Galaxy Angel A

vivafruit Oct 14, 2009

5

Galaxy Angel III is the best sequel ever, doing more with its cast than the show has ever done before... Er… I mean… Galaxy Angel III has truly groundbreaking predecessors, and manages to live up to the undeniably prestigious franchise… Wait… no. Galaxy Angel III may be a small step down from its highly enjoyable… No again… Galaxy Angel III is worse than the better-than-average series before it, but… Let’s try one more time: Galaxy Angel I and II were enjoyable fluff; nothing more, nothing less. While I considered II to be a significant step down in terms of originality and overall hilarity, both were by all means entertaining enough to watch. Unfortunately, while II was stretching the limits of what the show could do to stay enjoyable, III reaches a sort of breaking point. This franchise is quite simply no longer funny. Nothing is wrong with the technical elements of the anime… far from it. Animation is probably better than it ever has been, with the same appealing character designs engaging in flashier and generally more fluid antics than ever before. Music stays on par with I and II, offering a couple new (well… sort of) OPs that are catchy and amusing. For voice acting, the same seiyuu are here, and do pretty much what they’ve always done: quality work. The problem lies, quite simply, in the fact that the various exploits in each episode are no longer interesting. On the contrary, the goofy plots for each 10 minute segment are often deathly boring, and only occasionally offer something genuinely funny. Galaxy Angel has always been somewhat silly and plotless, but the difference here is that I usually enjoyed myself while watching the first two shows. With III, I was never actively entertained and often found myself playing FreeCell during the show on my other computer (a bad sign). The final episode in particular is horribly tedious; the anime tries to develop a serious, complicated and in-depth plot and pretty much fails in every respect. The staleness is further exemplified in the characters, which really haven’t changed at all in the last 96 episodes. While when they were introduced they were loveable and interesting, static and completely shallow characters can only take one so far. Don’t get me wrong, I still like the 5 angels (especially the Machiavellian Mint, who’s always been my favorite one), but their appeal has definitely been dampened. Of course, don’t let the fact that I didn’t like the series keep you from watching it; most people seem to be enjoying this a good deal. I suppose the bottom line is that if all you want from this show is the same exact product repackaged into a new theme song and better animation, then you’ll probably be satisfied with what you get.