Galaxy Angel

Galaxy Angel The Angel Brigade, an elite branch of the Transbaal Empire military is currently assigned to search for the Lost Technology, mysterious items from the past that hold vast but unknown power and could spell unrivalled might for the Empire should they be found.

Led by the decorated Colonel Volcott O’ Huey, the Angel Brigade is made up of the trigger happy, gun fanatic Forte Stollen, the enigmatic and stoic Vanilla H, the crafty but ever so cute cosplaying Mint Blancmanche, the scheming, man-hungry Ranpha Franboise, the airheaded but oh so lucky cake-baking Milfeulle Sakuraba, and Normad, the AI chip harvested from an intelligent missile which is now housed in the body of a plushy toy.

This rag tag group of soldiers currently undertake all sorts of missions, from finding lost cats, dealing with suicidal missiles to delivering long lost student cards – and all the while priding themselves in seeing each and every job through and hopefully finding that Lost Technology in the process…

…even if they have no idea what it is.

The original Galaxy Angel series was first released back in 2001 by Broccoli and Bandai Visual, with animation provided by the perennial powerhouse of Japanese animation, Madhouse Studios. The 26 episode, 12 minutes a show long series is directed by Morio Asaka and Yoshimitsu Ohashi.

If you think cute, utterly madcap, random joke after joke and fan-favourite, Brocolli’s previous hit in Di Gi Charat immediately springs to mind and as with this particularly unique show, Brocolli continues the trend by following it up with Galaxy Angel – a show that carries that same madcap sense of humour but is just better executed with a lot nicer animation to boot.

Just looking at the character line-up and you know that you are in for a parody-laden show, with Galaxy Angel shooting straight for the most stereotypical types of female characters available in anime and then pushing their characteristics just that little over the top to ensure that you know that they are being made fun of.

From there you are pushed straight into 12 minutes of madness, with the show shooting between different types of scenarios, jokes, tones and focus at light speed pace and ends up delivering you a show that is almost entirely impossible to neatly put into any genre except in one entirely of its own. At a push we can go for space/mecha/girls/comedy, but seriously, that’s the best that I can come up with.

The animation is pretty clean and nicely detailed when it matters, but thanks to the show’s nature, there is a lot of switching between different art styles and a lot of exaggerated facial expressions, poses and super-deformed characters littered about for good measure. The animators aren’t afraid of reusing animation either, but with the beautiful and professional way this show is presented anyway, you can’t really accuse them of being budget constrained by a long shot.

Character designs all lean to the cute with hints of fan service, and just as with the backgrounds, everyone is colourful, vibrant and energetic.

In terms of the music and voice acting, Galaxy Angel doesn’t get the formula wrong and all the voice actors suit their respective characters to a ‘T’ and the music follows suit by being extremely cheesy and extremely energetic – all in an ultra cute kind of way.

Overall, Galaxy Angel is one of those little throwaway series that you watch guilt free when you want a little entertainment break from the more serious or dramatic stuff and is guaranteed to pull a laugh or at least leave you with cute, happy thoughts once you’ve finished with it.

Thoroughly worth wasting some of your time on!