Series: The Wings of Rean is the story of Aesap Suzuki; a young man mistaken for a terrorist by the local authorities. He escapes just when a huge warship flies out of the water around the military base, resulting in the American forces being attacked by strange devices in man/insect form. In the ensuing chaos, Aesap is approached by a beautiful young exotic lady named Lyukus, who claims to be the daughter of King Sakimizu of Byston Wells. She clearly knows who he is and compels him to come along; adding to the mystery of the events unfolding before him. Never having heard of the king or location, he ends up going along with her, the two flying on wings coming out of her feet from the look of it as the warship creates a vortex that brings itself and a number of Japanese/American military ships along with it back to the strange land.

The pair end up crashing into a secluded area of Byston Wells where they are met with beings that Aesap finds curious and strange; including a royal type of one of the many lands comprising the place. That becomes his first lesson in the intricacies of the diverse world, then meeting Lyukus' father, the king of Hojo. The king is a powerful man and his shrewish second wife seems to dislike the foreigner to their land, the king finding the circumstances of his arrival curious since the Wings of Rean were how he himself was brought here so many years ago. Still, his plans to conquer the "upper realm" known to us as Earth by means unknown troubles young Aesap as war seems to be the last thing he wants to happen. Imprisoned in the royal suite, he finds his cell phone to work, getting hold of some of the others that were brought with them in the vortex; perhaps the worst idea in the mediocre story by the director. The back cover said it like this:

"Terrorists have attacked the US military base in Iwakuni City, Yamaguchi Prefecture. When it's discovered that the culprits are two of Aesap Suzuki's friends, Aesap is also mistakenly hunted by US forces and the Japanese police. As the innocent Aesap escapes arrest, he spots a flying warship suddenly emerging from the luminous ocean. At the bow is a young woman with wings of light on her feet. Her name is Lyukus, daughter of King Sakomizu of Byston Well--a world located where land and sea meet. "My father is a Japanese man named Shinjiro Sakomizu," she says. "You will help me, won't you... Aesap Suzuki?" Unwittingly drawn into war of an unknown land, Aesap can only wonder what fate the future holds for him--and the world he though he knew."

In the second release of this new trilogy, The Wings of Rean V2, King Sakomizu was also from the Upper Realm, though the circumstances for his arrival were substantially different from young Aesap; the man coming over as a failed kamikaze pilot that was on a mission as one of the many divine wind attackers of the American fleet at the end of WWII. While this explains a lot about his mindset and motivations, it leaves open serious questions regarding context. Invading the Upper Realm is taken as a given here, and a good idea by many on both sides of the issue, making me wonder if something wasn't lost in translation. Further, when Aesap and Lyukus are separated, there seems to be another dynamic going on and my initial impressions that the short series was rushed are supported all the more. I liked the manner in which some of the CGI was fused in with the more traditional looking animation this time but it still came across as minor flashes of inspiration amid lengthy sequences of hum drum work too. The anti-war message of the flick served it better this time but the lack of context was also a bit odd. In any case, the episodes were, 3) Groundling Aura Force and 4) The King's Disclosure had some fine battle sequences worth your time and energy even if the plotted points seemed fragmented to me. The back cover saying it like this: "It turns out that, just like Aesap, the King of Hojo, Sakomizu, is also from the Upper Realm. And he was a kamikaze pilot in the waning days of World War II in the Pacific theater. Now that he's acquired weapons of the Upper Realm, Sakomizu at last sets in motion his dream of invading his former home. Meanwhile, Aesap and Lyukus get separated and Aesap rides Aura Battler Nanajin in search of her. In a scuffle between the Hojo Army and resistance force, Aesap and Lyukus reunite in dramatic fashion. They finally feel the warmth of each other's embrace... but can they stop King Sakomizu?!"

That brings me to this final set of two whole episodes from the series 5) Above Tokyo Bay and 6) Sakura Tempest. Okay, the first volume of the show, The Wings of Rean V1, spent most of the time trying to re-establish the concept and background of the two locations; Byston Wells and modern day Tokyo, as well as the major characters. This meant it had a lot to do and little time to do it in given the length of the episodes. Still, the slowness of that volume gave way to the intrigue of The Wings of Rean V2; the biggest problem being that either something was lost in translation or the story relied too heavily on the eye candy as some titles seem apt to do these days. Well, in this wrap up volume, the attack takes place and as a result, there was carnage all over the place. There were more onscreen deaths (or at least alluded to deaths) and the eye candy quotient was rather high as the major military forces went at one another. The only problem was that the "hey, something is missing" dynamic I spotted last time was even worse here as all kinds of motivations must have been tossed aside for length and events that made it clear what was going on were not in evidence. The time travel paradox was touched on so lightly that I openly wondered if the director was skipping over parts on purpose, the extras really needing the director to simply come out and fill in the rest of what was supposed to go on (why is it that so many shitty series get a full season and quality looking/sounding shows like this end up condensed to oblivion?!?). I'm not going to spoil it for you except to give you a look at what the back cover said, noting my original assessment of the show stands:

"The Hojo Army and resistance force have passed through the Aura Road and emerged on Tokyo Bay. There, the two armies decide to join forces and follow the same path. In cooperation with the Hojo Army, Rori and Kanamoto strike down Tokyo Tower, shocking the city into a state of unprecedented chaos. Meanwhile, led by the Wings of Rean, Aesap and King Sakomizu arrive in Japan at the end of the World War II. Skies riddled with B-29s... atomic bombs... the battle of Okinawa... Sakomizu is filled with anger and sadness. Aesap sees his parents before he was born. When their journey to the past ends, they find themselves in the skies above present-day Tokyo Bay."

Okay, the biggest problem I had with this release was that there were only two episodes provided again; and not lengthy hour long episodes either. The MSRP was pretty high to begin with and lack of value really dug at my consumer friendly stance since this is going to be a three volume release. I regularly review titles containing five episodes that cost less and they are often better scripted, tightly plotted, and more fun so while I liked much of the original program this was based upon, the marketing of it was problematic for me. I also didn't care much for the lead characters since they did not have a chance to become particularly appealing and the subtitles were full of grammatical mistakes that bugged me more than a little bit. In short, it appeared on the surface to be a rush job that was trying to cash in on the 20th anniversary of the show so I ended up rating it as a Rent It. I tried viewing the series all at once last night and it really didn't fill in the blanks for me so maybe one of you with insider knowledge can email me as to what happened...

Picture: The Wings of Rean V2 was presented in an anamorphic widescreen color with a ratio of about 1.78:1 as shot by director Yoshiyuki Tomino. The colors were decent but the first thing I noticed was that in parts of the show, there was a significant amount of video noise and compression artifacts. Compounding this was a number of special effects that made it look almost retro in nature, the night scenes showing the lack of true blacks more than anything else. Still, the show looked okay even if the fluidity of the animation was a mixed lot, almost as if smaller, select portions were more fully animated in order to trick the eye into thinking it was better than it was. This second volume did looked sharper in some sequences though so I was happy to notice that the production crew was more on the ball this time. I've seen better from Bandai in the recent past but this one wasn't overly bad, just given a rushed appearance to match the writing of the show.

Sound: The audio was a straightforward 5.1 Dolby Digital Japanese release with English subtitles (no dub this time). As an action based show, there were ample opportunities to showcase the audio and while I heard little separation when the characters were talking, the music and sound effects did pay some attention to the abilities of the surround sound; much like dubs tend to do in fact. The voice acting was pretty solid with most of the voices sounding fit for the parts but without a dub to compare it too, I hesitate to say it was all that special. The subtitles, on the other hand, seemed tacked on far too quickly with various problems that I haven't seen outside of Hong Kong dubs (although they were not bad looking over all).

Extras: Aside from the textless ending and promotional trailer, the only decent extra on the disc was a cute featurette called Orchestration Guide. The guy in charge of the score was given a chance to explain his involvement in the show and it bolstered the comments from previous volumes about some of the corner cutting going on. Still, it also showed that companies like Bandai can offer up better than average extras that others can't keep up with, making it worth checking out. I also liked the 32 page enclosed booklet as it provided interviews, sketches, storyboards and points of interest of some quality; perhaps the biggest saving grace of the show compared to other releases these days. I was surprised that a second booklet of 16 pages in length was added to showcase the artwork of the Battlers used, from conception to completion artwork with a lot of detail added in. Cool!

Final Thoughts: The Wings of Rean V3 was probably ten years more advanced than the original material offered up in Aura Battler Dunbine with better sound and improved visuals complimenting the decent extras (note: by this, I mean ten years ahead of its time, not that the show was backward looking as it was not). The story seemed to be kind of truncated and if you haven't seen the original show, you might find some of the lacking explanations to be a pain in the neck. I hated the fact that there were only two episodes on the disc and the price was so high but as an experimental attempt to revisit what a lot of people consider a classic anime, and done by the original director at that, it was certainly worth a look to that audience. The following volume will face an uphill battle by virtue of the pacing here but I've seen a lot worse in recent years so if you're looking for something off the beaten track, you might find The Wings of Rean suitable. On a side note, it is quite possible that a future boxed set containing all three volumes at a reasonable price will elevate the value of the project for me but I'll reserve judgment until that time since there were some thematically interesting approaches made here worth anime fans looking into. If you want an anime title that sounds and looks good, try this one out but don't get it if you like more meaty substance than it provides.

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, Best of Anime 2005, and Best of Anime 2006 articles or their regular column Anime Talk.