Neo Ranga 1 is the first volume of a 6 dvd set centering on a large robot of advanced design that appears suddenly and attacks Japan. His movements are very consistent and it becomes apparent that he's going somewhere specific. In later episodes, we learn he's actually going towards someone, or 3 people to be exact, as they are under his protection as much as he is under their control. The three people are sisters who share a genetic link to an island where the "monster" came from. Neo Ranga translates into "New God" and it's learned that the islanders worship it as their savior. They tell the sisters of their roots to the island and that they are actually royal descendants who's ancestors were quite important. To tell any more would be spoiling the fun for you but the 8 episodes (which are only about 15 minutes each) show a distinct trend away from the initial Godzilla theme which it started with to the more mundane Pat Labor "robots as work-horses" theme as they went on.

Picture: The picture was presented in full frame 1.33:1 ratio. The quality was quite high, if not top of the heap. The transfer was very clear with no problems.

Sound: The sound choices were the usual: English, Japanese with English subtitles, English with song subtitles. I noticed several differences between the subtitles and the English track which shows some thought was put into it too. In all, the stereo track sounded mono to me but very crisp and clear.

Extras: Translator Notes which gave a brief overview of each episode with regard to language and cultural issues. Production sketches which showed how some characters evolved over time. A clean opening and closing credits as well as some trailers to Neo Ranga and other ADV shows.

Final Thoughts: What's not to like? The first dvd had a lot of replay value for me as the episodes were not following a linear outline. This meant I had to watch it a few times in order to catch all the various implications of events from one episode to another that came previously. There's some risk in showing a series this way as many people don't like flashbacks all the time but I'm willing to give the series a chance to prove the English translation is faithful to (or at least as good as) the original. The show has been entertaining enough in the several viewings I've given it to establish it on my "look for" list. As such, I'm suggesting it as highly recommended for anime fans.