Burst Angel: The Complete Collection Blu-ray delivers great video and audio in this fan-pleasing Blu-ray release
A new law and a dark underground syndicate have delivered devastating chaos to Tokyo. The city's only chance for survival is a fearless mercenary, her dangerously beautiful comrades and a massively armed and armored mech. In this land where war has spread like a disease, they will have to put their very existence on the line and fight to be the cure.
I've always had a tough time maintaining patience with mediocre anime series, which isn't a problem when you're watching for the sole purpose of personal entertainment. The table turns when you're tasked with reviewing a series, since you no longer have the option of giving up after the first four episodes. In some cases this leads to a grueling marathon of mind-numbing plotlines that continue to get worse and worse. But on other occasions, it allows the series a deserving opportunity for growth, resulting in a general opinion that's much better than initially expected. Such is the case with Burst Angel, a 24 episode anime series produced by the Gonzo studio back in 2004. Getting off to a slow start, the show eventually picks up momentum despite some stinker episodes, and generates a sufficiently interesting plotline by the conclusion of the series.
This is one of the rare moments when the gun actually covers the cleavage.
Burst Angel is set in a futuristic Tokyo, where firearm possession is made legal for every law-abiding citizen. In order to police this newly armed society, an organization is established known as R.A.P.T. (Recently Armed Police Taskforce), with a primary objective to eradicate criminals rather than prosecuting them. Operating within this society is a small mercenary group named Bai Lan, which consists of four skilled women with highly advanced technological weaponry. Jo, the primary warrior of the group, operates a mobile armor unit known as Django and demonstrates a lethal precision with her dual Desert Eagle handguns. Not knowing much from her childhood, but clearly trained to be a highly-skilled fighter, the main underlying plot of the series focuses on her gradual memory recollection as she comes face to face with a vengeful woman that holds the link to her past. Running parallel with Jo's storyline is a mystery surrounding the emergence of several large mechanized creatures that wreak havoc on the city, and appear to be connected by small brain-like operators housed within their robotic bodies. Will Bai Lan track down those responsible for the systematic destruction of Tokyo before it's too late?
If you enjoy girls-with-guns anime, there's a good chance this series will appeal to you. I'm typically not a fan of the grating female voice-work and over the top situational comedy that usually accompanies an anime series of this nature, but Burst Angel still managed to generate enough entertainment value to hold my interest through the series conclusion. That's not to say it doesn't possess its own fair share of cringe-inducing moments, but the series seems to pull back on those elements at precisely the right moment, allowing the action to dominate the bulk of the show.
As I mentioned in the introduction of this review, the beginning of the series caused a bit of worry on my part. The primary characters exhibited one-dimensional qualities, the comedy fell flat, and there seemed to be a complete lack of connection between the various story arcs of the first few episodes. Fortunately, by the midpoint of the season, an underlying connection begins to form in the various plotlines and I began to feel a bit more engaged in the plight of the characters. It still never rises beyond an average assessment when compared with other futuristic anime series, but by the time you reach the final four episodes that comprise the conclusion of the season, you'll be happy you stuck it out.
As a side note, we should feel extremely fortunate that Funimation doesn't force us to watch the intro musical segment prior to each episode. The song "Loosey" should have won some sort of award for ear-bleeding musical choice of the year. As if the tune itself wasn't annoying enough, I'd like to challenge anyone to make heads or tails out of the translated lyrics, which I'm guessing didn't even make sense in Japanese. I usually don't feel a need to be this critical of the theme song in a series, but considering the number of times you'll hear it (provided you don't opt to hit the skip button on your remote), it becomes a much bigger deal than you'd imagine. To make matters worse, the song even plays during a critical moment in the final episode, giving us one last chance to feel a tinge of temporary insanity.
No anime review would be complete without an assessment of the animation quality in the series, which holds up quite well considering this is a five-year-old television show. As I've stated before, anime series have to contend with budgetary limitations when compared with theatrical anime, so we can't expect the same level of detail, textures and fluid character movement as we'd find in a Miyazaki film. Even so, Gonzo continues to demonstrate a knack for strong animation quality in their productions, delivering a presentation that's fun and exciting at the same time. If there's one thing that will keep you coming back to revisit this series in the future, it will be the quality of the animation.
Presented in 1080p utilizing the AVC codec (at an average bitrate of 17Mbps), Burst Angel is another fine effort from Funimation, bringing out every nuance in this highly-detailed television series. Backdrops exhibit a wonderful level of depth, lines are crisp, and colors possess a bold richness that allows the picture to leap off the screen. The coloring does take a slight turn for the worst in the final act of the series (the last four episodes), with the action taking place in a sun-drenched desert setting that's dominated by drab red and yellow hues. It's a fairly drastic change from the coloring of the rest of the series, but remains fitting for the shift in tone as we approach the conclusion. Proceeding with the strengths in the transfer, black levels possess exceptional depth and contrast exhibits a nice level of differentiation between various gradients through the majority of the runtime. Alas, everything is not roses and sunshine, since I did detect the presence of color banding from time to time (stripes of shifting color instead of smooth transitions between different shades), and there's some extremely minor line shimmering that emerged on a handful of occasions (but wasn't noticeable enough to be distracting). Given the infrequency of these issues during a runtime that spans over ten hours, fans should be pleasantly surprised with the proficiency of this high-definition upgrade (despite reports that this is merely an up-convert to 1080p resolution).
Contrary to the incorrect technical information on the back of the box, both audio offerings are presented in TrueHD 5.1 (the box lists the Japanese track as Dolby Digital 5.1). Switching back and forth between the two audio options on the disc, I was left with the impression that the English dub is slightly more robust than the Japanese offering. Dialog levels are comparable, but music and audio effects appear to be a touch more dynamic on the English language track. The likely cause of this discrepancy is a bitrate difference of about 3kbps between the two audio tracks (the English naturally has the higher bitrate). Whatever the cause, I was a little disappointed that the Japanese track ended up with the short end of the stick. I'd wager the original language offering is the most popular choice among anime enthusiasts, so it would make more sense to dedicate additional disc real estate to the preferred track. Aside from the minor difference in the complexity of the two tracks, I was impressed with the dynamic sound design on a five-year-old television series. Dialog is crisp and well-balanced, music is loud but not obtrusively so, and audio effects are delivered throughout the sound field with excellent precision. You'll even notice several instances in each episode when the LFE portion of the track brings your subwoofer to life with explosions and thumping bass. Overall, this is a fine audio experience, though I'm docking one point in the audio department for the slight deficiency in the Japanese track.
Burst Angel Infinity OVA (1080p, Dolby TrueHD 5.1, 25:36 min): The most important extra included on the disc, is the Original Video Animation (OVA) episode released in 2007. This brief storyline matches the tone of the original series, mixing light-hearted comedy with serious themes. At the core of the episode, Meg and Jo are brought in to investigate a caped serial killer that slays random citizens (including children). Compared to some of the fluff OVA episodes I've seen for other series, this one is surprisingly entertaining.
Japanese Staff & Cast Interviews (480p, Dolby Digital 2.0, 22 min): Divided into three segments (Japanese Cast, CGI Artist, Character Designer), this supplement is one of the better inclusions on the disc, since it provides a behind-the-scenes point of view from individuals that actually worked on the series during its creation. The cast portion contains individual interviews with the voice actors behind the four main female characters in the series, who discuss their roles and share personal stories. The second interview segment runs a mere two minutes, and provides a brief overview of the incorporation of CGI in the animation. The third interview stars the character designer, who discusses how he was approached by Gonzo and the themes he strived for in drawing the main female characters.
The Lightness and Darkness of Jo (480p, Dolby Digital 2.0, 23:24 min): Consisting of clips from the series, this odd (and lengthy) supplement is apparently meant to show the harsh and soft side of the main character in the series. If you've already watched the entire 24 episodes, this is a complete waste of time (especially given the incorrect aspect ratio).
Ugetsu Hakua Special (1080p, Dolby Digital 2.0, 2:41 min): This appears to be an alternate opening sequence with the same terrible song but different animation. Of note, the animation seems to incorporate a bit more bouncing in it (if you know what I mean).
Battle Record of All 24 Episodes (1080p, Dolby Digital 2.0, 1:23:55 min): In case you're interested in watching all of the action sequences in one sitting, they've been consolidated together in this supplement (though there are still several slow scenes included as well).
Rounding out the extras, we have previews for each episode in the series (1080p), a preview for the OVA (1080p), the Japanese trailer (480p), textless opening and closing songs (1080p), outtakes (1080p), trailers for other Funimation titles, and commentary tracks added to five out of the 24 episodes (featuring various English voice actors and Christopher Bevins, the ADR director for the English version). The commentaries aren't incredibly interesting, and mostly focus on interpretations of the characters the actors portray.
Given the wealth of high-quality anime series coming to the Blu-ray format in the near future, and the impressive recent release of Full Metal Panic: Second Raid, Burst Angel is a tough series to recommend. If you're an anime completist, there's no reason to pass on this title, since it offers enough decent episodes to be worth revisiting in the future. For all others, I'd recommend you set your sights on a different series that can offer a bit more consistency. After all, 24 episodes require a hefty time commitment and it can become difficult to wade through the weak episodes that occasionally plague the first 20 entries in the series. From a technical standpoint, Burst Angel is another strong showing from Funimation, who continually provide anime enthusiasts with a reason to revisit their favorite anime shows in high-definition.
In an early announcement to retailers, it has been revealed that FUNimation Entertainment will release the girls-with-guns anime series 'Burst Angel' on Blu-ray on September 29. This three-disc set will include the 24 episodes of the series, plus the "Infinity" ...
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