Seihou Tenshi Angel Links

I watched Angel Links largely to scratch an itch that I've had for years. When I was first discovering anime, I remember seeing ads in Wizard Magazine for various animes, one of which was Angel Links. I didn't think much of it at the time, but as I watched Outlaw Star and then expanded into the world of subs, it always kind of lingered at the back of my mind. Outlaw Star is one of my personal faves, so even if this show isn't as good as that, it couldn't have been THAT bad. Unfortunately for me, it was that bad. Angels Links is a verysombre and oddly paced sci fi show. Most animes tend to follow a basic formula - the first episode introduces everyone, they spend a few episodes getting to know the cast, and then we move into the Main Plotline. Links follows this pattern...to a degree. Main cast members Kosei, Valeria, and Duuz all get episodes based around them, but they're really sparsed out, add nothing to the characters, and feel just odd. None of the characters feel like well rounded individuals; they're just a cool visual, and this is especially true of lead character Meifon Li. She's close to being a "standard" shonen lead - she's violent, quick to anger, flaunts convention, and a bit dumb. And she has a mini-skirt and boobs, which I think are meant to literally round out her character. It isn't until the last few episodes of the show, literally episodes 8-13, that we get ANYTHING interesting happening with her character. Even then, it's handled in such a ham-fisted way that it just hurts to watch. Which isn't to say that it's ALL bad. When the background of the anime is revealed, along with Meifon's secret, the show jumps up a notch of Interesting. The reveal could have added so much more character depth to Meifon and would have worked better as a starting point than an ending point. Even if the show had been shortened - perhaps into a 3-episode OVA or a pair of movies - I think it could have conveyed it's story in a much better way. As is, Angels Links is drawn out, meandering, and lacks impact. We spend 2/3's of the show watching the Angels Links defeat pirates and it's mind-numbingly cliched. There are slight plot holes which may or may not affect viewing. They bugged the crap out of me, but I'm a detail guy, so not knowing those things kills me. The show looks fairly good otherwise. It's a late 90's show - 99 specifically - so it just started to integrate computer work into it, largely for explosions or laser blasts. Our lead characters DO stand out in that they're all very odd looking. They make you want to learn more about them, IMO, and that's why I'm disappointed that we get so much nothing on their personalities or lives. I loved the design of the Angel Links ship; just as odd a standout as the Outlaw Star. The animation looked good for the most part; the episode that featured Kosei is perhaps the only one that I remember looking particularly bad. There are some REALLY nice hand-to-hand battles and sword fights in the show as well if laser blasts aren't your thing. Overall, I feel like I got what I thought I'd get - a sub-par sister show that's all flash, no bang.

This one took a while to actually happen. I had seen previews of Angel Links years back on some disc or another, and I really wanted to see more of the Outlaw Star universe. So finally I got it...honestly, I forget when. It may have been on the stack for a year. But I knocked it out a week ago, and I'm only disappointed that it took me this long. I'll get this out of the way: it's not as good as Outlaw Star. Hey, no, get back here, sit down! Links is a good one, don't be like that. It'shalf as long as Outlaw, only 13 episodes. So it didn't have as much time to build up the story, but it doesn't feel too rushed. I do think it could have taken a completely different route given longer runtime, and the way it went did go a tad overboard once or twice. The music, like Outlaw, does manage to stick in your head pleasantly. The art is good, in some scenes a bit brighter. Overall it's a good quarantine/rainy Saturday binge.

Angel Links is an adaption of a light novel series that was serialized in Dragon Jr. Magazine and written by the creator of Outlaw Star (a long-time favorite of mine from Sunrise's golden late-90's output). Given that it shares the same creator, universe, and even a few characters as Outlaw Star it's a given that many viewers will compare it to Outlaw Star but I think a series that might be even more important to Angel Links is the popular light novel series Slayers which combined fantasy and comedy and was also published in Dragon. When you think about it like that you start toget a picture of what the creator was hoping to accomplish with this series, what makes it unique, and also where it falls short. Basically, Angel Links takes the action-comedy of Slayers, adds a heaping-portion of cheesecake, sets the story in space with detailed technical designs of space ships and mass drivers to bring in the otaku, and also incorporates elements and plot beats familiar to fans of the creator's previous work. Sounds like a recipe for success right? Unfortunately the comedy earns few if any laughs (perhaps its hard to write comedy for characters who spend most of the show sitting in chairs) and the characters also have no chemistry at all. Interactions between characters are fairly minimal and, with only 12 episodes, the series has only enough time to give its supporting cast a single episode of focus each. Having failed to endear the characters to their audience, the show shifts gears to focus on its main character: Li Meifon, the leader of the private space security organization Angel Links who boasts an empire of vast assets and huge... eyebrows. Meifon isn't the easiest character to like or a character who I felt terribly curious about but at least her mysterious past gives the story something of interest. Sadly, I assume as a bungled attempt to avoid cliches and to give the story a memorable ending, the author unexpectedly hocks a big fat loogie onto Meifon in the show's final episode, undercutting her story arc (and seemingly attempting to redeem the show's scumbag villain) in a way that left me honestly stunned and angry.

This is a minor anime Studio Sunrise made for the heck of it. It also has the director of the fail adaptation that was Fate/Stay Night so you can imagine how bad it will be. ART SECTION: 5/10 [Swords that pop out of boobies!] Since the setting takes place in the space era, expect the usual treatment: Lots of machines, lots of spaceships, lots of space battles, lots of alien planets, lots of aliens and lots of naked women… The last part sounds irrelevent, doesn’t it? Well, yes, it is. Half-naked female flesh is thrown all over the screen almost every 5 minutes for no other reasonthan sleasy entertainment. And in order to make a long story short, this is all there is to expect from the optical department: -Original shaped spaceships… Not that this contributes to the story in any way. They just look original. They otherwise “bahave” as spaceships usually do. -Pathetic attempts at fan service in the form of huge breasts and naked legs. Almost no real nude or even pantsu shots. The series is filled with sexual-implied scenes that are not really sexual. Major failure! -Flashy but boring battles. Lots of energy beams fly around, ships dance like crazy in space, things explode, people scream… and then the leading girl pulls out her secret weapon and beats the bad-guys in a flash… What a drag! A lot of fuss over situations that never feel threatening. Just how many weapons does that girl hide between her boobies, anyway? Rabid cats, magic swords, bioorganic mutations and who knows what else. Really, I skipped most battles out of boredom and stupidity. -Uninteresting character figures. They are so generic that you forget about them as soon as the episode is over. -Lots of still images, some repeated footage and inconsistency of graphic quality. Some episodes are ok to look at; some look terribly simplistic. SOUND SECTION: 4/10 [Where is the mute button?] Music themes? Terrible! Not only they sound stupid; they also feel out of place. Voice acting? Lukewarm and with worse lip-sync than usual. STORY SECTION: 3/10 [Oh, not you again!] - Busty chick with dramatic past protects spaceships from space pirates… Nothing more… - Almost all the episodes are stand-alone missions about a cocky pirate, trying to steal something and getting his ass kicked by the leading girl. Those will feel lukewarm at best, as they don’t differ in any way from filler missions in most anime series. They are otherwise colorizing the secondary characters but not in original or interesting ways. - Towards the end, the heroine’s backdrop story is revealed as she faces her past nightmares. This part was a bit more interesting, as we get to have an on-going story. But her mysterious past turns out to be the most overused and clichéd scenario in existence. And the final battle was so rushed and boring that I literally wished for all the characters to drop dead in the conclusion. It was their last chance to redeem themselves in my eyes and they botched it. CHARACTER SECTION: 3/10 [They are better off dead!] The short amount of episodes, their generic appearance, their dry behaviors and the really, really boring plot, put the entire cast side to side with the story. There is nothing to see or care about them. VALUE & ENJOYMENT SECTION: 1/10 [Snoring and yawning] Completely boring and unoriginal; this title has simply nothing to offer. Just open a hatch and throw this thing at the vacuum of space! And throw lasers at it, as it drifts towards Andromeda. Let’s not make any aliens who might find it to think badly of us.

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