Well, at least it's short, right? Unfortunately that doesn't really help it.
The fact is, most of the episodes try to contribute to the main story, which is unpleasant, unlikable, and not really all that coherent. If it had simply been an episodic 'heroes versus evil space pirates' show, it might have come off as formulaic but watchable; as it is, it attempts to be something much more ambitious than the ability of anyone involved with it, and it fails in essentially every possible way.
They sometimes go to the trouble to try making characters interesting or engaging before clumsily writing them out, and the most egregious case of all is the main character, whose backstory is poorly-composed and confusing, not to mention outright asinine. The attempt to build up audience concern and tension is wasted by a non-resolution that doesn't even pay the audience back for their time and interest. In fact, it's more like the series ends with a two-fingered salute, plus raspberry, towards the audience who were all foolish enough to stick with it and expect something decent for their time.
Character designs are very good, though animation is uneven, which is really inexcusable in this kind of series. This was also made in the period where CG was dropped in arbitrarily and often came off as clumsy, although here it tends to look better than most of the time. The music is good, the Japanese voice acting is good, although as usual English voice acting is uneven and seems to take a dip near the end. I can assume the actors were as disappointed as the viewers when they found out how the series repaid them for their time.
All in all, this series doesn't deserve even a single viewing. Despite good character designs and good music, it's basically just riding on Outlaw Star's coattails...and I didn't even like Outlaw Star that much in the first place. Angel Links is nowhere near as interesting, and it manages even to have blatant inconsistencies between itself and the series from which it was spun off! Give it a miss. There's a reason why this series is usually rated so low. It's not even mediocre. It's a barely passable effort that's tarted up with some all right special effects and good music, which fails completely to fulfill its promise.
Unless you consider its promise one of disappointment and an unnecessarily and jarringly unfulfilling non-resolution, in which case it comes through perfectly.
The fact is, most of the episodes try to contribute to the main story, which is unpleasant, unlikable, and not really all that coherent. If it had simply been an episodic 'heroes versus evil space pirates' show, it might have come off as formulaic but watchable; as it is, it attempts to be something much more ambitious than the ability of anyone involved with it, and it fails in essentially every possible way.
They sometimes go to the trouble to try making characters interesting or engaging before clumsily writing them out, and the most egregious case of all is the main character, whose backstory is poorly-composed and confusing, not to mention outright asinine. The attempt to build up audience concern and tension is wasted by a non-resolution that doesn't even pay the audience back for their time and interest. In fact, it's more like the series ends with a two-fingered salute, plus raspberry, towards the audience who were all foolish enough to stick with it and expect something decent for their time.
Character designs are very good, though animation is uneven, which is really inexcusable in this kind of series. This was also made in the period where CG was dropped in arbitrarily and often came off as clumsy, although here it tends to look better than most of the time. The music is good, the Japanese voice acting is good, although as usual English voice acting is uneven and seems to take a dip near the end. I can assume the actors were as disappointed as the viewers when they found out how the series repaid them for their time.
All in all, this series doesn't deserve even a single viewing. Despite good character designs and good music, it's basically just riding on Outlaw Star's coattails...and I didn't even like Outlaw Star that much in the first place. Angel Links is nowhere near as interesting, and it manages even to have blatant inconsistencies between itself and the series from which it was spun off! Give it a miss. There's a reason why this series is usually rated so low. It's not even mediocre. It's a barely passable effort that's tarted up with some all right special effects and good music, which fails completely to fulfill its promise.
Unless you consider its promise one of disappointment and an unnecessarily and jarringly unfulfilling non-resolution, in which case it comes through perfectly.
