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Burst Angel: The Complete Collection Blu-ray Review

BurstAngelunited-states-flag-orb-icon1

  • Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
  • Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
  • Resolution: 1080p/24
  • Audio Codec: English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (48kHz/16-bit); Japanese Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (48kHz/16-bit)
  • Subtitles: English
  • Region: A
  • Rating: Not Rated
  • Discs: 3
  • Studio: Funimation
  • Release Date: September 29, 2009
  • List Price: $79.98 [amazon-product align=”right”]B002FOQXX2[/amazon-product]
BestBuy.com:
Burst Angel: Box Set & OVA (3 Discs) -

Purchase Burst Angel: The Complete Collection on Blu-ray
at CD Universe

Shop with us for more Blu-ray releases at Amazon.com
Overall
rating3-5
The Collection
rating4
Video Quality
rating3-5
Audio Quality
rating3-5
Supplemental Materials
rating3

Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures

More Screen Captures (17 Total)

(Screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG and thus are meant as a general representation of the content and do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)

The Collection

rating4

BDDefinition-BurstAngel-f-1080It’s the near future and in a post-apocalyptic Japan, crime has become so rampant that the government has allowed ordinary citizens to carry firearms in order to defend themselves. In this beat, Blade Runner-styled setting, live a group of sexy female vigilantes who fight against mutant creatures terrorizing Tokyo’s populace. It’s the new “Wild West” in the East, and that is the premise of this anime series from Funimation, Burst Angel.

It blends sleek designs, dramatic shadings, vivid contrasts and various anime styles together for an odd world that doesn’t necessarily run continuously. Each episode is somewhat self-contained in the Burst Angel series. There’s no major story arc or running conspiracy, outside of the ladies’ constant confrontation with RAPT (Recently Armed Police Taskforce), who take on a more, kill first, ask questions later, policy when it comes to fighting criminals.

I can’t say that Burst Angel is on e of the more enjoyable series that I’ve watched from Funimation. At times it rather bored me, but it is filled with a lot of action and some interestingly quirky characters that might reveal themselves to be more likeable after watching through the set a couple more times. I’d only recommend Burst Angel to the hardened anime enthusiast, however. The Complete Collection set also contains the original OVA (original video animation) Burst Angel Infinity, which stands alone from the rest of the series, but does feel much different from the overall Burst Angel universe.

Video Quality

rating3-5

BDDefinition-BurstAngel-n-1080The Burst Angel Collection arrives spread across three Blu-rays with an AVC/MPEG-4 1080p/24 1.78:1 1080p/24 high definition encoding from Funimation. The source looks clean and colors occasionally pop very nicely. Line art is rendered without any issues, unlike the recent Witchblade set from Funimation, which was plagued with jaggies.

Still, there’s softness to the overall picture in Burst Angel that prevents it from being a reference release and some artifacts like posterization do creep in. It doesn’t have an “organic” animation look to it, like the best we’ve seen from Disney, or even the better releases from Funimation.

Audio Quality

rating3-5

BDDefinition-BurstAngel-c-1080Kudos to Funimation for providing both the original language Japanese track and English dub in lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (48kHz/16-bit) varieties. I listened to the original Japanese track with the literal English subtitles engaged as a reference for this review and sampled bits of the English track throughout.  Although the 5.1 mix offers some very entertaining moments with lots of activity, hardly reference quality. Low frequencies are only mildly extended down to upper lows, high frequencies are a little gritty, and the overall soundscape is a bit dry. The front channel are used nicely for some directional panning, dialogue is clean, and low-level atmospherics can sometimes be heard, but the mix sounds a little disjointed at times.

Supplemental Materials

rating3

BDDefinition-BurstAngel-i-1080There are a good wealth of supplements provided on Burst Angel for both the Japanese cast and the English re-working. If audio commentaries are your thing, then you’ll be especially pleased since each disc offers up a few episodes with the English cast audio commentary as well. Disc 3 is where the majority of the bounty lies, however, and Burst Angel fans should at least get a small treat out of some of the behind-the-scenes information and bonus footage on offer.

The supplements provided on this release are:

Disc 1:

  • The Brothers Die at Dawn Commentary
  • The Wounded Outlaw Commentary
  • Uncharted Cyberspace Commentary

Disc 2:

  • Showdown in Osaka Commentary
  • Dueling Angels Commentary

Disc 3:

  • Angels, Explode! Commentary
  • Japanese Staff and Cast Interviews (1.33:1; 480i/60)
    • Japanese Cast
    • CGI Artist
    • Character Design
  • The Lightness and Darkness of Jo (1.33:1; 480i/60)
  • Ugetsu Hakua (Character Designer) Special (1.78:1; 480i/60; 0:02.41)
  • Battle Record of All 24 Episodes (1.78:1; 480i/60; 1:23.55)
  • Previews of the TV Series (1.78:1; 480i/60)
  • Previews of the OVA (1.78:1; 480i/60)
  • Japanese Trailer (1.33:1; 480i/60; 0:02.27)
  • Textless Songs:
    • Opening Song — Loosey/The Stripes
    • Opening Song (Alternate) — Loosey/The Stripes
    • Closing Song — Under the Sky/Cloudica
    • Closing Song (Alternate) — Under the Sky/Cloudica
    • Outtakes (1.78:1; 480i/60; 0:10.31)

Funimation Trailers:

  • Dragonaut
  • D. Gray-Man
  • Heat Guy J
  • Big Windup!
  • Nabari No Ou
  • Kaze no Stigma
  • Comic Party Revolution

The Definitive Word

Overall:

rating3-5

BDDefinition-BurstAngel-o-1080The Burst Angel: The Complete Collection set offers some good entertainment for anime fans despite its middling video presentation, but the quirky series may not be the strongest one out there available on Blu.

buynow

BestBuy.com:
Burst Angel: Box Set & OVA (3 Discs) -

Purchase Burst Angel: The Complete Collection on Blu-ray
at CD Universe

Shop with us for more Blu-ray releases at Amazon.com

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2 COMMENTS

  1. Great review! Loved it! Sooo much better then the guy who does the anime reviews now, never gives them high marks!

    Do you think you could send me the anime? I can’t seem to fined it at my best buy:(

    great review,

    RI

  2. Is the link above not working for you? It should be pointing directly to the Blu-ray of Burst Angel on Best Buy. Or, click any of the Amazon links to find it there. Thanks for the comment! :-)

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