Burst Angel:V1:Deaths Angel

The four episodes are great - the artwork is beautiful, the characters are interesting and the combat is realistic. There are wheels within wheels when it comes to the plot and there are two story arches within the DVD,so you get a lot of story for your buck. The main idea is that crime rules most of the city of Tokyo and a team of four girls are trying to help keep the peace. But they are NOT part of the normal law enforcement units (think A-Team or Bubblegum Crisis). Rapt seems to run the city, but there are hints of other powers fighting for the top of the hill. In fact the girls seem to follow commands from somebody else (all we get is a name - it could be a person or a business).

There are also a ton of extras, such as radio dramas, one commentary track, funny outtakes, textless songs and, of course, trailers. The English Voice Actors are the best. Jo is played By Monical Rial (Gasaraki, Azumanga Daioh), Meg is played by Jamie Marchie (Fruits Basket) and Kyohei Tachibana is played by Greg Ayres (Full Metal Panic, Gunslinger Girl). We also get Sei played by Clarine Harp and Amy played by Alison Retzloff (from having been in Kiddy Grade).

Now, heres the bad new. First, it is ONLY in surround sound, so for guys like me who have only 2.0 stereo, lots of the audio is lost or too soft. Also, there are subtitle problems. The opening song, for example, has the subtitles right over the credits. The radio dramas, but for the first selection, have non subtitles. Also, the textless closing song in the extras, the English version, has subtitles which can't be turned off. All this little issues add up and take a little away from the enjoyment.

Yet hearing Monica Rial play a female gunslinger, with cussing and all, made my day. That is why I only took one point away. Great anime, nice selection of extras, but sloppy work on putting the DVD together.

I had my reservations when I first starting watching the series. However, to my surprise this series is just as good as Robotech/Macross. Each character is distinct, actually has a personality and there is more focus on the personalities while the science is put in the background. Which is rare since a lot of other Japanese Anime have characters that always seem to be cardboard cut outs of each other and focus to much on the scientific-war plot, if I wanted to see all that than I would watch the Discovery channel. Burst Angel is NOT like that since, it focuses on the character's and is just fun to watch with it's varying levels of chemistry and character development. They are not hard to look at either with there seductive wardrobe. I loved the packaging of the DVD which includes little books with detailed pictures of the characters. This is a DVD that is well worth the money since, the extras are fun to watch also. The only thing that I would have liked to have seen in the extras is the actors who actually did the American voices since, they were cool to listen to in the commentary. But, nothing is 100% perfect. Burst Angel is pure fun, cool, action packed and has perfect visual quality.

I was pleasantly surprised by this anime. I kept away from this title after all the terrible reviews I've read about it. I guess that goes to show you have to actually watch the show to know if you're gonna like it or not. This show's got robots, guns, and hot chicks in skimpy outfits...a mix for some serious fun! I was hooked by the first episode, it has some great mecha & gun action with good looking cgi. The girls? What can I say? This show has some very hot looking ladies! Whether you keep watching after the first few episodes is up to you. But the first volume is definitely worth checking out if you're looking for something exciting to watch.