Children's anime often leaves something to be desired for the serious otaku. This is mostly due to poor scripts with no plot, repetitive animations and irritating voiceovers. Personally, I have never been able to get into DBZ, Pokemon or YuGiOh but figured I'd give DICE a shot when it was offered to me. This show is produced in house by Bandai for a North American release and everything for the series from marketing and broadcasting to a line of toys is handled by them.

DICE borrows a little bit of magic from other notable shows like Transformers, Voltron and Power Rangers but can't seem to capitalize on their success. The final product comes off as a hollow attempt to emulate something else and thus loses any of its identity. The only audience that this show is going to hold passing interest for is viewers under the age of ten and even then there is still better anime out there.

The basic premise here is that there is a team of teenage kids who live up in space and respond when there is a crisis. They are a group of DICE (DNA Integrated Cybernetic Enterprises) known as Unit F-99 and go around saving one world or person after another. There are quite a few characters that the show focuses on but most of the screen time is eaten up by a spiky redhead named Jet. Each of these kids also has unique abilities and vehicles that transform into mechanical dinosaurs.

As the group springs into action they whip out something that looks like a remote control and morph into a cybernetic warrior. When in this battle suit they can also control a vehicle that is custom designed for them. For instance Sam drives a three wheeled car that can turn into a dino called Paratricar, which has the ability to turn invisible thanks to a cloaking device.

In the last volume of DICE Jet's character got a major dose of development as we learned about his past and saw him grow a little as a person. Thanks to involvement from the Phantom Knight a mysterious enemy emerges as he is looking for something called the Heron. I'm not 100% sure but with some pretty blatant hints that are dropped I'm going to assume that the Phantom Knight is Jet's lost brother. If that's the case then it would explain a lot but for now things are kept secret and we don't really learn anything.

The fourth volume is just like the last, in that it has four episodes instead of five like the first two installments. After being marginally entertained by the last volume I was very disappointed to see the show slipping back into its old pattern of adventure of the week fare. The first two episodes on the disc are one-offs with the second being especially putrid. The third episode here was one of the best that this show has offered up to now with a story about an escaped android and the Phantom Knight. The last episode takes place on a watery world and features a fishy character from the first adventure on this disc in the spotlight. For a volume entitled "The Phantom Knight" it's kind of funny that he only appears in one episode.

DICE still suffers from some pretty abysmal dialogue and equally bad voice acting though it sometimes is "acceptable". Voiceovers are just so awkward and wooden at times that no matter how lively the show may look it can't be helped. I understand that it's a kid show and you don't want to challenge them too much but even children will probably find the show boring thanks to the dull atmosphere and downtrodden dialect.

In the end DICE feels uninspired, boring and like a cheap attempt to capturing the success of several shows before it. The Power Rangers aspect comes in when the team morphs into their cybernetic suits, the Transformers comparison happens when their rides "libertize" into dinosaurs and the team based nature of the show rips off other shows with the same concept. There just isn't enough that DICE can call its own and in the end it feels as if the franchise is a blatant attempt at creating a cash-cow. This is definitely a show that is designed for the much younger crowd and they may enjoy it somewhat. Older (as in over ten) viewers will probably not find it worth their time unless they're craving some older style Saturday cartoon fare.

DICE is presented on DVD with the 1.33:1 full frame ratio that it originally airs with. The quality of this release is very good with clean lines, sharp colors and next to no grain or compression artifacts. I did notice a little bit of aliasing at some points but it wasn't that prominent. Despite the many repeat and sloppy animations the show looks very nice (if not a little unoriginal) and is vibrant enough to keep the kids happy.

Since the show is geared towards the American audience the only language available here is the original English. The track is presented with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio and sounds like you'd expect a stereo release to. Everything is front channel with very little directionality used and the quality is pretty clean and free of flaws. The music, sound effects and voiceovers for this show leave a lot to be desired though but children may enjoy it more. There are no subtitles available for this release which is kind of disappointing.

The only extra that is present on this disc is the same preview for the PlayStation 2 version of the DICE videogame that we saw on all of the previous volumes. You'd think the team that puts this disc together would have gotten bored of this by now.

DICE is definitely a show that is aimed towards a much younger audience. The concept is very unoriginal, the characters are one-dimensional and the show has some rather low quality moments. I find it hard to imagine that the target younger audience would even be able to hold much interest in the series considering that there is just much better material on the market right now. If you have a kid that's looking for something new to watch you may want to give this one a rental to see if they get into it. The third volume has been the best so far so this fourth one leaves a lot to be desired. There's really only one semi-decent episode here that features the Phantom Knight but the rest are not worth watching. Skip It

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