Borrowing heavily from many sources, the show provides nods to Votoms, Mars Daybreak, Melody of Oblivion, and Fantastic Children (as well as many others) by detailing the story of a young man named "Cou". He's a pirate in the service of a powerful group called the Red Lynx gang, set in a future where technology is advanced enough for floating cities to be commonplace and mystical elements are routine. Cou is kind of the gopher of the gang that has yet to earn his place among the others but he attacks his situation with the kind of youthful optimism and belief in greater things that take years to be beaten out of a guy.

The gang raids a large ship and Cou lucks into a secret storage area that holds a lot of great prizes, including a cute girl named Ren. He saves her from the powers that be, only to find out she's a special young lady, a treasure of immeasurable value in that she has special powers (that Cou knows nothing about). He finds himself and his crew attacked for her mere possession and even trading partners covet her to the point where they'll pay almost anything to own her. Cou isn't into slavery but it is not until he has to merge with her (nothing dirty you perverts, it's a combining of her elemental energies and his) to protect them from some ninjas. Okay, how can you go wrong with both pirates AND ninjas in a movie you ask? Well, the merging gives Cou a large, powerful sword attached to one arm. He fends off the evil crowd for a time and depletes Ren's power. As the five episodes play out, her abilities as well as the primary characters are spelled out for the viewer, showing the limitations as well as the dynamic between them.

The cover put it like this: "Cou, the bumbling rookie of the "Red Lynx" sky pirate squadron, has just discovered the treasure of a lifetime - a mighty member of the ancient race of Edel Raids. Ren, at first glance, seems to be a shy and defenseless girl, but she holds within her a power that many are willing to kill for. When Cou takes it upon himself to protect Ren on her journey to a mysterious place called Edel Garden, he immediately makes new friends and dangerous enemies."

It wasn't a terrible show but each plot twist and story lines were so full of "been there, done that, bought the T-shirt" that I couldn't appreciate it too much. The lack of originality and general two dimensional characters limited my enjoyment as Cou and Ren made various uneasy alliances to get her to a dream land that may not even exist. The separation between Cou and his gang also served to limit the amount of interplay he could have with them, settling for the original trio trying to barter her away from him (and willing to obtain her by any means necessary). The leader of the three, Cisqua, has the morals of a snake and her companions, while powerful and apparently older, seem willing to follow her lead in these matters as they use their own brand of powers to help when things get tough. Their mission is to bring Ren back with them at all costs while she wants to go elsewhere, finding herself a pawn at the whims of all those around her (including Cou) to disheartening effect.

The show has some potential worth waiting for but the derivative nature of the details made it seem like such old ground being covered that I couldn't get into it. The plot twists were so formulaic that you could see them coming from miles away, ruining any potential suspense well before the traps were sprung. For me, when the opening volume of a series is this weak, I can't help but think it'll get worse with time rather than better although I'm willing to suggest this one as a Rent It based on the overall quality of production. The manner in which Cou takes care of Ren while taking on all comers in battle, either with or without her assistance, is the best part of the show for me at this point and I have to admit that the five episodes were a fair start to outline the world of the show and the major players at bat.

1) The Songs of the Sky and Wind
2) A Fateful React
3) Betrayal & Confusion
4) Elemental Gelade of Light and Darkness
5) The Teardrop From That Day

Picture: Elemental Gelade V1 was presented in the standard 1.33:1 ratio full frame color as directed by Shigeru Ueda as adapted from Mayumi Azuma's written exploits of the charters in Comic Blade (Mag Garden) as released in Japan. It came out last year and as such seemed to be relatively colorful and free of major defects but the limitations of the anime style (limited movement, no frills style) did not exactly make it a title that pushed the genre very far in most ways. The aliasing and other flaws were such that only the pickiest of anime fans will fuss about them but the show seemed geared more towards the younger crowd than the labeled "13 Up" on the back cover of the show.

Sound: The audio was presented with a 2.0 Dolby Digital audio track in the original Japanese or the newly created English language dub by Geneon. I'm not a snob either way since a well handled track is a well handled track, regardless of the means by which it is conveyed though in this case, the dub cast sounded a bit wooden for the most part. Compared to the exotic original Japanese language, this left me slightly cold though it was a decent dub by most standards and didn't take huge liberties with the material from the looks of things. The subtitles were similar to the dub but not identical, adding little inflection or detail not already present. The music and sound effects were similar in each version but relatively little separation between the tracks and the vocals coming from the center speaker almost exclusively in both cases.

Extras: Thankfully, there were five episodes to the show so the extras weren't as critical this time. There were trailers to other shows, a clean opening and a clean closing in the standard version of the DVD. The limited edition that I got had a couple of cool things though; a headband like Cou's (black with white triangles) and a metal pencil board of Cisqua. The box itself had a superior cover to it on both sides and will serve to hold the remaining volumes of the series should I get them.

Final Thoughts: Elemental Gelade V1 has enough potential to rise above the many shows it pays homage to but remained a bit on the light side for my tastes in terms of thought provoking anime. It was also a bit too dependant on the clichés of anime to truly elevate itself above the pack yet I'm willing to wait and see if it gets better now that the main characters are established. In all, if you want a show that spends a lot of time in the "chase and fight" genre of anime, you may enjoy this one more than I did, even if it means putting up with some weaker material initially.

If you enjoy anime, take a look at some of the recommendations by DVD Talk's twisted cast of reviewers in their Best Of Anime 2003, Best Of Anime 2004, and Best of Anime 2005 articles or their regular column Anime Talk.