Burst Angel: The Complete Collection Blu-ray Review

• 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:


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

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

The Collection

Video Quality

Audio Quality

Supplemental Materials


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

It’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

The 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

Kudos 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

There 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:

The 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.

BestBuy.com:


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

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

Share this:
Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
Like this:
Like Loading...


	
Related