The Show:
Shadow Star Narutaru ends its 13 episode run with the fourth
volume. In this final set of episodes the series takes yet another
direction, telling a story that is only tangentially related to the previous
shows. When all was said and done, this series is just an incomprehensible
mess. Not much of it makes sense, and there were many storylines
that were just ignored. I'm glad I won't have to sit through any
more of these.
Series recap:
This show is about Shiina and Akira, two teenage girls who share something
in common: they both are psychically linked to a pair of "dragon childs."
They can communicate with their dragons which are able to fly, but they
aren't sure why they have them.
There are other teenagers who have dragons too. Some of these
kids dominate their familiars to advance their own agendas. One wants
to kill all of the intellectuals and weak people, and another wants to
destroy the army. Added into this mix are the enigmatic angels, small
but powerful beings who are seemingly indestructible. They love to
fight, especially with the military, but their relationship to the dragon's
in unknown.
Volume four:
This volume only has three episodes, but unlike the last volume, they
are all related and actually tell a story. That's a novel concept
for this series. Too bad it doesn't have anything to do with the
earlier plot lines.
These episodes focus on Hiroko, a minor character up to this point and
regulate the main characters to supporting roles. Hiroko os being
tormented by some of the other girls at school. She gets the best
grades in every subject, and some of the others don't like that.
They start with ust bullying her, but things quickly escalate to the point
where they violate her with a glass test tube. They are planning
on kicking her in the abdomen to shatter the glass, but are interrupted
before they can complete their plans.
At home, Hiroko is being pressured by her parents to get perfects grades.
A 98% on a test earns her a lecture on how she needs to take school seriously.
All of these things weigh on her so much that she finally snaps.
Hiroko sends out her dragon-child to kill everyone who has ever caused
her pain.
When all was said and done, this volume was a little better than the
ones that proceeded it, but its not enough to save this horrid series.
I can't think of one aspect of this show that deserves a compliment.
The animation was horrid, the characterization was lame, the plot made
no sense what so ever and the ending wasn't satisfying. One of the
main storylines was resolved in one very short scene that had no bearing
with what had gone on before. A wretched series that is thankfully
over.
The DVD:
Audio:
This disc comes with the original Japanese soundtrack, as well as an
English dub, both in stereo. I alternated tracks while I was viewing
the disc, and enjoyed the Japanese track more, as usual, but the English
dub didn't have anything wrong with it. Both tracks sounded nice,
with no distortion or dropouts. The dialog was easy to hear and the
musical accompaniment was clear. A solid sounding disc.
Video:
The full frame video was only average. The image was fairly soft,
and there was a lot of aliasing on diagonal lines. The aliasing wasn't
overt, but on larger screens you'll be able to see it in a lot of scenes.
The colors were bright and solid, and the detail was fine.
Extras:
As far as extras go, there is some video from a anime convention in
Japan where the main voice actors talk briefly about their roles.
This is moderated by a rather irritating PR guy who describes himself as
"a love messenger from the Groove Group." He tries to get the audiences
excited and cheering, but they are a bunch of late-teen, early 20's guys
who just aren't going to clap and shout a lot. The questions that
the host asks the actresses are pretty lame too. "What do you do
on your day off?" and things like that. He never really enters into
a conversation with them, just throws out some simple questions.
Another thing I didn't like about that is that there are a couple of times
when words scroll across the bottom of the screen, but they aren't translated.
It was interesting to see what one of these events at a Japanese convention
was like, and I'm glad they included it, but it just wasn't that exciting.
Like the previous volume, this disc comes with several galleries.
There is an art gallery devoted to images from the show, a collection of
storyboards, and a gallery of character design sheets. There are
also trailers to the first four volumes of the series (US release version.)
In addition to all of this, there are also previews to other CPM DVDs and
manga.
Final Thoughts:
There is so much wrong with this series that it's hard to know where
to begin. The show is incomprehensible.
Characters are introduced and then never show up again, story lines are
started and then dropped, and it is hard to believe the way these 6th grade
kids act. This is just one of those few anime shows that really stink
to high heaven. Do yourself a favor and skip it.
Buy: