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Title:
  Burst Angel vol 4 - Hired Gun

UK Distributor:  MVM (DVD Only)

BBFC Certificate:  TBA

Suggested Retail Price (SRP):  £19.99

Episodes:  13-16 (of 24)

Audio Options:  English 5.1 & Japanese 2.0

Subtitles:  English

Reviewer:  Rich (Webmaster)

 

I’ve got to admit that Burst Angel has thrown me a little lately.  To start with it was a an action packed drama with a great futuristic setting and some cool characters, but somewhere along the lines it started to focus more on ‘fanservice’ and lost the element of seriousness it once had.

This time round we return to Osaka where the beleaguered Hanshin Police Force – along with Jo, Meg, Amy and Sei – attempt to retain their autonomy and defend their city.  The corrupt national force RAPT is trying to bring them down so they can take over the region, but the legendarily no-nonsense Osakans are having none of it, and will fight tooth and nail to keep their identity.  So after fighting in Osaka where next but the obligatory swimming pool episode?  Yes, a gratuitous excuse for skimpy swimsuits to show off the Burst Angel girls’ charms (which seem to have swelled considerably for this volume…) with a daft subplot about a giant squid, so it is thankful that things take a more interesting turn for the last two episodes on the disc.  We finally get to see a glimpse into Meg and Jo’s past, in which a raven-haired Meg is the eldest member of a group of homeless orphans.  They find Jo unconscious in a river, but get more than they bargained for when they take her in and a super-powered soldier comes looking for her.  Back in the present Jo starts suffering flashbacks and ends up battling an unknown adversary in the deep forests around Tokyo, what is the enemy she is facing, and why does it have this effect on her?  Also where the hell did the silent samurai and ancient Japanese village come from??

As you can tell things have changed a lot from the start of the series, and because I was really taken with the series at the start I must admit I find this more than a little frustrating.  Originally the focus was on RAPT, the paramilitary police force which seems to be rotten to the core, and its secret agendas.  The story was intriguing and seemed to avoid a lot of the usual trappings of the ‘girls with guns’ genre, whilst the music and animation was excellent.  But the plot drifted away from the RAPT storyline, and in many ways the series has become a lot more generic.

There are still plenty of good aspects though, the music in particular is one of the series’ strongest areas and the action scenes are great.  The flashback episodes on this disc are pretty good too, and I especially like the fact that you see Meg doing stuff (makes a change from her constantly being kidnapped), and the moments with the silent samurai are quietly reflective.  It’s always good fun, and Jo is a really cool character – in fact most of the best stuff comes from episodes she is in so the fact that they are delving into her past can only be a good thing.  However, there are problems too.

All series – anime or otherwise – create their own boundaries simply by the setting and focus of the story.  In this way any amount of cyborgs and battletanks are fine in Ghost in the Shell (for example) but if a wizard dropped in on Section 9 and started tossing spells about it just wouldn’t work.  In the same way gigantic squid, ghostly flashbacks and mutated monsters seem a bit out of place in Burst Angel.  In the last couple of volumes it has frequently teetered on the edge of its own standards of believability, adding some supernatural aspects that seem to be out of kilter with the rest of the series.  There is also the problem that Meg doesn’t seem to have any skills.  She seems to be little more than a liability (something this volume tries to address, but with only partial success) and Kohta – who at the start was our window into the characters – has become utterly peripheral, appearing only occasionally and seemingly as comic relief.

I do still have a soft spot for the series, the action is great, the designs are excellent, the music is superb and the story seems to be picking up again towards the end of this volume.  However, I must admit I have been disappointed that it couldn’t keep the quality of the first volume going.  Instead of having a defined story arc Burst Angel vol 4 shows signs that the series is being made up as it goes along and the flashback episodes cut short before showing where Jo came from, how she came to join Bailin and why they accepted the pretty useless Meg.  It is still enjoyable and action packed, and some of the added comedy works well – particularly the bike gangs, stallholders and transvestites defending Osaka – but the more intriguing story is hiding in the background and anachronistic elements are sneaking in.  I expect better from Burst Angel and there are signs that the next volume may deliver, but sadly this volume is frustratingly average.

Extras:

As with the previous volumes Burst Angel vol 4 contains a commentary track for one episode from the show's US dub staff alongside the usual clean opening and ending sequences and trailers.  Also included once again are the frankly bizarre but very amusing radio shows from the seemingly insane Japanese voice actresses, a great extra which I always thoroughly enjoy!  Considering many anime series scrape by with a couple of galleries and trailers on each volume having this amount of quality extras really sets Burst Angel apart from the pack, great stuff!

Ratings

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