Originally an OVA, Mezzo manage to make the leap to TV with a 12 episode series.  This first volume of the TV show contains a generous five episodes of this high octane series.

The DSA, Danger Service Agency, is a small but effective organization.  They'll take on just about any job, no matter how dangerous, as long as it pays.  The DSA is led by an ex-cop, Kurokawa, who has a lot of street smarts and knows how to get things done.  Harada is their engineer who makes their gadgets, but the soul of the team is Mikura, a young girl who is an excellent fighter, whether hand-to-hand or with weapons.  Mikura is a little hot blooded, and tends to get into trouble, but she also has the skills to get out of any jams she finds herself in.

Headquartered in an old double decker bus sitting on top of a building, the DSA is very good at what they do, but they never seem to be able to collect their pay.  That leaves them scrounging for food from job to job.  Being desperate, they'll basically do anything, as long as it's not boring.  And all of their cases have the tendency to be anything but run of the mill.  From finding a man to delivering a case to tailing a man's wife, everything the DSA touches has a tendency to turn out rather strange.

This show is a lot of fun, with a good amount of humor and a lot of action.  Mikura's constant desire to kick butt, whether it will help the situation or not, is quite amusing, and the fast pace of the show ensures that viewers will never get board.  The thrashing punk-ish opening and closing themes fit well with the attitude of the show.

If I have a complaint with the program, it is that it can't really decide what it wants to be.  It tries to be a comedy, but a lot of the segments aren't funny.  It takes place in what looks like present day Japan, but then there are SF elements thrown in such as life like robots and cures for Alzheimer's disease.  There are supernatural elements too with ghosts that communicate with the living.  They throw in everything but the kitchen sink, including an alien who is trying to drown the world.

I don't think the show is bad, just the opposite, I do like it, but I can't help thinking that it would be much better if they concentrated on their core genre, action/comedy, and stopped trying to be everything.  The show would flow better from show to show.

Audio:

The English 5.1 track was more full than the Japanese stereo track, but neither had a lot of bass response.  I was surprised that the 5.1 track wasn't more forceful during the explosions and fight scenes, but it wasn't.  The original language track also sounded a little flat, and it could be the original tapes prevented the dub to sound better.  The voice cast do a very good job on both tracks, with ADV providing a very good dub as usual.  There were no dropouts or distortion, and aside from a lack of range, this was a good sounding disc.

Video:

The full frame video image looked great.  The definition was excellent and the image was tight.  The colors were bright and there weren't any major encoding errors.  Just the type of DVD I like to watch.

Extras:

In addition to a clean opening and closing, this disc has a seven minute reel of production sketches and a several trailers.

Final Thoughts:

This was a fun show, even if it couldn't decide what it wanted to be.  They could have punched up the humor a bit, but even without that I found myself smiling along with the show.  A lot of action and adventure make this a program that anime fans should check out.  Recommended.