Recently I had the opportunity of viewing a DVD that I had bought in 2006 but never had the chance of seeing: it was the third season of Galaxy Angel, of which I had already viewed the first two years before. After viewing it, I realized I could have viewed it sooner, as I liked it quite a bit. Not only that, but I brought myself up to speed by getting what was left in the series, that is the second half of the third season (marketed by Bandai Visual as Galaxy Angel AA) and the fourth and final season (known in the English speaking market as Galaxy Angel X).
Well, I found the whole franchise quite good: and after having explored also other bits of it, including the manga and the games related to it, I thought it’d be nice to have a retrospective with my own views. Which is the point of this post.
Galaxy Angel? What was it about?
I was initially aware of the whole matter when Project G.A. was announced by BROCCOLI (for those who don’t know, it is, or at least used to be, a large merchandising company which also owned the GAMERS anime chain until very recently) at the Tokyo Game Show in 2000.
At the time the designs were very preliminary and they showed mostly about the game (more on that later) than on the TV series that was going to be made by Madhouse. As you may already know, BROCCOLI thought of this whole matter as a rather spread initiative, encompassing different medias: games, a TV series (13 episodes in total) a manga (made by the Kanan, the same person who did the original designs) plus a lot of merchandise and associated bits.
But back then, it was all yet to come. I admit I didn’t pay attention much to the announcement and moved on.
It was only years later that I bought the animated series, in 2004, that is when BROCCOLI USA opened and a partnership with Bandai Visual was formed to bring the anime and the manga to the English-speaking market.
The animated series
Season 1 – Galaxy Angel
Season 2 – Galaxy Angel Z
The second season (known as Galaxy Angel Z outside Japan) introduces a format that will become common: assemble two episodes (which are half as long as a common anime episode) separated by the eye-catch. In this case we’re looking at 18 episodes, or rather 9 in total. Compared to its predecessor, elements of parody and marked non-sense begin appearing, which make the show even more enjoyable. Also the cast has better interactions than in the first series, leading to truly hilarious moments.
One episode in my opinion stands out, because much more of this type will be featured in later series, is the second, ウェディングケーキ合体スペシャル (Wedding Cake Gattai Special, aka Wedding Cake combined Special). In this specific episode, we see the Angels having to pilot a robot which is basically a reference to a number of 1970s and early 1980s mecha shows, in particular Combattler V and Voltes V. I would rather say rather try to pilot, as the thing explodes every time combination is attempted… But this is not the only element of parody there: a scene where Milfeulle rides a scooter to reach her vehicle is a mock of Daisuke Umon / Duke Fleed’s rocket “motorbike” in the launch sequence of Grendizer. The final icing on the cake is the song played in the background, たたかえ！ぼくらのX X X (Fight! Our X X X), sung by a real singer of mecha shows and tokusatsu sentai. The X X X in there because the mecha blows up exactly when the song would say its supposed name.
Like the original Galaxy Angel this series ends with a non-ending, showing something great about to happen “but now it’s the last episode” and thus ending in an anti-climactic way. Still, the game was about to come out and a third series was in the works.
Season 3 – Galaxy Angel A & Galaxy Angel AA
This section is the longest when dealing to the anime, because it is the longest of the four, featuring 52 half-length episodes, and a few specials on the way. This is in my opinion the best of the bunch, where the mixture of the interactions among the cast and decidedly weird plots form a very nice mixture.
I mentioned the plots. Well, starting from this series the parody / non-sensical element is much more noticeable, and often every episode would lose every bit of sanity within seconds. The situations where the Angels fall in also are even stranger than in the previous series (although they magically get fixed in time for the next episode).
Regarding parody this series stars a number of successful experiments. In primis, one episode, サインはブイヨン (Sign wa Bouillon), which is a complete parody of famous sports anime like Attacker no. 1 (the song sung in the end, あたしたちがNo.1, or We are no.1, is a direct reference), featuring improbable and out-of-the-line volleyball techniques, but also references to Ultraman and Cyborg 009 (such as Forte’s acceleration, complete with spark on the teeth). In the end there’s even a “next episode” that puts together all the possible cliches.
However if I were to pick, parody-wise, two episodes from this series, I’d definitely choose ピュルリクマジカルステーキ (Pyururiku Magical Steak) and 新鮮 鯛づくし (Shinsen Taizukushi) because they bring that element to a new level.
The first of the two is an all out reference to the “magical girl” series, where the Angels (and Volcott, too!) try to use a magic stick that would grant a wish to a truly believer in magic. This somehow ends up in a sort of clip where lots of historical shows are referenced, as shown in the images below.
The series reference relatively recent productions such as Doremi, but also real antiquities (for the Japanese, at least) such as Megu-chan (the Italian readers of this blog may know it as Bia e la sfida della magia), touching also video games. How many references did you find in the image shown above? This video shows all of them. As you can see are quite a lot. The song is also performed by a veteran of such series.
The second parody episode I mentioned instead is a reference to super sentai series, where the Angels have to fight as a group known as the “Angel Five”. Also this episode compresses a full-length sentai 52 episode series in little less than fifteen minutes.
Almost all the cliches are touched, including also a reference to the first Kamen Raider series and the always present narrator that tells how things go on. Oh, and I should not forget about the obligatory mecha scenes (with the combination of the girls’ 紋章機 – monshoki or rather emblem frames - referencing the usual lack of budgets of these series). Just like the previous episode, there’s even a specific song for the various scenes.
The last mention for this series is the last episode, final dish REBECCA, which is actually full-length. In contrast with most of the series, there’s not a single trace of humor. It’s like one of the few serious episodes scattered through the series but in a more coherent and longer form.
Despite the difference, the essential psychology of the characters is not changed at all (in fact some bits reminded me of the game) and the whole story fits perfectly as ending of the series (open ended, also with Masami Okui and JAM Project’s In the Chaos as ending song). If Galaxy Angel had to end there, final dish REBECCA would have been ideal. By the way it was done, I also feel that this season was to be the last one, but the decision changed only later on.
Season 4 – Galaxy Angel X
The last of the seasons is also the one of the most absurd, because the parody and nonsense elements increase dramatically. Usually it’s impossible to predict where an episode would end up to being, because aside the initial settings they almost go completely random (but they’re rather funny). The craziness affects even episode titles, which become tongue-twisters that also play on assonance: an example 非凡平凡チョコボンボン (Hibon Heibon Choko bonbon, translatable as Extraordinary, ordinary chocolate bonbon).
On the parody side, an episode like 哀しみ憎しみ凍み豆腐 (Kanashimi nikushimi shimi tofu, or Sadness and Hatred Tofu in the English translation) replicates (very faithfully, I might add) the aura of Japanese dramas, complete with rather improbable plot twists and character relations (who is the daughter of who?). Another episode, ラブ米, feels like a session of Tokimeki Memorial, with the Angels infiltrated in a school-like environment (complete with stereotypes) and with an insert song performed by a singer that actually did some of the game’s songs.
Along with the already present characters, this season also includes Chitose Karasuma, but she’s completely different than the game counterpart, with a personality bordering on psychopathic. She doesn’t appear very often in the season as well, but she leaves her mark, definitely.
The last episode (オールオッケーロケ弁当, All OK bento) is somehow meta as due to plot reasons it almost feels that the main voice actors are speaking about their characters, in a way. However, near the end the nonsense returns, showing a “battlefront” against aliens that is more reminiscent of the tennis anime エースをねらえ！(Ace o nerae! or Aim for the Ace!) as the “battle” is played at table tennis. Other notable mentions which also include the appearance of a character from the 1970s Great Mazinger series, namely 闇黒大将軍 (Ankoku Daishogun, or Great Dark General). but with the face of Di Gi Charat‘s Digiko…
Unfortunately the last episode is a bit of a let down because it’s half-length, unlike final dish REBECCA, and thus the final part is a bit rushed. It’s not a bad ending per se, anyway, and doesn’t affect the overall quality of the series. Series which despite its length never really bored me and provided many hours of enjoyment. Especially the latter seasons show a great coordination among the cast that increases the comical effect.
To be very brief, watching this series, even now taht many years ahave passed, is definitely recommended.
The video games
It is somewhat less known that Galaxy Angel had also a series (three) of game counterparts, in fact part of the all round strategy devised by BROCCOLI. Unlike the animated series, however, none of these have been translated to English (actually, such a translation was planned, but hastily canned when BROCCOLI USA closed up shop).
The scenario of the game is much closer to what BROCCOLI had announced at first. Gone are some of the anime characters (the ones devised by Madhouse themselves, such as Nomad and Volcott) and others come in, most notably the commander Takuto Meyers, the character whose actions are controlled by the player.
So, how are the games? From a purely technical standpoint, they’re a mixture of 恋愛 (Ren’ai, literally love but used in the terms of dating sims) and strategy-based battles, a formula that was employed succesfully by the Sakura Taisen franchise in the past. Basically, a good part of the game involves talking and interacting with the Angels, building up relationships (and eventually love with one of the heroines), while the other part involves controlling the Angels’ monshoki and fighting various enemies, trying to achieve specific victory conditions. The latter is basically a 3D strategy game, where orders are issued and then executed, while the first involves reading the main story dialogue and occasionally making choices (unlike Sakura Taisen, those aren’t timed). Poor choices, however, will inevitably affect the Angels’ morale and hence the battle performance, so the girls must be treated well.
As you can see from the images, Kanan did all the job (like in the manga, which covers the same story as the games). The result is unpredictable: at times it’s quite nice, at others it’s rather poor. Nevertheless, it is good enough.
While the story has a more serious tone, it has also many comical moments that remind of the series (although they don’t reach such levels of absurdity). However, in my opinion there is a huge letdown when you are forced to choose your Angel: the characters aren’t “strong” enough, from a personality standpoint, to stand up alone, as their strength lies exactly in the mutual interactions. Therefore, when focus is given to a single member of the group, the results are often poor, and even “out-of-characters” scenes occur. The problem, which affects the first game (Galaxy Angel) only partially, is even more evident in the second instalment of the series (Galaxy Angel – Moonlit Lovers) where for basically half of the play time there isn’t even the full squad available. On the plus side, every scenario for each group member is often very different.
Speaking of characters, Chitose appears in Moonlit Lovers, and as I wrote before she has a completely different personality, the one of an elite soldier but so fresh that’s not capable of adapting (let alone in a carefree unit such as the Angel Tai). She still has a good deal of humorous scenes, though: her interplay with Milfeulle or with Forte in their respective scenarios is quite funny.
Let’s go over the battle part a bit. In these sections, the player is thrown in a 3D battlefield, having to control the Angels, the command ship (the Elsior) and optionally other friendly units (this only from Moonlit Lovers onwards). Units can be selected and orders given (in this case, the visual switches to a zoomable 2D map). Each unit has a series of gauges that indicate their status: the Hull gauge indicates how badly the unit in question is damaged, the Energy how much energy it has (the Angels’ monshoki can be resupplied by coming within reach ot the command ship) and for the Angels only, the Spirit gauge. The last one fills when damage is dealt or received, and once full can be use to unleash a powerful special attack which varies depending on the pilot (or in the case of Vanilla, to repair all units). Although the monshoki are rather powerful, some careful planning is due, especially in Moonlit Lovers, where the enemies are in much larger numbers. Aside that, there isn’t much else to control. The camera can be switched to the various units (useful if you want to check their performance or watch the specials).
To show you how the game plays in these sections, here is a video.
I haven’t played the third instalment of the trilogy (Eternal Lovers) yet, but I can say so far that the games are good enough when all the characters are involved and terrible when they focus only on one heroine (and Moonlit Lovers is painfully short, with a rushed ending). Not too bad, but not too excellent either.
Well the series was really a fun ride from the games to the anime although the anime is just entirely different. However I did enjoy Volcott a lot as he’s really an amusing guy as well. The anime Galaxy Angel Rune however just did not really catch my interest although still fun but just not as much compared to the previous series. The games however were really interesting as well but I always thought that the battle could be better. From what I heard, Galaxy Angel II apparently have a good battle system but sadly it’s not for the PC and since the PS2 is region protected, you probably have to buy the Japanese console to play the game.
On an unrelated note, your contact form really sucks. I tried them in Opera, IE, Firefox and they all end up stuck on “One moment please…” or in some cases won’t register the captcha at all. The message I was trying to send was:
“Reading your posts about Tears to Tiara, it sounds that you played the PS3 version as well as the PC version (I’ve never played the PS3 version). I was always wondering but didn’t Octavia also became Arawn’s wife as well as many of the others? The anime made it seems that only Llyr, Riannon, and Morgan became his wife while the others just join. Also always felt sorry for Arthur that he get no one (although many seems to ship him with Octavia so what do you think about that) but at least I really enjoyed his character in the anime compared to the PC game as not only he develops but also he gets more screentime.”
@Silver: You are perfectly right about the contact form. I’ve upgraded the relevant plugin and I hope it works. If not, I’ll just use another.
With regards to Rune, I think that the extended format (full episodes) really hurt, because it was too long for the way things were told. Also, at least in the animation, the characters were really uninspiring (and let’s not forget the wasted opportunity of having both groups together in one episode).
On the battle side of the game, I agree. Moonlit lovers is a little harder but perhaps there’s just some lack of variety. I’ve seen a few clips of Galaxy Angel II’s system, but admittedly it’s hard to understand if it’s better by just seeing.
@ Your other comment: Yes, in ToT (PS3 game) Octavia also becomes Arawn’s wife (with a very weird scene), and so the others. And about Arthur and Octavia, that idea is kind of thrown away in Tears to Tiara Gaiden (PS3 too) because some “display of affinity” is shown between her and Lidia (long story to tell *why* she’s alive).
Hello. Seems that the contact form still have issues. Sorry it seems that it just doesn’t like us very well. I actually wanted to continue the discussion of Tears to Tiara in email while talking about Galaxy Angel in this post so I hope you don’t mind that I talk about both for now in this post.
Exactly about Rune. It’s rather uninspiring and could have been done a lot better. Well it’s still at least entertaining so it’s not totally bad or anything.
Haha Chitose. When I think of her, I would think about that food contest she was in between Ranpha and Forte which was just really funny.
As someone who also watched the anime, I was really surprised when I played the games as I notice Volcott was not there as well as the crazy Nomad but after adjusting to the differences, the games sure were great but yes the battles were a bit boring after a while. But yes it’s usually better after we try to battle system to actually know how it is. Similar to the Ys series by Falcom. Watching is great but actually playing is when you would know what’s really good about it or in some games worse about it.
“And about Arthur and Octavia, that idea is kind of thrown away in Tears to Tiara Gaiden (PS3 too) because some “display of affinity” is shown between her and Lidia (long story to tell *why* she’s alive).”
Kind of thrown away? Display of affinity? Can you perhaps elaborate more on that? Well it does seem that she and Lidia are really close to something sister like. Also I’m assuming Tears to Tiara Gaiden is not a sequel but side stories? It’s too bad these games will probably never get localized (including many other seemingly good games).
Sorry about the comments closure. Some setting acted up.
With regards to the discussion, I’ll follow up later (I’m at work at the moment).
I can reply myself about Tears to Tiara Gaiden. It’s not a “sequel” di per se (the real ToT 2 is in development now at Aquaplus, along with a sequel of Utawarerumono), but it’s a story that happens after the end of the game, so technically it’s a follow up. To simplify, the whole adventure begins when Arawn & co. (including Gaius’ second in command, Decimus) find a strange device in the basement of Avalon, that teleports them to another, similar world. In this world, Gaius, Lydia, Dwrc, etc. are still alive. Gaius and Lydia end up joining Arawn’s party since they’re “controlled” by an external force. The “bonding” scene Einar refers to is a chapter in which Lydia and Octavia become separated from the rest of the group and have to fight their way out. While moving Lydia gets sick so it’s Octavia’s turn to help her, a process in which (with the obvious fan service of course) they reconcile their differences, and of course Lydia stops acting like a psycopath. The whole event isn’t handled terribly well though, as in general ToT Gaiden’s story isn’t very good, despite a few scenes that stands out.
Ah I see. Thanks for answering for me. The story still seems kind of interesting but at least we know the real sequel is currently in development together with Utawarerumono. Too bad those games will not likely get localized. I mean it took this long before the good games from Falcom finally comes over.
@Silver That is one of the reasons why I started attending an evening Japanese course, so I could at least handle the things myself if possible.
True true. I’m also trying to learn by myself which is really hard at times especially when you’re tired and busy. However there’s been a decent amount of progress but I have only covered the basic grammar and all of the Katakana. I will have more time over the summer so I will see how that goes. Anyway thanks for answering all my questions! Now back to doing a 3rd run through GA Moonlit Lovers! Who’s your favorite anyway?
Favorite? As I state in the post, I like the interplay among all the cast (with perhaps a slight preference for Milfeulle), so I’m not sure there is any kind of “real” preference. That also given that Moonlit Lovers falls down on quality considerably in the “solo heroine” parts.
Hehe that’s what I meant. So your slight preference is for Milfeulle. Me… I’m not so sure since similarly I really liked the interactions as well. However I do think that Moonlit Lovers was pretty good although at the same time I don’t remember much from the original game so perhaps it’s best that I replay the 1st game then compare them again to see. The only thing I remember about the 1st was how much I liked Vanilla. For ML, my preferences might be more for Chitose since she’s a new character and I do like her character.
I found Moonlit Lovers pretty disappointing: in particular, it felt rushed, characters like Nefuria had 0 background (not that Eonia had more, though) and that most information was dumped on the player by Noah towards the end.
Also the ending itself feels very rushed, as well.
Ah yes that’s true. I was looking for more development for Nefuria but all we know she was that “bad” guy that we had to defeat so yes that was disappointing. Anyways it was great talking to you and I look forward to your future posts! Glad that somehow I landed here on your page.