Review of Burst Angel

Burst Angel (2004)
10/10
Burst into action!
5 August 2008
Warning: Spoilers
First off I'm a married woman, STRICTLY heterosexual, and I LOVE "Burst Angel." While most outfits show some cleavage or butt crack, and leave me wondering how they don't pop-out of them sometimes, they aren't at all sexually explicit or degrading to women. (Except maybe Sei's swimsuit.) They're very anime-esquire, colorful, and flashy. In fact I wish I could wear them myself. And while there is some nudity it's no more graphic then a naked Barbie doll because they don't show explicit parts (nipples, pubic hair, etc.) as such stuff isn't allowed on (public) Japanese TV.

I'm not a blood or gore fan and thus the amount of anime blood is quite low, not very graphic, and tolerable in my opinion. Most of the fighting uses guns and mechs, something you should expect to see in almost every episode. There's also a good amount of swearing, only when bad stuff happens or they're upset, but I can't remember ever hearing the "f-bomb" so it's not that bad. Meg is the stereo-typical "damsel in distress" and is almost always getting herself kidnapped while Jo is the one who ends up saving her time and again.

The relationship between Meg and Jo does seem homosexual in origin from time to time (akin to Cory and Shawn's relationship in "Boy Meets World") but Meg has been seen checking out guys so who knows. ( Maria is almost defiantly gay as her treatment and reactions towards Meg are all but screaming "You're gonna be my woman once I kill Jo.") Maybe Meg is bi and Jo is gay, maybe they're lesbian lovers, or simply best friends. I think it's open-ended and left up to the viewer to decide. The only thing I know for sure is that Jo doesn't seem to care much for guys or dating; preferring rather to hang out watching horror movies, fighting enemies, or hanging out with Meg. So it's easy to understand why some people would think Jo is gay, but I could care less. Jo kicks major bad guy butt either way.

As far as I can tell only those people in Osaka have "country" accents in the show because in reality the actual Osakan dialect is the Japanese equivalent of the American country/southern accent. And Takane acts the way she does because she is a type of ex-Yankee gang member. (In the 70s-80s in Osaka people called "bad boys" who walked around downtown "Yankee", because they wore colorful Aloha shirts and pants in the American village. It just kinda stuck. So basically "Yankees" are Japanese teenagers who are bikers/rebels.) If you don't believe me check the Internet yourself.
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