The computer games and the manga attempt to have some semblance of a plot; the anime makes no such mistakes, dispensing with both plot and any semblance of continuity in favour of simple hyperactive comedy (though not as hyperactive as DigiCharat, in the sense that a smelting furnace is not as hot as the sun).
The premise of the anime consists of the Angel Squadron, a group of five female military fighter pilots set up to locate and retrieve the Lost Technology of a bygone age. This LostTechnology? tends to consist of whatever's needed to make the writers' strange ideas for the week happen, and ranges from womanizing smart missiles and galaxy-destroying monsters to magic wands and chocolate liquers that turn people into children. Meanwhile, the Angel Squadron themselves are the kind of people you wouldn't want to trust with anything more dangerous than string, let alone Lost Technology. On a good day, they might be found robbing from banks and giving the money to the poor (more out of boredom than any sense of altruism). On a bad day, they might be found concocting elaborate schemes to kill fellow squad members following a dispute over who ate the last piece of cheesecake.
A brief idea of the characters:
Forte is obsessed with guns and will shoot anything and everything with little provocation. Especially anyone who tries to deprive her of money, sometimes also food, or who insults her. Tall, well-endowed in the chest department, and red-haired, has an intimidating appearance to match the above.
Milfeuille is most airheaded of an airheaded bunch. Obsessed with cooking, she has been known to be distracted by it to the point that, when the other angels were stuck in a cave and starving to death, instead of just bringing them some food, she spent weeks preparing them beautifully presented cakes. She is also blessed with extreme luck: normally extremely good, but not always. Pink hair with flowers in just about sums it up really.
Mint has already been well described on a different page, but just in case this is insufficient, it should be pointed out that the cuteness alluded to is really quite extreme, being blue-haired and having sticking-out rabbit-like ears which flick up and down when she gets excited. Cuteness starts to break down significantly when she gets angry, or tries to stand on her family dignity.
Ranpha is into the concept of the good life and is constantly trying to get hold of money and luxuries. Considers herself a great beauty, which is a reasonable assumption, but never seems to get anywhere with men, in spite of turning into a helpless melted heap of pink haze at the sight of the most slightly handsome man.
Vanilla takes the word 'calm' to new levels. Her face never seems to betray any emotion, and she remains calm and collected in the middle of the greatest crisis to affect the rest of the angels. Even while fleeing from certain death, she maintains a calm expression and wastes no words. The only one of the angels to be possibly intelligent.
Two other characters are probably worthy of mention:
Normad can only be described as a pink blob. He is some sort of sentient missile, who speaks in a strange artificial voice. Is absolutely devoted to Vanilla, who is the one to carry him around. Has served the angels as an emergency food source, a baseball and general stress reliever. Often gives sound advice to the angels, which is, needless to say, completely ignored.
Commander Volcott has the thankless task of being the interface between the angels and the rest of the military. Wears a haggard, hopeless expression most of the time. These two facts appear to be connected. After all, it's his job to break it to the angels when they have taken a pay cut on the grounds of the millions that have to be spent repairing the damage that they do. And also to break the news to the military about the latest damage that the angels have managed to do, up to and including destroying entire planets. It's quite impossible not to feel sorry for him.
98 fifteen-minute episodes have aired on Japanese TV to date, around 80 of which have been fansubbed (as of late 2003). Bandai hold the rights to the first series, and will start releasing it on DVD in March '04; Broccoli Books are expecting to start releasing the manga in english at the same time. No-one seems to have any intention of translating the computer games (which are a mixture of squad-based tactics, RTS and DatingSim, as you might expect). More manga and a third computer game are expected at some point, and a fifth tv series is probably not out of the question; popular series never die, after all.