May 31, 2005:

For quite some time now I have wished for more episodes of Bakuretsu Tenshi. It's true. Oh, I am fully aware that it is a lousy show, but damn if it isn't a lot of fun.

For those of you unfamiliar with Bakuretsu Tenshi, it's a low-brow anime about girls with guns, and robots beating the crap out of stuff, and explosions—lots of explosions. It's stupid as all Hell, but I am of the opinion that every once in a while it's nice to just watch something pretty while keeping one's expectations and demands low.

Meg. Good ol' Megu. But wait, something's different about her.

To that end, Bakuretsu Tenshi is eminently satisfying. It's not at all pretentious, and it doesn't take itself too seriously, and a lot of it didn't make a whole lot of sense, but damn if there weren't a lot of explosions and people shootin' stuff.

And it had a teenage cop from Osaka (dressed in a school uniform with tails, mind you) shooting a bazooka while speeding down a freeway on top of a giant trailer, for crying out loud. How can you not like that?

Takane. I think that was her name, anyway.

Currently, I'm sort of hoping another Gonzo show, Trinity Blood, can serve the same niche that Bakuretsu Tenshi did. However, Trinity Blood strikes me as a poor cross between Chrono Crusade and Hellsing (neither of which are very good, either—at least in their anime incarnations), starring Vash the Stampede in the Alucard role. So far, Trinity Blood isn't very good, and also isn't bad enough to be any fun, either. At least Trinity Blood is a Mamiko Noto vehicle, for those of you who care about that sort of thing. Also, Sister Esther appears to go kinda aggro at least once in the manga.

There's a new sheriff in town.

So anyway, I was sad to see Bakuretsu Tenshi end, leaving a gaping hole unfulfilled in my need for Stupid, Flashy Anime with Lots of Fighting. But wait! It looks like there is going to be a Bakuretsu Tenshi OAV! Kickass. I hope it's not a flashback, and not a B.S. deal like the Cowboy Bebop movie that takes place before the final episode. True, that'll mean it won't feature the characters that died (Causes of death? EXPLOSIONS), but at least it'll almost have to be about the new-and-improved-non-hostage Meg and her all-red Django 2.0, yo.

Meg used that gun like once the entire season.

Oh, and it turns out Meg wasn't wearing fuck-me boots, after all; they were chaps. Bear in mind that most of the time there were no means apparent explaining how they stayed on, since nothing visibly connected them to the rest of her clothes as one should find is the case with normal chaps. Nevertheless, I maintain that the combination of fuck-me boots and stockings would be the fashion equivalent of a game-breaking home run. It's a combination better even than peanut butter and chocolate, people! The fact that both bellbottoms and capri pants got popular again in recent years, while wearing lace stockings with fuck-me boots has not, is an utter travesty. Stockings and chaps? I guess that works, too. Better than Jo's and New Meg's crotchless shorts, anyway.

More S'PLOSIONS!

Bakuretsu Tenshi is now available on DVD courtesy of FUNimation under the title Burst Angel. It may or may not come with a copy of Little Women if you buy the box set.