Battle Angel
Zalem; a legendary floating city that overshadows the slums of Scrap Iron City- a dangerous city filled with organ theives and criminals with high bounties on their heads. Dr. Ido is a cybornetic doctor and escapee of Zalem, who one day while looking for scrap parts in a dump, stumbles upon the still living remains of a female cyborg. He rebuilds and gives her the name Gally. She takes up bounty hunting so that she can earn enough money to go to the city up above with the man she loves.
Created as a preview for the manga, this 2 episode OVA starts a worth while story that never seems to find a happy ending.
Plot:
Oh, where to begin. Being how short this OVA is, you can expect very little when it comes to plot, but given it's length they do do a good job fleshing it out. In an attempt to help flesh out the story Chirin was specifically for the OVA. Due to her creation however, their are quiet a few fan servicy type scenes involving a lot of nudity, that frankly felt unnecessary.
Yugo, portrayed as an honest hearted mechanic at first, is quickly revealed to have ulterior motives to further his goal to earn his way to Zalem.Gally is the heroine of the OVA and quiet a cute one at that. After having her body rebuilt by Dr. Ido she takes up the job of a Hunter-Warrior (basically a bounty hunter) taking down organ thieves, so she can also travel to Zalem with Yugo.
Animation:
For 1993 it isn't bad. With how short it is, Battle Angel could afford to put a lot more detail into it's character designs and backgrounds. The problem lies in personal taste. Certain people will absolutely love the art, while some will vehemently hate it. I personally loved the characters design for Gally, but some of the other designs just looked god awful (Yugo and some of the rogue cyborgs for example).
Where the voice acting fails, the fluid animation shines. The fights between Gally and Grewcica were very fluid and well choreographed. Only occasionally did a scene ever look choppy or unnatural, but that's to be expected of something from '93.
Music:
This'll go quick, seeing as there was a definitive lack of music. There is no opening for the OVA, only a closer, Cyborg Mermaid. Nothing stellar, but not atrocious (which can't be said for many themes to come out of the mid '90s). Background music was forgettable; nothing really stood out to me. Appropriate when needed, absent when not.
Voice Acting:
Oh, God almighty... My ears hurt just thinking about the English dub for this series.
I'm going to also comment about the script here, because there were some points that really bothered me. In one scene Dr. Ido and Gally are discussing her becoming a Hunter-Warrior that had some poorly written dialogue as well as poor delivery, that frankly, killed what could have been a perfectly fine scene. Thankfully the entire script isn't as bad and the 2 main characters have decent voice actors, but there will definitely be some points where the script will make you stop and roll your eyes. Both Gally and Yugo's voices are thankfully better than that of the rest of the cast, and ironicly Amanda Winn Lee (Gally) and Spike Spencer (Yugo) would co-star later in Evangelion as Shinji and Rei. I have nothing against Spike, but Yugo's voice made me want to punch the screen at times. He just seems to get cast as the characters I tend to hate.
Amanda Winn Lee does a good job portraying the cute and bubbly Gally, while hinting at something darker about her unknown past. All in all, I think she did the best job.
The rest of the voices on the other hand, sounded very stiff and unnatural.
Overall:
Battle Angel isn't bad by any means, just dated. It's worth a nights rentaland acts well as a preview for the manga, which is the only way you are going to be able to get the rest of the story. If you do happen to be interested in the manga by the end of the OVA, be forwarned, Viz switched nearly all the names around (I think Ido's is the only one that stays the same). Again I'd suggest this title to anyone who enjoys older post apocolyptic anime looking for a good way to spend a friday evening.
Final Score: 3/5
-Midori
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