Burst Angel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Burst Angel | |
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| 爆裂天使 (Bakuretsu Tenshi) |
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| Genre | Adventure, Comedy, Mecha |
| TV anime | |
| Directed by | Koichi Ohata |
| Studio | GONZO |
| Network | TV Asahi |
| Original run | 6 April 2004 – 14 September 2004 |
| No. of episodes | 24 |
| OVA | |
| Directed by | Koichi Ohata |
| Studio | GONZO |
| No. of episodes | 3 |
| Released | July 2005 |
| Runtime | |
Burst Angel (爆裂天使 <バクレツテンシ> Bakuretsu Tenshi) is an anime series produced by GONZO animation studio. The Japanese name Bakuretsu Tenshi is loosely translated to "Exploding/Explosive Angel", shortened to Bakuten and is also known as Burst Angel and Crazy Burst Angel. Burst Angel features character designs by Ugetsu Hakua. Funimation licensed and released all 24 episodes of Burst Angel on six DVDs in North American from October 10th, 2005 through February 21st, 2006. A 3 episode OVA is in the GONZO works.
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[edit] Setting
In the future, there are major crime issues in Tokyo. Mostly because it became legal to possess guns, and because of that it has reached the point where the police force (known as RAPT) just kill criminals rather than arrest them.
[edit] Synopsis
Kyohei Tachibana is a student at a culinary arts school with dreams of someday becoming a patissier (pastry chef). The next step in achieving this goal is to travel to France for some further studying, but there's just one problem: He can't afford it. Instead of giving up on his goal, he gets a part-time job as a cook for a group of four girls; Meg, Jo, Amy, and Sei.
The girls, ranging in ages of eleven to nineteen, turn out to be mercenaries. Despite the fact they're usually being shot at, they all happen to wear the scantiest and tightest choice of clothing possible, which seemingly increases their mobility during combat. Meg is the damsel in distress, Jo is a psychotic sharp-shooting prodigy (as well as the pilot for their mecha, Jango), Amy is a computer whiz, and Sei is their boss, who in turn, works for Bai Lan. Leo, an independent member of the team, operates as Jango's mechanic.
[edit] Characters
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Jo (17) | Silver hair, red eyes, carries twin Desert Eagles and is known as "The Angel from Hell." She has superhuman abilities from her artificial creation, usually followed by the appearance of a glowing tattoo on her left arm and shoulder blade. They resemble wings and are often called "The Wings of the Devil". |
| Meg (15) | Red-head, carries a small revolver, dresses like a cowgirl, and is usually being kidnapped. She is the very best of friends with Jo and is 100% loyal to her only. She first met Jo in NYC, a year before the beginning of the series. Had short black hair then. |
| Sei (19) | Leader of the group, wears a long purple jacket, black hair in a bun. She is very powerful with an even more powerful father and is the one who hired Kyohei. Appears older than her stated age. Her grandfather runs Bai Lan. |
| Amy (11) | Complete Techno whiz. Argues with Meg a lot and also loves scarfing down Kyohei's various treats. She has a cult following in the cyberworld. |
| Tachibana Kyohei (18) | Proficient in Chinese cooking, Italian cooking, and Japanese cooking. He wants to be a patissier in Europe. |
| Jango | The mecha usually piloted by Jo. Employs twin pistols built by Leo. |
| Takane Katsu | A police officer from Osaka who wields a Colt Python and a bokuto. Ex-Motorcycle gang leader. She dresses in a combination sailor school uniform/trench coat. |
| Shiko Kazami | A classmate of Kyohei's, whom he has a crush on. |
| Leo Jinno | Contractor who created Jango and fixes him. |
| Maria | A girl with a distinct resemblance to Jo who, like Jo, was artificially created. |
| Akio | A middle school classmate of Kyohei's who underwent cybernetic enhancing. Was killed when fighting a cyberbot piloted by a human, but managed to kill it (him) too. His cybernetic enhancements resemble the Terminator. |
[edit] Seiyu Cast
- Jo: Watanabe Akeno
- Meg: Toyoguchi Megumi
- Amy: Takahashi Mikako
- Sei: Tanaka Rie
- Tachibana Kyohei: Ueda Yuji
- Jinno Leo: Sugo Takayuki
- Takane Katsu: Risa Hayamizu
[edit] English Cast
- Jo: Monica Rial
- Meg: Jamie Marchi
- Amy: Alison Retzloff
- Sei: Clarine Harp
- Tachibana Kyohei: Greg Ayres
- Jinto Leo: Mike McFarland
- Takane Katsu: Caitlin Glass
[edit] Theme songs
Opening
- "Loosey" by The STRiPES
Ending
- "Under the Sky" by cloudica
[edit] Manga
Burst Angel is also available as a 3 volume manga series, known as "Angel's Adolescence". However, it deviates from the main storyline of the anime because it deals with events that occur before Jo and Meg join Sei's team.
The manga itself is not available in English, having not been acquired for translation. Alongside the standard fare of action and general butt-kicking, it focuses primarily on Jo and Meg and the relationship that they share. Because of this, the manga does feature much more heavy shoujo-ai content than the anime, although it doesn't actually show kissing, etc (though there are a number of warm and fuzzy cuddling scenes). While the manga doesn't stray very far into the physical side of Jo and Meg's relationship, it does feature several 'fantasy scenes', where Meg often day dreams about events that she would like to occur between herself and Jo. Through these 'dream sequences', it can be determined that Meg has deep feelings of love for her partner, though these feelings do often stray into sexual desire (the most famous example of this would be of the day dream Meg has where she and Jo are naked, inches away from kissing and Jo mumbles something about "not letting her get any sleep tonight").
Contrary to the anime, Jo is often shown as having feelings towards Meg as well. While she maintains her cold and withdrawn persona, she will go out of her way to make Meg happy. One such example of this is where Meg is wondering over dinner if she and Jo will remain together forever, or if circumstance will drive them apart. The thought of losing her closest companion visibly upsets Meg so, to make her feel better, Jo feeds Meg a length of noodles from her bowl and explains that it represents the link between them and how long they will stay together. Scenes such as this show that, while Jo is still cold and callous, she also has the capacity to say kind, even romantic things to her friend in order to express her love.
Also, we see some character modifications made in the manga, most notably to Sei and Amy. The leader/computer geek duo are shown in more of a dark light, making them sort-of bad guys. Their primary goal in the story is to recruit Jo into their mercenary team. However, Sei believes that Meg will be of no use to her, so she spends her time devising ways to separate the red head from Jo. For example, she tries to bribe Meg with a considerable sum of money to leave Jo, which in turn causes Meg to become angry and proclaim that she will never leave her long time companion. However, it should be noted that this pair arent extreme bad guys. They never go so far as to order a direct attack upon Jo and Meg, and Sei even helps them out from time to time.
Understandibly, this sort of content couldn't be put into the anime under it's M rating. This is to the disappointment of many fans, as Jo and Meg are indicated as having some sort of relationship in the anime, but it is never really confirmed. Unless the manga becomes available in the western world, we will all have to dream about what could have been.
[edit] Trivia
- The main characters Kyohei, Jo, and Meg highly resemble Shinji Ikari, Rei Ayanami, and Asuka Langley Soryu, respectively, the main characters from Neon Genesis Evangelion. This is a visual similarity only, as their personalities, especially Jo's when compared to Rei's, are different.
- The main female quartet very closely resembles the four female characters from the anime Bubblegum Crisis.
- In addition, Meg's "slutty-cowgirl" outfit is closely modelled on that of the child-prostitute Iris played by Jodie Foster in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver.
- With the exception of Sei, the other main female characters in Burst Angel not only share the same first names as the main characters in Louisa May Alcott's book Little Women, but also share much of their "namesake's" personality.
- Burst Angel’s stylistic action and series feel has often been compared to that of the Spaghetti Western. Jango and Jo are considered to symbolize the gunslingers from those westerns even Jango's shadow is seen as that of one of the old gunfighters with ten gallon hat. Some even argue that "Jango's theme" is also very reminiscent of music from Spaghetti Westerns.
- Django (1966) was a Spaghetti Western directed by Sergio Corbucci and starring Franco Nero in the titular role. It is generally considered the most famous film within that genre directed by someone other than Sergio Leone.
- Even though this show has a heavy emphasis on gunfights, Jo has only ever been shot once.
- One of the schoolgirls encountered at the St. Lucreitia School is named Nadesico, possibly in reference to the anime Nadesico. This is supported by the fact that Kyo's seiyuu is Yuji Ueda, who also played Akito Tenkawa of the aforementioned series. Both characters seem to share personality traits, and have aspirations to become cooks.
- While the anime tries not to focus too much on the possible relationship between Jo and Meg, it is so obvious that the English voice cast can pick it up and make side jokes about it in the commentary (eg: they often describe Jo and Meg as "really good friends", or that Jo loves Meg..........as a "friend").
[edit] External links
- Burst Angel (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
