Film Credits

Screenplay by: Akinori Endo

Directed by: Hiroshi Fukutomi

Starring: Miki Itoh, Shunsuke Kariya, Kappei Yamaguchi, Mami Kayama, Shigeru Chiba

Review

A.D. Vision's Battle Angel is an outstanding anime title in every respect, from the animation, to the stunning character designs, to the storyline, and even to the packaging. The Battle Angel of the title is Gally (Miki Itoh), an android girl with a human brain. In Part One of this two-part anime, Hyper Future Vision Gunnm: Rusty Angel, Gally is discovered in a junk neap in a near-death state by Cyber Doctor Ido (Shunsuke Kariya), who repairs and raises her. Gally has no memory of her past, but we soon discover that she has some amazing fighting abilities. Gally soon makes friends with young Yugo (Kappei Yamaguchi), a repairman who dreams of making enough money to go to Zalem, an enormous city floating high above the wastes of Scrap Iron City. Gally also discovers that Ido is moonlighting as a "Hunter-Warrior," a bounty hunter working for the mysterious "Factory," and she decides to join as well. In the meantime, there are several other subplots mainly involving spine thieves (who kill people so they can sell their spines on the black market) and Chiren (Mami Kayama), Ido's former Cyber Doctor partner/lover, who is rebuilding bad cyborgs in order to challenge Ido and Gally. In Part Two, Hyper Future Vision Gunnm: Tears Sign, Yugo's dream of going to Zalem becomes an overpowering force in his life, and to fulfill this dream, he makes a deal with Vector (Shigeru Chiba), a criminal who takes advantage of Yugo's innocence and involves him in spine theft and murder. Because of his crimes, the Factory orders Yugo's execution, and Gally must locate and protect Yugo before the other "Hunter-Warriors" kill him.

A.D. Vision's laserdisc of Battle Angel was apparently released on laserdisc in March 1996. The disc is presented as a CAV edition, with each part appearing on its own side. The CAV still frames are solid. Side one begins with a three-page short history/description of Battle Angel's comic book and OAV origins, each "page" running 20 frames. As these separate "pages" are not picture-stop encoded and go by too quickly to read, you'll have to freeze-frame on the individual pages (page 1: frames #931-#950; page 2: #951-#970, page 3: #971-#990). The image transfer of the two parts is excellent, exhibiting a sharp picture and beautiful colors. Except for the final scene in part two, which features highly-saturated reds, video noise is at an absolute minimum. Following part two, A.D. Vision has included a Video Production Art Portfolio as a bonus (chapter #17), featuring a total of 20 black & white pencil sketches of Gally, Ido, Yugo, Chiren, Vector and miscellaneous characters. Each image runs 24 frames and is not picture-stopped, so you'll have to freeze-frame in order to examine the individual sketches. As Battle Angel is presented in its original Japanese language, very readable yellow English subtitles are presented onscreen. The actual translation is extremely well done, and the Japanese closing credits are fully subtitled (translated) as well. The CX-encoded digital surround stereo sound is in great shape and appropriately compliments the picture transfer and the anime itself. Battle Angel was pressed at Sony, it Table of Contents encoded, and contains a total of 33 unlisted chapter markers. The labels are on the disc itself are really cool as well, featuring a red and white graphic of Gally glaring at you. All in all, Battle Angel is a very nicely done laserdisc edition, and one that is worthy of being included in your anime collection.

Supplementary Recap

• History/description of Battle Angel's comic & OAV origins
• Video Production Art Portfolio