After a long wait for the second DVD, the third volume of Gad Guard came out rather quickly.  It's nice to be able to watch a show when the previous episodes are still fresh in your memory, so I was happy to see this disc turn up in my mailbox.  Unfortunately I was less impressed with these episodes than I was with the previous DVDs.  A lot of these shows feel like filler, and there's not a lot of plot advancement going on.

This DVD contains four episodes that are all stand alone shows.  The plot still moves forward a bit and a little background is filled in, but after the last volume I was hoping that things would have progressed a little faster.  The show starts out with Katana going off in search of an old friend to get his Gadrian, Zero, a new arm.  We find out a little about Katana's origins, but the show ends up being a little unsatisfying; raising more questions than it ends up answering.

The next episode plays with time a little, being told in flash backs and forwards.  It did this to keep the suspense up and keep the viewer guessing, and it worked to a certain extent.  It revolves around Hajiki being chased by the police.  It that turns out that he was making a delivery that involved mob money, and he's gotten in over his head.  Though the frequent time jumps started out being fun, they got old after a while.  This episode did relate what happened to Hajiki's father, but the main plot wasn't advanced much.

The mob plays an important part in the third episode too.  Two rival gangs are in the middle of a war, and Hajiki accidently gets caught up in the middle of it when he unknowingly delivers a bomb to one side's troops.  He tries to put an end to the hostilities, and runs into a gad that goes wild.

The last episode has a lighter tone, with Hajiki having to deliver 100 wedding invitations in 24 hours.  He has to deal with out of order elevators, no solicitation rules and rain, but he seems to run into a road block when he finds that his last recipient has moved.

All of the episodes on this DVD were good, but I was hoping for a little more.  The major plot wasn't advanced as much as I was hopping.  The mystery of the Gads and how Kartana fits into everything wasn't really addressed at all.  The second pair of episodes really seemed like filler, with not a lot happening in the plot.  Heck, the Gad's weren't even featured in the last episode.
 

Audio:

Stereo soundtracks were available in both the original Japanese and an English dub. I prefer to view the shows in their original language, so I had a preference for the Japanese track, but I viewed shows with the dub too. The dub was actually very good. The voices fit the characters, and they didn't have any stupid accents or people using high-pitched voices for the children. The sound quality was also fine, with good use made of the front soundstage.

Video:

The video quality was excellent. This full frame transfer looked great, with the dark tans and grays of Night Town having a full range of hues, and the colors of Gold Town being bright and vivid. There were only the most minor instances of aliasing present, not even worth mentioning really. This DVD has a superb image.

Extras:

There aren't many extras included on this disc.  The main one is an art gallery of stills.  There are also previews for three other Geneon DVDs, and Easter Egg that I found by accident.  It took me forever to reproduce what I did to find it, but I finally did.  Go to the extras menu and select the Geneon Previews.  When the Geneon logo comes up, press the enter button on your remote again, and you'll be taken to an eight minute reel of bloopers and outtakes.  A lot of them aren't funny, just someone mispronouncing a word, but some of them are worth a laugh.  Had they cut the run time in half, it would have been more entertaining.

Final Thoughts:

While I liked the first two volumes, I found this one significantly weaker.  A good portion of it felt like filler, and even the first two shows, which tied in with the overall plot a little weren't very satisfying.  If you didn't like the previous volumes, this one doesn't improve things.  One so-so DVD isn't a good reason to bail on a series though, and I'm hoping that things pick up again with the next volume.  A light Recommendation.