The second volume of an anime series usually takes a set down in quality.  The main characters have been introduced already, but the overall plot doesn't get advanced very much since it is still early in the show.  Chrono Crusade falls into this trap.  While I really liked the first volume, the second one, while still good, wasn't as exciting.

The volume starts off with Rosette getting a promotion of sorts.  After subduing a particularly hazardous demon, Rosette elects to become a militia unit.  Chrono is in the unit with her, of course, and Azmaria, who idolizes Rosette, joins up too.  I'm not sure what how being a militia unit is any different from what she used to do, since her responsibilities seem to be the same.  And why the people in charge let an untrained girl like Azmaria go with on dangerous missions is beyond me.
In any case, the group goes off on their first mission to stop a group who is smuggling demons into the country.  Unfortunately Satella gets to them first.  She is a Jewel Summoner, someone who uses magical crystals to summon creatures she can control in battle, and also a bounty hunter.  She manages to surprise the smugglers, but they release some of their cargo in order to cause a distraction while they get away.  While Satella and Rosette team up to dispatch the demons, it is an uneasy alliance at best.

This volume features a little more about Rosette's brother, Joshua, but not much.  Aion, the demon who took Joshua, releases some creatures in Central Park in order to draw Rosette and Azmaria there.  The last episode has a demon controlling a train station in the hope of kidnaping Rosette and bringing her to Joshua.

The plot wasn't really furthered much, and aside from Satella, not much was introduced.  These episodes played a little like a 'monster-of-the-week' show, which the previous disc didn't.  Not that the disc is bad, its just not as interesting as the first volume.  The battles are still energetic and the broad humor breaks up the more serious sections well.  I'm sure the rest of the series will pick up, and that this volume is just suffering from a sophomore slump.

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 good selection of bonus material.

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 one of these for episodes, a gallery of production sketches, and a selection of previews.  Altogether a great set of bonus material.

Final Thoughts:

Chrono Cursade is a fun series.  The idea of a convent of nuns hunting down demons and fighting them with holy bullets is interesting and unique.  Though I like this volume, I felt it wasn't as good as the first one, with much of the plot being ignored and each episode concentrating on a new monster.  This is fairly common in anime though, and I'm sure the series will pick back up with the next volume.  Even with the lack of story movement, this disc is Recommended.