Thank you, everybody!

Thank you very much, Refugee.  On the whole, I agree with your assessment re: AMV makers.  Anybody can take a Limp Bizkit song and throw clips from DBZ at it and make a music video... and it'll be just like a gazillion other AMVs out there (I exaggerate, but only slightly; there's currently 1335 Linkinball Z AMVs listed in The Org's database).

I'd like to think that "...Angel" is somewhat better than that.

It's a Geneon title, but all of it is out now. However, Geneon has ceased all wholesale shipments, so stock-in-hand at retailers is all there is.

Have you watched the whole thing? Do you recommend it? Buying the whole series would cost $189. Is it worth it?

Chris Beveridge's scores for the seven: B+, B+, B+, B+, B+, A, A-

That certainly sounds promising.

Pretty much the entire series, Will.  I thought about doing an actual review of the show, but the whole "ship/letter" thing with the Sky Girls review was too tasty to ignore.

It's not a bad series, but there's some pretty heavy-handed polemics in it, and way too many cliches to ignore.  Throw in the way the animation quality nosedives in the last third (except for the CG stuff, like the Mirai, the whole fight with the Wasp, etc), and it's hard to give a positive recommendation.  When the XO is the main character, the camera is focussed on him, and you can't figure out who you're looking at because the animators have forgotten how to draw him, you know you've got a problem.

Call it a solid "C" grade, and I could live with that. 

If you're a Pacific War otaku, like me, you'll see some other technical problems as well... like, the Wasp using a anachronistic camo scheme, or the Kaga having a deck full of planes when it was attacked, but that's really just extreme nitpicking.

Steven, I would NOT recommend it at that price.  I'd respectfully disagree with Mr Beveridge's ratings... if there was a thinpak at $40, I'd jump on it, but at $190, I don't think so.

Of course, I still have to watch the last two episodes, too, so I suppose it's possible it could pull the greatest ending ever out of it's proverbial arse, but I'm not hopeful.

Please note that when the series is concentrating on the military hardware is when it's at it's best, and the battle against the Wasp spans the last two DVDs (the two that Beveridge gave "A"s to).  Those three or four episodes are probably the best of the show (though still awfully formulaic), and I'd agree with him on those grades.

Unfortunately, the rest of the series is... lukewarm, with moments.

Actually, with some work, those four episodes would make a helluva OVA...

It's the only piece of true 'fantasy' hardware in the show, Steven.  It's pretty much a cross between an Osprey and an Apache: a two-seat attack VTOL plane that can fold and fit in a helo hanger.

The Mirai also carries a Seahawk, fwiw.

Like as not this was a case of someone deciding to be different just for the sake of being different. Of course, often that means "worse for the sake of being different". Experience at this point is pretty clear that bright yellow letters with black outlining are quite readable against nearly any background -- but that's boring. We need a trademark color combination so that people will know we're cool.

Kind of light painting all the fighter planes in your squadron with a distinctive pattern, or something. Except that made more sense.

-j