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It's quite common for successful anime series to get straight-to-video spin-offs after they have ended. Often unrelated to the main storyline of the original series, the spin-offs are aimed firmly at fans, often assuming that the entire audience has seen the series and including running gags that would leave new viewers nonplussed. Well now it's Burst Angel's turn.
Burst Angel Infinity is a single bonus episode that unusually fills in a bit
more character background. Set between the events of the flashbacks of
episode 15 and the series normal timeline, the story of this episode sees Meg
and Jo return to New York to visit the orphans they used to live with. All
of their friends are now settled into new lives, but not all is well. The
youngest of their friends - Shirley- has been the victim of a brutal attack by a mysterious
assailant who has been prowling the city's less salubrious
suburbs, and is now fighting for her life in hospital. With this attacker
still on the loose and the police seemingly powerless to stop him Meg and Jo
decide to take matters into their own hands and track him down themselves.
However, revenge can be a tricky business, and it's not as easy as they may think. Not only is the attacker very
dangerous, but he's also difficult to find and there could be more to his
attacks than meet the eye... |
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Fans of Burst Angel will no doubt be hoping for some kind of follow up featuring Meg as she was at the end of the series. Instead we get a flashback story that has little relevance to the main plot of the series, and serves as little more than an aside to what we've already seen. Not that fans will mind that though as the episode on this disc takes some of the best aspects of the series and runs with them. The episode focuses entirely on Jo and Meg, who were always the most interesting characters in the series anyway, and pits them against a |
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mysterious but human enemy lurking in the dark underbelly of the city. Despite the short running time there's plenty of action and a bit of horror on show, and the story moves along at a fair pace too. Burst Angel Infinity feels
like a deleted episode from the series. It's action-packed and
pretty exciting, but it doesn't really add anything to what you've
already seen. From the point of view of character development
it does go some way to showing why the tough and resourceful Meg
becomes so useless and dependent on Jo in the series, but that's
about it. The creators haven't really taken advantage of the
straight-to-video format, which gives more freedom than a TV series
allows. They could have made it darker than the series, or
made the feature longer than a normal episode, but in the end it
feels like they stayed within their comfort zone and tried to add to
what they'd already done. |
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Then there's the problem of familiarity. Burst Angel Infinity is made for fans, and if you are considering buying this to get a taste for the series then you may be left a little lost. Although the DVD contains an 80min recap of the entire 24-episode Burst Angel series as an extra, the feature itself doesn't really tell you who anyone is and references events and situations from the series. As a standalone title it's a decent enough actioner, but it expects a familiarity with the original series that prevents new viewers from getting the |
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most out of it. This is a common problem with these straight to video follow ups, but it's more pronounced here as Burst Angel Infinity is supposed to augment the series rather than follow on from it. There's also the issue that it's only a single 30min episode on the disc, although MVM have compensated somewhat for this by including a glut of extras. Burst Angel Infinity is a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand it's a nice aside to the series with plenty of action and drama, and it gives another opportunity to see Meg and Jo's past. However, it is also a bit too short and doesn't add enough to really justify being a separate release. MVM have recognised this at least, and added one of the best selection of extras you are likely to find, but as a whole this will be unlikely to find much of an audience outside of the fans of the original series. It's entertaining and fun, but it feels like it could have been a lot more than it is. Extras: Burst Angel always had good extras, but the ones on offer here are better than ever. As well as the usual trailers for other MVM titles and previews for Burst Angel Infinity itself, there are also several featurettes and bonuses included. Most notably amongst these is the Battle Record, an 80min recap of the 24-episode series which serves to put things into some context if you're new to the franchise. Also included is an alternative version of the episode where Jo and Meg meet and a featurette about the superb artwork of character designer Hakua Ugetsu. The most annoying thing is an amazingly good trailer for an unmade sequel series that shows Meg doing things other than getting kidnapped, why couldn't they have done an episode of this instead? It looks amazing! Ratings Feature:
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