When I first started reviewing for DVD Talk a couple of years ago, one of the first discs I received to review was the first volume of a new Gonzo OVA series, Yukikaze.  It was an impressive looking series and I was looking forward to seeing the rest of the shows.  So I waited and waited.  And waited.  After a year or so I forgot about it.  Then, nearly two years after the first release, the second volume finally comes out.  Bandai, who releases the series, isn't totally to blame as the series was released rather slowly in Japan.  Now that the second volume is out though, it's going to be a hard sell.  There's a lot of current anime fans in the US who didn't even have a DVD player back in 2002, much less keeping up with what was being released.  With the first volume absent from store shelves now, though it's still in print, it'll be hard to convince people to pick this disc up.  That's too bad because it's a show worth seeing.

Series background:

Over 30 years ago, an alien race, the JAM, attacked the earth.  They created a portal over Antarctica from where they launched their invasion.  The United Forces of Earth fought back with high tech fighter planes.  One of those planes, the Yukikaze, is a very fast high altitude jet piloted by Rei Fukai.  Rei's job is to monitor and photograph aerial battles, but not to take part in them.  The tapes he makes are presumably used to analyze the enemy's tactics.  While returning from a mission, Rei encounters an unidentified plane that is exactly like his.  He can not make radio contact.  Something strange happens to Yukikaze's on board computer, as if someone was trying to hack into it.  The radar display identifies the unknown plane as a hostile, and Rei, following Yukikaze's advice rather than the evidence of his eyes, shoots it down.  No wreckage is found.

Since the plane was never identified, Rei is grounded while an investigation is carried out.  This causes him to brood and become depressed.  He talks about how Yukikaze is the only one he can trust, and how much the plane means to him.  Soon he's flying again, and the plane seems to share a bond with Rei.  It gives him advice during fights and control keeps flipping back between the computer and Rei.  But when the Yukikaze is fitted with a system that allows it to fly without a pilot, Rei goes almost catatonic, and Yukikaze, in a break from it's programming, fires upon some United Forces planes that it has identifies as the JAM.  Have the JAM succeeded in infiltrating the Earth forces, or has the plane gone rouge?

This volume:

Rei gets put on active service once again and his first mission is land the Yukikaze on a giant flying carrier that the JAM have taken over.  He takes along with him an engineer who is familar with the systems on the carrier and hopefully they'll be able to recapture it.

Landing on the giant ship, they discover that it's totally deserted.  There are no people on board what so ever, which raises the question of how the JAM are controlling the ship.  After some investigation, Rei finds how the JAM does it...they are able to manufacture people at will.

Next Rei has to fly back to Earth in order to test out a new engine.  When he does this, a couple of JAM follow him and make short work of the guards that are stationed around the transfer point.  It's up to Rei to protect the Earth since his plane is the only one that would have a chance of stopping the JAM fighters.

The story is still interesting, if a little confusing.  I was really hoping that they would explain more of the background material that was skimmed over in the first disc, but they don't.  With only one episode left it's going to be hard to explain everything and wrap up the plot.   The characters aren't being developed either, but with a five episode series, I wasn't really expecting much of that.

Like the earlier episodes, the animation is absolutely stunning and the strong point of the series.  From the air rippling in the heat of a jet's exhaust, to a missile's vapor trail, every detail has been carefully animated.  The CGI effects are meshed perfectly with the traditional animation to create an amazing world.  The futuristic plane designs are dazzling, as are the battle scenes.

The two half hour shows on this disc come on two DVDs.  One presents the episodes with a DD 5.1 soundtrack, and the second disc has a dts soundtrack.  With there only being an hour worth of content on the disc (with no extras at all) they could have easily fit this all on one disc.

Audio:

You can listen to this show in the original Japanese, or with an English dub.  Both languages come with a stereo or 5.1 mix on disc one and a dts mix on disc two.  I viewed the show with the Japanese dts track and spot checked the DD mix and English dub.  All of the tracks sound excellent.  Missiles launch from behind you and zoom to the front of the room.  Planes swoosh from left to right engulfing you in sound.  But the best part is that the audio doesn't collapse to a mono or stereo track when there is not a lot of action going on.  The full soundstage is used throughout the show.  A very impressive mix that is reference quality.  A great disc to show off your sound system.  There are English subtitles.

Video:

The full frame video is exceptional.  The lines are crisp and clear, and there is no aliasing, which plagues a lot of animation.  There is an interesting color pallet used, mostly greens and grays.  Dark colors.  A lot of the scenes are realistically dark, but it does make details a little hard to discern.  The dark palate does  make it all the more impressive when the brightly lit flame from the back of a missile zooms onto the screen.  A really nice looking DVD.

Extras:

After all of the extras that were released on the first disc, I was surprised that this is a bare bones two disc set.  There aren't any extras at all.  A short recap of the first volume would have been nice.

Final Thoughts:

This DVD has a couple of strikes against it coming out of the gate, to mix metaphors, that will probably ensure that it's not a great seller.  First it's been over two years since the first volume was released and most people who purchased that disc probably don't care anymore.  Second, there are only two half hour episodes contained on this DVD that caries a $30 MSRP.  That's a lot of dough for not a lot of content.  It's too bad more people won't end up purchasing this, because it's a fine show with excellent sound and visuals.  The story is interesting, though I suspect it won't be wrapped up as nicely as I'd like, and it's definitly worth watching.  If you managed to snag one of the first discs, be sure to pick this one up.  Recommended.