SUMMARY
Ryu Soma is a
member of Funeral, an anti-alien attack force. No one
knows that he is really Takuto Kaneshiro, the only survivor of a secret
project called Morgue. They also don't know that he is supplying
information to a man known as Mister X.
Funeral is using a reconstructed alien called the Extra 1 to help fight
attacking aliens. Ryu blames the Extra 1 for the destruction of Morgue,
and the death of his girlfriend Maki. He also does not like the fact
that in order to control the Extra 1, they have to use a young girl named
Harriet, who has a symbiotic relationship with the monster.
Ryu's hatred for the Extra 1 is reaching dangerous proportions.
When the alien machine escapes Funeral, Ryu goes after it intending to
destroy it. Mr. X isn't exactly thrilled at Ryu acting out on his
own. He makes a non too veiled threat about what may happen if Ryu should
betray him.
Soon afterwards, a giant alien arrives, on a mission to destroy
Funeral. As the SARG pilots attack, Commander Ines decides to
play their last hand. As soon as the alien is in range, she will
detonate the nuclear bomb that has been attached to the Extra 1's neck!
DVD VISION TEST
VIDEO: The quality is excellent.
There are no pixels or errors noted. The colors are solid, and the motion,
fluid.
AUDIO: There is very little difference between the Japanese and English 2.0 audio
tracks. What difference there is in the volume and the surround sound elements. It
will depend on your equipment on which one sounds better.
EDITS: The only edits is that the clean close animation is used. No edits
to the episodes have been made.
EXTRAS: Really skimpy on this one. You have a
couple of pages of Tech Specs, a moderate amount of character artwork, and
that's it. The cover can be reversed.
WIDESCREEN REVIEW
STORY:
With so many people involved in this series, it's amazing how put together this
show is. You have the "Original Concept" designers Hajime Yatate
and Kazuyoshi Katayama who came up with the idea. There is Chief Writer
Hiroshi Yamaguch, who is the one responsible for keeping it together. Last but
not least are the screen writers, who vary episode to episode. With this volume,
it seems that the writers are channeling some of the energy from
"Evangelion" with it's invincible aliens and government conspiracy.
ACTING: The acting on both sides is pretty typical. It's good,
but it's nothing groundbreaking. I do enjoy Crispin Freman's Dan, but his
accent slips from time to time. I also can't stand Lara Jill Miller's
shrill voice for Sue Harris. To be fair, Sue Harris is a waste of space,
and the voice does match the character.
I really the voice work of Paula Mattioli Walker as Genevieve
Green. Her voice in vibes the character with a "I'm sexy and I
know it" vibe. What surprises me is that Kikuko Inoue does the
Japanese version of Genevieve. It's not the "Belldandy"
voice we are used to hearing. As Genevieve, her voice has the same
regal/sexy quality as Yoshiko Sakibahara (Sylia in the Bubblegum
Crisis OVA) does. I understand why she is one of the best voice
actresses out there.
FAN SERVICE: None in the panty category. Even the uniforms are very
un-sexy.
CONCLUSION
In volume 2, we saw
Takuto icy veneer start to crack. Now, it's
become a huge fissure. Using the Extra 1's escape as an excuse to beat the crap out of
it, his issues come bubbling to the surface. Yet he never goes
all the way. I don't know if this makes him a making him a conflicted
hero, or a pathetic looser who can't even kill the thing he hates the
most.
Episodes 13 and 14 are pretty cool, as the mother of all aliens
arrives on Earth to do some serious damage. Even the ultra cool head
of Funeral, Commander Ines, starts sweating bullets when this thing
arrives. No matter what they do, it seems that Funeral is done
for. Good thing Funeral has a nuclear bomb, and a gigantic rail gun
at it's disposal.
There is a lot of great "We will fight for the honor of
Funeral" scenes in these episodes. Everything, from the speeches
to the background music screams patriotism! Frankly, it's something
that is missing in a lot of shows these days. It's good to see
characters who don't run at the first sign of trouble, or bitch at the hopelessness
of the situation.
I was on the edge of my seat through these episodes. The
pacing was taught, with plenty of nail biting action. Adding to the
intensity was that every single thing Funeral tried, didn't work. I
was convinced that everyone was going to die in this battle. I
was honestly surprised at the outcome.
Harriet, Sue, and Maki still continue to annoy me.
If I hear Harriet say "Mr. Elf" one more damn time, I will toss
her off a gantry. Sue serves no purpose other than to fly the jet and be Harriet's friend. While Maki is dead, her
spirit still haunts Ryu. All they did was have sex and fight about
her lack of emotions For this we are supposed to believe that he
will become vengeance incarnate to avenge her? Rubbish!
Mecha fans rejoice! You get plenty of cool SARG
action with this one. For those of you who wonder if a cyclotron can
be used as a weapon, it can. Why they would build it in Utah is
beyond me.
I must take a moment to talk about the closing theme
"Fly Away" by Sphere. This song reminds me a lot of old school anime themes. It's peppy, catchy, and totally
retro! I will find myself singing along with them. "Fly
Away, Donna ni hanare te mo... ano hi mita yume wa zutto!"
Okay, it sounds better when Sphere does it.
I
am totally hooked on this series. Volume 3 of Argentosoma has
something for everyone. Action, suspense, drama, and some seriously
messed up people. Volume 4 beckons me, and I can not resist it's
pull.
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