Galaxy Angel Z

Galaxy Angel Z (Season 2) A great continuation of the Galaxy Angel series. Fantastic episodes that are broken down into 10-13 minute shorts. We're given a lot of great comedy again, making Season 2 an absolute must watch, but Galaxy Angel Z takes a turn and introduces some very real tense moments. The episode with Forte and the Silent Soldier was down right not a comedy; introducing dark, scary, tense and entirely different emotions from what we normally get in a Galaxy Angel episode. The stark difference works really well too, as the episodes that go in the opposite direction from the standard Galaxy Angelsetup seem to act like backstory and of a more serious intent. The story is once again, for the most part, non-existent, though it makes Galaxy Angel focus on the harder things like character interaction and actually being funny, something that Galaxy Angel does really well. Sound and music design is very 90's, with a lot of sounds that seem to come from many different shows. It doesn't hurt Galaxy Angel, but it's not exactly the best either. Ambient sounds are good though, as are the sounds of guns and other things. Opening and ED are really nice to listen to once again. The girls are still really cute and with Galaxy Angel Z, we see more depth and information about them than ever before. Mint and Milfuelle continue to be super adorable and mega cute, my favorites!! ~

I've talked about Broccoli Entertainment's Galaxy Angel series before. A long, long time ago. Seriously, it was a very early review and it was a great series. Like Broccoli's other franchise I've reviewed, Di Gi Charat the anime was handled by Madhouse. Does this one live up to its predecessor? Let's look and see. Story: Like the first series, this one has no real story. Each episode puts the Angel unit in a different bizarre situation, a lot of which use the lost technology to drive the shenanigans and some of which just rely on putting the characters into a situation and letting them be delightfully quirky. Thebig issue with the series, like the first instalment, is that it has an inexplicably serious episode. Yeah, there's an episode about Forte having a traumatic experience on the battlefield and her old enemy returns and she has to face her fears and go against it and the episode has, in total, one joke and it's not a particularly funny one because it's taking itself far too seriously. This is an anime that parodies game shows and sentai series, has an episode with the characters switching bodies and does a bunch of other crazy shit. A largely serious episode doesn't fit. The gags in the Volcott reunion episode are kind of weak too. They're pretty much built around seeing him bossed around by crones. But at least s has some. Those halves aside, the comedy in this is is spectacular. It's built on high energy, zany absurdity that's excellently executed, with only those aforementioned exceptions that only make up... 12% of the series. Characters: This isn't a complex group of characters. They're built on their quirks and on having very strong comedic interactions. Which, to be fair, is a perfectly acceptable route to go down in a comedy. And the characters are designed in such a way that you can put any of them in a scene together and get something funny out of it. You don't need any specific permutations. It's hard to even say whether some work better than others. So, the comedic chemistry is pretty spot on. Art: I'll give Madhouse credit on the artwork front again. They have some excellent backgrounds, strong object designs and really good visual gags. The extended chase scene with Vanilla being a good example of that. If there's anything worth being critical about, it's that the comedic art style shifts might be considered excessive for some people. But they also suit the comedy type, so I can't say I had any real issue with them. Sound: Tamura Yukari, Yamaguchi Mayumi, Sawashiro Miyuki, Kanai Mika & Shintani Ryuouko get to show off their acting chops a bit more in this series. Yes, they were good in the last one too and all my praise about the surprising levels of nuance still holds true. But the body changing episode has the group of them swap mannerisms and basically imitate the speaking styles of the other characters, which they do fabulously. We can thanks Itou Masumi for the soundtrack. She also worked on music for Phantom & Shigofumi. And I'll give her full credit, she is excellent at composing music that suits the atmosphere of a series. I quite like the theme tunes as well. Ho-yay: Again, there's a bit. There are points where Ranpha seems to lose her general boy crazy mentality and be more into the other members of the Angel unit. But there's not a lot of that. Final Thoughts: Galaxy Angel 2 is a bit of an improvement over the first series. It certainly suffers from some of the same problems, but its high points are better. If you like that variety of off the wall crazy comedy, I'd highly recommend it. If you like your comedy to be more subdued, dry, raunchy or referential it's probably not for you. For myself, I really loved it. I had a god time watching it and was very entertained. As such, I give it a 9/10. Next week I'll look at Melty Lancer.

This review most likely going to be short. It is more of the same that was present in the first season of Galaxy Angel. However... the show has improved, and contains some very well written non-comedic episodes. Music has also improved and is less annoying. Characters are mostly the same. Overall (if you haven't watched the first season for some reason). This is mostly a "silly fun" kind of anime that talks about some sort of all-girl special force that is supposed to be doing... something? Finding lost technology? Fighitng crime? Protecting justice? I'm not entirely sure. But instead they usually end up in some sortof messy or silly situation instead. Detailed breakdown below: Story: 6/10 The story has improved compared to the first season. While first season mostly had a story that didn't really standa out in any aspect, this season features several episodes with a serious or mysterious atmosphere, which are surprisingly well written. There aren't a lot of those episodes - 3 or 4 of them total, but they're memorable. The rest follows the same pattern, like the first episode - girls dealing with some situation they've gotten into. There are more references to toher anime as well. The story is episodic, and doesn't really have an overarching storyline. I think the episodes could've been watched in any order without any negative consequences. Art: 5/10: Same art as the first season. It looks relatively low budget, and does not really have a lot of details going on. It is not as bad as, say... Narutaru was, but they're definitely trying to reduce animation budget when they can, even though they don't really ever go overboard with cost cutting tricks. Sound: 5/10: Doesn't really stand out, but the annoying electronic tune from the first season is, thankfully, gone. Music is okay. The music that accompanies "serious" episodes is actually good, but it is rarely utilized. Characters: 5/10: They're okay. Basically, everybody has a role/stereotype or archetype they adhere to and they try to stick with it. On an occasion the anime shows other side of the character, but there isn't much character development going on. In the end, it is a gag anime, so this is understandable. Enjoyment: 6/10: I liked it more than the first season. The serious episodes were surprisingly good, especially the one called "Silent Enemy". Overall: 6/10: This is no masterpiece, but I'd recommend to check it out when you have the time. The show is fairly clean too, meaning no gore and fanservice in it. So, mostly silly fun kind of thing, with occasional sprinkle of seriousness.