Bandai Visual continues their experiment with Japanese pricing with Galaxy Angel Rune volume 3. This four episode disc is being released with a MSRP of nearly $50! While this is standard practice in Japan where rabid otaku are willing to fork over that much for their beloved anime, the same isn't necessarily true in the US. To make matters even worse, this show is only mediocre. While the original Galaxy Angel series were funny and enjoyable, this show feels like its trying too hard and comes across as inferior to its predecessors.

Series Background:

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. 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.

This volume:

Much to the surprise of the other Angels, Nano and her friend Natsume form a pop duo and become stars when their song ends up on the charts. Their surprise soon turns to envy but that's elevated somewhat when it is announced that the group is going to take on some new members. Apricot, Anise, Lily, and Kahlua all want to be in the band, but there's only three spots opened. That means they'll all have to audition.

Then the troupe hears that they are going to have some special visitors, the original Galaxy Angels! Yep, Milfeulle, Ranpha, Mint, Forte, and Vanilla are all coming for a visit. The Angels are excited and get busy trying to impress the senior team.

After that there's a parody of mystery shows. When everyone but Lily gets locked inside the Angel's dorm on a dark and rainy night, mysterious things start to happen. Is the dorm really haunted? It's up to Apricot to solve the mystery.

The disc wraps up with a story about Anise. When she goes to a shrine and asks a god to become a celebrity, her wish is granted! The other Angels are a bit envious and try to cut in on her action.

This program doesn't really do too much for me. The whole show is a parody, and while it can be amusing at times, it often ends up being too silly or stupid to really enjoy. The hyper-kinetic style is just too over-the-top for my tastes. While the copious in-jokes are fun they aren't enough to make the show actually funny.

This disc contains episodes 6-9 of the series. It comes in an attractive purple keepcase with a reversible cover and a nice booklet insert. The booklet contains sketch art, character profiles, special attacks and notes some quick jokes viewers may have missed.

Audio:

Like the other volumes of this series, these episodes 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 Visual 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 1.78:1 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:

This disc also contains a clean ending for all four episodes and two segments of Angel Rune Sentiment. The latter is a rather unusual extra for an anime disc. They are short (3 minute) live-action movies each featuring a different actress from Galaxy Angel Rune. Both of these are about unrequited love, women who can't have the man they want. They're set to soft piano music and nice to watch but afterwards I was thinking "Okay....why was that included?"

Final Thoughts:

Galaxy Angel Rune has outworn its welcome. This disc contains more of the same, and while there are a couple of chuckles in each episode, there aren't enough to make this a recommended show. Add to that the high retail price of $50 MSPR and it's easy to rate this one a rental.