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Minami Ikki Itsuki, is a student and a delinquent. Also known as the Unbeatable Babyface, Ikki is the leader of the youth gang by the name of East Side Gunz. Upon his return home after being humiliated by a street gang of Storm Riders called the Skull Saders Ikki discovers a secret hidden from him by his benefactors, the Noyamano sisters. The sisters belong to a group of Storm Riders who go by the team name of Sleeping Forest. Keen on helping Ikki to regain his confidence and pride, they supply him with a pair of Air Trecks (abbreviated as AT). Ikki eventually settles his grudge with the Skull Saders, but in the process he receives more than the simple satisfaction of revenge. Determined to experience the sensation of flight for as long as he can, our headstrong protagonist is quickly sucked into the mysterious, yet irresistible world of Air Treck.
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Unfortunately, they are also the English dub's most conspicuous failure. It's the force of personality that Ayako Kawasumi brings to bear on Kaon (and to a lesser extent the vulnerability that Noriko Shitaya brings to Himiko) that allows their scenes to carry the weight they do. Like most of the English cast, Monica Rial and Luci Christian (respectively) are too busy struggling with the stilted garbage that passes for dialogue to invest deeply in their characters. The same can be said for pretty much everyone else, but as none of their scenes worked terribly well in Japanese, the loss is less acutely felt. The addition of Brittney Karbowski's customary energy improves Kuu considerably, but in all honesty that's less a testament to the strength of her performance than it is a testament to the weakness of Sayuri Yahagi's. The real kudos go instead to Jay Hickman, who attacks the show-wrecking role of Kazuya (Kyoshiro's brother) with such scenery-chewing relish that you can't help but revel in the hammy fun he's having. ADV (by way of license-rescuer Funimation) makes the lethal mistake of faithfully preserving the dialogue, even those flowery monstrosities that sound infinitely, agonizingly worse in English.
Less discerning fans of emotional excess may be satisfied with the occasional salty tear that the series squeezes from its watery cast, but anyone with a real taste for ugly, old-school melodrama won't be pleased. And why should they? Successful melodrama is all about shamelessly wallowing in vicarious emotion. Instead Shattered Angels reminds us of everything about the wallowing—the deliberate manipulation, the contrivances, the artificial dialogue—that we should feel ashamed about, while letting us taste but briefly its rewards.
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