Ru-rurun Rune!
The
Galaxy Angel Gameverse was a serious Space Opera Dating Sim series. The
Galaxy Angel anime was a comedy version that parodied the concept of
Adaptation Decay, as well as everything else in existence.
Galaxy Angel Rune discarded the former, tried to emulate the latter, and (arguably) failed miserably. The original series lasted for over five seasons, while Rune barely managed to make it through one.
Apricot Sakuraba and her friends from the
Galaxy Angel II games are given counterparts from the anime-verse. As usual,
Character Exaggeration is employed. The high points of the series are largely considered to be the catchy
Dancing Theme, which underwent
Memetic Mutation, as well as two episodes where the original Angel Troupe made cameos.
What went wrong? It may simply be the fact that
Madhouse, the studio behind the original series, were unavailable and instead, Broccoli (the company behind the games) took up the project in-house, which meant that characters who were owned by Madhouse (Normad, Volcott, the Twin Stars, etc.) were unable to put in any appearances (save for a
Lawyer Friendly Cameo by a Normad-Missle). Perhaps the new writers were the kind of people that
far preferred the games to the anime and were bitter about ruining the drama. They certainly attempted dramatic plots that would have been more appropriate to the games, while throwing in non sequiturs to try and make it funny.
Despite a large amount of disappointment on the part of the fanbase,
Your Mileage May Vary.
This program provides examples of:
- Adaptation Decay (Unlike the original, it probably wasn't intentional)
- Allergic To Love (Apricot Sakuraba and her sudden bursts of super strength whenever a man touches her, mainly The Artifact from the games considering there are few men around. It gets invoked deliberately by the other girls twice in order to resolve a situation.)
- Brainwashed And Crazy (A peach-shaped Lost Technology does this to everyone except Apricot in the final episode.)
- Camp Gay (Kuchen, the manager of the dorm where the girls live. A Running Gag in episode four has Natsume attempting to ask if he's gay, but always being cut off by one of her servants.)
- Canon Immigrant (Natsume Izayoi debuted in this series before becoming the Rune Angel Troupe's Sixth Ranger in the games.)
- Character Exaggeration (Done in an attempt to mimic the original series, but can feel forced at times.)
- Combining Mecha (Nano-Nano takes this Beyond The Impossible in episode 7. The girls' ships become this in the final episode for no reason at all except Rule Of Cool.)
- Conspicuous CG (The Emblem Frames used by the girls. Dorten, the mayor of Seldor, appears as a CGI projection in a moving chair. Lily performs a bit of Lampshade Hanging on the latter in the first episode.)
- Cool Ship (The Emblem Frames employed by the girls, and their mothership, the Luxiole.)
- Dancing Theme (The opening theme, Uchuu de Koi wa Rururune)
- Dark Skinned Redhead (Anise)
- Everythings Better With Princesses (Natsume, princess of the Arms Alliance)
- Gag Series
- Genki Girl (Nano-Nano Pudding)
- Harmless Villain (When Lily gets Brainwashed And Crazy in the final episode, she lets out her "evil impulses"... By J-walking and keeping a coin she found on the street.)
- Hot Springs Episode (Episode 12 takes place on a hot springs ''comet'.)
- Idol Singer (Nano-Nano and Natsume become this in episode 6. The other girls all join in by the end.)
- Implacable Man (In episode 10, the girls are pitted against a completely unstoppable combat instructor who has to carry his dog when they go out for walks because he surpasses the poor critter's limitations, takes out a firing range target simply by chucking a piece of his dismatled gun at it, is capable of lifting a massive space whale, and is totally unaffected by anything the girls throw at him.)
- Lawyer Friendly Cameo (A missle looking largely like Normad makes a blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance in episode 6 — Right before it blows up a planet a second later.)
- Moe
- Ms Fanservice (Tequila mostly, but of special mention is the girls' commanding officer, Isabella, who only ever appears over a TV screen. This is taken advantage of by the men on the Luxiole's bridge, who somehow manage to have the screen only display her juicy bits in later episodes.)
- Nanomachines (Nano-Nano, although she only uses them once in the entire series)
- Pink Bishoujo Ghetto (even more than in the games; in fact, there seem to be no men in the immediate vicinity at all aside from Kuchen and the Faceless Masses.)
- Shout Out (Aside from the multiple throwbacks to the original series, any combat sequence not taking place inside the girls' ships has them randomly transporting to a barren field and taking down whatever bad guy they happen to be facing a la Super Sentai. In addition, a chubby Char Aznable clone appears in episode 10 as a training instructor for the girls, and Milfeulle summons the Luxiole and uses it to bat away the Lost Technology in the final episode in what can only be a Gao Gai Gar homage.)
- Superpowered Evil Side (Tequila, who normally only shows up when Kahlua ingests Alcohol, although some of the transformations are completely at random, depending on who's more appropriate for the humor of the scene)
- The Chew Toy (Mimolette, Kahlua's loyal floating cat-head-thing, who seems to have inherited Normad's tendency to have horrible things happen to him every few minutes.)
- Too Kinky To Torture (Toyed with in the first episode. An Affably Evil baron grows to planetary proportions and goes on a rampage, but because he's a massochist, the girls' attacks don't bother him. When they decide to ignore him for several hours instead, he loses his powers and shrinks back to normal.)
- Twelve Episode Anime (Thirteen, but who's counting)
- Witch Species (Kahlua/Tequila)
- With Friends Like These (Lady Of War Lily and Space Pirate Anise never quite see eye to eye, which predictably leads to violence.)
