Goemon, the Mystical Ninja returns for the penultimate volume of this series.  The time we get four more episodes of the same type of episodic adventures that the previous volumes had.  If you enjoyed those, you'll be pleased with this volume too.

I don't know if I am just developing a resistance to the awful elements of this show, or if it is actually getting better.  In any case, I found myself coming close to liking some of the shows on this volume.  The show is still very formulistic, but I've grown to appreciate the camp aspects that the show has, and that is making it bearable.  How can you not find Dr. Mudanashi's robot Protein amusing.  He (she?) is an androgynous muscle-bound android that wears makeup and dresses in a gaudy outfit that shows off his pecs.  He looks like he belongs in a gay S&M porno film rather than a kids show.

There is some more continuity in the show this time around too.  Protein enters a build-the-best-robot contest and falls in love with another entry that happens to be Sasuke on stilts and a mask.  Protien eventually finds out that the object of his love isn't a real robot, but he continues to carry a torch for Sasuke into the other episodes.

Another similarly amusing plot concerns Dr. Mudanashi encountering Tsukasa's mother in a grocery store.  When their eyes meet, Dr. Mudanashi falls madly in love.  He tries to arrange things so that he can spend more time around her, with predictable results.  This also carries over into future episodes with the mad scientist pining for his love.

Don't get the impression that this show has made a 180-degree turn.  It still isn't a great show, but there are aspects that can be enjoyed if you have to sit through these shows like I do.
 

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:

Like the other volumes, the video quality was pretty good overall.  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 Extras:

As with the other DVDs in this series, there are some nice extras included.  There is another interview with the cast, where they discuss what it is like to act without having anyone to react to, just a voice on a tape, and sometimes not even that.  If you are interesting in the process of making dubs, this is an interesting featurette to listen to.

There is also a cast commentary on episode 19.  For this track director Scott McClennon joins actress Tiffany Grant, who plays Tsukasa, and Actor Vic Mignogna, who voices Goemon.  I enjoyed this commentary a bit more than the others in this series.   The tone was more sedate and calm, and it felt more like a commentary rather than a group of friends joking around at a party.  The track was a little sparse in parts, but they did a fairly good job commenting on what they say on the screen.

There were also trailers for Eden's Bowy, Saint Seiya, Nuku Nuku Dash, Rune Soilder, Final Fantasy:  Unlimited, and Zaion.

Final Thoughts:

This show is very predictable and formulistic.  But after watching the other volumes in this series, and not caring for them much, I found myself enjoying the campy aspects to this show.  I'm not sure if you have to sit through all the other shows to come to an appreciation for the show, however grudgingly that might be, but I definitely thought that this was the best volume in the series.  Not worth running out and buying, but good for a rental.