Burst Angel Volume 2

Following its somewhat unimpressive debut, Burst Angel is back with another quartet of episodes which see Jo and the other girls taking on another pair of missions. As before, there’s little evidence that some kind of main plotline is going to emerge, but nonetheless this instalment proves to be rather more enjoyable than its predecessor.

The first two-part story sees Meg posing as a student at St Luciana Academy, an elite boarding school where something strange is taking place behind the scenes. Marking a change from the tone established in the previous episodes, this segment actually gives Meg a chance to do something useful- and although her actions are predictably incompetent, this time around they are rather amusing. As to be expected from the resident damsel-in-distress, however, it’s not overly long before Meg once again needs Jo to step in and save her.

The second half of the disc focuses on a story closer to the “sci-fi western’ style seen on the first disc, involving a giant crow mecha that has been kidnapping women for some reason. Predictably, it isn’t too long before Meg manages to add herself to the list of victims, prompting Jo to go all out in an effort to save her. Hopefully future episodes will exhibit a bit more variety, since the “Meg gets kidnapped, Jo saves her” plotline is wearing thin even at this point.

The cast of Burst Angel can hardly be said to be deep, but the events of this disc at least ensure that they aren’t quite as two-dimensional as they were before. Although we’re still given scant details about their pasts, the events of these episodes really highlight the depth of the feelings Jo and Meg have towards each other; Jo is willing to cross any boundary to save Meg, whilst Meg in turn has complete faith in Jo.

Surprisingly, Kyohei also gets a bit of attention in the latter half of this volume when he gets caught in the thick of a mission. After their initial reluctance to have a man around, it’s interesting to see how Kyohei has now become well integrated into the group, although admittedly his cooking seems to have a lot to do with that! Unfortunately, however, both Sei and Amy get sidelined somewhat this time around.

As before, the action content is hard to fault, with hand-to-hand and gun combat taking centre stage this time at the expense of mecha scenes. Gonzo have achieved their usual standards with regards to the animation, and aside from a few places where the CG elements felt unnecessary, there is little to complain about. The background music is also worthy of mention, with the predominantly guitar-based tracks adding to the “sci-fi western’ atmosphere of the series.

In Summary

An explosive and over-the-top outing that is not too dissimilar to the preceding volume, Burst Angel #2 nonetheless manages to tip the scales in its favour by including a little more character development and a story that doesn’t quite fit the mould of the other missions we’ve seen so far. There’s still not much evidence of a main plot, but nonetheless this volume provides a measure of light entertainment.