Description:
In a world where witches abuse their
supernatural powers, a special team is tasked
with hunting this new threat to society. This
organization is known as the STN and comprises
of several highly skilled craft users and
experts in covert operations. But their most
powerful craft user is a young woman named
Robin. Her mysterious gift to summon deadly
flames will determine the fates of her
colleagues and lead her into a dark world of
mystique and witchcraft.
Packaging:
The set comes shrink-wrapped, allowing you to
see the DVD and a paper insert that takes up the
remaining space inside the box. Behind it are
the soundtrack and shot glass extras. The insert
gives a basic overview of the show and lists all
of the features. The cover of the DVD features
Robin gazing off, hands pressed to the front, as
if trying to break free of the case. A good
effect. The cover is reversible, the other side
features a shot of Dojima and Karasuma. The box
itself is beautiful, featuring a shot of Robin
on one side and a group of ancient texts on the
other. The back end displays a large logo for
the series. The box is sturdy, and still manages
to hold all six DVDs after the year or so that
I’ve had it. The soundtrack has a cover
featuring Robin’s pendant with flames in the
background and a track listing on the back.
Menus:
The main menu consists of part of the screen
burning away, revealing clips from the show and
the menu appears on the right side. The various
sub-menus all feature unmoving shots from the
series. Each menu is accompanied by the Gothic
styled-music of the series.
Audio/Visual:
The video quality is excellent, as usual for
Bandai. The dark tones of the series come
through fine, yet they still allow the viewer to
make out details. The audio is fine for the most
part, except an annoying habit of increasing
volume during action scenes while decreasing it
during speaking or quiet moments, calling for
repeated changes of volume on your remote.
Annoying, though not as bad as the s.CRY.ed
series.
Extras:
This release comes with the
standard clean OP and ED (which
are great to watch by the way),
two text files regarding the
witch world and the basics of
the STNJ. Interesting reads. The
usual trailers and credits are
included. Of course, that’s not
why you spent $40+ on the set.
The box contains the awesome
soundtrack and the shot glass.
The glass is an interesting
extra in that it has almost
nothing to do with the series.
It features the logo and is
quite solid; it still sits on my
manga shelf without a scratch.
The soundtrack contains a great
selection of tracks, mostly made
up of the Gothic tunes used
during the series. It’s great
mood music and it features the
TV-Size OP and ED. Great extra.
The DVD also contains two
animation cells, both of Robin.
Content
(beware, contains
spoilers):
This volume serves mainly as the set-up for the
witch-hunting arc of the story. It begins with
Robin arriving in Japan and getting acquainted
with the STNJ. After that, it’s business as
usual as the STNJ team hunts down the various
offending “witches-of-the-week”. These episodes
contain background on almost all of the main
characters, but unfortunately, don’t do much to
set up the main story. The adventures, though,
have a decent amount of action and
crime-solving, feeling almost like an episode of
CSI or whatever police-drama is popular now.
X-Files meets CSI; that’s it.
Conclusion:
The release doesn’t do much for the overall
story, though it contains many fun witch-hunts.
The extras more than make up for this, though
and the set is well worth the price that you can
get it for. The real fun in the story, however,
won’t start until later.
