Whenever I hear about a new series that Gonzo is going to release, I wonder if they will be able to keep up the high level of quality that they are known for.  I needn't have worried about their latest series, Chrono Crusade.  Gonzo throws in a lot of action and humor along with an interesting mystery to make another enticing series.
 
Set in America in the roaring 20's, Chrono Crusade concerns an order of nuns who protect the world from demons and monsters.  A junior member of this order is Rosette, a young energetic nun who tackles her assignments with gusto.  Too much gusto in a lot of cases, because every time Rosetta battles a demon she ends up doing more damage than the demon did.  Every mission ends with Rosette being chewed out by her exacerbated Mother Superior, Sister Kate.

Rosette's partner is Chrono, a young looking lad with pointy ears.  He knows a lot about demons, and is the cool and collected part of the team.  The other members of the convent don't feel comfortable around him though, and with good reason.  He's a devil.  He has a 'contract' with Rosette, and this keeps him at in mortal form, but at a price to the young nun.

This show starts out as an action/comedy show with stand alone episodes, but in the second half of the disc threads get introduced that hints at bigger things and an overriding story arc.  One of those threads concerns the Apostles.  There are seven of these people and the thing that makes them special is that they are imbued with powers by God.  These being are constantly hunted by demons, since devouring the power of God will make them even more powerful.  Rosette and her comrades are trying to locate these special individuals and protect them.

This was a very fun series.  There is a lot of humor, but a good amount of action and suspense too.  The scripts are very tight, even to the point of explaining why Rosette is so gung-ho and devil-may-care, if you'll excuse the expression.

The animation was also top notch, something that Gonzo is known for.  They are one of the best studios at mixing traditional animation with CGI, and they show off that ability with this series.  The mixture is often so seamless that you don't even realize that the fog covering the early morning streets, for example, is computer generated.

A good story, great acting and an intriguing premise coupled with very good animation and a very detailed soundtrack make this a series that is worth picking up.

Audio:

This DVD has a Japanese stereo sound track with optional English subtitles and an English dub in 5.1. Both were very good. While I wish that the original language track was in 5.1 also, I couldn't complain about the sound quality. The dialog was clean, and there was no distortion or other audio problems. The English 5.1 track had a bit more punch to it, and used the soundstage a bit more. The voice actors were very good. I was quite impressed. There were not any stupid accents or phony sounding voices. While I prefer the Japanese track, I enjoyed the English dub as well.

Video:

The video quality was also very good also. There is a lot of motion in this show, something that is hard to transfer to DVD without digital artifacts, but the authors did a great job. There wasn't any noticeable aliasing or other common defects that plague animation. The lines were tight and the bright colors stand out well. This is a good-looking DVD.

Extras:

This DVD had a great selection of bonus material.  The first episode has a commentary track by Hilary Haag (Rosette) and Greg Ayres (Chrono) along with director Matt Greenfield.  The have a good time discussing the show and the problems they had with the voices (yelling almost constantly in some episodes) and also relate some amusing anecdotes.

One of my favorite extras was Azmaria's Extra Classes, where the character from the show gives viewers some background details about the show and its setting.  Another extra I enjoyed was the Chrono Crusade Chronicle, a text based newspaper that explains some more background about the show.

There are also a clean opening and closing, the original Japanese openings for these for episodes, and a selection of previews.  Altogether a great set of bonus material.

Final Thoughts:

This series has gotten off to a very promising beginning.  The story is funny, action packed, and intriguing.  The animation is excellent and the disc is packed with bonus material.  You can't ask for much more than that in an anime series.  This one is Highly Recommended.