The Series:
The Galaxy Angels are back! Well, sort of. The first volume
of Galaxy Angel Rune starts off a new series of thirteen episodes,
but these aren't the Angles that we've grown to love from the previous
series. The characters from Galaxy Angel, Galaxy Angel A, and
Galaxy Angel Z aren't in this show. Instead we find a new group
of misfits trying to keep the peace and presumably searching the universe
for Lost Technology. While the show has the same wacky feel as the
previous ones, it just isn't as funny. Of course part of the problem
could be that there's only one episode on this disc. It's hard to
get a feel for a series from just a single show.
This
group of Galaxy Angels consists of five misfits who are amazingly similar
to the previous team. They include Apricot, the child-like main character,
the captain Lily who gives the team their moral compass, even if it's at
the point of her sword, Anise who is constantly in debt, and Kahlua, who
is always in her lab performing magical experiments. Sometimes she
mysteriously turns into Tequila, a lesbian who has the hots for Apricot.
There's also Nano, a floating cat head. Together these oddballs have
to defend humanity from all enemies, foreign and domestic.
In this first episode, the masochistic Baron Garret, a diminutive puppet-like
man dressed in white tails and top hat, marches into the Angel headquarters
and demands to be arrested. He says that he's gathered 10,000 genocidal
ships, and if that's not enough reason to put him behind bars, what is.
Unfortunately he doesn't have any proof except a handkerchief that has
embarrassing images of the Barron mentally implanted in it. Without
more evidence, Apricot kicks the man free.
That
really wasn't the thing to do however because, as luck would have it, Lily
comes back from a meeting with the mayor with a wanted poster that has
Garret's picture on it. By then it's too late however. Having
been mistreated at the police headquarters, the Barron has grown and grown
until he's as big as planet. It turns out that he does have a fleet
of 10,000 ships too, and the Galaxy Angels have to defeat both of them.
This was a zany show with some wacky ideas, but it just wasn't that
funny. The jokes fell flat more often than not, and the situations
just didn't cause any laughter. The explosion that Kahlua caused
at the beginning was mildly amusing, but the show really went downhill
from there. The resolution to the problem of how to defeat the Barron
was telegraphed way too early, and a lot of the show just felt like padding.
(The scene where they are eating cake for example.)
The show could have used an introductory episode too. They didn't
take time to set up the background or explain the characters. While
that's not a huge deal, it might have eliminated the feeling that you've
started watching in the middle of the series. Of course this show
is a lot like its predecessors, even if there is a different cast.
The Angels spend most of their time bickering with each other and are fairly
incompetent. If you've seen the previous series, you've seen this
all before, and done better to boot.
The DVD:
This disc contains only the first episode of the series and runs 24-minutes.
It comes in an attractive yellow keepcase with a reversible cover.
Audio:
I was surprised to discover that this show lacked an English dub.
With a fast-talking comedy show like this one the subtitles often whiz
by at a fast rate and sometimes it's hard to keep up, so an English track
is always nice to include. Bandai has been releasing a lot of discs
without an English track, and though I often prefer the original language
English dubs should be included. There are many people who prefer
to focus their attention on the action on the screen rather than reading
subtitles, and releases like these will only serve to alienate those viewers.
I know that the market is very tight now, but cutting the dub track to
save money isn't the way to go.
Okay, enough of the rant. The Japanese track was in stereo and
sounded fine. There wasn't a lot of use made of the front soundstage
but the dialog was clear and the sound effects were strong. There
wasn't any hiss, dropouts or distortion to mar the playback.
Video:
The video quality was very nice on this 1.78:1 anamorphic image. 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 this show.
Extras:
This is one of those rare releases where the bonus material runs longer
than the feature itself. The main extra is Angel Troupe Festival
Rune, a live concert that runs about 45-minutes. This features
five women, dressed in different styles, who sing some pop-ish sounding
songs that presumably come from the series. The image quality is
a bit rough, since it was recorded indoors in a dark concert hall, but
the music was okay. There is no band, but I don't think the women
were lip synching, though they could be. In addition to this there
is a clean opening and closing, as well as some TV trailers promoting the
show.
Final Thoughts:
One episode. No English audio track. Twenty buck retail.
It would have to be a pretty good show to make a disc with those attributes
worth purchasing, and this one isn't. The jokes just aren't very
funny. Watching this I couldn't help but feel that I've seen it all
before, which I have. Maybe the show just got off to a slow start,
but since there's only one frickin' episode on this disc, it's hard to
tell. If you're a really big fan of the franchise, make this a rental.
Otherwise pass it by.
Buy: