Goemon continues to defend the world against evil villains from the video game world in this latest volume of Legend of the Mystical Ninja.  This time around he has a new main villain to battle, but this new nemesis doesn't help make the show any more entertaining.

As this volume opens, Harakiri Seppukumaru has been recalled to the video game world.  He hasn't made any progress in opening a cybertunnel for a full fledged invasion from the video game world.  Lord Makuamuuge sentences the evil doer to be retrained so that he can carry out his duties more efficiently.  In his place, Lord Makuamuuge sends Dr. Mudanashi, the creator of the cybertunnel, and his very effeminate muscle bound side kick, the android Protein.  Mudanashi doesn't understand the new world, but he learns quickly.  Like his predecessor, Dr. Mudanashi creates disturbanses so that people get angry.  When his Rage Gauge fills with their anger, he uses it to create a monster.  If the monster causes enough distress and fear a cybertunnel will open and the world will be doomed.  Lucky for us, Goemon and his giant robot Goemon Impact are always there to fight the monster.

Like the previous volume, I had trouble getting into the show.  The plots have almost no variations from shoe to show, and most of the jokes fall very flat.  My children (two boys aged 8 and 11) enjoy it a little bit more, but it's not their favorite show.  They will watch it, but they don't get overly excited about it.

This show is obviously is aimed at young children, which makes me wonder why ADV has labeled these DVDs appropriate for ages 13 and up.  There is no swearing, and the little violence is all cartoonish.  The Roadrunner cartoons are more violent.  This series would have done much better sales wise if it had been labeled more appropriately.

Audio:

The audio for this DVD was fairly standard.  Both the English dub and the original Japanese soundtrack were in stereo and sounded clean.  There wasn't any hiss or distortion, but there wasn't a lot of bass either.  The loud explosions and battle scenes didn't have a lot of impact, but I wasn't rally expecting a children's show to by really dynamic.

Video:

The video quality was pretty good overall, although it was a little soft.  The full frame image was clean without any specks or dirt, and the colors were fairly bright.  There was some aliasing in the program, but these digital defects were minor.  The image was a little soft but not overly so.

Extras:

This DVD sports some good extras.  There is a 15 minute interview with the cast which is pretty interesting.  They talk about how they got into the business and about how their auditions went.

There is also a cast commentary with most of the cast on episode 14.  This is another 'party' track where everyone has a great time laughing and joking among each other.  There isn't a lot of information and anecdotes given, but the cast does sound like they are having a good time.

Trailers on this disc are for Angelic Layer, NeoRanga, Orphen 2, RahXephon, Steam Detectives, and Rune Soldier.

Final Thoughts:

Even with a new villain, this show still doesn't do anything for me.  The formalistic plots are getting really dull.  I have to recommend that you skip it.