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.

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.