Angel Links
Entry updated 27 October 2025. Tagged: TV.
Japanese animated tv series (1999). Directed by Yūji Yamaguchi. Written by Jiro Takayama, Masaharu Amiya and Yasuko Kobayashi. Voice cast includes Ryoka Yuzuki. 13 25-minute episodes. Colour.
In a far-future Space Opera universe of colonized systems and pirates, teenager Meifon Li (Yuzuki) inherits her grandfather's private security organization, the Angel Links, whose mission is to protect merchant convoys from space raiders. She commands a state-of-the-art warship, and is a proficient melee combatant, wielding a mysterious living weapon – a small furry creature that conceals itself in her cleavage and can transform into an "angel-winged" energy sword. The early tone is episodic and light-hearted, with cartoonish, over-the-top Villains easily vanquished by the protagonists (see Clichés). Mid-series the story becomes more serious, as Meifon begins to uncover dark secrets related to her past – involving such tropes such as AI, Androids, Identity and Memory Edit – and faces betrayal past and present. The show concludes on a surprisingly bittersweet note, bringing a sombre end to what began as a light adventure-of-the-week.
The Anime was based on Hoshi Hou Yuugeki Tai Angel Links ["Starfaring Interceptor Team Angel Links"] (1998-1999 4vols), Light Novels written and illustrated by Ibuki Hideaki. A short one-volume Manga adaptation (graph 1999) loosely retells the story.
Its reception was at best mixed. Critics noted the show's heavy reliance on Fan Service: Meifon's overtly sexualized design and the frequent battle set-pieces led some to dub it an example of "big ships and big breasts" aesthetics, an evident bid for adolescent attention. Sunrise's animation and the action sequences were generally praised, as was Meifon's portrayal as a young CEO turned altruistic space adventurer, though her visual presentation undercut the attempt at empowerment. The climactic revelation of her origins divided viewers: some found it affecting, while others routine and clichéd. Elsewhere, the plotting and dialogue were judged perfunctory, secondary characters forgettable, and the tonal lurches between slapstick and melodrama awkward.
Angel Links was a spin-off of Outlaw Star (1998) and heavily marketed as such – although the overlap is cosmetic, as only two minor characters reappear in new roles. Viewers and critics found Meifon's altruistic crusade less compelling than Gene Starwind's roguish adventures, and the series failed to replicate its parent's space-Western charm. Occasional ideas hinted at unrealized potential – from the very concept of a charity hunting pirates to notions like living ships – yet Angel Links remains a decorative, lightweight footnote in late-1990s Space Opera: visually competent, conceptually thin, and overshadowed both by its predecessors like Dirty Pair (1985) and its contemporaries like Martian Successor Nadesico (1996), its parent Outlaw Star (1998) and especially, the crown jewel of Sunrise's late-1990s Space Operas, Cowboy Bebop (1998). [PKo]
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