mixer Nathaniel Harrison actually gets to talk a little bit about producing an English surround mix for Burst Angel, and it's clear that FUNimation wanted this series to be an immersive experience. The good news is that both of the lossless audio options offered here, both Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mixes (in the original Japanese and the English dub), do offer a wealth of surround activity, really rather more than you might expect for a typical anime series. Burst Angel is of course bursting with action sequences, and therefore we get a lot of explosions, gunfire and combat populating the soundfield, often with very good and propulsive effects that careen from side to side or over the head of the listener. The series is awash in very good LFE a lot of the time. Dialogue is artfully mixed and always easy to hear. Both languages are fun to listen to, though some of the English voice work is distinctly out of step with the original Japanese language conceptions of the same characters (just toggle back and forth a few times to get a sampling). Fidelity is very strong throughout the series, and dynamic range is also exceptional.

Burst Angel: Complete Series Plus OVA Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentaries. Commentaries featuring various English voice actors and ADR supervisor Greg Bevins are offered on five episodes. There's nothing too Earth shattering here, but they may provide a bit of interest for rabid fans of the series. Technical issues like surround sound mixing courtesy of audio mixer Nathaniel Harrison tend to be more interesting than the chatter between the voice actors. The commentaries and participants are:
  The Brothers Die at Dawn. Chris Bevins, Voice Director; Nathaniel Harrison, audio mixer; Jamie Marchie (Meg); and Monica Rial (Jo).
  The Wounded Outlaw. Chris Bevins; Monica Rial; Clarine Harp (Sei).
  Uncharted Cyberspace. Chris Bevins; Alison Retzloff (Amy); Greg Ayres (Kyohei).
  Sundown in Osaka. Chris Bevins; Monica Rial; Caitlin Glass (Takane).
  Dueling Angels. Chris Bevins; Monica Rial; Colleen Clinkenbeard (Maria).
  Angels Explode!. Chris Bevins; Monica Rial; Alison Retzloff; Clarine Harp; Jamie Marchie.
• Japanese Staff and Cast Interviews are split into three sections:
  Japanese Cast (SD; 16:02) features Mai Morishita conducting interviews at the Gonzo Studios.
  CGI Artist (SD; 2:10) is a brief look at some of the CGI elements in the series.
  Character Designer (SD; 3:48) offers Mai Morishita interviewing character concept designer Ugetsu Hakua.
• The Lightness and Darkness of Jo (SD; 23:24) is a 2005 special compilation of various sequences featuring Jo which deal with such nefarious crimes as kidnapping and manufacturing bootleg videos.
• Ugetsu Hakua (Character Designer) Special (SD; 2:41) is a brief quasi-music video with images from the series.
• Battle Record of All 24 Episodes (SD; 1:23:55) offers recaps of each and every battle in the series, just in case you missed them the first time around.
• Previews of the TV Series (SD; 5;47)
• Previews of the OVA (SD; 2:14)
• Japanese Trailer (SD; 2:27)
• Textless Songs is split into four options:
  Opening Song "Loosey" (HD; 1:29)
  Opening Song (Alternate) "Loosey" (SD; 1:30)
  Closing Song "Under the Sky" (HD; 1:32)
  Closing Song (Alternate) "Under the Sky" (SD; 1:32)
• Outtakes (SD; 10:31) are English language voice goofs.
• OVA: Burst Angel Infinity (HD; 25:36). Though not listed officially as a supplement on the disc, this extra episode is included on Disc 3 of the three disc set. This features a visit to New York and some information that is tangentially related to the "Wild Kids" episode of the series.
• Trailers for other FUNimation Releases

Burst Angel: Complete Series Plus OVA Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Burst Angel is never quite the soufflé it wants to be and is instead more like a leftover casserole that needs a lot of ketchup to make it palatable. While there's nothing horrible about the series, there's also nothing really outstanding about it, either, and it's so convoluted and frankly confusing in its opening episodes that some viewers may give up on it before everything starts making at least a little bit of sense several episodes in. Still if you like buxom babes shooting things, this is definitely one to check out.