Licensed by Royalty-
Mission File 3: Broken Angel
(Geneon/Pioneer Region 1 DVD)
(2004)
review by Big McLarghuge

THWAK! THWAK! THWAK! THWAK! THWAK! THWAK! THWAK! THWAK!

This was the noise echoing out of my office as I repeatedly pounded my head into the desk in a desperate attempt to make Licensed by Royalty: Broken Angel an enjoyable experience.

This installment of the series contains three episodes that juggle story arc material about the terrorist organization Angel and its ties to Noel, the 15 Year Princess, while presenting two much smaller stories to pad the running time. The first follows Jack and Rowe as they try to recover a stolen gem belonging to the royal family. It culminates in a bizarre street battle between the Cloud 7 agents and some nameless Royal family employees. I couldn’t make heads or tails of it to be honest. Since Jack and Rowe aren’t partial to explaining any of their reasoning to the audience the events of the story just happen. This time it was a stolen emerald, but it could just as easily been an invasion of rabid woodchucks with a Lolita complex and ten tons of crystal methamphetamine, and it wouldn’t have impacted the story at all.

The next mini story sees Rowe trapped on a cable car at DTI tower as the first ever baseball games takes place in Ishtar’s new DTI Dome. Angel has placed bombs on both the cable car and the cable car power generator (inside the tower). Meanwhile the other cable car travelers are getting antsy about their predicament. One of them goes into diabetic shock and it’s up to Jack and Rowe to rescue him by delivering medicine. This one was okay, I guess, because we were allowed to spend some non-annoying time with Rowe. We learn that he’s a big baseball fan, and is actually good with people not directly connected to the Cloud 7 organization. Also, I assume the character Maurice Butterfield, the only Ishtar native on the Ishtar baseball team will make an appearance later. His dad is the guy in diabetic shock.

Also, note to translator, when a baseball game is paused because of rain it’s a “rain delay’ not “suspended game”. You can tell the Japanese have no idea what the hell a rain delay is. You’ve seen Japanese baseball right? They play irrespective of the weather (a trait I wish American baseball would adopt) so they must have tried as hard they could to put the rain delay idea into the script and just couldn’t find the appropriate slang. You’ll notice too that when the cable car occupants are listening to the game on a tiny radio the names of the teams playing, and their home cities, changes three or four times, and the script of the announcers covering the game is hilariously silly.

Anyway…

We also meet another recurring character on the cable car. Rocky, a native of Ivory island, the same Ivory island being slowly chipped away by DTI as it strip mines Ivory Stone from the countryside.

Jack sneaks Noel away from the game leaving Claire in her place, which allows Claire to witness Mr. Pennylane, the head of Cloud 7 meeting with DTI’s owner. (This storyline will be dealt with in the next installment.)

The final episode reunites Rowe and Rocky, who immediately divulges the identity of Angel, he and four other guys from Ivory Island, and helps Rowe stop a plot to blow up the first national bank. As Pennylane says at the end, “looks like we can call and end to Operation Angel.”

This one isn’t any better or worse than the previous two entries in the L/R series. All of them contain fair to middling animation, though the fight scene in this one was WEAK (still shots and anime swooshy-swooshy background, ho hum). I made a point to watch the English language track this time to see if it improved the experience. And to be honest, the cockney accents and stuff really fit the material well. It gave the episodes a sort of Guy Ritchie feel that is definitely lacking in the original Japanese. For what it’s worth, everyone from Ivory Island speaks with an Irish accent, just a little symbolism for you there. I still don’t understand how these five miners think they are going to bring down the Royal family AND DTI by blowing up random structures… but then, I don’t understand non animated-to-look-like-an-Amish-donkey-baskeball-team real-life terrorists.

Taking style cues from Cowboy Bebop helps elevate the show above the usual action/adventure anime, but it doesn’t help much. And what is it with Japanese animated characters that smoke? I made this complaint when I reviewed the first seven episodes. This one is gadget happy but not so fixated on tobacco products (I guess the deal with Phillip Morris fell through…). The gadgetry is handled in a silly manner this time, and I am not sure it wasn’t meant to be a little self deprecating humor. I mean, Rowe has a shoe phone, only unlike the one it’s modeled after, that of Maxwell Smart Agent 86, Rowe’s phone puts the transceiver inside the insole, so he has to smell his own feet when he uses it. At one point he has the shoe tied to his head for hands free usage. Can you hear me now? I wonder who foots the bill for that thing…

Anyway…

The soundtrack contains several original compositions steeped in American blues (think Chabo Riechi’s excellent Lain score) and some more traditional rock and roll type j-pop numbers. One track of special mention is “Always”, a total plagiarism of The Beatles “Because” from the Abbey Road album. The producers better hope Paul McCartney never hears it because he’s liable to attack them with his wife’s wooden leg.

Pioneer’s L/R: Mission Two “Broke Angel” DVD contains both Japanese and English language tracks (in 5.1 surround), anamorphic widescreen, credit-less or credited intros, four TV spots for the show, and some previews for other Pioneer titles.

L/R an OK way to pass the time during a “suspended game” provided there isn’t ANYTHING else to do or watch.