Presentation
This 13 disk box set comes with two hard plastic boxes, both sharing the exact same artwork. The artwork shows a myriad of characters in fighting poses on a blue and black background. The inside artwork of the boxes merely display an episode listing of each disk. Each disk has a portrait of a character from the series. Now, if there is one complaint I have about this disk set is that none of the disk are labeled. In a smaller set, this would not be a problem. But in a 13 disk set, you sometimes will have to go through a few disks just to find the right one. The artwork itself is pretty good and original. It has similar style to Slayers, though it lacks some of the sharper edges that Slayers had. The animation in the background and character design flow very smoothly. The fighting scenes are done rather well also, though the attacks at time look rather simplistic for a fighting anime. The music is light-hearted for the most people and very pleasant to listen to. It also has two different openings throughout the series and FIVE different ending themes. Despite this, they are all appropriate for their places in the anime and help bring it together swimmingly. Voice actors on both sides do great. The voice actors on both sides did so great that I hardly recognized a difference when I switched between the two. The story unfolds kind of episodic. Each episode has its own theme and story to it, but at the same time still fits as a coherent story to the rest of the series. It’s this type of meaningful story-telling that needs to return to anime, where each episode is a story within a story.
Extras
Holy lord, we’ve hit the mother load. Each of the 13 disks carries THREE trailers on it. That makes for 39 Trailers. Now, some of them repeat a bit especially towards the end of the series, but there is still quite a few. It also has textless versions of ALL the endings and openings, as well as the original Japanese Commercial, original Japanese Promotional Trailer AND the American promotional Trailer. Also if you look through the trailers, you can even find a commercial for a Yoko Ishida (the singer of Cruel Angel Thesis from Evangelion) concert.
Overall this a fun, feisty romp of a series with lots of fighting, lots of story, lots of bizarre and creative powers, and lots of deep character development. I heartily recommend this to anyone who has the 72 dollars to spend on it.