The fourth volume of Chrono Crusade has Rosette getting closer to finding her long lost brother, an we find out a lot about Chrono's background and why demons are running loose on Earth.  While there are only three episodes contained on this DVD, the plot progresses very nicely.

Rosette is a nun who belongs to a unique order, the Order of Magdalen a group dedicated to hunting demons.  She's looking for her brother Joshua who was stolen by a monster at a young age.  Fighting at her side is Chrono, a devil himself who looks like a young boy, and Azmaria, a little girl with some interesting powers.  Set in America during the roaring 20's, this series has a wonderful art-decco look to it, and some references to ancient pop-culture that add a sense of fun to the show.

This volume opens with Rosette, Chrono, and Azmaria are headed off to San Francisco by train in the hopes of finding Joshua.  The trip isn't without incidence though.  First the trio bump into Satella, the Jewel Summoner/bounty hunter who is also a constant irritant to Rosette.  To make matters worse a trap has been set for Rosette by Lord Aion.  A demon, Rizzel,  has taken control of the other passengers and separated the Rosette from her friends.  Fighting alone, the nun has to defeat the demon, without hurting the people she is inhabiting.

The group finally arrives in San Francisco but before they can search for Joshua, Chrono comes down with a strong fever.  They hole up at Satella's palatial house but Chrono's condition doesn't improve.  Rosette searches the town for some medicine that will work on a devil, will little results.  She does learn of a charm that might work, but she dares not tell anyone what it is.

In the final episode on this DVD a demon, Baron Duffau, offers a truce with Rosette and Chrono.  He wants to work with the two demon hunters to stop Lord Aion who is planning on destroying both heaven and hell.  Can a devil be trusted though?

While I was disappointed that there were only three episodes in this volume, there was a lot of information presented in the third episode that really made the show interesting.  Finding out about Chrono's origin, and who Aion is explained a lot.  This is still a good show, with a nice amount of action and an interesting story.

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.  This volume really moves the plot along nicely and fills in a lot of background.  Though I am disappointed that there were only three episodes on this disc, with a MSRP of $30 I expect at least four, it is still Recommended.