Anime Review: Angel Links vol 2 - AKA - I'm A Terrible Person For Spending $2 On This

It was on the clearance shelf at the discount store... just sitting there... begging me to take it home with me...

I'm such a sucker...

Yup.  That's how it happened.  Why did I pick this up?  Have I not learned my lesson?  Have I not had enough?  What was I was hoping for?

Maybe I felt that I was unfair basing my opinion of the first disc.  4 episodes of a 13 episode show may not have been a fair trial.  Maybe I was hoping that something better had slipped in like that snippet in the opening that I liked so much.  Maybe I was hoping that there was a story that was going somewhere...  Maybe I'm just an idiot...

In the sense of trying to be more fair to this series I'm going to try to give an actual review of this disc.  God help me.

First things first, checking out the special features.  The first disc gave the extra feature of a clean opening while this disc gives a clean ending... which serves no real purpose since the ending video isn't really anything to watch...  It's just this video without words.  Boring and useless.

The only other bonus disc one had was a clip from Ep 19 of Outlaw Star showing Duuz and Valeria, they gave something just a little better as the next bonus feature to this disc.  Three different versions of the same Japanese commercial spot for Angel Links, all of which were narrated by either Valeria, Duuz, or Kosei (the pretty boy right hand man of Meifon). Now since this show is so craptacular these videos are nowhere to be found on the net for me to easily show you, but believe me when I say that these spots are traps!  Not one bit of the shows animation was used in this commercial.  It's all drawn and cut to the style of what the Outlaw Star theme and episode openings looked like!  This was a cruel tease to what I had hoped for in the first place.

By the way, this is Kosei

Now that that's out of the way, on to the episodes.  This disc, unlike the first, only wields 3 episodes this time around.  Episodes 5-7, getting just past the halfway point of the series.  Let's see if they can turn this show around.  Episode 5 is a quick love story, episode 6 is the origin story, and episode 7 is... I don't know really.  I'm actually surprised this time.  Episodes 5 and 6 were slightly better than anything else I've seen here so far, and episode 5 didn't have a launch sequence *GASP*... *GAAASSSP*  neither did episode 7!

There was slight bit better moments of character animation here and they're pretty easy to spot when you see them, but the problem is where the better bits are used.  Several of them are in spots where things aren't important or interesting.  Now you may be thinking that I'm being a little too harsh on the character animation in this show, after all, Outlaw Star had its fair share of derpy looking frames, but this show is not Outlaw Star. This show...  ugh this show.

Now to the parts that were obviously confusing coming straight from the English dub (the Japanese dub is actually pretty good but making an effort to enjoy this show isn't an option)....  How does anyone in this universe know anything about EARTH culture and terminology???!!!  In a series where Earth is never shown how do these people know our stuff?  Ok!  Yes, I know, the entire story of Outlaw Star starts on Earth, yes, but when so much time passes that planets are colonized and there are several generations of people that have never been to Earth, how do they know?? Duuz compares Meifon to Joan of Arc in episode 1.  Did he go to a human school to learn interstellar history?  Meifon say's "Elvis has finally left the building".  Are you telling me Elvis is still a pop cultural icon that even a 16 year old girl in the future would know?  Kosei makes reference to Daddy Warbucks.  REALLY?!  Is Little Orphan Annie so popular that it will transcend time and space?!  Will they take the broadway show to other planets for years to come?!

Moving on, in episode 5 Kosei goes on a date.   Now we're still in the Oracion system, keep this in mind here.  Kosei walks into a bar.  Guess who's there.  Why Clyde of course!  Don't ask why he's not on Sentinel III.  I stopped asking questions a while ago.  I'm going with the theory that multiple Clydes run the bars of this universe like Nurse Joys run PokeCenters.

Clyde doesn't seem amused being here...

But wait!  We're not out of the cameo park yet!  Guess who else shows up in the episode!  Iris!  She just shows up out of nowhere and glomps Kosei on the street.

NO IRIS!  You're supposed glomp Gene!

I have no idea why Iris is here or why she already knows Kosei... you know, I don't even think Iris knows how she got here... she just kinda wanders on and off of planets...  and shows... she wandered her way into Cowboy Bebop episode 7 - Heavy Metal Queen...

They say it's her...  she must've found a good hair dresser.

But what would a show be without a creeper to top things off?  For the duration of the series we get this guy, Leon Lau.

Meifon saved him once in the first episode and he just can't seem to leave her alone.  He sends her roses all the time.  He's shown kissing her in the opening sequence.  I think someone needs to remind him that's she's 16 years old...  Or maybe....... maybe... Maybe he's trying to get in good with Meifon, win her over, marry her quick and shove his adopted daughter Yayoi off on her.... he's kinda been doing that the whole time already. And from the English dub, I think Yayoi might have some learning or mental disabilities...

But even though Leon is the biggest creep of the show, I believe we have a more pressing matter to turn our attention to.  Our dear little Meifon Li.  I believe she has an issue or two to address...

This is Meifon in her bedroom...

 This is Meifon in her new dress...

And this is Meifon showing her dress to the giant portrait of her dead grandfather...

A giant portrait of her dead grandfather... on the wall... in her bedroom... over looking her bed...  I can't be the only one weirded out by this right? That gives a strange new meaning to "if walls could talk"... he's seen things you people wouldn't believe...

This show is still bad but the slight change in episodes 5 and 6 make me feel like I could almost press on and watch the rest... Don't expect me to find disc 3 anytime soon though... although, I guess I could find episodes elsewhere...  That's a horrible idea.

Angel Links disc 2 episodes 5-7
3 Creepy Grandpa Walls out of 10

Series total score so far
3 Shots at Clyde's Bar out of 10

6 more episodes to go... uuuuuuuuuuuuugggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh.