"Burst Angel (& Infinity)" (Anime/Manga)

[pkristen]

26 Episode TV Series/OVA. Originally reviewed December 5th, 2007.

Summary
In futuristic Tokyo, guns are finally legal and cause as much terror and damage in a world that was already in barely contained chaos.

Review
I have to admit the pictures of two female leads in a hinted relationship caught my attention, even though I knew I was in for a very potentially objectionable ride viewing-wise.

Apart from the voice actors (I watched only the dub version), I felt like there was absolutely no female involvement in the creation of the animation. It felt like everything was absolutely a guy’s rendition of what makes great entertainment: overly indulgent T&A, gratuitous violence and barely plausible super technology.

The main 4 characters were flat stereotypes who acted with absolutely no female authenticity at all. And the “coolest” character acted more like a guy than male leads in a lot of other anime that I’ve seen.

Though I did think it was rather interesting that the main male lead happened to be a wannabe chef – I guess in the attempt to say “hey, we can have sensitive male characters too.” However, given that his masculinity is continually insulted, it’s a poor attempt at best.

And as for the long awaited OVA sequel, my reaction after viewing it was “what was the point of this?” I am among the group of viewers who were much more interested in a true story sequel of seeing if Meg and Jo reunite, rather than refocusing on a mediocre chapter of their life.

I can keep going on with my ultimate dislike of the series, but that’s giving it more effort than it deserves. In and of itself, it does satisfy the entertainment needs of its core audience, which is a demographic I’m not part of. But frankly, if I hadn’t been committed to reviewing the series for lesbian analysis, I would have stopped watching it after episode 2 or 3.

Lesbian Analysis
Sigh — I guess I have to do this: In general, the lesbian instances and characters were in such emotionally shallow and tired settings that it almost negated anything positive about this series for role model prospectives. But there are some curious notes to pay attention to.

Jo: Main chick with the big guns. The series’ main cool character who exhibits all of the traits traditionally identified with male leads in guy-oriented action stories: laconic, overly indulgent in violence and fond of technology. On the plus side, she is very devoted to Meg; on the minus side, often justifies it by saying that it’s because she owes her life to Meg. Romance is smothered by practicality.

Meg: Big boobs, little brains. The second main cool character who also exhibits all of the traits that are traditionally popular for female leads in guy-oriented action stories: overtly sexy, clearly not the smartest character around — which is supposed to be an endearing quality of hers (I guess), and very devoted/dependent on Jo.

She also admits her devotion to Jo but doesn’t try to justify it as a saved life vs. saved life thing. So slightly more romantic meaning to her bonding, but she’s the female stereotype lead so that’s acceptable. She also checks out good-looking guys, which again is the expectation of the female lead.

There are also some key moments when comparing dub vs. sub that have hints of a greater emotional interest that are not consistently presented. For example, in the episode where Meg is trying to entice Jo to go hang out in an amusement park and Jo declines, in the sub, Meg makes a jealous/hurt comment about Jo wanting to do other things “over fun with me (Meg).”

I don’t know what’s the excuse for trying to tone down that intent from Funimation’s perspective, especially since there were not any lip-flaps to synch to for that dialog. But given that the series is a lot more teasing about Jo/Meg’s relationship than supportive, it’s an inconsistency that is just more puzzling than offensive.

Maria: Jo’s original rival for biggest bad-ass. Wants to prove herself against Jo and develops an interest in Meg because of it. The character is so laughably stereotypically and with sleazy comments and actions that one definitely can’t consider her a positive or plausible lesbian presentation.

All Girls School: Of course there has to be a story that takes place at an all-girls school. Better than that, it involves more than one episode.

Takane: Former leader of a chick biker gang from Osaka. Unfortunately very straight, However, I noticed some interesting inconsistencies in the dub vs. sub in some key moments in her interactions with Jo.

There are a handful of moments in her dub dialog with Jo where the latter refers to her as attractive or pretty without any obvious incentive or intent given that the subs don’t make any parallel comments. I don’t know if Funimation is trying to make up for toning down some Jo/Meg moments as noted above, but it is interesting that these dub moments sound like Jo is flirting with Takane (but takes Meg for granted, unless the latter is in need of rescuing.) However, since the series is so emotionally flat, it’s not really worth to analyze it further beyond just noting it.

Activist Rant
Now that I have the main analysis done, I can now feel free to vent a little more about another thing that this series does that’s a disturbing trend in a lot of material with pseudo-lesbian content: using homophobia for humor. Chef boy is picked on a little bit, but his story treatment is not as flat out offensive as the handful of men in dresses and make-up that are clearly for comic “make you insecure fanboys squirm” kind of way. A big thumbs down for that.

Anime vs. Manga
I know there’s a manga series available, and I just haven’t picked them up yet. I will do a review when I get to it. But don’t hold your breath that it’ll be any time soon.