I wasn't really enamored of the first volume of Gravion.  It seemed to be trying to mix as many plot cliches together as it could, and ended up being a predictable and dull show.  I was expecting the more of the same from the second volume, but was pleasantly surprised.  This volume fleshes out the characters and develops their interpersonal relations, in addtion to moving the plot along nicely.  Gravion has turned into a much more interesting show with this volume.
 
Eiji talks Toga into sneaking out of the castle and having a day out on the town in the first episode on the disc.  Stealing a pair of maids outfits, the two manage to hide among the domestic help who are going to town to replenish the castles supplies.  The trip is an eye opener for Toga who has spent his whole life in Sandman's castle.  Eiji runs into some of his old school friends who don't believe that he's piloting the Gravion mecha. As luck would have it, the Zeravire attack while they are still in town, and it's a frantic dash to get to their stations.

A nice episode with a good amount of humor.  The trip is a good bonding experience for Toga and Eiji, and brings them closer together.

Other characters get their time in the spotlight in this volume too.  We find out about Luna's history in the episode seven, and learn a lot about Mizuki in the ninth.  This final episode on the DVD really gets the series moving, with Mizuki and Eiji sneaking into the fourth tower where Eiji's sister was last scene before she mysteriously disappeared.  The eigth episode revels some interesting things about the Gravion robot itself.

Clues to several mysteries are discovered, and the plot advances much faster than I was expecting.  There are still some irritating aspects to the show, the freakishly large breasts on many of the female characters and the mandatory fight scene in every episode come to mind, but this show is shaping up to be an interesting series.

Audio:

Like most anime that is put out nowadays, this disc offers the choice of a stereo Japanese track with optional English subtitles or an English dub in 5.1. I alternated between tracks as I watched the show, and I had a slight preference for the original language track, but thought the English dub was fine. The English track was a little more full, but it wasn't as powerful as I was hoping. They didn't make full use of the subwoofer channel during the fight scenes. The English track did have more punch than the Japanese track did, just not as much as I was expecting. Both tracks sounded fine, with no distortion or other defects.

Video:

The video was presented with a 1.33:1 aspect ration, and looked pretty good. The image was soft, but the colors were bright. There were only a few instances of aliasing, a digital artifact that usually plagues animation, but no other major defects. An average looking DVD.

Extras:

This disc includes a clean opening and closing, a series of design sketches and TV spots advertising the series and the DVD release.  There are also trailers for Megazone 23, Bast of Syndrome, Birth, Orphen 2, Saint Seiya, and Dai-Guard.

In addition to these disc based extras there are some cool items packaged in with the disc itself. ADV includes a pair of window stickers with a character on each (Eiji and Mizuki this time) and a nice foldout insert with illustrations of the various craft on one side, and a prose Gravion story on the other. I like these little collectibles that some companies throw in with their DVDs. It takes some of the sting out of the price of the discs.

Final Thoughts:

I was really thinking that this volume of Gravion would have more of the same derivative and uninspired shows that the first volume contained.  It turned out to be quite the opposite of my expectation.  This volume had some interesting concepts and developed the plot nicely.  The characters become more three dimensional and interesting, I was especially surprised about some of the revelations about Mizuki.  The show realy takes off with this volume.  Recommended.