Angel Links is a 13-episode anime produced by Sunrise and based on a novel by Hideaki Ibuki. It takes place in the same universe as Outlaw Star, but the stories have little to do with each other (aside from sharing a couple of characters).
The protagonist of the story is Meifon Li. She's the brash, busty, 16-year-old head of Angel Links, a corporation which provides pro bono security escort service to small-time merchants and freighters out in the cold depths of space. Of course, this doesn't go over well with any of the for-profit escort companies who have to compete with her. Nor does it sit well with any of the space pirates who are unfortunate enough to cross the path of her awesomely powered Cool Ship. But Meifon doesn't care what anyone else thinks. The running of Angel Links was the sacred mission handed to her by her dying grandfather, and she intends to remain at the helm, milking it for as much fun and adventure as she can.
Aiding her is her partner in battle, Taffei, a catlike animal that can transform into a powerful sword. It's cute, has wings for ears, and spends most of its downtime chilling in Meifon's pneumatic cleavage. The crew of Meifon's Cool Ship consists of Kosei Hida, (her Pretty Boy tea-making Boy Friday), Valeria Vertone, (her battle-hardened tactician), and Duuz Delax Rex, (a stoic, lizard-like muscleman who, when he's not cracking enemy skulls, spends his time calmly polishing a sword the size of Pittsburgh.) It should be noted that Valeria and Duuz, prior to this series, appeared in Outlaw Star, but with slightly different appearances and personalities. As such, it can be argued that Angel Links inhabits an Alternate Continuity to the former series, (although it's probably best not to think about it too hard.)
Meifon Li and her crew spend most of this series darting and zooming from one flashy space adventure to another, but our heroine's life gets turned upside-down one day when she rescues Leon Lau, a wealthy, bishy philanthropist whom she soon falls head-over-spiked-heels for. Ah, but who is this alluring, mysterious gentleman? What connection might he have to Meifon's late grandfather? And just how does Meifon keep her uniform from slipping off of her chest every time she performs a backflip or a cool Finishing Move? The answers to these and many other questions are to be found in this action-packed sci-fi epic! (Well...okay... they don't answer the question about the uniform-not-slipping in battle. But it's doubtful even Deep Thought would know the answer to that one...)
This series contains examples of:
- Boob-Based Gag: Meifon has a cat that hides in her cleavage!
- Brought Down to Normal: The final confrontation takes place in a room where Meifon's powers won't work.
- The Cameo: Aside from Valeria and Duuz appearing in Outlaw Star, Fred Luo appears in one episode.
- Fighting from the Inside: Meifon spends the last few episodes trying to keep her Superpowered Evil Side from flying into a berserk rage, even while she's trying to hunt down Goryu like it wants to.
- Foreshadowing: When trying to be friendly in a casual conversation, Meifon says that she and the granddaughter of a family friend are somehow alike. Turns out to be true when later the girl is revealed to be an android and, half an episode later, Meifon too.
- Hero of Another Story: if you accept this as being in the same universe as Outlaw Star, Meifon to Gene (& vice versa).
- How We Got Here: One episode begins with the death of the Girl of the Week and then goes back and shows how it happened.
- Improbable Age: Meifon is sixteen and in charge of her own Cool Ship and Badass Crew... Actually, given her age you could add Improbably Large Chest.
- Magic Skirt: Meifon is Ms. Fanservice everywhere but in an actual combat, where she manages not to flash anything under her trademark short dress.
- Manchurian Agent: Meifon. She was built with a compulsion to attack Goryu when triggered. (The reconstructive surgery he underwent to become "Leon Lau" kept Meifon from triggering until she was close enough to detect his DNA) The episodes after the reveal revolve around her struggle to preserve her sense of self in the face of her conditioning.
- No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: Meifon is a Super Prototype assassin robot built with Imported Alien Phlebotinum. To keep her from being reverse engineered by Goryu, grandpa Chenho programmed her to die on what would be her seventeenth birthday.
- Pervy Patdown: In the first episode, Meifon tries to negotiate the release of two hostages from some Space Pirates. Before exchanging the ransom for the hostages, the leader of the pirates complements her good looks and decides he needs to frisk her first, oddly not her two tougher looking crew mates that came with her. He feels up her body but when he tries to grope her breasts he gets attack by Taffei, Meifon's catlike pet that lives in her cleavage.
- Spaceship Girl: The villain's ship is powered by twin androids.
- Voice of the Legion: Super Mode Meifon switches between her voice and her grandfather's when she first awakens.
- We Can Rule Together: In the last episode, Goryu/Leon tries to persuade Meifon that if she stays with him, she'll be free from both her Manchurian Agent programming and the limit placed on her lifespan.
- Wham Episode: Two. First, when we learn that Leon and Meifon aren't what they appear. Second, when Leon reveals himself as Goryu and Meifon realizes that she isn't who — or what — she thought she was.
