Intro
 
Steel Angel Kurumi keeps up it’s feverish pace and officially becomes absolutely addicting!
 
The Story
 
Another six short episodes are shown on this volume. Now that the good doctor has been kidnapped and the shrine has been rebuilt, it’s time to go find him and the best place to start looking would be his secret laboratory in Izumo.
 
So Nakahito, Kurumi, Saki and Dr. Amagi all leave to go find the lab. Unfortunately, they have to stop soon after when Nakahito comes down with a bug while traveling but the doctor that they meet is more interested in studying Kurumi and learning what the secrets of her powers are!
 
At the next stop, we learn one of the hardships of living in the Taisho era is that if you want to go somewhere, chances are you only had one way to get there and if that way was blocked, you just had to wait. Well, that’s what happens to our party when they discover that a huge boulder is blocking the train tracks and no one seems to be able to move it.
 
After they get past that though, it’s smooth sailing for awhile as the town that the group lands in next is about to have their annual fireworks festival. Unfortunately, the group doesn’t get to enjoy them as much as they’d like because the lead villain (whom we still don’t know the name of) has sent three more steel angels after Kurumi and as bait they kidnap Nakahito! Kurumi must then face three powerful steel angels and I’ll tell you right now that the battle is fierce and long!
 
In the final two episodes, Kurumi experiences jealousy for the first time as she catches Saki and Nakahito in a couple of completely innocent yet compromising positions. Bad feelings arise but it comes at the worst time imaginable as yet another steel angel is sent after Kurumi! This angel is a young blonde named Karinka and she’s ruthless in getting the job done and the job in question is destroying Kurumi!
 
The Good And The Bad
 
When I watched volume 1, I found the 15 minute episodes very annoying and thought it was a pretty terrible idea. But once I finally had a chance to fall in love with the characters and really get into story, I didn’t even notice that the episodes were so short anymore. I barely noticed anything at all to be honest! Once I put in volume two, I was off in my own little world that contained only this anime! I was absolutely engrossed and couldn’t stop watching.
 
This anime has absolutely got me hooked with it’s wonderful story and absolutely wonderful characters. If the wonderful relationship between Nakahito and Kurumi isn’t the center of my attention, then Kurumi takes over by just making me laugh at her antics and innocent attitude!
 
Music
 
I am so in love with the opening theme song to this series! I swear that I’ve listened to it dozens of times and yet I never get sick of it and never once has the thought of skipping it crossed my mind. It’s a great song and just so catchy!
 
The music within the episodes is good and while at times it can be slightly distracting (such as the intro music used in the previews), overall it’s enjoyable and adds a lot more to the episodes then it hinders.
 
The closing theme is also a good theme and even though it’s no where near as catchy as the opening theme, it’s still worth listening to.
 
Dub vs. Sub
 
While both tracks are enjoyable I have to say that the dub has completely won me over. Kelli Cousins just does too good of a job as Kurumi. The voice casting is wonderful and I couldn’t even imagine Kurumi sounding any different.
 
Extras
 
Once again this DVD is absolutely packed with extras. The first of which would be the first half of a video capturing a photo shoot done with the four main actresses of the series (Hilary Haag, Kira Vincent Davis, Kelli Cousins and Monica Rial) with commentary done by the ADR director, photographer and art director. Personally, I found this really entertaining to watch (though I’m a major fan boy for at least two of the above actresses) but some of you may feel the need to skip this one.
 
Also on this DVD are some great production sketches and original Japanese artwork (including DVD/LD/VHS and Manga covers). These were good to take a look at since the artwork in this series is just so gorgeous!
 
The most informative extra on this DVD is the translator notes. While there aren’t as many notes as there were on volume one, there are still plenty to fill you in and give you lots of info about the time period.
 
The last two on this DVD would be the extended episode previews and Original US Teaser but if you have a DVD rom there is one more extra for you which would be another fortune teller that you can print out. The last one was themed after Kurumi and this one is themed after Saki.
 
Overall
 
I’m in love with this series and it has already won a place on my top ten list and very possibly within the top 5 of all time! It’s everything that I love in a series and can only get better from here!
 
Five stars and highly recommended!