I'm only vaguely familiar with the first season but the premise was that Orphen, a sorcerer in training, set out to save a friend that had bad luck with a spell. The spell transformed her into a creature and Orphen's master set out to hunt her down. Orphen, on the other hand, tried to get to her first, in order to reverse the spell and protect her. Having defeated Flame Soul in Volume 3, everyone incorrectly assumes that the problems with attacking monsters will end. Sadly, they were in for a rude awakening since that was not the case.

Needless to say, Orphen also has other enemies and must call upon his powers to fight off a variety of beasts and demons, as well as more mundane threats. The crew, on the other hand, has all the usual inter-personal conflicts with one another, to the point that they are usually more troublesome to each other than most of the enemies they encounter. Orphen's dilemma in this set of episodes is that Esperanza, a mysterious character with undetermined abilities, is either Orphen's greatest ally or most dangerous foe, and by the time it gets figured out, he may be unable to protect himself. Here's a list of the four included episodes for you:

Episode Thirteen: The Young Woman Who Caught A Cold:
Lycoris catches a cold and Cleao figures she'll brew up a stew to cure her. Needless to say, her cooking ability is about lame as all her other abilities so Orphen and Majic attempt to track down a folk remedy. There was a fair amount of material dealing with the death of Flame Soul, including its implications for the entire community. Will Orphen find the cure for Lycoris in time to travel for a free all you can eat buffet festival? Will the powers threatening Orphen reveal themselves? Will Cleao's cooking prove a more dangerous foe than any demon they've encountered so far? Watch this one to find out!

Episode Fourteen: Isn't He Lovely?:
Majic is forced to wear a dress and enter a dance contest in order to win a cash prize. This was one of the silliest anime episodes I've seen in a long time, and it worked on several levels. It allowed the cast some time off from fighting massive monsters (keeping the show from going too far into its usual formula), it had threads involving Cleao's dreaded cooking, and employed some cultural references that I almost didn't catch when first watching it (thankfully, I watched with a friend that pointed a few of them out).

Episode Fifteen: Running Away By The Light Of The Full Moon:
Cleao runs away after getting fed up with the snippy remarks by Orphen and the others. Leaving in the dead of night in the middle of a forest is not a great idea and soon enough, she has a couple of misadventures with the characters that dwell on the periphery of the show. Esperanza and Cleao have a lengthy chat, one that will likely have ramifications in future episodes. Eventually, Orphen and company seeks out their associate and keeps her from harming herself.

Episode Sixteen: The Luxury Cruise From Hell:
After some spirited bungee jumping, Lycoris wins a couple of tickets on a luxury liner. Orphen and Majic end up going along but must peel potatoes to earn their way. While the females enjoy the lap of luxury, the guys sweat their butts off and run into the troll brothers, who are also working on spuds. Orphen takes advantage of them but the trip takes a turn for the worse when monsters attack the ship and it starts to sink under the onslaught. Lycoris is caught beneath the deck and Orphen must save her, or does she need saving?

I actually liked this volume better than the previous two because some of the themes addressed and way some of the material was handled. I'm going to boost the rating a bit and consider this one Recommended since the writing was better but I'm wary of the show since it doesn't always make best use of the talents involved.

Picture: The picture was presented in the usual 1.33:1 aspect ratio full frame color, the current industry standard. The picture was pretty good but there was some grain, some edge enhancement, and minor pattern noise at times. The anime style itself was somewhat limited, using various cost saving techniques (limited movement of the cells, static backgrounds, etc.), but about what you'd expect for a follow up series. I didn't see any artifacts or other major problems with the DVD transfer.

Sound: The audio was presented with a choice of either the original Japanese track with English subtitles or an English dub, both in 2.0 Dolby Digital. I didn't notice any real separation between the channels (I experimented with turning off my center channel) but the vocals were clear enough and the music okay for a budget release. The subtitles were not dub-titles in that they did not mirror what the English track said but most of the time, they followed it fairly closely. I liked both audio tracks this time but have to give the nod to the original Japanese track for its lyrical quality.

Extras: There was under 50 seconds of audio outtakes, some trailers, a clean opening and closing, and a paper insert that didn't have a lot of detail (it wasn't the companies top of the line style insert).

Final Thoughts: I kind of liked this one and it showed some improvement over Volume Three, which was better than the earlier volumes. This gave me some hope for the future but you'll still want to watch them in order due to the way the show builds on earlier episodes. It's all too easy to get lost in such a show since threads continue through from previous volumes and without the background knowledge, you might get frustrated at the whole thing and simply give up.

Look for DVDTalk's Best Of Anime for some alternatives that might appeal to you!