The young gymnast Sora finds herself in her first leading role in this third volume of Kaleido Star.  Unfortunately, it's not the experience that she thought it was going to be.  Being the star presents puts her under more pressure and presents new problems.

The volume starts off with Sora staring in a revival the Kaleido Stage's version of The Little Mermaid.  Layia had played the role previously, and Sora finds herself under the senior star's shadow.  Sora needs to find a way to make the role her own, while still entertaining the crowd and not getting her fellow performers angry by changing the act.

After an episode that fills in Anna's past, Sora has to face her latest challenge.  The person backing the latest show wants Sora to costar with Layia in a Kaleido Stage version of The Arabian Knights.  The finale involves a sword fight on the rigging of a large, moving ship.  Sora must convince her rival, Layia, that she can preform the difficult moves on the moving high wire, but first she must convince herself.
 
This is a good show, which took me by surprise.  I wasn't expecting a program about a young girl in a circus to be fun and entertaining, but it is.  This show reminds me of the early episodes of Battle Athletes Victory.  Sora has a hidden center of strength, and a plucky spirit that is quite infectious.  You know that she's going to triumph over all the obstacles and difficulties that get in her way, but the fun of the show is watching Sora's never-say-die attitude and cheerful disposition overcome her problems.

If you enjoyed the previous volumes, this one is sure to please also.

Audio:

This DVD has a 2.0 Japanese soundtrack and a 5.1 English dub with optional subtitles. The sound quality was very good in both tracks. The voices were clear and there wasn't any hiss or distortion. The English dub was more full and rich, being a 5.1 mix, but I enjoyed the Japanese dub a little bit more.  I really disliked a couple of the voices on the English audio track.  The actress who voices Sora in the English version has chosen an annoying voice for her.  She sounds like a three year old, with a very high-pitched cutesy voice, and it gets old fairly quickly.  The dorm leader Sarah's voice had a fake British accent that sounds incredibly inane.  The other actors do a good job, but I still prefer the original language track.

Video:

I was very happy with the way this show looked.  Being a recent show, the full frame picture was very good. The colors were bright and full, and the lines were tight. There was some light aliasing but this was minor it wasn't distracting. This is a nice looking show.

Extras:

The DVD comes with a clean opening and closing, and a three-minute reel of production sketches. There are also trailers for Robotech Remastered, Saiyuki, Azumanga Daioh, Panyo Panyo Di Gi Charat, Wedding Peach, and Nurse Witch Komugi.

Included in the case is an insert that has short biographies of the main characters, and a small standee of Anna.

Final Thoughts:

I found myself really enjoying this show.  The characters are fun, and Sora's cheerful attitude is infectious.  I thought the first volume was good, but the show continues to grow on me.  Highly Recommended.