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Title:
  Burst Angel vol 3 - East Meets West

UK Distributor:  MVM (DVD Only)

BBFC Certificate:  TBA

Suggested Retail Price (SRP):  £19.99

Episodes:  9-12 (of 24)

Audio Options:  English 5.1 & Japanese 2.0

Subtitles:  English

Reviewer:  Rich (Webmaster)

 

I have really enjoyed Burst Angel’s mix of fast paced action, unique visual style and excellent music so far, so as you can expect I was really looking forward to this third volume.

This time round the focus shifts to individual characters, starting with the enigmatic Sei attending a high-class party thrown by the head of her family.  However, things never go smoothly when the Burst Angel girls are involved and pretty soon she is caught in the middle of a battle to protect the guests and the honour of her clan.  Meanwhile child computer genius Amy has dragged the long suffering cook Kohta off to the computer markets of Akihabara, where she has trouble with a group of extremely talented hackers, but it is Jo that steals the show once again.  A deadly terrorist is threatening to destroy the city of Osaka and is planning to commit an atrocity at a forthcoming high profile wrestling match.  Jo is dispatched to protect one of the wrestlers but is soon embroiled in a far greater plot and is at loggerheads with the head of the Tiger Division of Osaka’s private police force.  However, they’ll have to put aside their differences if they are to stop the string of atrocities that are plaguing the city…

Burst Angel has been one of my favourite series of the year so far, so I was a little disappointed to find that this volume was not quite up to the standards of the previous two.  The first two episodes on the disc are designed to give insight into the characters, and succeed to an extent.  The problem is that the series veers off in an odd direction for both episodes, with the first being something like an old-school Jackie Chan film, but minus some of the humour.  The second designed purely to demonstrate the blatantly obvious premise that although Amy is a genius, and despite her claims to the contrary, she is still a little girl.  Neither episode are bad – in fact there are some great action scenes and some intriguing ideas on show – but they are just a bit too obvious and don’t really tell you anything about the characters that you don’t already know.  It is great to see Meg actually do something useful for once though.

It is the double parter that ends the disc that really gets things going.  The events in Osaka lead the series back to the main story arc, and also features tonnes of great action.  Jo looks to have met her match in the tough talking former street-gang leader Takane Katsu a great character whose short temper really contrasts well with Jo’s cold and emotionless manner.  We also get to see another big CGI mech battle and the tension is racked up with an impressive cliffhanger ending, which also has a bit of a twist too.  The series is beginning to delve into some of it’s mysteries and as long as it keeps this focus next time round volume 4 will no doubt be a real return to form.

Burst Angel vol 3 is enjoyable and action packed, but it’s only in the last two episodes on this disc that it regains the spark that the first two volumes had.  Some people may like the increased focus on the more peripheral characters and their backgrounds and attitudes, but for me it slowed the pace down a bit too much and didn’t reveal enough.  It’s a bit of a game of two halves, and in the second half the pace is upped enough to drag it from mediocrity and it really leaves you desperate to know what will happen next.  It ends on a high and if it can keep this momentum up then the next volume should be a cracker.

Extras:

It may be the same set of extras as the last volume, but for once that's no bad thing!  Alongside the usual trailers and clean opening/ending sequence we are once again treated to an audio commentary for one episode by the English dub director and cast, but it is the Japanese radio shows that once again puts this well above the norm.  Totally random and extremely bizarre, the radio shows allow the Japanese voice actors to ad-lib wildly, with the highlight probably being their cutesy double-act in the Extra shows.  Entertaining and particularly original, this is an excellent set of extras.

Ratings

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