Title: Burst Angel / Angel's Adolescence / Bakuretsu Tenshi / 爆裂天使 <ãƒã‚¯ãƒ¬ãƒ„テンシ>
Anime Genre: Action, Adventure, Mecha, ShÅnen
Date of Airing: 6th April 2004
Date Concluded: 14th September 2004
No. of Episodes: 24
No. of Episodes Watched: 24
Bakuretsu Tenshi, which translates directly to 'Exploding Angel' is an anime series produced by Gonzo back in mid-2004. Only recently did I watch the series, through a DVD copy I bought. The anime is licensed by Funimation in the USA and is currently being released in DVD form, with the episodes separated into 6 volumes. It's also known as Angel's Adolescence in the US, which is really beyond me. Why that name? 'Cause the girls are adolescents? I can only guess.
Firstly, the series is set in an alternate future of Tokyo, where technology is probably nearing the Cosmic era of Gundam (lol), and firearms are legal. So, it's not unusual to see an elderly lady pull out a gun and shoot your skull in. Bakuretsu Tenshi focuses mainly on a group of mercernary girls led by Sei, and consisting of Jo, Meg, and Amy. There's also Tachibana Kyohei, the pastry chef-wannabe, whose role in the show is non-existent. I'm guessing he was put in there at first for some sort of quasi-harem, Love Hina thing, but then they scrapped that idea. So, poor old Kyohei basically gets about 1 hour 30 minutes of screentime across the 24 episodes. Good god, what a joke. Anyway, Sei is the sassy, sultry, leader, whose tailor played a cruel joke on her (you'll understand if you watch the show)^^. Jo is basically your 'Bakuretsu Tenshi' as the girls were always calling her that and she is a result of an experiment to create 'killer angels'. Meg is Jo's sexy but whiny sidekick. The manga is rumoured to have a little 'yuri' (yuri = girl/girl attraction) thing going between Jo and Meg, but they seemed to have cut that out of the anime. And Amy is the young computer whiz girl.
On to the plot. What plot? That's right. This is almost as senseless as Ikki Tousen, but at least Ikki Tousen gave you loads of fan service. What we have here, is around 20 episodes of gun-fighting based loosely around the fact that the girls are mercs, they work for Bai Lan (Sei's grandfather), and they are trying to stop RAPT (the Tokyo law enforcement) because they seem to be conducting some weird research involving drugs, human brains, and lotsa monsters and mecha. Every episode is like an episode of Ultraman. New monster/cybot/enemy appears, girls rush to the rescue, clear mess, end of story.
Maybe I'm being too harsh, there IS a plot, but you don't get to know much about it until near the end. Around episodes 21 to 24, Gonzo decided to overload us with all sorts of info about Jo's past, the reasons the girls are together etc etc. Maybe they realised they weren't going anywhere, and they had to end this series soon. I won't spoil it, but ending the series the way they did, with a semblance of a cliffhanger, and something quite unexpected, was not the right move. And where's the OVA ,Tenshi Sairin, we were promised?
Animation-wise, the show does a pretty good job. The CG sequences for the mech fights are not bad, but Gundam is still better. Characters are quite well drawn, but the girls seem to have assets that defy gravity at times. What bugs me is the show recycles way too many scenes. They don't even seem to care WHAT that scene represented earlier. Say, in an earlier episode, mechs killed some gangsters who were up to something. In a later episode, the same scene would be used to show RAPT ordering Tokyo citizens back home for curfew. I can't recall them all, but they were rather blatant. The soundtrack was surprisingly above average. Good rock/metal tunes for action sequences and a catchy J-pop opening with a ballad-like ending song.
And of course, every show with sexy babes has to have the obligatory 'fun in bikinis' episode where the girls relax and they all look like they got boob-jobs for that episode. Like so: ^^
I just wasn't satisfied after watching the series. I didn't really like the end while certain episodes actually reached the point of boring me to tears. Aside from the cool mech action involving Jango (their mecha) and the obvious eye-candy of watching Sei (especially) and co., there wasn't much else for me. So, a rather thin plot, hot babes with a half-hearted attempt at fan service, ending that gives no closure whatsoever, and a sad little guy who has no place in the show. Makes for rather bad viewing, I might say. It's not a 'bad' anime, if you have a thing for girls with guns action, and some cool mech fights, then give it a try. If not, let's just say, you won't have to hunt this show down.
*Out of 10*
Animation (Quality of): 8
Story (Depth, twists, and extras): 5
Music (Songs, Suitability): 7
Characters (Dynamism, Background): 6
True to Genre?: 7
OVERALL RATING: 6.5/10
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Animania
Tags:
Animation
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Anime
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Japanese Animation
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Manga
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Burst Angel
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Bakuretsu Tenshi
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Angel's Adolescence
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Tenjou
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