The Series:
Galaxy Angels was first released in region one in 2004 in four
separate volumes. Bandai has now collected the entrie first season
of this amusing and entertaining show in a reasonably priced set.
This comedy show only runs 15 minute per episode and the short run time suits
the style and tone of the series. It's sure to please fans of lighter
anime.
The Galaxy Angels are a special military unit that is charged with finding
lost technology and helping out wherever they can. That often means walking
dogs and running errands. Each episode the Angels manage to get into
some sort of trouble, and their trials, tribulations and mishaps make for
some great comedy. The group consists of :
Forte Stollen: a macho girl who loves weapons and doesn't run away from
a fight.
Ranpha Framboires, Forte's foil. She's attractive and bubbly and
is constantly searching for a cute guy. Preferably one who's incredibly
rich.
Milfeulle Sakuraba: the stupid but sweet member of the team. She
has incredibly good luck, but when she gets upset it turns to unbelievably
bad luck.
Mint Blamanche: a cute young girl with rabbit ears who's the brains
of the outfit.
Vanilla H: the cipher of the group. She's extremely religious
and keeps to herself but has healing powers that come in handy every once
in a while.
There still isn't much in the way of an overall plot, though one is
implied in the early episodes. The introductions to the shows, presented
in the 'extras' section, give a lot of background to the series; the political
environment, the technology etc. But much of this never comes out
in the shows themselves. Someone went to a lot of trouble to design
this universe, but most of the details are never mentioned, much less explored.
With this episodes running under 15 minutes each, there is not a lot
of plot build up. They jump right in and get the job done.
Each episode seems to center around the punch line at the end of the episode,
which isn't bad. If drawn out to a half hour show, this program might
have seemed dumb. But at a lean and mean 15 minutes, they are great
fun.
A typical episode is "Grilled Girl in a Box" which appears on the third
disc. Ranpha finally had a really cute guy ask her out, but she overslept
and missed their date. Not able to come up with a good excuse, she
told him that she missed the date because Forte had died. But word
has gotten around and now Ranpha has to convince Forte to play dead for
a few days. But as the rumor starts to spread, it spirals out of
control and soon Forte is having a military funeral with top honors.
To bad she's not dead.
If you enjoy goofy comedy that isn't trying to be deep or meaningful,
this would be a good series to check out.
The DVD:
This series was originally released as four separate volumes.
All four of those discs are collected in this "Complete Collection" edition.
They are housed in a double width keepcase with one disc on each sided
of the case and a 'page' in the middle holding the other two. There
is no slipcase or insert.
Audio:
Like most anime DVDs, this disc lets you watch the show in the original
Japanese with optional subtitles or with an English dub. In switched
back and forth each episode, and found that I enjoyed both sound tracks.
In both languages, there was some use of the front soundstage, mainly with
sound effects. The sound quality was very good, with a nice full
rounded sound, especially during the opening song. There was a good
amount of bass present, and the dialog was clear and crisp. No evidence
of hiss or hums. A nice quality soundtrack.
Video:
The video quality was also very nice. The colors are bright and the
lines are crisp. There was only a slight hint of aliasing and other
digital artifacts that are hardly worth mentioning. The fine lines
on the characters did not shimmer and disappear like they do on some discs.
I was very happy with the look of these shows.
Extras:
Included on this DVD are introductions to each of the shows under the
title Now I get it! GA Lectures. These were one-minute
pieces where voice actress Ryoko Shintani who plays Milfeulle fills in
the background to the show while dressed in a Galaxy Angel costume.
There is no English dub on this bonus; they are in Japanese with subtitles.
These were obviously done in one take, because Ryoko messes up a bit.
But she seems to be having fun with it and is laughing much of the time.
I thought these were fun and was very glad they included them on the DVD.
I only wish there was an option to play them automatically before each
show, as they were originally shown.
There are also several short commercials that played on TV when the
series was released on video, and trailers.
Final Thoughts:
This show is light and fun, with a good amount of humor and just enough
plot to hold everything together. The audio and video look good,
and the introductions to the shows are a nice extra. If you need
a break from some of the more serious anime shows out there, be sure to
check out Galaxy Angels. Recommended.
Buy: