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.

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.