The fourth volume of Peacemaker continues the story of the two warring groups in ancient Japan.  This volume has only three episodes on it, as opposed to the four that the previous volumes had, which is too bad.  With the pace that this show moves at, four episodes would have been much better.

In nineteenth century Japan, young Tetsunosuke joins a fighting band, the Shinsengumi.  (They were the antagonists in Ruroni Kenshin, and this series is one of the few that show them in a positive light.)  He does this in order to learn to fight and become stronger, so that he can avenge his parents death.  He's still not sure if he wants to become a killer though, and for the time he's a page one of the leaders of the group.

The first episode on this disc wraps up the trip to the red-light district of Shimabara.  Tetsu becomes enamored with one of the very young geisha girls there, and also runs into Suzu.  The three youngsters sit and talk, and discover that they all have a lot in common.

When they return to the compound, things pretty much return to normal.  Except for one thing that is.  Tetsu's older brother, the bookkeeper for the Shinsengumi, is really worried about his younger sibling, and afraid of what will happen if he does get strong enough to extract revenge.

The final episode on the disc was a hilarious romp.  Hijikata, a great swordsman of the Shinsengumi, has his private book of self-penned haikus stolen.  These horrid poems bring peels of laughter to whoever hears them, and Hijikata wants them back.  Tetsu didn't steal the book, but he ends up with it, and poor Tetsu gets chased all through the city by the irate warrior.

By the end of the fourth volume, I was really hoping that the main story line would have progressed further than it has.  Most episodes have short segments that mention the rivalry between the Shinsengumi and the Choshu clan, or fill in a little of Tetsu's background, but there hasn't been much progress made at all.  With most of the shows being either stand alone stories or short arc that last a couple of episodes, the overall story has gotten the short end of the stick.

I really enjoyed this show up to this point, but I was always hoping that it would evolve as the season progressed, but it looks like the show really isn't going to.  That's too bad.  I've started caring less and less about the main characters and the show is having a harder time holding my attention. The end of the last episode on this disc has a plot device that may pick the series up, so I haven't given up hope just yet.

Oh yeah, and make sure you sit through the FBI warning for an amusing voice over.

Audio:

This DVD offers the viewer the choice of an English 5.1 dub or the original Japanese language stereo track.  I listened to both tracks, and I enjoyed the original language a little bit more than the dub track.  The dub track had some strange sounding accents that didn't really blend well with the show, though there were all minor characters.  Most of the Geishas had pretty awful accents.  The English track did make good use of the soundstage, with sound effects and some dialog coming from the rear.  The Japanese track made use of the front soundstage and was just as full.

Video:

The full frame image looked pretty good.  The picture was just a tad soft, with the lines not being as tight as they could be, but this was very minor.  The colors had a nice tone to them, and the contrast was good.  Digital defects were just about nonexistent.  A very nice looking DVD.

Extras:

This disc also includes clean opening and closing animations and a series of production sketches.  There are also a pair of two-minute long video "Character Collections" that give the background information of a character.  This time around we get Toshizo Hijikata and Susumu Yamazaki.

Episode fifteen has a commentary with voice actresses Luci Christian (Tetsunosuke), Jason Douglas (Sanosuke), and Greg Ayres (Shinpachi.)  The commentary starts out with a wild and wacky party atmosphere, which I really dislike, but it calmed down eventually.  There was a good amount of dead air, and they don't really say much that added to my enjoyment or knowledge of the show.  They mainly comment on which parts of the show they like.  "Oh this is a funny part."  Stuff like that.

Included in the case is a fold out insert that has interviews with some of the Japanese voice actors as well as the next installments of an original Peacemaker story written for the DVD release.

Final Thoughts:

This series is okay, but not great.  It started out really good, but I've had trouble staying interested since the main story line hasn't gone anywhere over the course of these four discs.  Hopefully the series will pick up with the next DVD, but just to be on the safe side, you might want to rent this one.