a.k.a. Exploding Angel
a.k.a. Bakuretsu Tenshi
a.k.a. BakuTen
Genre: Action
Company: G.D.H./Gonzo/Imagica/TV Asahi
Format: 24 episodes
Dates: 4/6/2004 to 9/21/2004
Tachibana Kyohei is a culinary student with dreams of studying to become a pastry chef. However, his desired trip from Tokyo to study in France is more than he can afford, so he takes a job as a cook for a group of four young, mysterious women: Sei, Joe, Meg and Amy. As luck would have it, Kyohei discovers that his new employers are highly skilled mercenaries whom never fail to complete any job, but they’re about to take on a series of missions that gradually reveal a horrifying reality that no one expected.
summary by Eek
Reviewed: 04/26/2005 by
Grade: 49% 
Highs: Some stylish action scenes; end theme song is worth the wait
Lows: Patchy development makes for an uninspired cast; screwy story
Here are more teenagers packing military hardware, brought to you by Gonzo! If you don’t like the sound of this concept or aren’t a fan of mostly-naked women wearing suffocatingly tight clothing, stay away from Burst Angel.
Beyond the worthless drama and unfunny comedy, the only reason to watch this anime is for the action scenes. Many of the fights are yawn-inducing, but there are some that will tightly grab your interest. They usually involve giant robots sporting large guns fighting at insanely fast speeds; and the rest are done on foot yet still involve many large weapons. With an almost neo-Western style, several of these battles will have you pressing the rewind button multiple times. But the gem of Burst Angel is the end theme song, Under the Sky by the vocally beautiful Cloudica; listening to it is worth wadding through 20 minutes of bad anime because it brings out a happier, freer and better side of the series.
If you’re expecting any depth here, think again. Any sort of true character development is hard to come by. We’re given a peek into how the team of girls came together and even some of Joe’s past but nothing beyond that. I’m even hesitant to call them a “team” because they’re just a group of incompatible, clichéd personalities. Besides, the production crew probably thought, “Why try to develop a bunch of stereotypes?” Here’s all you need to know about the protagonists: leader girl; hacker girl; quiet, butt-kicking girl; loud useless girl; cook guy. Giving them names is far more than what’s necessary, and even cook guy has no purpose about 99% of the time. And what of the story? Most of the arcs are two to three episodes long and have something to do with a revelation that becomes fully realized towards the end, but due to insufficient explanation and a lag that lasts about a dozen episodes, connecting the dots is impossible because those dots aren’t all there.
With an all-female team of “outlaws” and some style, this anime seems reminiscent of Sol Bianca: The Legacy, but don’t make the mistake of associating one with the other. Just lump Burst Angel with the rest of Gonzo’s failures (Kiddy Grade, Real Bout High School, et al) and move on to something better.
Anime Academy 