Galaxy Angel II Vol. #01

By Robert Harris     May 31, 2007
Release Date: February 28, 2007



Creative Talent
Writer/Artist:Kanan
Translated by:Koji Tajii
Adapted by:Jason R. Grissom

What They Say
It's been quite some time since Commander Takuto Meyers and the Angel Troupe put an end to Eonia's rebellion. The peaceful lull has paved the way for the discovery of a gateway to a new galaxy named NEUE, where magic, not technology, reigns supreme. And with the threat of Eonia gone, the original members of the Angel Troupe have moved on to play key roles in forging a strong relationship between EDEN and NEUE.

However, the recently promoted Admiral Takuto Meyers has decided to form a new Angel Troupe, the Rune Troupe. Their first mission: find a replacement for the current gatekeeper, Milfeulle. Milfeulle is the only one capable of maintaining the gate, and until a suitable replacement is found, Takuto won't be able to enjoy life with his bride. It seems simple enough, but the Rune Troupe has no idea what they're in for!

The Review
Packaging:
The first volume of Galaxy Angel II continues the visual style from the first Galaxy Angel; namely Milfeulle and another main characters featured prominently on the front cover atop a space backdrop. This time the second character is Apricot, her sister who is apparently the female lead in this series. The back is fairly minimalist, with the summary of the volume sitting between a miniature Apricot and her name. Like most Broccoli books, there's a red border on the top and bottom of both covers. Inside, the typically impressive Broccoli production is in full effect, and there is a bounty of extras after the story, from 4-panel comics to an interview with some of the people involved with the Galaxy Angel II video game, and even a diagram of the Luxiole, where most of the action takes place. We're even treated to a few pages of color initially, which is always a nice surprise. This is the kind of production that should be the norm, but unfortunately isn't.

Artwork:
Character designs are crisp and well defined, and are at least as good as those in the first series. Backgrounds aren't exactly sparse or frequent, but ride a pretty firm middle ground. When they are present, however, they are generally fairly impressive scenes from inside the Luxiole, which helps remind you that even though the events transpiring may be silly and mundane, they take place on a huge and very important spaceship. The variety of different styles also deserves mentioning, and characters often oscillate between being drawn seriously and humorously, while retaining their charm.

Text/SFX:
Sound effects retain Japanese characters with the English translations usually fitted above, below, or between the originals. People tend to either be very specific about their sound effects or not care at all, and while I'm not going to lose sleep over them I do appreciate the effort involved in retaining the Japanese while fitting in the translations.

As for the dialog translation...it's generally pretty good. I didn't notice any glaring grammatical or spelling errors, and dialog flowed smoothly and retained its sense of humor. I really only have one overriding problem with the translation/adaptation as it stands. Now I'm fully aware of the penchant the Japanese have for nonsensical suffixes, and while they generally drive me crazy, thus far I've only had to put up with them in anime. However, Nano-Nano Mimolette, and other characters use these suffixes constantly. And they've made it over in English fully intact, but without the cultural context that may have changed them from incredibly annoying to cute and adorable. I loathe redundancy, and reading successive sentences by these characters is like taking a sledgehammer to the temple. I can't say it really affected my enjoyment of the book as a whole, but it is definitely very, very annoying. To each his own though; some may find it charming, or at least bearable. God bless those of you who do, for that must be one of the many virtues I am sorely lacking.

Content:
After the first Galaxy Angel, the two galaxies, NEUE and EDEN, were joined by a gateway. However, there were some complications joining the two galaxies, and the only one who can operate the gateway connecting them is Milefeulle, which essentially makes her a prisoner who can't leave the gateway until a replacement is found.

To fix this, her husband, Admiral Takuto Meyers (and former protagonist of Galaxy Angel) sets about finding a second suitable operator for the gateway. How he goes about it isn't exactly explained in this volume; most of the pages are spent on introducing Kazuya Shiranami, pastry chef and main character of Galaxy Angel II, and the rest of the Galaxy Angel Troupe. In fact, the only real tension comes towards the end of the volume when a thief absconds with Kazuya's Brave Heart, a smaller ship that can combine with each Angel Frame (the Angels' ships) to produce different results, very similar to the concept Vandread is based on. This volume also spends a great deal of time connecting former Angel Troupe members to current events, particularly Mint, Forte, and Milfeulle.

Comments
Long-time fans of Galaxy Angel may be disappointed with the entirely new cast present in Galaxy Angel II. However, there is a bright side: Kanan really spends a lot of time and effort establishing bonds with former Troupe members, often in unexpected and humorous ways. So while it may not be necessary to be familiar with the first Galaxy Angel, those who are will find a great deal in common between the two series.

Galaxy Angel II, like its predecessor, relies primarily on its characters; how much you like the new crew is really a matter of personal preference, but I can say at the very least the character designs and effort put into creating the new characters are at least on par with the former series. Each of the characters is interesting and attractive in their own right, although they tend to lean a bit heavily on worn-out gimmicks at times (personality switching, bashful to the point of violence, energetically annoying, etc.). Hopefully as they become more developed they can toss these crutches aside. The main character, Kazuya, isn't as spunky and sassy as Takuto was (and still is), but he does manage to stand out from the normal cookie-cutter role thrust upon the harem comedy protagonist.

It's a good thing that most of the characters are instantly likeable, because the plot doesn't have much time to develop. There are definitely some potentially intriguing seeds planted, but little information is given and it will probably be a while before they come to fruition. Continuing to use former Angel Troupe members as important story characters was a gamble and so far it's paid off. I was initially worried it would be done haphazardly as a blatant appeal to fans of the first series but I'm now pretty confident in Kanan's ability to mesh the old and the new.

For fans of the first series, this is a no-brainer. But even for people with no prior experience with Galaxy Angel I find this an easy book to recommend. Completely ignoring the references to the previous series, this is still a very promising start to what looks to be a series at least as good as the original. If you don't mind a little sci-fi added in to your harem comedy, you'll find Galaxy Angel II to be thoroughly enjoyable. Although if those repetitive suffixes really ruin your day you may want to steer clear; after the 30th "nano da" I was cursing the lack of an easily accessible firearm.