Sei was about the only interesting character, but her backstory never really went anywhere. Jo – tough girl with guns; seen it before, nothing new here. Meg – whiny, useless eye-candy. Other than serving as a focal point for hostage situations, she does nothing in the show other than cling to Jo. Kyohei – typical late teens / early 20s male anime character; again, nothing we haven’t seen a million times before, except he really does nothing in the show either. Amy, the mandatory young kid of the group, has the saving grace of not being too annoying. Takane, however, was loud and obnoxious. The other characters in the show frankly didn’t make much of an impression on me.
Fan service aside, the visuals & sound were OK. Lots of combat in and out of mecha. The character designs were more or less what you’d expect. Sei reminded me too much of a big boobed Chun Li. Meg’s skimpy Western-themed outfits were just ridiculous. The integration of the 3D animation in the combat scenes actually worked pretty well. I have a love-hate relationship with the soundtrack. The songs worked well for the show, but I personally can’t stand the translated lyrics or the vocal style on the opening track.
Bottom line, Bakuretsu Tenshi doesn’t add anything new or original to the genre, and what it does, it does with average competency. I wouldn’t quite call the entire show filler, but it comes close. If the visuals / combat scenes had been less interesting, I probably would have rated this lower than a 5/10. Personally, given the choice, I’d rather rewatch Black Lagoon, Bubblegum Crisis, or Gunslinger Girl than watch Bakuretsu Tenshi again.
