Posts Tagged ‘karen strassman’

And now I understand why we spent two episodes with Mao.

The Story 

In the final eight episodes, Lelouch will be forced into new corners and the story will take completely unexpected turns. With Suzaku being knighted, Zero attempts again to get him to cross sides. For his trouble he’ll find himself in another dangerous situation that reunites him with his Euphy and the road he never thought he’d come to. Faced with countless new distractions and battles, Lelouch will finally be forced to use his Geass in ways he never expected. Distractions aside however, these last eight episodes are building to one explosive climax. In a selfless action, Euphy will launch a new act that completely destroys Zero’s plans and primary support. Backed into a corner, Lelouch will make the biggest mistake of his life staining his hands forever and creating one of the most amazing cliffhangers in recent anime history.

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Buso Renkin closes out the series with a few good stories and a shaky ending.

The Story

The second half of Buso Renkin starts exactly where we left off. Victor is being resurrected as he drains the life force of everyone in the school. Tokiko and Kazuki take him on but completely overmatched, Kazuki will be forced to trade his life and humanity for the power of the black kakugane giving him uncontrollable power and causing the fight against Victor to end in a draw.

It’s not until after this battle that Kazuki will learn the full gravity of what he’s done. Powered by the black kakugane, the Alchemist Army can’t allow him to live. Kazuki, Tokiko and a new ally will make the trek to the place where Tokiko got Kazuki’s kakugane in the first place to try and find answers. Along the way they’ll run into trouble though in the form of four elite alchemist warriors including Captain Bravo.

While this is going on, another elite alchemist warrior named Chitose will be tasked with finding the team that will ultimately find and eliminate Victor.

Good and the Bad

Continuing with the trend that started with the first set, the introduction to the second half of the series is very well done. With the start of the second half, a new villain is introduced right away and immediately made into the primary focal point of the episode. The transition between the plot of the first half and the plot of the second is seamless to watch and moves in a very quick pace.

Buso Renkin does a lot of great things with the first few episodes of this set. Moving in a way that defies the shonen genre arc pattern, the story will move in ways that audience members won’t see coming. The shift to making Kazuki the target instead of the hero is a bold move that will keep audience members guessing as to what will be coming next.

The writing staff does a great job with the interweaving storylines that constantly float in and out of episodes. Along with Kazuki and his search for answers with Tokiko, there is also the story of Kazuki being hunted by not only the elite warriors but his mentor Captain Bravo. Papillon returns for the second half as well and finally there is the story of Chitose and her search for a Victor team. All of these stories are complex in their own ways and all of them will take turns that are far from predictable.

What makes these stories work so well are the characters though. Buso Renkin does one more great thing for itself by evolving its characters. Every character that returns for the second half has evolved or grown in some way. Kazuki shows the most growth immediately when he realizes what his new powers mean while Tokiko will show growth in her relationship with Kazuki. The most growth seen for any of the characters though will come from Captain Bravo.

While he served as the primary source of comedy in the first half (along with Papillion), in this half Captain Bravo will become much more somber. Charged with killing his own protégé and subordinate, the audience will get to see brand new sides to this character. New parts of his past will be revealed slowly including his time as a young warrior.

Despite all this, there are a few things that Buso Renkin either does to sabotage itself late. The easiest one to point out are the Buso Renkins themselves. In the beginning, all of the kakugane and their powers made sense and were completely believable. Nothing ever stood out as so fantastical that they defied any suspension of disbelief but as the series wears on, they just start to get more and more insane.

One of the warriors chasing Kazuki, Hiwatari, has a Buso Renkin that produces a giant napalm bomb. Later in the series we will see Buso Renkin of the military dog which produces two robot Dobermans and even later than that the audience will hear Buso Renkin of the missile launcher. Eventually it was just too difficult to get behind the more ridiculous of these but luckily this was just around the end of the series.

The ending to Buso Renkin itself is weak to say the least. With the very real shift from a more comedy based series to a much more dramatic one, Buso Renkin attempts a lot of things with its ending. In the final three episodes, the series will set up the final battle well. I have to admit that when Mahiro got a little choked up, I did too. Once that battle begins though, it all goes downhill and Buso Renkin proceeds to rob the audience of everything they’ve invested their time for.

All throughout the final episodes I waited to see the battles that had been building since the beginning and instead received two very anticlimactic finishes. Tokiko’s past will remain a mystery to the audience, perhaps this is something that is resolved in the manga but why bother even bringing it up within the series if they weren’t going to do anything with it?

The last two nagging complaints lie with the final two episodes. In episode twenty five the episode will do something every few seconds in order to serve as a reminder for the audience. If I tell you what it is, it will spoil a big part of the finish so I’m going to hint around it instead. When you see the episode, you will know exactly what I’m talking about. It happens every few seconds, comes with its own metallic chime music and does nothing but redundantly remind the audience of what they already know and kill time.

The last complaint lies in the final episode’s ending credit sequence. During this sequence, there is a short animation drawn in manga style. Complete with word bubbles. That no one bothered to translate or even create subtitles for. If you don’t speak Japanese it’s fairly easy to follow what’s going on but it would’ve been nice to know exactly what characters were saying.

Music

The clichés infect the musical department as well. Every episode in this half will feature the typical action trumpet music that plays in and out of eye catches and episodes. They are annoying but after awhile you are able to tune them out if you try hard enough. Aside from that, the background music in this half really did a phenomenal job of amping up the drama. The theme from Kazuki’s black kakugane transformation in episode fourteen stood out as great in particular.

Starting with episode fifteen, a new ending theme will replace the old. The new theme is titled ‘Itoshiki Sekai’ sung by Aya Kagami. The thing that struck me as odd about this song is that the lyrics mostly would be attributed to Papillion and even the ending theme features him. The song itself is well fitting of the character and has a very creepy sound to it.

Dub vs. Sub

Both casts had their pluses and their minuses during this set. Karen Strassman remains a plus for the dub cast with her still sickeningly sweet performance as Mahiro. David Lodge’s voice for Angel Gozen remains one of the most irritating things I’ve ever heard in my life though it’s hard to tell if it’s just the voice or the voice in combination with the character. Other standouts for the dub cast come from Caroline Kinsolving as Alexandria late in the series and Deborah Sale Butler as Chitose.

The Japanese cast had their own standouts. Aya Hirano impresses me once again with her performance as Mahiro, not only because of how good it is but how strong her range is to make me completely forget that it was her for most of the series. Ryoka Yuzuki remains the strongest of the cast though putting out an amazingly varied performance as Tokiko.

Extras

The only extra attached to this set is a special behind the scenes feature on disc three. In this twenty five minute feature, audience members will be taken behind the scenes during the dub recording and meet various member of the dub cast as they talk about production. The interviews with the actors really do not go into the series that much beyond the actor’s impressions of their characters but fans who are interested in some behind the scenes footage or some little secrets of the industry should check this one out.

Overall

Overall, I’m pleased with how this series turned out. The ending came across as an anticlimactic letdown but the buildup was a thrill. I may not recommend this series to everyone that I meet, but the action and progression of the characters will warrant a return spin through my player at some point. Recommended.

Final Grade: B-

It was almost late (again!) but I’ve uploaded the second half of my interview with voice actor Karen Strassman. In this half of the interview, Karen will talk about some of her best roles including Miyuki in Lucky Star, Miyo Takano in When They Cry and much more.

~ But alright, so I want to go ahead and start talking about some of the more specific series that you’ve been in. Last year in particular you were in two series that were never really given their chance: Fate/Stay Night and When They Cry. So, the first one I’d like to ask you about is When They Cry where you play one of the supporting roles Miyo Takano.

Karen: Uh yeah. Creepy, that whole series was so creepy.

~ When you started to get further into the series and you started to see more of the character and what kind of role she really had in everything that was going on. How does that change your performance when the character shifts like that and you have to deal with these new nuances?

K: Um, I think you just have more information to play with. Like, and in a way it’s good that I didn’t know everything. In the beginning because then my performance is real ambiguous, because I wasn’t sure either. So in a way I didn’t have to risk giving anything away because it was more ambiguous because even I didn’t know. And as I got more and more information and everything, I just had more specifics to play with. And I had more information behind me and more kind of subtext. But still my character you never really knew that clearly what her story was. And I have some questions like you know, I was like well… is she a bad guy? Did she do it? Or is she just obsessed with this? Or does she just love freaking people out? Or is she just sick? laughs

~ Alright, with May coming to a close 2008 has been a fairly good year for you so far anime wise. Last month it was Buso Renkin, Code Geass, this month it was Lucky Star. With Buso Renkin, Mahiro Muto is so sweet that she could send someone into diabetic shock. I’m mentioning this to highlight to how many different types of characters that you play. And so, with that many varieties of characters, do you have a different characterization process you go through for your different characters or is it pretty much the same process no matter what you’ve playing?

K: Well, at the beginning of the series when you’re kind of creating the character. Usually for anime, it usually is a combination of what was done in Japanese and there some are series where they us to come as close to the Japanese as possible and there are some series where is some leeway and we kind of work to create the character that works the best in English that doesn’t have to completely match the Japanese.

And that’s just depends on the series, what the client wants. And then it’s just depends on what they look like, depends on the Japanese and we just kind of with the director we just kind of work, usually it takes just the first session and we develop the character together. And then as you move on through the series, I just kind of sink into the character and get to know them better and better and get more and more comfortable with them.

I’ll say something else, for each character there is often kind of a theme to them. Like the scenes for Mahiro, Rene (Veilleux, ADR Director) and I would always joke that when she was just really annoyingly cute then we knew it was right on. When we would play it back and sort of cringe and laugh at the same time, then we’d be like “That’s it! Alright, next loop.”

For example, a character that I’m doing for Lucky Star (Miyuki Takara) right now is so cute but she’s so cute in such a different way. She’s not like annoyingly cute, she’s like, you know, Ooh you just wanna hug her cute. She’s just so sweet and innocent. And you know with her glasses and her pink hair, and that’s just a really different kind of cute. We looked for the most sweetest, endearing kind of cute for her. She would never ever in a million years be annoying. So that’s just a whole different country of cute.

~ Do you have a favorite type of character to play? And is there anything that you’d really like to be able to play but just haven’t had a chance to try it?

K: Sexy and evil characters are really fun. I enjoy those a lot. I had a lot of fun as Shinanora in Gun Frontier.

Have you seen Gun Frontier?

~ Um… no, not yet.

K: Aww, you’re no fun. She was just this sexy dripping character. All the men were just falling all over her. And that’s the show with Tahiro.

~ So there hasn’t been any thing that you haven’t been able to really just challenge yourself with or is it one of those roles that you’ll know when you see it?

K: I guess when I see it I’ll know it. But I will say that one of the things that I love about anime too is that I get the opportunity to do stuff that’s more realistic. Like I just got cast in Monster! And it’s just a really realistic show and I love that. I really love realistic drama. And I love that. I also really loved this show that I did a really long time ago, Habane Renmei.

~ Oh yeah, that’s a classic.

K: And I loved that show. There was just something very surreal and real about it at that same time. You know, it wasn’t cartoony and it was kind of dark. I really enjoyed that. I start to look back on the work that I’ve done and I just have so much affection for so many things. So many things that I’ve done. And there’s one show that I can’t remember the name of, and I was a drunk mother. And she took absolutely terrible care of her kid and was just drunk all the time. And she was a drama queen. And I just loved that role. And one of the fans will probably be able to identify the role if you write about this in your interview and will write it up.

~ I really want to ask you about Hitomi in Appleseed. If you look up on my website, my reviews of Appleseed aren’t great but despite that Hitomi was a really interesting character. When it comes to something like this where it’s very futuristic and your character is a bioroid, what kind of thought do you put into your characterization?

K: Hitomi was really moving to me. She was really endearing. She’s one of those characters who wanted to be human. And you know underneath it all, whether or not she talked about it, all she wanted to know was what it would be like to feel. That’s how I played her anyway. I played her as a machine and she is but she’s not supposed to have a soul or be human but she does. And she wants to be human underneath it. And one of the tricks for me playing a character is that I fall in love with them. For who they are.

~ Appleseed was a fairly big project and the sequel was pretty huge. Lucky Star this month has a pretty huge following behind it. Are you still at the point now where being in a project that has a bit more of a following behind it makes it a bit more fun or exciting? Or is every job just a job no matter how big it is?

K: It’s fun when there’s hype around it. Of course it is. And it’s fun when I walk into the studio for Lucky Star and Alex (Von David, ADR Director/Writer) is reporting on what all the fans are saying, it’s added fun. It is fun. But I think what makes me like a show or love a show is more about loving the show, loving my character and loving the people I work with. And I’m so lucky; Alex for Lucky Star is an awesome director. And a lot of the time I’m looking forward to getting to the studio and working with the people I get to work with. But of course! When it’s getting a lot of hype, its fun!

~ So at this point what I’d like to do is ask you about a few of my favorite roles that you’ve done. What I’d like for you to do is tell me not only what you liked most and least about the character but also most and least about performing them in the booth.

~ Miyo Takano from When They Cry:

K: What I liked best about the character was how creepy she was. What I liked least I guess wanted her to have a bigger role. And what I liked best about working with her was working with Kristy (Reed). Kristy an awesome director and awesome human being and it is always a pleasure to work with her.

~ Mahiro Muto from Buso Renkin:

K: What I loved about recording Mahiro Muto was making her as irritatingly cute as possible. And what I disliked the most about Mahiro Muto was how irritiating she was. And what I loved best about working on her in the booth was getting to work Rene Veilleux. Rene is an awesome director. He’s so much fun to work with. And we just had so much fun on that series together. So I was got a call and I got to go yay, I get to play with Rene. And I get to be cute and obnoxious.

~ 1^st Lt. Su-Ming from Flag:

K: What I loved about that character and that show was how realistic it was. And whenever Tony (Oliver, ADR Director) was directing me he’d constantly say ‘Play it down, make it more real, make it flatter,’ we were just going for really simple. Makin it real, ya know? And I love that, as I mentioned before I just love the realistic stuff too. It just harkens to features and cinema and I like that a lot. And she was just very very smart. Very smart, very controlled, very… you know she had a mission, she was on target. There was nothing else, she was very single focused my character. I enjoyed the challenge of doing that, ya know?

I think what I like least about it is again I would have liked for her to have been a bigger character. And I would’ve liked to have spent more time recording her. And I know that this might sound redundant but what I liked best about recording her was getting to work with Tony. Tony is just another director that has years and years of experience. And knows his stuff and is a fabulous human being too.

~ Petit Charat from Di Gi Charat:

K: Aww, I think what I liked best about that was… *laughs* it was just so cute and weird. And what I think was sometimes the most challenging for me was that there was a lot that was just surreal and out there. And a lot of it I just really didn’t understand so I guess I just had to really let go of understanding it. You know because I like to understand things and sometimes it was just so out there and abstract and weird. I couldn’t wrap my mind around it. I’d ask and try to figure it out. And the director, Fusako Shiotani, was someone that I don’t get to work with often. But she is great.

I’ve worked with her on a couple of projects but she loved the show and really got the show. Like in ways that I couldn’t even begin to get it. She was really able to translate to me what she wanted. So that was just super fun.

~ Miyuki Takara from Lucky Star:

K: I love Miyuki. One of the things I love about Miyuki, she is so sweet. And so caring and so… she doesn’t have a mean bone in her body. And she is very unpretentious and unassuming and she just wants to help people. And there’s one episode there’s something wrong and she’s lost her glasses and she couldn’t see the board and she had to ask somebody for their homework. And I forget but she asks one of the girls who lent her their homework or notes or something. But their notes were so bad that she couldn’t read them and they weren’t useful. But she pretended that they were useful and she gave them back because she didn’t want to hurt her feelings and then she went and got the notes from somebody else but made that girl promise not to tell anyone that she was using her notes.

She just wants to help people and she doesn’t want to hurt anybody. And she’s just very very sweet. And she never yells. And being an anime voice over actor where we come into the booth a lot and we spend a lot of time yelling or being hysterical. There’s something very relaxing about coming into a session and knowing ‘I probably don’t have to yell’ *laughs*

Um, what I don’t like about Miyuki? It’s really hard not to like Miyuki. I can’t think of anything right now that I don’t like about her. She’s just so likeable and sweet, you can’t not like her. And I gotta go back to answering the same way I’ve answered before; I love working with Alex. Alex is awesome and he’s really knowledgeable about the shows and he really loves the show. And we just have so much fun together, we just laugh and laugh. I just really look forward to working with him.

~ I’d like to jump back just a bit because I forgot to ask this when we talked about it. You mentioned that one of the things you liked least about recording Mahiro is that she’s so irritating.

K: But it’s also the thing I like best about her.

~ This is true. Have you ever had a character that was so irritating to you that recording them was a chore?

K: I’ve never had that. And for Mahiro, recording her was never a chore. You love to be irritating; it’s fun to be irritating. It’s wonderful to be that bratty little sister. But when he would play it back and I’d hear it I’d go ‘Oooh, that’s irritating. I didn’t know I could be that irritating. That’s scary.’ But I loved doing it.

~ If you were stranded on a deserted island with all your basic needs met. What three luxury items would you take with you?

K: I don’t know if this is cheating but I would want to take my computer. I’d want to have the luxury of having wi-fi. To write letters with all my friends since those are the people that fill my life. My most important things to me are my computer and my phone. *laughs* I think that’s all I need and maybe some music.

~ What are you looking forward to most this year that’s anime related?

K: I’m looking forward to continuing to do Lucky Star and just continuing that. I’m looking forward to Monster, I just think that it’s going to be a really interesting series.

~ Speaking of, are there any other projects that you can reveal at the moment?

K: Yes, I’ve just started a new show with Tony Oliver. You’ll have to look it up. It’s with Bang-Zoom. It’s under the name Karen Strassman. But I can’t reveal the title.

~ And finally, the question that I ask in every interview… do you have any parting words that you’d like to leave with your fans?

K: Yeah, first of all I just want to thank them for all of their support. And I guess this is kind of cliché but I just want to put the message out there to everybody to do what you love and to do it with care for all the people you’re working with and integrity and enjoy.

~ Good message to part on.

K: It’s a little cliché but to me it’s true and to me. And if I can add onto those as an addendum, so much of my success has been because of the wonderful human relationships I’ve had with people. And it’s because people have helped me and I’ve helped them. And we really enjoy working together. I mean I know I have a certain amount of talent but I think talent mixed with putting things in perspective. Anime is great but it’s not brain surgery, we’re not saving lives here. It’s just we just want to throw some good energy out at people so that people can take a break and be entertained.

It’s an interview that is a long time in the making. Earlier this year I got an exclusive interview with voice actor Karen Strassman (Rider (Fate/Stay Night), Petit Charat (Digi Charat), Miyuki Takara (Lucky Star), Kallen Stadtfeld (Code Geass) just to name a few) but the interview remained unedited for months due to various life conflicts. But now, part I of this interview has been posted. In part I of the two part interview, Karen talks about her start in voice acting in Europe, her first anime role in the states and more.

~ So I’ m speaking with voice actress Karen Strassman. Thanks so much for taking time out of your hectic schedule to talk to me today. So before we start, how was skydiving a couple of days ago? Did you have fun?

Karen: It was such a bummer! California, where it’s beautiful everyday, it rained.

~ Oh that sucks!

K: We spent most of the day waiting to jump and they kept saying let’s wait two hours, let’s wait two hours. And we spent the whole day waiting because the weather wasn’t good enough. So I will be going back tomorrow.

~ Oh sounds fun.

K: I’m so excited, I can’t wait.

~ So alright, when did you first discover voice acting?

K: I first discovered voice acting when I was a student living in France. I was working there and I was studying there. I was teaching children how to speak English through acting. And myself and this other guy, we would be teaching classes all day long. And we’d kind of run workshops and animate them. And just help kids learn to speak English through little scenes. And, this was before the CD was born, and people were listening to cassettes. So this dates me a little bit.

But some French magazine editors came into our classroom and said they wanted to watch us work and we said fine. And afterwards they said we have a new French magazine called Hi Kids and it’s going to be for French children learning to speak English and we want to hire you both to do all kinds of characters for this magazine. And we went into the studio, you know, once a week or you know a couple of times a month or whatever. And they had us record all kinds of different types of characters that would go onto the cassette that would be sold with the magazine. And that’s where I first started to do voice over.

~ And so that’s where you got all of your training? Just sort of jumping in head first?

K: Just jumping in head first. And after that, I started dubbing French films into English in France. And I dubbed all kinds of French films into English. All different kinds of French stars I’ve dubbed their voices into English. So very often I would have friends travel on airplanes and watch French films and hear my voice. And then, there’s a tremendous amount of animation in France. And a lot of it they will do in English because it’s easiest to sell in that language.

And I just became a very successful voice over artist in France. And it just sort of happened. I was very lucky and my case is very different from a lot of people I know. But I never trained for it, I just learned while doing it.

~ So when you were first going into the booth with no training and no real idea, was it really intimidating or did you adapt really quickly to doing it in a professional environment?

K: Well, when I started it was just so much fun. It just wasn’t intimidating because it was this magazine that we were recording. And it was just fun! I just got to make up all these different voices. And it wasn’t like I was walking into Warner Bros. It was just a small little company and we were doing all these different voices for them.

The stakes didn’t seem high enough that it should seem intimidating. And then when I started to go into the bigger studios to start dubbing the films and everything, by then I was comfortable enough with everything that I was doing that… I felt a little clumsy with technique sometimes especially when you dub something or when you do ADR, there’s a lot of technique involved. But I was also very young and I think that I’m a very positive person and I tend to be pleasant to be around so people like me and I was young and sweet and so everyone happened to be very patient with me and teach me the technique. I was just a student; I was very young at the time.

~ So you’ve done a lot of work in Europe, you’ve done a lot of work over here in the states. So, besides the language differences, what are the most significant differences between how a project comes together in Europe as opposed to how a project would come together here that you’ve noticed?

K: In terms of ADR, or dubbing, you walk into a studio in America, and there’s a script in front of you. On the stand in front of the mic. And you record very small pieces of dialogue. So in America, you walk into a studio and look at a loop number. And the director will say ‘ok, let’s do loop number 31’ and you find loop number 31 and then they preview it. So you preview it and, say in Japanese if we’re talking about anime, and then you look at your sentence and then you would record it in English. And to record it, you would hear three beeps *beep, beep, beep* and then you start talking on the fourth imaginary beep. And you’re looking at the character’s mouth as you’re talking to make sure that the syllables and the expression and everything you’re doing suits, not only the mouth movements but everything like that.

In France, there have a very different technique. They have what they call a band rthymo. And in France what they do is you’re not really reading a script. So you walk in the studio and not only are you in a group with other actors, because in America you are the only person in the booth. And you record your lines one by one. Alone, without anyone else in the studio, except for the director and the engineer and everything.

In France, they get all the actors who were doing the scenes together and everybody stands up at the mic together and there is a line, which is the band rthymo, that is sequestered in the television or in the screen. So when you look up at the screen, you see a line of scripted text underneath it. And then there is on the screen a bar, and as the movie or the cartoon or the anime, as you’re watching it the words are scrolling along at the bottom of the screen and they pass by the bar.

And so what you need to do is read the word when it hits the bar on the screen. And that will correspond with when the word is in the character’s mouth. So you’re actually just reading the words right off the screen at the same time that you’re checking out the character’s mouth and what they’re doing on the screen. And you don’t memorize it ahead of time like you do in America and there are longer portions. The loops are much longer. And there might be five people standing up at the mic with you. You’re all reading your text off of the screen as you were recording it. So it’s very different. It was a very different technique

~ Did you have a system that was preferable to you or do you find either one perfectly fine?

K: I really enjoyed them both and I think each of them has its pros and cons. For one in Europe, it’s really fun because, first of all it’s like a party. There are four or five other actors in the room with you, and it’s a social event. It’s fun. And you all get to pool off each other in real life. So you’re all standing there and you know if the actor before you is really sad, you know, he reads his life really sad and I’m supposed to be empathetic or sad too I get to play off of him.

Whereas in America, a lot of the times you go to the studio and nobody else has recorded their lines yet. So you have no idea how they’re going to ask you a question. So in your head, you just have to imagine hearing them asking the question and answer it the way you think they might ask it to you. So in America you just have to imagine that they’re there with you. Whereas in France while I was working, they were right there so you get to play off each other.  The other thing that’s fun about France while I was working there is you get to do longer portions. So you’re doing a much longer portion of the scene so you really get to play it out a little bit more. Which is just fun.

The advantage to the American ADR system is you can really perfect a line. Because it’s a very short portion, the loops are very small. And you can memorize your text and just really stare into that character and really perfect it because you’re not you trying to read the line off the screen at the same time as you’re trying to look at the character. So it’s a much smaller piece and you can really do much more detailed work in that way.

~ That makes complete sense actually. You are a highly accomplished voice actress and according to my research, you have been in 87 anime titles since 2002.

K: Wow! I’m impressed with that. *laughs* I didn’t even know that.

~ So do you remember back in 2002 when you did your first anime project?

K: Um… do you know what project that was?

~ It was the third season of Rurouni Kenshin.

K: Yes it was! I do remember that! I really liked the character I played (Itsuko Katsu). She was very moving to me. And the series was very moving to me. And all the traditional Japanese culture that was inserted into the series was, that’s what I particularly liked about it.

~ Do you remember what the audition was like for that?

K: I don’t. I don’t remember at all. I remember it was for BangZoom. And I remember I was just so new to everything in Los Angeles. You know, you come here and everyone knows each other and everybody knows the anime world. It’s all kind of a blur to me because I was so new. I just remember he (Eric Sherman) gave me a whole bunch of different things to read and I remember it was fun because I was an unknown quantity here and because in France, I worked so much because there is just such a small pool of voice over actors in France, in English. And so I was hired constantly and I would get all the lead roles and I would get to do all kinds of different roles because there weren’t that many of us. So we really got to cut our teeth on all kinds of different stuff.

Whereas in America they tend to kind of pigeon hole you a little bit because there’s so many people who can do so many things so they don’t ask you to do as much. And I remember I came in to audition and he just kept throwing things at me and I was like “Oh I can do that,”, “Oh I can do that,” and I remember people seemed to be very impressed and I didn’t quite know why because it was normal to me that I would be doing all different kinds of roles. But I guess there are some people here who just specialize in different things. There is a heck of a lot of voice over actors who have an amazing range here. It’s not like I’m rare in that way. I think it just seemed to be that I was a newcomer and they were kind of surprised that a newcomer would be able to do all those things.

But I don’t remember reading for the specific role. I just remember going in there and getting to read all these different types of roles and saying I can try that, I can try that.

~ So it was just mostly an open call audition that you remember?

K: It wasn’t an open call. I remember Mona Marshall is just such a generous wonderful human being. And she barely knew me but she got a sense of I guess my talent and a sense of who I am and she was the one who gave my name to Eric at BangZoom and she also gave me quite a number of other contacts. And she, you know, said tell them I sent you. And because of Mona Marshall I started working a lot in anime and in the voice over world she’s not just a talented actor but she’s also the most generous and wise human being. And if I may just sort of branch off to another subject if that’s ok.

~ Oh yeah, go for it.

K: But I wanted to say one thing about the circle of actors who do anime and the circle of voice over artists at least in Los Angeles that I know, is that people are just generally such lovely people. Because people love what they do, but they don’t necessarily feel the need to take themselves too seriously. And there’s generally just this sense of comradely and a sense of family and community and caring about each other and helping each other that exists in this community. And it’s one of the things that needs to be said and one of the things I love about it and it’s one of the things that I’m very grateful for. And Mona Marshall is part of that!

~ Maybe it’s just our inner geeks calling out to each other.

K: *laughs* Yeah yeah. So it wasn’t an open call, Mona Marshall had gotten me in there. I’ll tell you when I started walking in the door; people were right away so nice to me. There just isn’t that type of cutthroat competition that you might expect to find in other show biz so I feel so very lucky to be part of the community.

~ So you hit on this earlier and this time I’m actually going to ask you the question. So, you haven’t attended any conventions yet despite all the credits on your resume. Have you thought about putting out some feelings to see about being a con guest sometime?

K: Um… I might be, maybe. I don’t know I might start showing up occasionally. I don’t know.

Part II of the interview with Karen will cover much more including her current anime roles, some of her favorites, being annoying in the booth, a series that personally creeped her out and much more.

Don’t think of it as lacking in innovation, think of it as having tons of what you already know and love about the shonen genre.

The Story

In this modern world, people are killed secretly by creatures called homunculus. Homunculus were created many years ago through the power of alchemy but hidden away from the world. They are small robotic embryos that attach themselves to humans and devour the host’s brain and body until they are eventually able to take over the host body and eat other humans to survive. The ones who fight and kill them are alchemist warriors who have the other great discovery of alchemy, Buso Renkin, to fight with.

The first thirteen episodes of the first season are included in this set. The hero of this anime is Kazuki Muto who after wandering to the haunted factory behind his school is killed by a homunculus while attempting to save the life of a girl he sees there, Tokiko Tsumura. Tokiko is an alchemist warrior fighting in Kazuki’s town and intrigued by his act of bravery, gives him a kakugane which gives him a new life and the ability to wield a Buso Renkin, a powerful weapon powered by its owner’s will to survive and the powers of alchemy.

Unable to turn away from his new found power and desire to protect the world from the homunculus, Kazuki teams up with Tokiko to face off against the mysterious Papillion Masked Creator who is creating these monsters.

Good and the Bad

The first thing that anyone who picks up this package has to notice is the wonderful job that Viz Media did with the packing of this release. Normally packaging isn’t really factored into my reviews but the case for this set is very well put together with separate pages within the case for each disc. I did find that the special postcards that were included with the set tended to slide around which sometimes made it hard to close the case or keep the postcards in the case. If you plan on removing the postcards from the case for various display purposes, this won’t be an issue.

Getting into the anime itself, this anime almost lost me from the start with a very over the top bit of dialogue that forced me to roll my eyes. Getting past this initial hurdle, audiences are going to very quickly enter a world where over the top and shonen clichés are the norm. All of them are there for the audience: A clueless hero entering a world he knew nothing about, a desire to protect the innocent, new super fighting powers (with or without props, they’re both there), names for the attacks and weapons, the adorable female character and the tough female character. The only thing missing was a snarky female character though Tokiko certainly has some great snarky moments.

Breaking down those elements though, the audience is going to find that all of the representations are well presented. Mahiro is a very cute representation for the ‘little sister’ role and remains a very strong source of comedy and emotion throughout the thirteen episode set. Tokiko is also an excellent example of the tough warrior maiden character that every shonen series needs.

The story and writing in this series is exactly what you would expect with very few surprises being thrown at the audience. Despite its liberal use of clichés, the writing in this series remained strong throughout managing to pull me in with its action and its ability to connect to the audience on an emotional level early in the series driving them towards wanting to see more. The series does hit a very poor speed bump with its comedy though.

All of the comedy is basically visual gags with a few clever situational gags thrown in. This ended up being really disappointing since the writers rarely even attempted to use more clever forms of humor despite having characters that could support it easily. Captain Bravo alone could have managed at least a couple of scenes on his own with more clever dialogue but is just never given the opportunity. There were a few example of clever writing though. Kazuki was really written well as a rookie fighter and hearing the villains cut off his big hero speeches was a unique twist that made me chuckle a few times.

Over the course of thirteen episodes, audiences are taken through two connecting story arcs. While any description of the second story arc will lead to spoilers of the first, it can be said that the first story arc has an absolutely terrible ending and the second story arc almost falls into the same pit of early over the top writing that does a very strong job of pushing its audience away.

The second story arc suffers from its own set of problems really though. The introduction of new characters in the second story arc makes it episodic very quickly. The staff does a great job with combating this issue though by keeping the storyline strong throughout the episodes to tie them together firmly and keep the series moving at a very good pace.

The animation is very strong in this series. While the CG animation of the series was very noticeable, the battle scenes were very well animated and choreographed. While the weapons of the series tended to be a little impractical, they were innovative. This innovation in the weapons led to some very exciting battles worth watching. It is a little surprising to me how violent and bloody this series is though. While it is obvious that there is going to be violence and blood just due to its genre, it still managed to surprise me as an audience member the various ways that people were being killed.

Music

Most of the music that stood out in this series was very nice Jazz melodies that melted well into the background. In particular fans should pay attention to the soft jazz theme during the episode five mountain scenes. Also very enjoyable was the Jazz themes that played during Mahiro’s Buso Renkin seminars. The battle scene music really came across well when I rewatched this series with surround sound. The strong orchestra music really played well with the scene and the strong brass really captured that shonen fighting spirit that heroes keep going on and on about.

Throughout the set the audio quality remains consistently strong with no detectable drops in quality.

Dub vs. Sub

Going back and forth between the English and Japanese casts, I just could not get behind Tara Platt’s performance of Tokiko. The difference between the performance from Platt and the performance of Ryoka Yuzuki in the Japanese cast felt like they were almost night and day in terms of inflection and emotion. While I could certainly hear the different intonations that Yuzuki delivered in her role, Platt delivers a performance that is flat and even throughout. She rarely changes her vocal tones and is always speaking in a very serious tone. While this makes complete sense for the character, it also makes the character very boring and hard to cheer for. Eventually I got used to the character and the flat tones but it did take awhile.

Karen Straussman as Mahiro, however, was very nice. The performance here was very nicely done though it’s so sugary sweet I can see it getting on the nerves of some members of the audience and sending someone into diabetic shock at some point. Another big plus for the dub cast was Spike Spencer in the role of Chono/Papillon. I can’t think of an adjective to describe the performance without offending one subset of the population or another so let’s just say… a foppish cream puff?

For this set, the edge in terms of performance really has to go to the Japanese cast.

Extras

There aren’t a lot of extras included with this set but the ones that are included are enjoyable for all members of the audience. All three discs have a commentary track on them with the first one hosted by Steve Staley (Kazuki) and Tara Platt (Tokiko). On the second disc is a commentary that I believe is hosted by Steve Staley and Spike Spencer. I say ‘think’ because the actors never actually introduce themselves on the commentary which left me having to figure out who was talking based on what they were saying about the characters. This commentary was the best of the three though as the actors (whomever they are) were really hilarious as they riffed on the anime and cracked jokes about the characters. The third disc commentary is with the ADR director and script adapter, Rene Veilleux and Donald Roman Lopez.

Also included on the third disc is a behind the scenes feature taking fans into the animation process of the series. While they don’t show anything particularly new that fans who have watched other extras of this nature haven’t seen before, it’s still worth checking out.

Overall

Despite a small effort on its own part to change my mind, this is an enjoyable release. While this is not the series that you would ever show to someone as a great example of the shonen genre, those who enjoy their anime filled with action and monsters and new powers are going to find little to be disappointed with here. As long as you take it at face value and don’t think about it too much, this is a nice set for an anime fan to kill a weekend with and with any luck, Viz will announce a release date for the last thirteen episodes soon.

Final Grade: 85% – B

Intro

            With my review pile growing once again (wasn’t I caught up just a few days ago?), I’ve decided to jump into a new series from Bandai.  

The Story

            This anime takes place in the civil war torn Asian country of Uddiyana where a photographer takes an incredible image. That image is of a flag and it serves as a beacon for countries to unite behind and start the long road towards peace. When the flag is stolen though, a special UN military unit is dispatched to retrieve it. Dispatched along with them is the photographer, Saeko Shirasu, who will be filming the entire operation from the front lines… and that’s just the beginning.

            Upon arriving in Uddiyana for her assignment, Saeko gives her mentor something that was the break of a life time, secret information about the military that was only to be released if something happened to her and that’s when we start learning about everything that she experienced. Her arrival at the secret base, a mission that none of the team members are quite sure about and a government desperate to make the public believe that the civil war is under control and will be ending soon. While at the same time he tells his own story about the cease fire negotiations and what he uncovers.

Good and the Bad

            At first this title sounded like a simple military mech title that I expected little from. I would like to be the first to admit how terribly wrong I was. Wasting absolutely zero time, the first episode really pulls you in with its unique storytelling. Deep, character driven and innovative, this story telling is the most original I’ve seen in a very long time.

Taking the concept of photojournalists being embedded with troops and another reporting on the cease fire agreements in a war zone, the series decides to tell its story by using a series of video clips. On one hand we have Saeko filming the troops on base with her digital video camera with occasional snapshots taken as well from a first person or second person perspective to add a new depth to the series. Then on the other we have Akagi filming with his video camera.

            The animation style is very interesting because of how much attention is paid to the little details. When we are watching Saeko on her webcam making an entry, we see the animation appear a bit grainier with some drag added to really solidify the effect. When we see Saeko looking through her camera, we see all the little features inside the camera’s view lens which really puts you into the anime and makes the first person perspective that much more personal and real.

            The character design is absolutely phenomenal and when I use that word, I mean I haven’t seen character design this good since ‘Le Portrait de Petit Cossette’. The characters are drawn in a very pop art style which gives them deep realism. There are no characters with signature big anime eyes, all the lines and features are proportioned properly. You can even cleanly tell nationality between all the characters instead of waiting for the character to tell you so that you can stop guessing (though they do that in this series too).

            The writing in this series weaves a very complex and deep story which I found myself getting more and more wrapped up in as I continued to watch. This is an anime that doesn’t try to pretend anything more than it is which in my book is a benefit but I can see how this might become a problem for them as well. I think the primary issue I have with the writing though is that they didn’t even make a vague attempt at hiding the political overtones and obvious references to current world politics. I am personally a huge fan of politics and follow it on a daily basis but I would like to be able to watch anime without thinking of the current state of the world.

            Sadly this anime does not let you do that and as you see battle footage and the looks on the troops faces when they return from a mission, this anime stops being an anime and starts becoming all too real to the audience.

Music

            Taking the concept of journalists in a city or embedded with troops one step further, this series has very little music in it at all. While there are some scenes with Akagi, it is very soft and very difficult to notice unless you are actually listening for it. There is also no opening theme for this series and instead it only has a ballad for the ending theme which was interesting but I can also see why they did it.  

Dub vs. Sub

            It really felt like sometimes the actors were straining to make their lines fit with the mouth flaps. For some reason it was really hard to get into the first episode especially because the way the lines were coming out of the character just sounded and looked so unnatural. It really took me out of the element for awhile but by the time the second episode was half over I was completely over that issue. Already the Japanese and English casts had brought me into the story because of the delivery.

            I think one of the primary issues that I was having for that first episode and a half though is that in neither cast do the lines ever sound “acted”. With the series having such a real feeling to it, the voices had to sound completely natural and both casts pulled off the job admirably.

            Easily the standout performances for me this volume were Dorothy Fahn as Saeko and Taylor Henry as Akagi.

Extras

             Just clean animation.

Overall

            If I really had to make a prediction for this series, I would say that the good money is on this series becoming one of anime’s best kept secrets. The story and characters that this series attempts to showcase and present to us is absolutely fabulous on so many levels. It is an anime that absolutely deserves to have a wide audience and fan base but likely won’t get one because of the hard sell this series is. The pacing is fairly slow and the action is not over the top explosions and in your face blood. This is presenting the war as a necessity that no one particularly wants to be a part of but is doing so for the better good. That’s not an easy sell anywhere and in this case, it’s beyond difficult.

While I think there are plenty of people who will want to pass on this anime after seeing the first volume, I am firmly saying that everyone should at least watch this first volume to give the series a chance. With the anime industry in a rut for various reasons, this is an anime that is openly going into almost brand new territory where only a couple has treaded before and it’s doing a good job! That alone should be worth the support of many but hopefully this anime will be picked up by a few. Absolutely worth viewing.

Final Grade: 95% – A

Intro

            This is quite possibly the cutest creepy anime I’ve seen in many years!

The Story

            In this new anime, the hero is named Keiichi and he has just moved into a new village named Hinamizawa. He’s managing alright, especially after making friends with four cute girls but then things get weird when he learns the recent history of the village that he now calls home.

            The first episode opens with a grisly murder that took place in 1983, flash back how these murders took place and we meet Keiichi in his village after one month and two of his female friends: Rena and Mion. Rena is the quiet one of the bunch and Mion is the outspoken one and then while on a tour of the city, we meet the other two: Satako and Rika. It’s that night that Keiichi finds out about a murder that took place earlier. After joining the club that his friends run (which basically is a club that plays games and tries to win at all costs), Keiichi goes back to the dump to help Rena with something and finally finds out the real details of the murder that took place there.

            During the village’s annual Cotton Drifting festival, Keiichi hears some more about the history of the dam construction that never happened and an odd curse that seems to haunt the city. Every year during the Cotton Drifting festival, someone from the village who was a proponent of the dam being built has died and someone connected to them disappears and it’s happened every year since the bloody murder that took place a few years earlier. It’s the next day at school that Keiichi discovers who the latest victim of the festival was. After being questioned by the police, he is let go and told to keep what he was told a secret from even his friends but when he learns more about the previous festival murders, he has to question the true intentions of his friends and what they might be hiding.  

The fifth episode of the volume starts a brand new story arc. It starts with Mion witnessing a brutal suicide and then moves into an earlier date close to another Cotton Drifting festival that begins with a club meeting taking place in town. Everyone is competing in a game tournament and afterwards Keiichi goes into town and meets Mion’s twin sister working as a waitress in a restaurant but Keiichi believes that it’s Mion just pretending to be her own twin to hide the fact that she’s working in a restaurant in a sexy uniform. There’s certainly more to this story than it seems though.

The Good And The Bad

            The storytelling is incredibly innovative with how it switches back and forth from a typical cute harem anime with a boy and his four gal friends into something much darker and dramatic. It’s so interesting to me how one second someone will be giggling and dramatic and then a second later they will be absolutely stone cold and dramatic.

            After watching the entire volume, it’s become very apparent that this series is going to follow a very general pattern with the first episode of the story arc starting with a brutal murder or scene of some type before moving us into a fun and light hearted atmosphere with these characters before it becomes continually darker and creepier until it leads to a climax that the audience didn’t consider and won’t see coming despite the opening scene that began the chapter.

            That is certainly what makes this series one of the more innovative that I’ve ever seen. While I won’t use adjectives like ‘ground breaking’, it is certainly already in a class all by itself in terms of sheer suspense and interest drawing abilities.

            The animation in this series lends itself well to the story that it is telling. While I did find that the level of brightness on my screen during the first couple of episodes was a little overpowering, it eventually worked out as the series got darker and the animation changed to match this dark mode.

            The character designs and animations were stellar as well. I think one of the biggest reasons why this first volume of anime was so incredibly creepy was because the characters were so well designed. All of them were designed in such a cute fashion; you would expect to see them in a typical comedy or harem anime. With so many bright colors and adorable outfits, there is no way that you could expect something bad or bloody to happen to any of them but then it does and you’re left with a gaping void inside of you as though you’ve seen something that no anime fan should be seeing.

            The pacing in this series really did well. With episodes on this first volume, once you hit play you’re looking at about two hours worth of anime viewing and with every episode growing continually darker, I had no idea how they were going to pace this but it never felt like it dragged. Despite all the continually darker story and so much new information constantly being thrown out there for the audience to absorb, it never felt like it dragged. The series always moved at a very firm pace keeping the audience engaged at all times with no real issues. This is one of the few animes that I’ve seen where the midway eye catch actually distracted me more than anything because it broke up a story that was moving along at a seamless rate.

            A primary concern that I had before I wrote this review was that the first chapter of the series ended after four episodes and then the second chapter making the volume end one episode into the new chapter. At first I was really concerned about how this would be taken by the audience and why Geneon would decide to do this but it became obvious in my mind very quickly. Some audience members might complain about how this is done but then I’m sure most of them will realize that after the first chapter ended, if the volume had ended there most of that audience wouldn’t have bothered to pick up the second volume. With the new chapter beginning, there is yet another reason for the audience to continue though I seriously believe that even if that fifth episode had not been included, I would be making absolute sure that the next volume of this series was shipped to me as close to street date as possible.

Music

            Both the opening and closing themes of this series were very well done and really set the proper mood for the series. I really enjoyed listening to both themes and thought that it was a fun touch to hear the closing theme sung in English by the Japanese artist, Hiroyuki Oshima.

            The background music in this series also did a fabulous job of helping the mood along. With the music in the first couple of episodes being very lighthearted and fun and the music in the later episodes being very dark and foreboding, I always felt like I was in the right frame of mind for this series.

Dub vs. Sub

            Both casts did a great job with these performances but the dub cast really did a great job of creeping me out. Kelli Kassidi as Mion and Mela Lee had their work cut out for them with these roles but they did them perfectly going from zero to nut jobs in .6 seconds and making me believe it the entire way!

            Never once did I question one of the performances coming from anyone in either the dub or sub cast. Always I always completely wrapped up in the performances without ever wondering about who the actor behind it. It was always the character that I cared about.

            The one thing about this volume that I saw that really bothered me more than anything was the lack of any English language credits. I have a strong feeling that this is going to be normal for this series which I’m sure is going to lead to some annoyance but other than that, there is really nothing to complain about here.

Extras

            None.

Overall

            I’m hooked on this series. Flat out hooked and make absolutely no qualms about it. I had heard a few things about this series before I started it but really very little and so I wasn’t quite sure what I was getting into when I started it but now I’m absolutely shocked that I had heard nothing about this series before I began it nor did I hear anything about it since it had become licensed for release. Originally airing, this series is certainly not old but it certainly has enough behind it that it that I’m very surprised there wasn’t a bigger fan buzz among the communities about this series.

            Told in a very complex fashion, this series is dark, bloody and will grab you by the neck and force you to pay attention. While it may not be for everyone, those who look for something dark and suspenseful are going to get their full money’s worth with this title. The only question is can they keep up the incredible momentum that they’ve built up with these first five episodes? My money is resting on they can and they will. Very recommended!

Final Grade: 91% – A

NOTE: This review is a continuation of my reviews of this series. If you have not seen any of the volumes or my previous reviews, you risk spoilers by continuing.
 
Intro
 
        Ah, don’t go all predictable on me now!
 
The Story
 
        In the second set of episodes, new enemies appear which means new battles must be fought while on the other side of the spectrum, Shirou shows just how inexperienced and different of a master he truly is to Saber when he tries to integrate her into his daily life and introduce her to his friends.
 
        In the first episode of the volume, Shirou goes to school while Saber spends the day sleeping. He feels bad and thus tries to integrate her into his daily life by introducing her to his friend Sakura and his teacher. Naturally this confuses Saber to no end since she fails to see how this could lead to a strategic advantage.
 
        The real battles begin in episode two with Rin revealing that the temporary alliance she unwillingly held with Shirou is now over. Their battle is nothing though as a new servant appears and comes after both Rin and Shirou which is even worse for Shirou since he is without his servant. When a new revelation is revealed though, the cease fire is back on.
 
        Life becomes much more complicated beginning in the third episode. Saber becomes upset when she finds out that Shirou was attacked and didn’t feel the need to summon her and Rin decides to stick close to Shirou as a means of protection and to strengthen their cease fire, their first order of business together is to weaken the barrier that has been erected around the school and has slowly drained the life force from the students so the pair work together to weaken it as much as they can to protect the students.
 
        The third master enrolled at the school reveals themselves in this episode and while I won’t say who they are in this review, I will say that it’s not a huge shock when they step forward. A new alliance is offered to Shirou and new information is revealed another master and her servant living in the mountain temple that is owned by the family of Shirou’s friend, Essei.
 
The Good And The Bad
 
        As with most second volumes, the overriding theme of this volume was development and we did see quite a bit of it in the form of character development. Over the course of the four episodes, I was quite pleased with how much more we learned about Rin and her relationship with Shirou. Rin has quickly become a fast favorite of mine and it is obvious that the role she plays in the end of this series will be huge and how it will involve Shirou is really up in the air at the moment. As long as this series doesn’t run out of steam and get too predictable near the end, I foresee something quite explosive coming within the next ten episodes or so.
 
        What really disappointed me however was the lack of development in any other character of the series. With so little going on with the overall plot at this point, I really thought that this would be a great time to flesh out some of the characters such as Sakura or even better, some of the servants that we’ve met thus far like Saber and Archer. With so many questions surrounding these characters, this would’ve been a great time answer at least a couple of them but nothing came of this.
 
        Throughout this volume I had to be disappointed with the lack of plot development throughout this volume. While there was a few things that were revealed such as the identity of a couple of new magus within the war, there really wasn’t much more of any substance that contributed to the overall picture of the plot and where this series is headed which absolutely kills any momentum that it had going for it by the end of the first volume.
 
        The animation and character design continues to be a strong selling point of this series. While there weren’t too many scenes that really highlighted the beauty of the animation in this series throughout this volume, there were still a few examples that one could easily point out such as during episode seven when Shirou and Rin are destroying the sigils around the school which I felt showed a great use of CG animation that didn’t look overdone or out of place. The battle scenes in episodes 5 and 6 were also very fun to watch partially because of how well they were animated.
 
        With this second volume I am finding more reasons to enjoy the character design though as the more I see these characters, the more I am beginning to notice smaller details that passed me by the first time such as Rin’s eye color happening to be my favorite color. Such a little detail and yet it adds so much when you think about what blue traditionally represents and how the lighter shade used in her eyes contrasts so sharply between the outside presence that she projects to others and who she really is inside.
 
        The overall theme of this series being portrayed through the writing thus far is all about idealism and how to be a participant in a war without causing causality. Shirou is so attached to his idea that he can be in this war, only fight when he has to and yet never take a life yet still come out on top as a winner. Even I, as a viewer who is supposed to be on his side, thinks that this is quite possibly the stupidest idea I’ve heard in my life (and I emphasize ‘quite possibly’ since I’ve seen some of the movies that have come out over the last decade or so) but it will be very interesting to see how this theme is challenged time and time again as Saber grows more and more frustrated with her master’s lack of action and initiative for the war and overall goal. 
 
Music
 
        The background music continues to be a very strong part of this series that is neither overdone nor obtrusive to the scene playing out on the screen. Never does the music stand out too much on it’s own and distract the viewer from what you are seeing but rather only lends itself to the ambiance and helps you further emphasize with a character who is having a difficult time with a difficult situation.
 
        I didn’t notice any drops in sound quality throughout the volume on either track.
 
Dub vs. Sub
 
        Both tracks were well done but I’m still finding that Mela Lee portraying Rin is the best performance on the volume. Rin is such a clichéd character and yet I just can’t help but be drawn to her and the performance is spot on. I really can’t complain with this performance.
 
Extras
 
        Clean animation. Still very disappointing to me.
 
Overall
 
        This series loses a lot of it’s momentum throughout this volume which really deflated me as I was really hoping that it would maintain the full head of steam that it had gathered over the first four episodes. These are not bad episodes by any means though and while there wasn’t a whole lot here to keep me absolutely gripped, it was still enough to keep me entertained even if it felt slightly predictable in places. This volume ends on a good note though and leaves me very much wanting to know what happens to Saber at the beginning of volume three so I can’t complain too much. Not a great second volume but passable and still worth viewing.
 
Final Grade: 88% – B