There's a wind of change though, one that threatens the peace between the two races, and it comes in the form of a group called the Warriors of Melos. They fight on, tentatively fighting a guerilla war unsupported by the masses (at least openly) using supernatural powers somehow bestowed upon them that allows them to see the true form of the monsters and ride souped up motorcycles as they use their gifts to combat the monsters one at a time. The monsters don't appear to be organized (from the first four episodes) so as one falls, an area is temporarily safe of their influence.

The lead character of the series is a youngster known as Bocca. He possesses an average intellect, a keen eye, and a drive to see things change for the better so it becomes immediately apparent that he'll be the next guy gifted to fight the monsters. He runs into a strange gal known as Sayoko and immediately doesn't like her, signaling that she'll be his partner to those of use who've seen such shows before. Rather than have the lead protagonists get along famously, the creators of such shows think the storylines will develop more interestingly if they fight and bicker so that foreshadowed the couple's importance to the show. Sayoko is also gifted with some powers but not to fight the monsters so much as to guide the warriors in their quest and Bocca ends up with her assistance after he helps a powerful warrior, Kurofune, defeat the local monster.

From the beginning of the series, I was given the impression that Bocca was a slacker destined for the intestines of a monster's stomach given the way he approached life and his studies so it made sense that he intuitively fought the monster with a magic bow and arrow that came out of nowhere. After the win, he starts searching out Kurofune in hopes of joining up with the resistance, followed by the fiery Sayoko as they go from town to town (which appear to be unconnected city states, much like those in Kino's Journey), both searching to become part of the solution rather than accept the societal position that a few people lost to monsters is easier swallowed than another massive war.

The episodes this time were 01) Warriors of Melos, 02) The Beginning of the Long Journey After School, 03) Cape of the Mighty Sun, and 04) Monster Union. Unlike far too many series with similar themes, the show initially isn't one of those where the characters fight a monster per episode and the people they meet all have their own agendas so you can't really depend on past shows to guide your perceptions of what will happen, but there were a great many similarities to those shows so you'll be on solid ground guessing how the characters will react to certain circumstances. Whether or not you consider this a bad thing will depend on how unconventional a series you were hoping for but there were some surprises in store that I don't want to spoil for you.

I'm going to rate the show as a Rent It for now since while I thought there was some nice potential here, the development of the characters (both good and evil) was somewhat lacking and many of the story elements had a "been there, done that" feel to them. The fights between the forces of good and evil were among the weakest parts of the show and many of you will think they were scripted out in a couple of minutes rather than carefully developed, leaving you with a bad taste in your mouths. As the series continues, I hope to see if the initial episodes were slow as a sort of pacing or indicative of the entire season but I'll keep you posted in any case.

Picture: The Melody of Oblivion: Arrangement was presented in the original 1.33:1 ratio full frame color as originally aired in Japan. I liked how the show could be very dark and eerie or light and colorful as needed rather than sticking with one viewpoint as so many others do. This added to the visual complexity as much as the ongoing storyline and aside from some grain, it looked pretty good. The anime style itself will immediately be familiar to fans of the genre (although I prefer seeing more complex backgrounds and elements to the picture, it is a lot cheaper to do it this way) and relies on a lower budget than some of the smash hits from Japan in recent years.

Sound: The audio presented the standard two choices for the consumer; a 2.0 Dolby Digital stereo with either the original Japanese vocals or an English language dub, each with the choice of a couple of subtitle streams (one for dialogue and the other for the major signs only). To be fair, the vocals from the original language sounded more natural but the dub seemed to be a solid effort on the part of Geneon with better body to the music if nothing else. There wasn't a lot of directionality with the show though and aside from a couple of battle sequences, it could've been in monaural and stood up just fine.

Extras: The only extras here were a clean opening and a few trailers to other shows. I hope this changes on later volumes since that's what makes the difference between something I often recommended and something I suggest as a rental (especially in this day of pirated copies).

Final Thoughts: The Melody of Oblivion: Arrangement was a pretty interesting show but it spent a lot of time setting up the premise for future development so it dragged like the mid-season episodes of many other series tend to do. I suggest giving it a look first as that will tell you how much you'd like to see later volumes since I'm on the fence about how much quality it had in thematic terms (will it deviate further from the heavily trodden ground of the past or simply rehash the monster of the week formula that drives so many weaker series?) and the anime style wasn't the best but it has some potential and I would truly like to see it live up to that quality in future releases. The technical aspects were good enough and the story allows a lot of latitude with what could happen though so take a look and act according to your own tastes.

If you enjoy anime, take a look at some of the recommendations by DVDTalk's twisted cast of reviewers in their Best Of Anime 2003 and Best Of Anime 2004 article or regular column Anime Talk